Chapter Four
Duncan sighed as the group were nearly out of Indiana. They were mostly driving during the whole road trip, and they only stopped for bathroom breaks, getting something to eat, gas stops and they only spent the night at a hotel a couple of times. They really couldn't afford to stay in a hotel which was why they did more driving the entire road trip.
"We should get here to Michigan after the next state," Amanda stated.
"Finally," Richie replied, "this whole time being mostly in the van has drove me crazy. Couldn't we have just flown to Michigan, then drive to Elk Grove?"
"It was a majority vote," Joe answered.
Richie had no idea why the majority chose this crazy road trip. He and Amanda were the ones who voted for plane trip while the others chose road trip. It didn't matter now because soon they would be in Michigan, and finally, at their destination in Elk Grove.
-Collision-Course-
Ryo sighed. A few years had passed since the events of Sunnydale, and things have been pretty quiet for the most part. During the time Ryo and Mia had gotten married and last year, they had a son named Hariel.
They weren't the only ones who ended up falling in love. Kento and Amaya ended up in a relationship as did Josephine and Cye, and they both got married within two years of each other, with Kento and Amaya getting married shortly after Mia's son Hariel was born.
As far as those two couples were concerned, for some strange reason they decided to hold off on having kids for at least a year or two. Ryo thought that didn't make sense since they weren't getting any younger.
Ryo looked outside the window. He glanced over at Hana, who was watching TV, at least trying to find something on TV. She appeared to be at a dead end with that plan.
"Damn! There ain't shit on!" Hana yelled in frustration.
Amaya stormed in as if she was about to kill, "Hana!"
Ryo took a step back and Hana hurried away from the sofa. Amaya was deadly when she attacked with a wooden spoon. Albeit, it turned out that she only threw the wooden spoon at the blonde woman, only for her to duck in response.
"Hey!" Hana exclaimed, "Take it easy!"
"Maybe that'll teach you not to swear," Amaya replied before returning to the kitchen.
Suddenly, the phone started to ring.
"I'll get it!" Ryo announced before answering the phone, "Hello?"
"Ryo? This is James," the familiar voice on the other end of the phone answered, "to cut to the chase, there's a new danger that has risen its ugly face."
"We'll have to let the others know," Ryo replied.
"Good idea."
"Guys!" Ryo proceeded to put the phone on speaker, "James is on the phone!"
"What the?! James?! We just saw him last year when you and Mia got married!" Kento replied as he arrived at the area, followed by Mia. Hana and Amaya followed suit. Josephine, Rekino and Rowen joined seconds later.
"What seems to be the danger this time?" Ryo asked.
"There's this demon broad by the name of Ruby," James explained, "she is planning to eliminate the Prophesied One known as Ash Williams, and bring this universe into darkness. Twyla and I just witnessed the evil Ruby unleashed for the first time tonight."
"Wait, Ash Williams," Rekino quipped, "as in the Ash Williams?!"
"Yeah," James answered, "as in the Ash Williams."
"Ash Williams has some allies as well," James continued, "one of these Knights of Sumeria named Dalton, and his friends Kelly and Pablo. Their help can only go so far in this threat, and not only that, Ash has a daughter named Brandy, and I have a feeling the evil might use her as a pawn to their evil plan."
"And that's where we come in, right?" Sage asked.
"Exactly."
"You've gotta be kidding me!" Rowen exclaimed.
"Good thing we were holding off on having kids," Josephine told Amaya.
"Not now," Amaya told her friend.
Mia appeared to be hesitant, "What about our son Hariel?"
"Leave your son to me."
The group turned around to see Kayura, who had just appeared in the room.
"Kayura," Rowen spoke up.
"Kayura is in the house?" James asked.
"I have just now arrived," Kayura answered, "and I was going to inform the Ronin Warriors and the Lady Ronin Guardians about this new threat before you called."
"That's good," James replied.
"We'll be over at Elk Grove as soon as possible," Ryo told his friend.
"Ryo of Wildfire is right," Kayura added, "I will bring them over to Elk Grove right away, and Hariel will be safe with us at the Dynasty."
-Collision-Course-
James smiled as he hung up the phone. It was a good thing that Kayura was going to look after Hariel while the Ronins and Guardians took care of things here in Elk Grove. He couldn't wait for Ash and his friends to meet the Ronin Warriors and Lady Ronin Guardians. It would surely be a surprise for them indeed.
-Collision-Course-
Brandy looked around the room. She could hardly sleep the night before as she couldn't get the images of the night before out of her head. Her best friend became a monster after the two of them was attacked by the mascot Cougie, who was possessed, her mom was killed in front of her and she found out her real father was Ashy Slashy.
Brandy whimpered upon hearing a knock on the door. Ash walked in the room, "Hey, kiddo. Rise and shine. You sleep okay?"
"Go away," Brandy groaned as she turned and covered her head with the blanket.
"Look," Ash talked to his daughter, "last night was the first time you experienced a full on, balls out, pedal to the medal demon spawn attack, and look, that's rough, I know. Now, if you want to stay in bed all day, that's totally fine because I'm one of those cool dads like you see in the movies."
"I just want my mom back," Brandy spoke softly.
Ash sighed sadly and said, "That's the one thing I can't pull out of my butt."
He almost left the room before turning and getting Brandy's phone out of his pants pocket, "Oh, uh, you left this in the Delta. Uh, some counselor from Kenward High..."
That caught Brandy's attention as she sat up from the bed and Ash continued, "left you one of those text things."
"Ms. Prevett?" Brandy asked as she took the phone from her father, "Can you give me a ride to school?"
"Oh, really?" Ash replied, "I thought maybe you'd want to spend the day with your old man, get a peek behind the scenes at a real working hardware store."
"No," Brandy shot him down, "I need to see Ms. Prevett. She's been a real friend, and probably the only person I can really talk to right now."
"Oh, come on now," Ash asked, "the "only" one?"
"Can you give me a ride," Brandy asked, insisting, "or should I call a cab?"
-Collision-Course-
Pablo glanced outside as Dalton was working on the motorcycle. Then, he glanced at Kelly, "So, you take off without a word, all "chasing after the fight", and then suddenly you're back, with this clown?"
He scoffed while pointing at Dalton, "Come on."
"Pablo...you know me," Kelly walked over to her friend/lover.
"I don't know," Pablo replied, "do I?"
"I don't know because I fucking hate clowns," Kelly stated. Pablo chuckled as Kelly gently touched his face.
"Hey," she assured him, "I needed to stay in the fight. Okay? That's all that is about."
Kelly sat down with her coffee.
"Yeah, well," Pablo stated, "I'm not buying this...this whole, "Princes of Sumeria" thing."
"It's Knights," Kelly corrected him.
"If they're so bad ass," Pablo asked, "how come were just hearing about them right now?"
"Because shit's about to get fucked up," Kelly answered, "more so than usual."
"Oh, yeah? How would he know?"
"Dude. Knights? Sumeria?"
Pablo only glanced at her.
"Dalton's ancestors were whaling on evil way back in 1400s," Kelly stated.
"Which would make his great great whatever a really big deal, but this guy is just..." Pablo started.
"Is just glad to know that the centuries my ancestors and I spent prepping for evil's return weren't a total waste," Dalton said as he arrived in the kitchen.
"Yeah," Pablo replied, "that must be a load off."
He offered some cereal to Dalton, "Fruit Loop?"
"I'm gluten free," the knight declined the offer.
"You know what," Pablo chided, "I know how we got into the "kicking evil butt" business, but what's in it for you?"
"My brothers have been fighting evil much longer than you can imagine," Dalton answered.
"Tell him, Dalton," Kelly urged, "Tell him what you told me."
"Evil's manifested in many forms over the years," Dalton explained, "The Black death, war, famine, but it's all rooted back to the master demons we call the Dark Ones. It seemed like there was no stopping them, but then the unexpected happened. The most ruthless one of them all betrayed the others, and cast them from our world. In Latin, they called her "Mulier Daemonium Degnaie", Demon woman of fire. My ancestors seized the opportunity to steal the source of their power, the Necronomicon Ex Mortis. A lot of good men and women gave their lives to get that book. Legend has it, one of us, a sorceress named Kaya, was seduced by the power of the Necronomicon with help from the demon Baal's younger brother Damien, and she tried to use it, but her soul was taken, and bound within the book. Only the Prophesied One can abolish the Dark Ones. So, my brothers and I swore to remain vigilant. To find, and protect him until the foretold battle against evil."
"So that's why they are relentlessly after Ash," James stated as he overheard Dalton's tale. Twyla was right behind him, "they want to bring the universe to darkness."
Twyla sighed nervously.
"Right, evil's back, Got it," Ash replied as he arrived in the kitchen, "Thanks for the scoop, Poindexter."
Dalton attempted to kneel and Ash stopped him, "Save the knee. Yes, I'm very special, message received. Now look, if story time's over, can we talk about something that's really important?"
"Time to tear evil a new one, Jefe?" Pablo asked.
"No," Ash poured a bowl of cereal with milk, "it's this whole "Dad" thing. Here I am, kicking evil in the nards, and what do I get out of it? A daughter that treats me like dryer lint. How was I supposed to know that all that crazy sex could lead to a kid?"
"That's how it goes," James quipped.
"Yeah, funny how that works," Kelly added, "you know what, let's just hope he didn't leave anymore little Brandys out there."
Ash spit out some of his milk/cereal before thinking of the possibility of the other kids that he could possibly have out there, "Jesus of Anaheim."
Moments later, Brandy arrived, fully dressed, and ready for school.
"I'll be in the car," Brandy announced before leaving the house.
"The demon girl said something about my seed," Ash told the others, "Pablo, I have Brandy duty, then I gotta check something out. Can you open the store solo this morning?"
"Store?" Pablo stated, "Jefe, evil is back! Ghost Beaters gotta gear up!"
"What he said," Dalton replied, stepping forward.
"New guy, take a knee," Ash stated. Dalton kneeled as Ash continued, "Now listen up. Evil is not the boss of us. We gotta do that thing, what's it called? Like when you're driving in a car, putting on deodorant, and trying to drink a beer at the same time?"
"Reckless endangerment?" Kelly guessed.
"No, Kelly, keep up."
"Multi tasking?" James then guessed.
"Yeah," Ash replied, "Multi tasking that's it. We can do this. We can wail on evil, and provide Elk Grove with top quality hardware at a reasonable price."
"And with the Ronin Warriors and Lady Ronin Guardians on their way," James stated, "it will be more possible for you guys to multi task."
"For sure," Twyla chuckled.
"Can't wait to see what you Ronins have to provide!" Ash exclaimed as he walked out of the house in a hurry.
"Is he always like this?" James asked.
"More than you think," Kelly answered, "I missed him."
Author's Note: Quite a lengthy chapter here yet again. Much more than what I expected. Along with this being sorta a retelling of the third season of Ash vs. Evil Dead being set in the Wandererverse along with it being a sequel of Ronins on the Hellmouth and Armour of the Eliminator, both by Harry2, this story has a significant focus on Brandy. The previous versions didn't have the interaction with Ash and Brandy as you saw in this chapter. I can't tell you what it is right now, or it'd spoil the surprise, but near future chapters will give you hints. Look forward to it! Also, I don't think Uber existed in the 2000s, which is why that was changed.