Disclaimer: I do not own the Ronin Warriors
Chapter Five
Sage flew from his truck towards Mia's jeep. Cye heaved Rowen out of the back of the car, rushing him off the side of the road to the benches in the rest area along the highway. They were lucky the spot was completely deserted and well out of site of the main road.
"What was it!" Sage demanded as he rushed over, donning his sub armor.
"Sekhmet's venom!" Cye replied as he set Strata down on the ground. Mia rushed over with Kento, who was already in armor and keeping watch as Sage dropped to his knees at Rowen's side.
Sage looked over the cut, seeing just how deep it went. He cursed as he tried to revive the Ronin of Wisdom before unleashing his armor's powers. At once Sage began to drive his healing energies into Rowen's body.
Cye nodded slowly at Halo as the gash through the armor began to heal over. He watched on carefully as the color slowly started to return to his face.
"Kento! There are blankets under the seat of the truck." Sage called out as he felt the last of the negative energy and venom leave the Ronin Warrior's body. "He is still going to feel some of the effects from the venom, but this is the best I can do right now with Ryo missing."
Cye helped heave the warrior of Strata off the ground and over his shoulder. "I'll get him back in the jeep." He said quickly, meeting Kento at the car. Sage turned to Mia, seeing the blood all over her shirt.
"No! I'm alright." She said. "It's all Rowen's."
"Is Cye alright?" He asked, have noticed the scratches on Torrent's face.
Mia nodded slowly. "Yes. It's just a little cut from some glass." She walked over the jeep as Kento draped the blanket from the truck over Rowen's still body. "Are you sure he is going to be alright?"
Sage sighed a little. "Aside from some cold sweats and maybe some heat flashes, he should be fine." He informed. "My armor allows me to heal wounds and drive most of the toxins out of the body…but not all. There are some trace amounts left."
"We found something about the Guardians." Mia explained. "It appears there was another clan in Kyoto that fought Talpa several generations ago."
"So we have a two front war with Talpa and two clans involved…so there is a possible second set of armors." Sage mused as he considered the idea. "What happened with the second clan?"
Mia shrugged. "It appeared the Ancient let the attack that not only killed Talpa once before, but also lead a confrontation to drive the rest of the Dynasty forces back in Kyoto."
"They were indebt to us." Halo whispered.
Cye came over as they shut up the car. "So a clan indebt to the Ancient finds out that he takes Talpa's armor and makes nine armors and gives them human virtues." He said.
"Then the indebted clan decides the least they can do is to offer a live time of protection to the nine warriors who wear the armors…" Kento offered as he leaned on the jeep.
Mia's eyes widen in surprise. "And a ban of armors called the Protectors of Warriors are created…and later renamed the Guardians over the course of the last six hundred years!"
They stood there in silence for a few minutes considering the idea. Sage rubbed at his chin as he continued to mill it over in his head and wished that Rowen was not lying passed out in the car behind Kento.
"It makes perfect sense." Cye whispered, his eyes narrowing as he also considered the facts one more time. "From what we know so far…it makes sense…"
Mia nodded in agreement. "I think we figured it out." She whispered. "I might need to do more research to prove our thesis…but it is all logical."
Kento sighed as he stood up again. "Good. Now lets to talk to Lea about that debt she is suppose to be carrying out for this Clan she is from."
"Kento…" Sage said coolly. "That is not the best approach to be talking with her at this time." He warned. "And we are not completely sure. Until Mia can clearly define the conclusion we've reached with cold facts we can't go demanding Lea's allegiance to us at all."
"And you honestly think Ryo went for a hike and Lea so conveniently went sight seeing on the same day?" Hardrock snapped.
Cye looked over in surprise. "What!"
Sage sighed a little in frustration, the role of leadership having been officially declared now in Ryo and Rowen's absence. "We're going to Fuji. Right now." He informed, leading the way back to his truck. "Cye, stay with Mia and Rowen. We don't split up." He ordered. "Let's go."
Ryo cried out in pain as his armor's power began to surge. It was looking for a power source and there wasn't enough armors around him to pull enough energy to create the Inferno. Wildfire tried wrenching himself free as Cale pulled back and looked at the gold dust on his hand. With a smirk he reached over and wiped it across Ryo's face.
It felt like every nerve on his skin had been set on fire.
Dais winced as he tried to hold the struggling Ronin Warrior. "There are not enough armors here to create the Inferno."
Sekhmet growled. "We should hurry to the Dynasty and see if we can't secure Kayura's armor."
Cale shook his head as he watched Ryo fight off the will of his armor. As of now the Ronin leader was a ticking time bomb of power. The gold dust was going to keep forcing the armor to look for another source of power to become the Inferno. It would be their luck had any of the other Ronin Warriors been present.
Or the Ancient's staff.
"It will keep him subdued for the time being." The Warlord of Darkness muttered as Ryo gritted his teeth against screaming. He was shelled up inside his out of control armor trying to keep his senses straight. "It will only be a matter of time before he passes out from the demand."
"This could kill him." Sekhmet warned carefully.
"All the better." Dais muttered. "Lord Vallen had intentions of killing this one anyway."
Cale nodded in agreement as he leaned into Ryo, watching him twist and wince in pain. "The last time we attempted to possess the bearer of Wildfire, he turned our powers into his favor…then repelled the powers of fifteen spirits all at once."
Ryo gritted his teeth, feeling his power slowly come back under his control. He kept his focus on the voices of the three warlords, listening to them. Ryo reasoned that if he could just stay focused on them, he wouldn't pass out as quickly.
"I'm…not giving in to you…" He choked out.
Sekhmet started to laugh. "Shut up and die Ronin Warrior." He muttered under his breath. There was a moment's pause when he flinched, eyes widening just as a blur of red and white streak by and collided with him.
Ryo looked up pass Cale as the warlord went ground sliding across the beach. The air around them thickened as the warlord of Darkness took a startled gasp of horror. Dripping wet and bleeding from the cut just into her hair line, Lea came sliding to a stop on both feet, reversing her stance and charging again at full speed towards them again, this time at Cale.
"NOW!" Lea screamed, just as Whiteblaze came roaring into sight, charging at the other warlord.
"YOU! Your dead!" Cale yelled as he clenched his clawed hand and started running for the Guardian. Ryo's surprise vanished as Whiteblaze knocked Dais away, slamming both warriors to the ground with his massive weight. Ryo broke free and rolled clear.
Lea and Cale collided, the warlord lashing out from under his cape with his claws and scratching the Guardian's leg as she darted to the side of his blow and positioned her other foot into his path. Cale tripped and went face first into the ground with Lea's fist landing a blow to the back of his neck.
Ryo lurched up, spinning as Dais came back around. With all the force he could muster, Wildfire punched him in the face, denting the platting into the warlord's mug. Dais went back to the ground, blinded in the other eye with pain from the dented metal.
Wildfire stepped back, stumbling from the still numbing pain of the gold dust. In the bright sunlight of the afternoon, it make his armor glittered with a brilliant shine, regardless of it's painful side effects. What was on his face had numbed it, and touching it would lead to more pain as it got onto his armor.
Ryo fell back on the ground, catching himself with one arm and bracing his fall with the other. Whiteblaze wondered up to him, concerned, but keeping his distance of the dust that covered his charge.
"You alright?"
Ryo looked up to see Lea standing there, catching her breath and brushing some wet hair from her face. Her left cheek was redden from blood that covered her ear and jaw.
God damn, she was alive.
"You're…dead!" Ryo winced.
Lea lifted and eyebrow in mock amusement. "My acting was that good?" She stopped and winced, holding her brow. Ryo had no doubt she had a rather severe headache…if not a concussion.
"Come on," She sighed, offering him her hand. "Get up. We're getting the hell out of here while we can."
Ryo started to reach when he realized his armor was seeking out power. It was too late when Lea reacted and snatched his wrist. In a instant, the connection snapped and the two of them were engulfed in bolts of energy. Ryo hissed as he felt the overload. Lea let out a wild scream and staggered to the ground, unable to pull away.
Both virtues of Righteousness appeared on their foreheads at the same time. Ryo yelled and twisted his arm out of her hand and the Guardian collapsed on her hands and knees in front of him, choking for air. Ryo winced as he felt the glimmer of a headache coming on…which quickly faded with the cold/hot presence of his virtue.
Ryo pulled himself over, careful this time not to touch Lea at all as he leaned in and asked, "You alright?"
Lea winced as she looked up at him, her eyes wide with confusion. "Wha…what was that?"
The Ronin leader shook his head and pulled back. "Gold dust." He muttered. "Don't touch me."
Lea growled a little as she staggered to her feet. "No problem there…" She muttered. As soon as the words escaped her, Ryo spotted Sekhmet coming at them from the air. Whiteblaze roared in warning and bolted clear as two swords landed between them and blew the two warriors away.
The Guardian recovered and landed lightly on her free when suddenly all six blades appeared around her and exploded. Lea's vision darkened as a smog cloud of air born venom. Ryo started rushing in when Dais, minus the face plate, lunged in his way to cut him off. Cale reappeared in front of Lea in her moment of blindness and growled.
"If killing you is too hard, then I will rip away your powers once and for all!" He roared, opening the bag of gold dust. He threw it at the Guardian. Lea lurched back as she was covered in it.
Ryo went for his swords, just as a few scattered neither spirits appeared around them. Dais and him locked weapons as he tried to force his way pass, seeing a blinded Guardian yelp in pain as her armor was summoned against her will. As a last ditch effort, she called it forth…hoping to stop the power surge.
"Armor of Wildfire!" Lea screamed as her sight started to return. But as soon as her power up finished, Cale came running from her blind side, followed by Sekhmet. The two danced circles around the young woman as she held one blade ready.
Ryo blinked in surprise as he held Dais back. Lea really did wear the armor of Wildfire like him. He noticed first that the armor hid her features incredibly well. And with her hair tucked up under the helmet, she looked exactly like him.
"Amazing isn't it." Dais's neither spirit hissed at Ryo. "It a defense. Though the bearer is female…they can take on the physical appearance of the Warrior to fool enemies into thinking they have found the real thing."
Ryo stated at him in utter horror. "What did you say?"
Dais smirked, eye glowing faintly. "Guardians were created to die for the Ronin Warrior they were meant to protect." He informed.
Cale lunged in, his fist brandishing the pouch of gold dust. He swung with all his might and punched Lea in the face, spilling more dust over her armor. She hit the ground wincing as she fought down her armor's power.
Ryo snatched his other sword out of it's sheath and beat Dais back, breaking through his guard and going for the downed Guardian. The neither spirits around her started to mobilize as she yelped, getting back up only to have her armor start to glow with the power surge.
With an ear spitting scream it shattered into a million pieces and began to swirl around her. Ryo froze in muted surprise as he watched the all so familiar power up of the Inferno Armor.
She was donning the armor…and there was no one else to pull power from!
Lea cried out as her virtue appeared on her forehead, just as her sub armor turned black and blue. Neither Spirits rushed in, trying to possess the armor as it went through the power up.
Ryo's virtue appeared at the same time.
He caught images of the spirits…from Lea's point of view. He suddenly felt her pain, on top of his own…saw the Warlords from where she was standing…
MAKE IT STOP! Lea's thought screamed in his head.
Ryo lurched back as the power up finished and the feelings and visions faded away.
What the hell just happened? Ryo thought desperately as Lea staggered in darken white armor. He watched in amazement as the Guardian forced herself to move in the all so familiar stance he had used once to repel the spirits. Her armor exploded with white light, sending spirits screaming from her body.
Ryo rushed in as Lea staggered and fell on her knees.
"You're wearing the Inferno armor!" Ryo whispered.
The two warlords started to back away cautiously. "Damn! It didn't work!" Sekhmet snapped.
"We must get Lord Vallen, now!" Cale hissed.
The three warlords vanished at once.
Lea winced a little as she sat back in the sand, her white armor catching the sunlight and gleaming brightly against the shore. Ryo stood over her, blinking in complete and utter confusion.
"I don't get it!" Ryo said. "You donned the Inferno armor without other armors to help you."
Lea gritted her teeth and looked up at him through the brown face plate. "Augh, god damn it! Of course I did!" She snapped. "This is the Phoenix Inferno! It doesn't need the other armors to create it!"
Ryo stepped back as he was yelled at. Lea looked away again with a wince. Apparently she was having a hard time controlling the armor. Ryo moved in to help her up when she swatted away his hand. "Don't touch me!" She barked.
"This is making no sense now!" Ryo yelled. "What the hell is going on? This is all starting to go to hell in a hand basket! NOW TELL ME WHAT IS GOING ON!"
Lea faltered to her feet and growled at him. "Are you blind? We're at war! The Dynasty under went a revolt six months ago!" She barked. "I was living a pretty peaceful life in New York when those three monsters showed up and killed the other Guardians damn it! You don't know what is going on? This is all happening too fast for anyone to understand!" Her voice started to crack. "How can you be so blind as to not notice the changes in this world? Terrorism, crime rates, un-natural disasters! The new Shogun of the Dynasty is tearing the Mortal Realm apart through the Gates!"
Ryo grabbed his head as he heard all this. He was hearing answers to questions he didn't even have and getting even more confused. "What the hell are you talking about?" Ryo yelled in her face.
Lea, seething at this point, drew back her fist and punched him.
Ryo hit the ground, his helmet rolling across the sand. He tasted blood coming to his lips.
"You call yourself a Ronin Warrior?" Lea hissed through her teeth her armor powering down to Wildfire. "One of THE Ronin Warriors destine to fight Talpa for the fate of the Mortal Realm? Are you really the Ronin Warrior I have to pledge my life too? I'd sooner fight this one alone than with a blind fool!"
"'Pledge your life'?" Ryo murmured. "What the—"
"RYO!" Sage shouted.
Both Wildfires turned and looked to the forest. Lea backed off, putting distance between herself and Ryo as Sage, Cye, and Kento came running down to the beach. Weapons in hand and at full tilt. Ryo jumped in front of Lea, warding them off. "STOP!" He ordered.
"What the hell is going on here?" Kento demanded, rushing up to his leader. "Jesus Christ Ryo! We've been looking all over for you!"
Sage and Lea locked eyes.
So you do wear a Wildfire armor. He thought to her.
You are starting to sound like a broken record. Lea snapped back.
"Ryo, we need to get the hell out of here." Cye said quickly. "We've got Mia and Rowen back on the road waiting for us. The warlords—"
"Have been attacking us." Ryo finished.
The others stopped and stared in surprise before Sage started to reach out and touch Ryo's shoulder. His hand was swatted away by Lea. "Don't touch him." She said coldly. "He's covered in gold dust."
"It'll try to take your armor's power to create the Inferno." Ryo explained, remembering that only he and Rowen were the only ones who knew about it. "It's best to just keep your distance."
Kento growled. "You know what, I'm starting to wonder if Lea is even a good guy—girl to begin with." He muttered.
"Kento!" Cye hissed.
"I mean, look at what's happened. Warlords popping up everywhere and attacking us? First off, they were our allies, so what the hell happened? And they are back to getting revenge for killing Talpa…which has resulted in Rowen being out cold in the back of Mia's jeep." Kento pointed his staff at Lea and growled. "The Ancient says 'the mistrust must be bridged'…and we have to make an ally out of this girl?"
Ryo started in to stop Hardrock's mouth when Lea appeared out of no where and landed a perfect right hook into the warrior of Justice's face.
"You don't want my help? I don't want to deal with stupid fools like you." Lea snapped and pounced away into the forest.
Kento got back up, dabbing blood from the corner of his mouth. "See! See what I mean? Come on! You said it yourself! She could be as bad as Kayura! She could be working for the Dynasty even if she keeps claiming we're the warlords!"
Ryo sighed in dismay. "Kento! The warlords tried to kill her damn it!"
Kento crossed his arms. "Na-uh. We're being played. And played good."
"Stop it!" Cye yelled. "Let it go alright? We need to get back to the jeep and get Mia and Rowen home where we're all going to be safe."
The four warriors stood there, calming down. Every attempt Kento made to prove his point was shot down before he could open his mouth. Ryo sighed in defeat and started walking towards the forest with the others in tow.
He had come too far and lost it in a matter of seconds.
Maybe we should have one of those 'sit-downs' we always hear on TV. Ryo thought as they marched away from the lake. He looked up into the branches to see if Lea was still there. But he was sure the woman was long gone.
Whiteblaze let out an ear splitting roar, just as the earth began to shake..
Ryo whipped around just in time to get punched in the face. Behind him the other three Ronins were now scattered across the beach with the warlords in tow.
Ryo staggered back, looking at the man that has come out of his blind side. He was dressed completely in black with oily silver accents and two katana at his hips. Over all this was a bright dark red coat to adorn his armor.
"I'm quite finished with this fiasco!" The man barked through his masked helmet. All Ryo could make out were a pair of black eyes, no color in them at all.
"Who are you?" Ryo demanded, going for his own weapons.
"I'm Lord Vallen." The warlord replied, ripping his swords from their sheaths and lunging at the Ronin leader.
AN: Hey, look. Another Chapter! Hahaha. The whole fight scene breaks over three chapters now. I can't tell if that is a bad or good thing. Anyway, Enjoy. Thanks for reading a reviewing.
-Stargazer86