Chapter 8
Teenagers+Weapons+Outdoors+Boredom.
Oh My.

The laughter from the friends was exuberant as they splashed about in a small pond they had found. Ryder watched from a cliff peak a small distance away, and short distance up. He was enjoying the sun and the tropical area. It was nice to have the shade of palm trees overhead. Nice to smell the somewhat murky scent of decaying leaves and wet sand. Hiking threw the landscape gave him a sense of peace. Reminded of his varied and far between hikes threw the mountains, he realized, as he picked a tiny conch shell from between his toes, why he had never been a hiker. For that circumstance, he had never hiked in bare feet either. A loud shriek from the pool brought his attention back to his friends.

Kie had successfully dunked Maya into the water, Art was splashing them with it, attempting to push Kie off his balance, and Kriss was making the water into a spectacular show in the air. Ryder watched them thoughtfully, not sure what to make off this group of misfits that seamed just to have passed puberty… but not yet emotionally or mentally. Observing them quietly, he found himself noticing his surroundings more. The breeze was nice to have, the sun and its warmth was starting to make his shoulders sweat, but it was nice to be walking on solid immobile ground.

Partially examining the land around him, he saw Jekyll, Mina, Sawyer and Nemo exit the sub. He looked around, knowing there was someone else missing, but not knowing who. Shrugging, he continued on up the cliff like face. As he reached the top, he found himself staring at a not so dense wooded area. Shrugging, Ryder kept at it. Dodging branches and trees, he found the sereneness helpful. In the midst of soft sounds of birdcalls and gentle tropical sounds, he heard the sound of someone entraining energy in groans, grunts and yells.

Frowning, Ryder crept ahead. Coming behind a bush before a rather large clearing, he attempted to peek around the bush. A shinning flash flew at him, and he ducked. A small knife landed in a tree right behind his head. A growl of frustration met his ears as someone stomped towards him. He ducked as a hand reached over his head, yanked the knife out of the tree behind him and stomped off, muttering.

Moving bush pieces out of his sight, he saw a sandy area beyond the trees. To the right was a large spring, a waterfall piece of land with the waterfall almost out of a picturesque garden. To the left of that was an even larger expanse of the lack of anything. Sky was beyond the rock of the mini waterfall, and it expanded beyond this to the cliff point. It looked like a long drop, but a very pretty view. To the right of the bush was many shining pillars of metal. Swords, a staff, a staff with a long blade on the end, and various throwing implements, a crossbow and a whip.

The dagger came whipping threw the bush, ending up not 15 cm from his hand. Another came whipping threw the foliage not an inch above his head, and another metal object came flying at his face, stopping after it scratched his nose, and whipped back. A sharp whip crack came as the bush was literally torn up by its roots, ripped from the ground, and snapped into the air. Another snap came as the bush was torn apart into pieces in the air by the same bladed whip that had scratched his nose. As pieces rained down around the wielder, the blade fell into her hand as she examined it.

"You know Ryder, its not very intelligent to approach someone wielding sharp objects without giving them a warning in advance." said Kalypso, sounding almost amused. Ryder brushed his nose indignantly, finding a streak of blood across his hand, he glared at her.

"Kalypso, it isn't intelligent to be flinging sharp objects at people either." He growled. He couldn't see it, but she smiled slightly knowingly.

"I haven't shown you exactly what I can do with sharp objects yet have I?"

"No…"

"Probably better then what you can do with those play swords of yours." she commented condescendingly. He rose in annoyance.

"Hey." She shrugged, her back still to him.

"You can't use them, except for dance."

"Nor can you." he growled.

"You surprise me Ryder. I acknowledged your powers, yet you refuse to acknowledge mine." Curling the bladed whip with her hands, she placed it down by the other weapons. Looking threw the swords, she selected one, testing the weight and shape in a few whistling swings. "So Dancer… want to try?"

She offered the sword she was holding in an almost lazy engarde position. Quickly flipping it in the air, she offered it to him handle first. Giving her a sidelong glance that rained suspicion upon her, he took it. Examining the blade that shinned in the sun he looked past it at her.

"Where did you get all of these?" She didn't look up as she browsed threw the swords remaining standing in the sand.

"Asked Kriss to magick me some. So I'd have something to practice with." Ryder raised his eyebrows as he watched her look at another sword. This one was thin, but had a medium amount of weight to it. It wasn't quite as ornate as he had once expected her to pick, but had a certain grace to it. As she touched the finely wrought metalwork on the hilt, he saw the top of the hilt had what looked to be lotus. Catching his glance out of the corner of her eye, she answered his unasked question.

"This is based off a fantasy sword smith's design. Ever heard of Kit Rae?" He snorted.

"Of course." She moved slowly, her hand holding the flat of the blade above the hilt, spinning like Eowyn from the LOTR Two Towers movie. Moving into a slow sword dance, she ended in a balanced stance with the sword pointed at his forehead from the spot in the middle of the sand as she opened her eyes and her stance relaxed.

"Based upon his Sword of Justice." She stood as if getting out of a trance, the sword at her side turning dark silver in the lack of flashing sunlight.

"Nice, but I prefer the Sword of Darkness." He readied his weapon as it pointed towards her. Stepping back lithely, she bowed slightly, the sword held as a casual gesture in her hand.

"Your move." Stepping back, he readied himself against her seemingly too easily broken stance, bringing his sword up to his shoulder height, he launched himself with an aggressive challenge.

"Engarde!"

†

Ryder didn't so much as throw himself at her as he gracefully moved his tall figure within her range, not striking, just bolting. Kali deflected the move very easily, her eyes had gotten hard and merciless. Ryder backed up with a slight grin on his face. The type that suggested he was sizing up his opponent. Kali just looked concentrated.

A flick of the sword from Kali and the real game began. It wasn't so much the sound of aluminium that echoed, it was the sounds of clanking steel. It was a different sound for Ryder. A frequent walker of the stage, he knew the sound of drama swords, aluminium always, never steel. This was different.

Flicking back and forth, the rebounding from the strikes, and how even his best footwork could not equal hers. His arms were mostly larger then hers, but she knew how to handle her bantam weight. Swinging his sword slightly, he slipped under hers, causing her to hop away. Hopping uncertainly on one foot as she moved back, she looked back, her eyes having the same core as the steel she held. A hand on her hip, she began her counter attack. Her style identical to the Spaniards from the movies, using the battling sword as if she had stepped out of Zorro, or even as her style changed midstrike, suddenly she was William Turner of Pirates, Elizabeth Swann with her wider strikes, Montoya of the The Princess Bride with his mastery of tiny strokes and precise calculated effects. Her footwork mirrored his. His dancing steps, combined with 2-3 years of drama fencing had not come together the way he thought they would. She didn't smirk, only raised a side of her lip.

"Ready for something a little more complicated?" she asked quietly, her eyes never moving from the scene before her for an instant. He looked taken aback. "Ah Ryder, one thing you must learn while fighting. Never let the enemy see your feelings." She broke off from the stalemate they had and ran up the nearest tree. Pushing off from the very top of the trunk somersaulting into the air overtop of him and landing solidly behind him. Her sword moved swiftly to begin another attack.

Ryder was beginning to feel very frustrated. He normally had very few rivals when it came to swords. The stage was his to dominate, and yet this greenback had no training really, and was dominating him with a single strike. He didn't show anything, but his frustration was beginning to culminate. The warm summer's day had suddenly gotten chilly. The sun didn't seam to block itself over, but as Kali kept up beating him, she noticed the sun getting shadowed over. Her opponent suddenly disappeared.

Her senses suddenly went on high gear as the world ended up being more of a shadowed sphere. Ryder… Its Ryder's powers… Damned … I never thought of this. Her empathy went nuts as she tried to figure out where he was. Closing her eyes, she felt steel connect with steel, and used her empathy to tell where the heck he was. Refusing to start swinging wildly, because she knew he could see her, she moved carefully. The sphere got to the point where she could hardly see, it was foggy with faint traces of wind. Swinging her sword down to her side, she heard something large unfold behind her. Closing her eyes again, she spun. The sword still pointed down, as she moved slowly forward.

She felt so uncomfortable in this situation. She was the wolf. The hunter. She hated being the hunted, yet that was what it was. He could see her, but she couldn't see him. He had superior senses in this, and she didn't. She had to go on what she had, which ended up being simply something small, the idea of emotions within the human. What she sensed was anger, frustration, and the darkness that hovered around them both was making it worse. His frustration was becoming not necessarily blind rage, but fairly close. His darkness served as an amplifier for his emotions. She heard breathing, she wasn't sure where from, and she stepped back as she collided with a warm wall of flesh. Whipping around, up went her weapon, and the fight began again in earnest. The strikes were light and quick. She felt like a fish. Floundering on the beach when she belonged in the ocean.

Backing up again, she let herself figure out where he was. The darkness he produced was like sulphur… It smelt bad, and breathing it was worse. Coughing, she tripped. She felt something bend with her, and then extreme pain. She had fallen on one of the swords. Feeling blood drip down her back, she moved up again and went after him once again. He didn't need to know his work had injured her, she just needed to finish this and be done with it.

Stepping again into the thick of the smoke she kept her sword down, she didn't know where he was and didn't want to hurt him. In the back of the sphere something spoke.

It didn't sound like Ryder… but almost seamed to be using his voice.

Kali stopped to rationalize this with herself, figuring out quickly that something else was using Ryder's voice to speak. It didn't sound like Ryder, because it wasn't him. Something else entirely made Ryder's voice sound not his. She figured she'd make sense of that later, right now she needed to figure out what they were saying.

She couldn't hear it. It was menacing, painful to hear and not him, but that didn't matter. Kali kept backing up, not able to find him in anywhere. Her senses told her he was everywhere, but nowhere at the same time. Kali backed over a rock, feeling her sword puncture something behind her. She heard something gag as she fell back into the water with Ryder. Yanking the sword from him was fairly easy if she desperately attempted to forget the pain she was in from the large cut on her back. By the feel of him, her sword hadn't punctured anything vital.

She knew this because he held onto her as he kicked them back to the surface. Both of them coughing, Kali was pleased to see the fact that even though his wings still were firmly attached to his back, Ryder's anger inducing darkness was gone. Her eyes going unfocused even as he brought her to a standing point, she looked at him, gathering a small amount of energy in her hand as she pressed it over his heart.

Feeling his wounds heal, his cuts close, she smiled. Her knees went out from under her as she fell back into the sand beneath the two of them, her back still bleeding. Not quite as heavily as before, but still, bleeding.

Holding her, he sighed. He really needed to learn how to control his power. This darkness thing gave him the power and the will to do some real damage, as he had just figured out. Sitting with her on his lap, he cupped his hands under the water, washing out her wounds. His body still winding down from this fight they had finished, he moved his hand over his wound. His hand stuck upon something. Something gooey, gel like. It smelled odd, and felt like her. Her power… It hit him all too well. Too easily. Taking the goo from his chest, he smeared it over hers. Crossing his fingers, he hoped it would work.

All too surprisingly, it did. Her wounds closed, a blessing for him. He didn't have to explain why she was hurting the way she was.

The sun started on its journey down, leading the dark angel to pull the fighter onto his back, collect up her weaponry, and his adopted sword, and fly off the cliff to the submarine.

Author's Note
Dear Readers, I have an apology to make.
In my last chapter, I found that my grammar was wrong, as well as my story. In the last little bit, I had Jekyll go out with Kali, and yet still be there to speak to Mina.
I am an idiot, but most of you stuck with me. For that, thank you.

I know its been a long while since I last wrote. Rather, its been a while since I last uploaded this. I wrote it out, then I didn't upload it as I figured it needed work.

At this point I feel you all need something to read... because I'm a lousy person and don't update much.

I also feel that my writing is getting poorer as I go along, which might account for a drop in the readers so far... This has far too many strains of mary sue in it, as well as Gary stue. I'd love for any ideas that people have that could be dropped in, otherwise people might be seeing far too much more of this...

Thanks for your support Gang...