Tra la laaaaaa! Welcome to chapter three everyone! I'm really glad that this rewrite turned out better than the original. I still haven't decided how long the other stories will be so I've decided to just wing it and see as I go along. There is also something that I would like to clear up. Rikaru may seem like a Gary Stu in this story but you have to understand that he was trained by Nene himself so of course he's very strong shadow-wise. He'll start to become less like one in the end of this story and isn't one anymore in the other ones to come so please bear with it. With that said, enjoy this shiny new chapter!
"So where are you from Rikaru?" Kluke asked. They were walking through a village on their way to the next set of ruins.
"I'm from a village far from here. It resides in the middle of the desert." Rikaru said.
"Which desert? There are quite a few of them around the world." Jiro said.
"Well..." Rikaru trailed off and everyone stopped walking to look at him. "My village resides in the SandSkull Desert."
"Are you serious?" Kluke asked shocked and Rikaru nodded.
"Wait what's SandSkull Desert maro?" Marumaro asked.
"It's the largest desert in the world. Several strong sandstorms blow there very frequently and the rumor is that those sandstorms are so strong that they'll tear your flesh off your bones if you're unfortunate enough to get stuck in one." Zola said and Bouquet and Marumaro looked scared.
"Well that's just a rumor...right Rikaru?" Bouquet asked and Rikaru shook his head.
"I'm afraid not Bouquet. It isn't called SandSkull Desert for nothing." Rikaru said.
"There are also a couple Marauder villages there too." A voice said. Everyone turned around to see Homeron take off his disguise.
"Whoa hey Homeron." Shu said.
"So this is the legendary Homeron." Rikaru said and Homeron looked at him.
"I don't think I've seen you with Shu and the others before. Who are you?" Homeron asked.
"Homeron this is Rikaru and he's our new recruit." Bouquet said and Rikaru growled slightly.
"Nice to meet you Rikaru." Homeron said. "So you're from Desert-Moon Village then?"
"How did you know?" Rikaru asked. "I could be from a Marauder Village."
"Desert-Moon Village is the only peaceful and thriving village there. Plus, Marauders don't own anything similar to the outfit you're wearing." Homeron said and Rikaru nodded.
"Anyway, what are you doing here Homeron?" Zola asked and Homeron gestured to follow him.
Outside the village...
"That's Castle Des La Teste and it's one of Gran Kingdom's fortresses. There's a powerful computer in there that represents the very heart of their information network." Homeron said. "As you can see, it's heavily guarded and the only way to find the Extra Seven is to slip in and hack their master computer."
'So that's what you're up to Homeron.' Rikaru thought. Without anyone noticing, he reached for his signal beacon and turned it on.
With Nene...
"So that's where they are now." Nene said and Logi glanced at the red glowing dot on the map. "Well done Rikaru."
"Isn't that where Castle Des La Teste is?" Logi asked and Nene nodded.
"Which means..." Nene trailed off and Logi nodded.
"They plan to get access to the master computer there." Logi said.
"Which I imagine that they don't know how to hack into to gain the information they need." Logi looked at Nene. "I doubt Rikaru's sister is with them so it must be Homeron."
"I'll send someone after him." Logi said and he walked away.
With the others...
"So basically what you're saying is that you hit a dead end." Zola said and Rikaru snorted.
"Yeah that's basically it." Homeron said. "By the way, Gran Kingdom has recently captured Konrad."
"What!" Shu shouted and Rikaru winced from how loud Shu was. Zola noticed it and kept her eyes on him.
"He's being kept in a detention facility right by the fortress I showed you."
"Then we'll head there." Zola said and Shu smiled.
"To rescue Konrad right?" Shu asked.
"That too but I was also thinking of something else." Zola said.
"Clever." Rikaru said when he figured it out.
"So what is it?" Kluke asked.
"We'll launch an all out assault on the detention facility to rescue Konrad and the guards there should call for backup." Zola said.
"Which will then draw the guards away from Castle Des La Teste so Homeron can slip in." Jiro said and Zola nodded.
Later...
"Intruders!" a soldier shouted as Blue Dragon shot a blast of fire at a couple of their shadows.
"Make this assault as big as you can." Zola said and Rikaru smirked.
"I was hoping you'd say that." Rikaru said and he looked up at Winter Wolf. "You heard the lady Winter Wolf."
"Sir yes sir." Winter Wolf said and he shot out large ice shards from his claws everywhere. Some randomly hit a couple enemy shadows while others hit the ground and the detention facility.
"I don't think she meant making this place become a new set of ruins." Jiro said and Rikaru shrugged.
"She said make it as big as you can. So I took that as a challenge." Rikaru said and Shu laughed.
In the facility...
"Status report." a woman said and the soldier nodded.
"Our losses are growing and we've already lost nearly half of our robots Lady Cynthia." the soldier said and Cynthia sighed in irritation.
"I expected as much from the Type One robots but the Type Twos?"
"It's not only that." Cynthia looked at him. "There's a shadow wielder among them who almost devastated this place using ice crystals."
"What!"
Outside...
"The gates are open. I'm going in to save Konrad!" Shu shouted and he ran for the entrance.
"Wait Shu, we can rescue Konrad later when we finish." Jiro said and Shu turned to Zola.
"I'm going to save Konrad Zola." Shu said and Zola sighed.
"Go ahead then Shu, but Jiro and Rikaru are going with you." Zola said and Jiro looked at her.
"What?" Rikaru sighed in annoyance and stood next to Shu. Even though it was part of his mission, he still hated the fact that a human was ordering him around.
"Might as well. Think of this as a two for one bonus." Rikaru said and he followed Shu inside. Jiro sighed and ran after them. Their shadows disappeared once they entered and they came across a row of Jibral prisoners in their cells.
"How are we going to get them out?" Shu said and Rikaru cracked his knuckles.
"Allow me." Rikaru said and he gripped two of the iron bars on one cell. With his inhuman strength, he pulled the bars apart and created a large hole for the Jibral soldiers to escape through. One by one, he went to each cell and repeated the same action. Jiro narrowed his eyes as he stood by and watched him.
'This guy can't be human if he was able to easily bend those cell bars.' Jiro thought as Shu cheered him on. Jiro sighed when he saw that Shu was completely ignoring that obvious and important fact. They continued walking after Rikaru freed all the soldiers and the werewolf kicked open the doors to a seperate room. Shu saw Konrad chained on a chair and ran over to him. Jiro saw the doors were partly hanging off the doorhinge and watched Rikaru walk over to Konrad.
"Rikaru, can you get him out?" Shu asked and Rikaru was silent for a moment. He saw that the chains were made of silver and he cursed under his breath. "Rikaru?"
"Yeah I'll find a way." Rikaru said and he took a deep breath. 'This is gonna hurt.'
"Hurry before more soldiers come." Jiro said and Rikaru grabbed the chains. A sizzling sound was heard and Rikaru gritted his teeth in pain as he broke the chains apart. He jumped back and put his hands on the cold floor to cool them off. Jiro saw him do this and noticed that Rikaru had sharp claws. He looked back to see Shu trying to lift Konrad out of the chair and he facepalmed. Why Shu was ignoring the fact that Rikaru just demonstrated super human strength and getting his clawed hands burned by those chains he'll never know. Konrad weakly opened his eyes and looked Shu.
"What are you doing here?" Konrad asked.
"To bust you out of here of course." Shu said as he and Rikaru helped him up. They walked outside the prison rooms and made their way to the gate.
"Awww, you're leaving already?" a voice said and the boys turned around to see a woman standing on the roof.
"You again." Jiro said.
"Well hello again to you too boy." Cynthia said after she jumped down and noticed Rikaru looking at her. "I've never seen you before. Tell me, who are you?"
"Introductions first? Alright." Rikaru said and he gently leaned Konrad against the wall. "My name is Rikaru and I'm a new member of their team."
"How rude." Cynthia said frowning. "You introduce yourself yet most of your face is covered up underneath that hood of yours. At least show your face first."
"Well since you asked..." Rikaru trailed off and put down his hood. Cynthia immediately blushed when she gazed upon his handsome features.
"So that's what you look like." Shu said when he and Jiro looked at him. His bright golden eyes looked like smooth gold satin and no one would be surprised if someone got lost in them.
"Wow." Cynthia said dreamily and the boys sweatdropped.
"Now look what you've done Rikaru." Jiro said and Rikaru shrugged. "You made her have a crush on you."
"It happens." Rikaru said.
"How do you know this old lady Jiro?" Shu asked and Cynthia glared at Shu.
"I'm not an old lady! How dare you!" Cynthia shouted.
"She's a member of Logi's elite flying squadron." Jiro said.
'If she doesn't recognize me then Logi must not have told his squadron about me.' Rikaru thought and he smirked. 'Oh this will be fun.'
"Temper temper Cynthia, at least try to keep your ladylike composure." a voice said and the boys saw a man appear next to Cynthia.
"Who's this guy?" Jiro asked.
"He's another one of Logi's goons." Shu said.
"Goons huh." Rikaru said. "I personally prefer the terms mooks or minions but goons is fine with me."
"Who's he?" the man asked.
"That, Lemaire, is Rikaru." Cynthia said his name in a dreamy like state and Rikaru sweatdropped.
"Yeah Jiro now you see why I don't take off my hood around women very often." Rikaru said and Jiro nodded.
"Great now there are two of them." Jiro said sarcastically.
"Yeah that's all shoots and ladders for them but there are three of us." Rikaru said. "Unless one of you want to escort Konrad out of here."
"No we're staying here." Shu said.
"So you three are apprentices of the illustrious Zola." Lemaire said and Rikaru snorted.
"I'm not her apprentice." Rikaru said. "I joined simply because my king didn't have anymore missions to assign me so I was bored."
"Jiro and I are her apprentices." Shu said and Lemaire smirked.
"Facing Zola in battle is a goal of mine but defeating you will do for now." Lemaire said and he summoned his shadow.
"Oh yeah?" Shu said and he summoned Blue Dragon.
"Shu, we need to retreat." Jiro said and Shu looked at him.
"There's no way I'm retreating." Shu said and Lemaire chuckled.
"You wouldn't be able to reach her even if you did retreat. My military forces have her surrounded and even she will fall." Lemaire said and Rikaru raised an eyebrow.
"You really need to learn to stop underestimating people." Rikaru said and he summoned Winter Wolf.
"It's not really underestimating if it's true." Cynthia said and she summoned her shadow.
"Fine." Jiro said and he summoned Minotaur. A flail from Lemaire's shadow's shield wrapped around Cynthia's shadow and Lemaire's shadow threw Cynthia's towards Blue Dragon. Cynthia's shadow punched Blue Dragon and it knocked him against the wall.
"Shu no!" Jiro shouted and Cynthia looked at him.
"You're next brat." Cynthia said and her shadow punched Minotaur into the same wall.
"Are you two okay?" Rikaru asked looking at Jiro and Shu and Cynthia looked at him.
"I'm sorry but it's your turn Rikaru." Cynthia said and Rikaru looked back at her.
"Please." Rikaru said smirking and Winter Wolf dodged her shadow's punch. Lemaire's shadow kept swinging Cynthia's shadow at him but the wolf shadow kept dodging every punch that came his way. Then a chain wrapped around Winter Wolf's right wrist.
"That should stop your shadow from moving around so much." Lemaire said and Rikaru chuckled. Lemaire frowned when he saw this. "What's so funny?"
"The fact that you thought anything could keep hold of my shadow. Arctic Breath!" Winter Wolf shot his attack through his nose instead of his mouth at the chain holding him and it was frozen. Winter Wolf used his right arm to break the chain and moved next to Minotaur and Blue Dragon.
"That was awesome Rikaru." Shu said and Rikaru turned to him.
"Listen you two. We need to work together and come up with a plan." Rikaru looked at Jiro. "That's your cue."
"Wait what?" Jiro asked and Rikaru smiled.
"You are Zola's second in command right? Then lead us Jiro." Rikaru said and Jiro nodded.
"Alright."
"Are you three done yet?" Cynthia asked and another chain wrapped around her shadow.
"We won't charge in this time. We'll switch to backup and let them come to us." Jiro said.
"Right." Shu said. Lemaire's shadow swung Cynthia's shadow at Minotaur and Blue Dragon punched it away.
"What!" Cynthia shouted and Lemaire frowned. Minotaur grabbed Cynthia's shadow and threw it at Lemaire's shadow, knocking it back.
"I told you not to underestimate people." Rikaru said shrugging and Lemaire glared at him.
"No more playing around then. It's time to end this." Lemaire said and Rikaru pulled his hood back over his head.
"I agree." a voice said and Lemaire turned around to see Zola pointing her sword at him.
"But how did you..." Cynthia trailed off and Zola smirked.
"Those robots were just annoying instead of a threat." Zola said.
"It's not over yet." Cynthia said. "Our reinforcements from Castle Des La Teste are on their way."
"Then it's time we exited the stage." Rikaru said and Zola nodded.
"Exactly. Hornet Assassin!" Killer Bat appeared and shot his attack towards the ground. When the smoke cleared, Lemaire and Cynthia were alone.
"Damn them." Lemaire said.
Away from the facility...
"I owe you Shu. Thanks for your help." Konrad said and Shu grinned.
"It was no big deal. Besides, you should thank Jiro and Rikaru for their help." Shu said and a soldier remembered something.
"That reminds me. How were you able to bend the steel bars like that?" a soldier asked and everyone looked at Rikaru.
"Which also reminds me." Jiro said. "The doors to Konrad's cell were partially hanging off the doorhinge when you kicked them open. Also, when you broke Konrad's chains, your hands made a sizzling sound which means they were burned."
"Is that so." Zola said and she redrew her sword. Then Kluke and Bouquet ran over to them.
"Homeron successfully infiltrated Castle Des La Teste." Kluke said and stopped when she saw Zola point her sword at Rikaru.
"What's going on Zola?" Bouquet asked but Zola ignored her.
"It's about time you told us the truth Rikaru." Zola said and Rikaru stared at her without moving an inch. "What the hell are you?"
Daaaaaaaamn people! Read and Review!