Chapter Twelve

"Oh my head," Sailor Venus moaned out as she gently rubbed at the sore spot.

She heard someone snort, and looked up, blinking in confusion at seeing the Ronin of Strata standing there. "Huh?" She continued to stare at him.

"Don't look at me," the archer said shaking his head. "This defies all sense of natural logic."

"Not really," the Senshi of Saturn brought in now. She had ended up not too far from them and merely walked over upon hearing the voices, "We're on the enemy's turf, anything is possible."

"They can manipulate the energy down here to do, basically, whatever they want it to do," Kayura confirmed with a nod.

Rowen nervously shifted on his feet, querying of the woman, "Can you sense the others at all?"

She gave a shake of her head, then made a statement not a question, "I take it you can't either."

"Too much interference," the Strata Ronin complained.

Venus wrinkled her nose and opened her wrist communicator, but all she got was static, "Well, so much for that avenue."

Saturn sighed and held tightly onto her glaive, as she started to walk off saying over her shoulder, "I don't like being a stationary target."

"I'm with you on that," the Strata Ronin chuckled, following behind her.

Venus was quick to head after the two of them, not liking the thought of being left behind.

Kayura sighed through her nose, before casting a wary glance over her shoulder to make sure no enemy was there. She could sense and see nothing, and it was with a pointed reluctance that she made her way after the other three.

The Lady Ancient could only hope that the other warriors were having better luck.

Sage had come to the conclusion that while Fate may enjoy giving Ryo undo misery, that it hated him. The blond swordsman had not ended up with any of his teammates, even though the five of them had entered together at the same time.

No, he was stuck with Sekhmet, whom he could almost tolerate, the Sailor of Neptune, and the Moon Princess. Yeah, Fate really had it out for him this time.

"This sucks," Sailor Moon whined in complaint. "I can't believe we got separated like that."

Neptune merely shook her head at the younger Senshi, saying, "It makes sense that they'd try to do more than just disorientate us. After all, being in our own groups makes us more dangerous than we are like this."

"We'll manage to survive," Sekhmet brought in with a bored expression on his face. Honestly, sometimes these girls were too wimpy for his tastes.

Sage gave a scowl at hearing that, thinking dryly to himself, 'Speak for yourself, Sekhmet.'

Sailor Moon immediately noticed the look on his face, "What's wrong, why are you scowling?"

Before Sage could come up with some sort of explanation, Sekhmet burst out laughing at the question not at all bothering to hide his amusement. Sage's one eye twitched, only more so when the Fall Seasonal commented, "Halo's scowled so much; it's permanently etched into his face."

Neptune brought up her hand to mask her laugh as a cough, Sailor Moon didn't bother, she simply outright sniggered.

Sage's violet eyes flickered ever so slightly, and he commented, "Sekhmet, would you like to taste metal?" The swordsman lightly moved his no-datchi to further emphasize his point.

The green-haired man grimaced, and quickly shook his head no. Oh, he was sure he could take Halo in a fair fight, well an almost fair one, but when the Ronin's eyes changed like that, he was downright creepy looking.

"Good choice," Halo's bearer remarked as he returned his attention to the walk ahead. His scowl only deepened, as he gritted out, "Raikken ahead."

"How many?" the Sailor of Neptune had already tensed in anticipation of the fight to come.

"Fifteen."

Sekhmet withdrew his own blades, casually saying, "Well, let's make quick work of those then."

"Only us," Kento announced as he knocked over a Raikken with his naginata, "Would get into a fight right off the bat. We haven't even been here an hour yet!"

Anubis let out a chuckle, clearly amused, "Would you prefer it any other way, Kento?"

"Are you kidding me? I live for this!"

Mars gave a snort, throwing her attack and crumpling about four Raikken, she remarked in a teasing tone, "That and food."

"Ah," the Warrior of Strength quipped, "Guilty as charged."

Pluto gave a rueful shake of her head though she knew the answer to her question, she posed it anyway, "Nothing gets to you, does it?"

Kento looked around, but they had dealt with all the Raikken present. It had only been about twenty or so, nothing special all of them had been rather low rank. He went back to a relaxed position, "Some things do, but I tend to bounce back pretty quick."

The Spring Seasonal also was checking for more enemies, but nothing came across as being out of place. If there were more of the Raikken, they were lying in wait for some reason or another.

"We should continue onward," Anubis finally announced, before doing just that. "And hope the others are well."

Kento gave a snort, saying by way of dismissal, "I know the guys are fine."

"Oh?" Pluto asked raising an eyebrow.

"Too stubborn not to be," the Hardrock Ronin stated as if it were supposed to be obvious.

Mars chortled at that, and shook her head before quickly following after Anubis, who was slowly getting further and further ahead of them. Pluto and Kento shrugged their shoulders at one another, before resuming the walk.

"You're starting to remind me of Sage," the Ronin of Torrent dryly commented with a roll of his sea-green eyes.

Cale made a face at hearing this, and sounded seriously affronted, "Sage and I are nothing alike."

Galaxy gave a derisive snort, "Ya right. You both sleep with nightlights."

Cale could only stare at the Scout with a dumfounded look on his face, while Cye and Jupiter laughed at his expression.

"Whoops," Galaxy mused to herself. "I said that one out loud, hm."

"Tell me," the Senshi of Jupiter queried having gained control of her laughter. She slung an arm around her fellow Scout's shoulder, "How do you know such classified information?"

Galaxy could only smirk, commenting slyly, "Lindsay's no prude."

Cye chortled at this, "Meaning she's a stalker, eh?"

"Mhm," the Scout confirmed with a nod, casually adding, "And seeing as how Sage and Cale are not the only men at the mansion…" She stopped when the Ronin of Trust went considerably pale.

Sailor Jupiter was almost in stitches now, "You're terrible!"

"Well, I could be worse," Galaxy honestly admitted. "I could act like Lindsay all the time."

"No you wouldn't," Cye told her in a calm tone. "If Elayne didn't kill you first-"

"The rest of us would," Cale finished with a nod.

The Senshi blinked, "You people are really nice, ya know that?"

Jupiter gave a wry grin, "Try to place more of your personality on your counterpart, and they won't have to be so nice."

"Ha ha," Galaxy was now sulking, and she picked up the pace she happened to be walking at to further show her annoyance.

The three merely sniggered, but did not bother to catch up with her. It wasn't like she could go really far, and even if she did they certainly wouldn't have minded.

The Ronin of Wildfire let out a loose breath as they continued to walk down the narrow passage. It seemed to him as though hours had passed by now, but it might have had something to do with the fact that they had fought three separate groups of Raikken.

It certainly didn't help that with every step his reluctance continued to grow full aware of where they were heading and the fact that with every moment he felt a slight drain on his armor.

Wildfire did not want to be down there anymore than he did, and while it realized the need for them to go…It was not at all thrilled.

Dais walked next to him, eyes scanning the surrounding walls looking for any sign of where an illusion might have been used, but so far he had been able to detect nothing.

"All right Ryo?" the Summer Seasonal finally queried. He was as aware as the Lady Ancient that while the Ronin Leader's strength had comeback surprisingly fast, that he was in no way out of the woods.

The bearer of Wildfire paused, "Yeah, I'm fine."

Mercury cast a sideways glance at the Ronin of Wildfire, commenting, "Don't push yourself, the guys will hang you for it," before typing away on her computer.

"Oh yeah," the Senshi of Uranus gave a low chuckle in amusement. "But, if Elayne finds out he'll be drawn and quartered too boot."

Ryo let out a somewhat strangled noise from the back of his throat, "Could we please go, I don't know, a day without bringing up what way she's going to murder me next?"

"I think you are too hopeful there," the white-haired man told him. "It's become quite an amusing little game."

"Oh great," the Ronin Leader rolled his eyes now. "Let me guess, you're taking bets now too."

He was greeted with a sudden and rather odd silence.

"You have got to be kidding me!"

Sailor Glacia took pause before letting out a snort in mild laughter, "Things echo in these tunnels. Did anyone other than me hear that?"

"I heard," Aarde remarked in amusement. "Secret's out now though."

Empyrean gave a sly grin, "Who wants to tell him how much yen we're up to now?"

The three of them gave light laughs, but Nova was exceedingly quiet. Her eyes skimmed past the tunnels, but all she could see and feel was the negative energy around them. It turned her stomach and made her head swim…Light was her element, and down here she was suffocating.

"Nova?" the Sailor of Wind queried, "Everything okay?"

"No," the Elemental Leader mumbled, eyes returning to her teammates whom were walking in front of her. "We've been attacked twice already, and time is not moving correctly. There's no way to keep track of anything down here."

Glacia had her eyes straight ahead of her, permitting her senses to do most of the walking…They were not as limited by this as Nova's were. She could find and follow the water, and there was plenty of it down here…Inside the rocks, tracing up to the roots of the trees.

"It'll be fine, Nova," the Water and Ice Scout finally spoke. "We know what we are doing, so do the others. Just have a little patience."

Aarde gave a rather large pout, "Hey! Stop stealing my lines Glacia."

"He he," Glacia smirked, "Nope."

"Pah," Empyrean rolled her eyes. "You two are almost as bad as your elemental partners. If not worse."

"Empyrean," Nova had both her eyebrows raised. "That doesn't exactly say much for you."

They all pondered over this for a minute and then burst out laughing. For now the laughter was necessary to keep the tension from taking hold, but pretty soon even that would fade.