Beside her, Amariie was....well not dreaming about volcanoes.
Rain was awakened by a girly giggle from the unconscious form beside her. Opening one eye to glare with discontent at this pain in the ass, she closed her eyes and tried once more to go to sleep.
Suddenly an arm wrapped around Rain's waist and pulled her tightly. Another giggle and a murmured "I love you Matt" cause Rain to bolt upright shrieking. "Get the hell offa me 'Ariie!!!!"
Amariie scrunched her nose up in annoyance and sat up wearily. "Why'd ya wake me up Rain? I was having the nicest dream!" Her eyes went all glittery.
Rain smacked her head against the pavement. "Oh god help me.."
Rain sighed as she rubbed her head. Where exactly did the Ronin's go? They couldn't have just disappeared. They must have been transported somewhere...Hmm... Rain's thoughts ended as Amariie's sparkled.
Rain sighed yet again. "Now what is it?"
Amariie jumped up and pointed down a desolate road. She skipped along the once sidewalk humming to herself as Rain and White Blaze both simultaneously raised an eyebrow.
"Ooooo!!! Shiney!!!"
Rain stood up. "Uhh...'Ariie? I don't think we should be running off right now."
"But lookie!!!" Amariie squealed as she held up a long, sharp (very sharp) sword. "Oooo!! Rain!! Can I? Please!!!"
Rain quickly walked up to Amariie and snatched the sword from Amariie's gasp before she decided to...ahem...play with it like most ditz do with things.
Pouting, Amariie plunked down on the sidewalk.
"Hey Rain, where do you think that sword came from? I mean, maybe it just flew out of some cool Japanese weapon shop! With a totally cute owner!" her eyes went all glittery again.
Totally ignoring her, Rain got to thinking. Maybe it had just landed there by accident, but she didn't think so. This sword was familiar...
"I've got it!!!!! This is that Ryo guys sword! Remember, it fell from his grasp when he was fighting with..." she paused and gave a slight smile " that Warlord Anubis..."
Amariie raised an eyebrow. "Oooooooooh! I think SOMEBODY likes the baddie! Rainy and Nubie sitting in a tree, K.I.S....."
"Oh shutup!" Rain snapped, cheeks flushed scarlet "...anyways, we've got to find the Ronins!"
"Right! hehe that Rowen guy was cute..."
"Stay focused please Ama..." before Rain could finish, a loud crumbling noise came from behind them. The place where they had been just moments before was crushed underneath tons of cement and metal from a collapsed building.
"...I hate to say this, but if it wasn't for you, Amariie and your aidheadedness, we would've been crushed under that building."
Amariie made vogue poses. "Yes I know, the temple devoted to worshipping me is open 24/7. Feel free to pay tribute anytime."
Rain snickered. "Yes, Amariie the queen of modesty."
Amariie frowned. She bent down at messed up WhiteBlazes's fur. "At weast you wuv me, fwuffy wuffy. Oh yes you do! Yes you do pretty kitty!"
Raising her eyes to the sky to star at the horizon for a while, Rain got hardcore deja vu. On the horizon, sticking out like a sore thumb was a volcano. A big red volcano.
"OH my God 'Ariie! It's the volcano from my dream! Ryo's in there! I'm sure he is!"
WhiteBlaze lifted his head and gave a growl of approval.
Amariie skipped over to an abandoned silver Mercedes benz convertable (with top on). Opening the door she found the keys in the ignition, but the car wouldn't start.
Rain pondered. "It must be this darkness. It blocking all the technol..." She couldn't even finish her sentence before hysterical laughter rain through the streets.
Rain's eyes turned into big hearts as she started to drool.
"And people call me guy-crazy..." Amariie scoffed.
A dark figure emerged from the shadows. An oddly familiar chuckled echoed through the city. Rain desperately tried to hide her feeling of enjoyment. She loved action and excitment and even though not in a million years she would admit it, but she loved the idea of being madly in love with a villian, just like in those sap books 'Ariie reads.
The figure walked out of the soft morning fog that blanketed the concrete and stopped facing the two girls, folding his arms as he narrowed his eyes and smirked.
"Hmm...You two girls shouldn't all alone in this big...empty...city...by yourselves now," he said, strongly lingering with emphasis on every word.
Rain folded her arms almost mockingly. "Well, well, well. Look here, Amariie. One of those coward warlords. What did you call him before? Nubie-chan? Heh. Nice name, Nubie-chan."
Anubis' tolerance for these two wisecracks was wearing thin at the particular moment. Her threw a scowl their way, then his face lightened. "Hm. Got quite a mouth on you, girl. I sure hope you can back that up."
Amariie whispered to Rain, "Are you psycho!? You're gonna make him mad!"
"Shush. I'm just bluffing so we can escape. Play along."
Amariie stepped ahead of Rain. "Oooo lookie! Big bad warlord all alone. Big threat, Nubie. I think I'm going to soil myself," she said, sarcasm dripping from her words.
Anubis glared at the perky little blonde. "You think I'm all alone, ne? Well," suddenly the ground shook and dozens of soldiers burst through the streets. Soft sounds of rock and dust falling filled the air as the soldiers readied themselves to abade their battle lust. "What do you think now, girl?"
Amariie backed off some. "Uhh...Rain? This is not working out as well as I thought it would..."
Rain's eyes widened as tin can soldiers flooded out from the city's centre. The girls' jaws dropped.
"RUN!" Rain shouted, turning on her heels and grabbing Amariie's arm.
"What is wrong with you? We can't just run away from him!" Amariie shot daggars at Rain.
"..You're right! we aren't cowards!" Rain lifted her head to meet the evil (yet charming) warlord. "We won't run from you!"
Amariie poked Rain's arm. "Uhh I meant we can't run away. I'm wearing heels!"
Seeing the soldiers advance, the three, dodging from thrown spears, bolted into the Benz and locked the doors. Just as the car was about to be smashed by a giant flail, a blinding light came down and repelled all the weapons. The condensed into that golden staff.
A huge rumbling sound started where the staff was as the ground split, creating a huge ravnice separating the soldiers (and stunningly gorgeous warlord) from the three in the car.
"Don't think you can run from the Dynasty!" Anubis shrieked.
Amariie rolled down the window. She leaned out the window and stuck out her tongue. "Watch us, Carrot top!!"
Rain laughed at Amariie's half-in the car, half out stunt, when she realized that it was getting brighter out. The staff had cleared the sky and the sun was shining. Turning the key again, the car started up.
Amariie slid back in. "Aw score! Now we've got a hot car!"
Rain smirked. "Buckle up, we're going to that volcano."
White blaze roared in approval once more.
As the trio came upon the mountain, Rain was getting that intese feeling again. "He's in there. I can feel it."
Amariie looked at her sideways. "How'd ya know he was in the mountain?"
"You tell me."
"Well fine then. Hmph." Amariie said, while crossing her arms.
The car couldn't go any farther, so they parked it in a clearing. As they climbed out of the car, WhiteBlaze took off running like a bat outta hell.
Amariie groaned ditzy like. "Oh man, I am SO not chasing him. I'm gonna stay right here and YOU can go save Ryo or whatever. I still have heels for crying out loud!!"
Rain rolled her eyes and followed WhiteBlaze. After nearly half an hour hiking up the mountain, Rain stopped for a moment and whiped her brow. "Just a walk in the woods. Just a walk in the woods. Just a-" she was cut off by WhiteBlaze roaring like hell a little ways ahead of her. "We could've hijacked a helicopter, but noooo 'I wanna ride the Benz!'" she said in a mock ditz tone.
Rain came upon the opening to the volcanoe and kneeled next to Blaze. She cautiously peeked over the side and gasped at the sight. Lava filled the bottom.
"How the hell can he be in there?! I'm surprised I haven't turned to a crispy critter by now."
WhiteBlaze turned towards Rain with a knowing look. They both looked inside and saw a small bright red dot in the midst of the molten lava.
Amariie leaned up against the shiney Benz. She sighed and twidled her hair.
"Hmm...maybe I should have gone with them. It's all boring and crap here. I need to redo my mascera, it's all screwed up AGAIN! Ugh!"
Amariie climbed into the driver's seat and fished in her pocket a small smooth container of mascara (the French kind). She pulled down the mirror and as she gazed into it, she noticed Ryo's sword sitting in the backseat.
"Ugh! Idiots! Rain forgot the sword! How stupid is that. I guess I have to save the day now. Oooo maybe I WILL save the day!"
She reached back and grabbed the sword then held it in her hands for a moment. "Pretty..." Then she used the sword's reflection as a mirror and applied more mascera. "I surely can't save the world without looking hot."
After lingering moments on the mascera, she attempted to trek up the mountain in heels.
Spotting Rain and the kitty, Amariie dragged herself up to them.
"Of course, leave it to men to lie dormant in the most inconvenient places!" She snapped impatiently, rubbing her sore foot.
Rain glanced over. "The sword! Of course we forgot about that! Give it to me Amariie."
"Catch!" she tossed the sword over to Rain. Unfortunately, Amariie's awful aim nearly got Rain decapitated.
"Dumbass!" Rain screamed, as the two watched the sword dive into the volcano.
Suddenly they noticed the speck start to become larger.
"Wow! I woke him up! I'm sooooo cool! See Rain, what would the world do without me?" Amariie giggled.
"You've got a point, the makers of hairdryers and eyeliners would be out of a job..."
"Smartass..."
"Whoreface..."
Once again (luckily) the soon-to-be catfight was interupted by manical laughter.
Rain heard is was from behind them. She slowly turned her head and was met by Anubis. Obviously this guy never knew when to give up.
"This guy don't know when to give up," whispered Rain.
Amariie nodded. Anubis stood near the rim of the volcanoe and smiled. "Hm. Nice trick back there with the canyon. Very clever. Yet cleverness won't ever get you anywhere."
WhiteBlaze stood protectively in front of Rain and Amariie and growled fiercly. Before Anubis could attack, the entire ground quaked. It started off faint, but quickly grew tremendously. Rain looked around to find the source. The volcane. Of course! A huge wall of lava flew to the sky, a red figure in the midst of it. It slowly seeped from the lava and floated above the girls and the warlord.
"Ryo..." whispered Amariie. She was too shocked to say anything ditzy.
Ryo's arms were out stretched, holding his swords. His eyes snapped open, seeking the warlord. The blue inteseness burned holes through Anubis. For one moment Anubis felt the gut wrenching feeling of fear in his stomach, thinking he was outmatched. He only surpressed the feeling.
"Yay! Goooooo Ryo!.... Oh damn, I should've brought my pom-poms!" Amariie squealed with over excitement.
Rain was too busy drooling over the badass hottie which would probably try to destroy them again. *sigh* Men can be so confusing sometimes.
Ryo jumped down to confront Anubis, Rain and Amariie scattered to give them as much room as possible. White Blaze stood at Amariie's side and she idly scratched his ear as if to comfort herself. Anubis smirked and slashed at Ryo, who easily dodged it and cameback with a kick to his chest.
Anubis stepped back for a moment, surpised clearly present around him. 'Hmm...he seems stronger...but how? There's no way he could be stronger than me. Not this...boy.'
Everytime Anubis tried to attack, Ryo only deflected the warlord's weapon as if it was a toy and would counter with a strong attack. Anubis could not win this battle easily like before. Something was different about him...but what?
Ryo smiled faintly. "Too tough for ya, Anubis?"
Anubis scowled and crashed his scythe onto Ryo's sword with rage. Ryo stared into Anubis' eyes as they fought over who was stronger than the other.
'It's his armor. It somehow charged up tremendously. Well there's always more than one way to kill a Ronin...' Anubis thought wryly.
Anubis suddenly released his force and jumped back, an amused face presently upon his face. He slightly glanced over to Rain, who kept her eyes on his, and glared back at Ryo. "You are slighty stronger, Wildfire. You also seem to have a warriors spirit. Well let's see how you can react to THIS!"
Anubis then leapt over to Rain and landed before her. Her reflexes were a tad too slow and she found herself shoved up against Anubis' chest, his arm tight around her chest. She was starting to like the feeling, but then a voice popped in her head. 'ARGH!! RAIN! QUIT IT!! He's the bad guy!!! Stop acting like Amariie!!!!' Rain picked up her foot and slammed it into Anubis' shin as hard a she could. She heard a crack and was hoping it was Anubis' armor.
"AH SHIT!!" she yelled. 'That bastard didn't even FLINCH!! Damned armor!'
Anubis smirked sinisterly at her actions. "Got some fire there, girl. Too bad you're on the wrong side."
Ryo growled and Amariie ran up behind Ryo.
"Rain!!" she screamed, fearing for her friend. But then she noticed that her right arm was burning. She held it against her and found out it was because of Ryo's armor. It was scorching! Ryo moved up to Anubis, his mind set on freeing Rain.
"No, Ryo, wait! Your armor is burning like hell! Don't touch her! But kick Anubis in the balls please."
Ryo stopped in his tracks and knew Amariie was right. He couldn't get anywhere near Anubis while Rain was there. Anubis was using her as a damned sheild!
Anubis saw Ryo's distress and frowned. "Why so down, Wildfire? You wish to fight me, but can't get close? Well this may solve it," he said. Rain blinked once and before she knew it, she felt a hard push on her shoulder and noticed the ground was nowhere in sight. Anubis had pushed her over the side and into the volcano.
Amariie's eyes filled with tears as she watched Rain fall to the lava. Without a single thought, Ryo jumped in right after Rain.
He could hear her screams of fear come from her. "I'M SO GONNA KICK YOUR SORRY ASS ANUBIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Ryo dived inot the volcano after Rain. He was just about to grab her when the scene when Amariie burned herself on his armour flashed back in his head.
"Aww no! If I grab Rain now, She'd be toasted! I've gotta get rid of my armour!"
So, he (somehow) got rid of the armour.
"Aww dammit, I'm screwed," Rain thought to herself as the scorching heat grew. Suddenly she opened her eyes to see Ryo grab her and push off towards the side of the volcano. He rebounded offa the crater and soared (noone quite knows how..these boys seem to defy gravity) up out of the volcano. Ryo landed and placed Rain beside Amariie (and if you know teenaged girls when something emotional happens, that is not a smart thing to do).
Amariie's eyes went anime-teary. "RAIN!!!!!! YOU'RE SAFE!!!!!! WHAAAAAA!!!!!" She burst into tears and gave Rain the hugest hug.
Rain was choking "And...I...would...like...to...stay...that...way...*cough choke*"
Ryo looked up and smiled with pride. "There. You're ok for--"
Before he could get 5 words out of his mouth, the foresaken sound of slicing air rang through the air. Ryo knew what it was and simply said, "shit." then Anubis' chain wrapped around him and slung him across the volcano. Amariie and Rain reached for him, but their attempts were futile.
"NO!" cried Rain.
"Well this keeps getting better and better," said Amariie smugly.
Ryo was slammed up against Anubis and then again thrown into the air like a yo-yo. Poor Ryo crashed against several rather large boulders, the polished chain wrapped around his torso. Amariie and Rain sprinted along the edge of the volcano, trying desperately to reach their friend.
"You'd think he'd get a concussion or something after that..." Amariie said to Rain, noting that Ryo kinda lacked an important device called a helmet. As they came close to Anubis, the warlord sensed they were coming too close. He whipped around and held Ryo in front of him-his scythe cupped around Ryo's chin. Ryo's eyes were squeezed shut and he clenched his teeth in pain.
Anubis narrowed his eyes, yet they flashed with clear amusement. "Come any close girls and your little friend will die."
Rain and Amariie stood their ground as Anubis held his prize. Rain stared at Ryo as Amariie shot Anubis her best bitch look.
Something's about to happen...' Rain thought, her head began to feel funny. Similar to the time when she first saw this volcano in her dream.
Ryo then did something no one wouldn't thought. He slowly opened one eye and looked at Rain. He cracked a smile. Rain widened her eyes as Ryo's compsure went back to the helpless hurt kid routine.
Anubis gripped his scythe and was about to slice Ryo's throat. Just before the blade touched the tender flesh of Ryo's neck, Ryo shattered the chains in an instant and before Anubis could say "what the hell," Ryo turned around in a blur and quickly brought up his armored knee to a...delicate part of the warlord's anatomy. Even though he was protected by his armor, he felt the intense pain. Anubis doubled over in pure agony.
Amariie burst out laughing, remembering before that she told Ryo to kick him in the balls. "Good job, Ryo! You actually took my advice!"
Rain chuckled a bit and walked casually over to the pain-filled warlord. She knelt down beside him. Anubis was still in shock from Ryo's attack that all he could do was look at her and into her silver jade eyes.
"Hi Nubie-chan. How ya feelin'? Good I hope. Now I'm not the kind of person to hold grudges against others, but I happen to remember a certain incident involving....oh lava and you," she said pushing her finger on his chest. "Hope you like summer, cause it's about to get rather....hot." Then with a slight movement, she pushed Anubis into the volcano.
Unfortunately, Ryo was still in Anubis' reach when he started to fall.
"I'll bring you to the abyss with me, Wildfire!", the warlord cackled as the two fell into the crater.
"Not on my watch!" Ryo suddenly pushed off of the warlord and landed on a ledge inside the cliff. "Armour of Wildfire, Tao Jin!"
Anubis used (what was left of) his grappling hook and took a chunk out of the wall, creating a platform for himself. Ryo, now fully "digi-volved" (as our dear Amariie would say), landed in front of Anubis. Typical men, they started fighting.
Meanwhile, on the lip of the volcano, Rain watched intently at the battle as Amariie headed towards the car.
"Ariie! What are you doing!" Rain shouted.
"Meh, this is boring. I'm gonna go re-do my nails," Amariie sighed.
Just then, a huge explosion came out of the volcano. First came Anubis, scorched and screaming, then came Ryo, gracefully landing in between Amariie and Rain. There was a ball of light and Anubis disappeared.
"I toasted Anubis!" Ryo shouted in victory.
Rain smirked, "I'd say more like deep-fried!"
So Amariie, Rain, White Blaze, and Ryo treked back to the car, which was still stationed in a small clearing at the bottom of the mountain. Amariie happily plopped herself onto the leather seat and began to redo her nails. Before Ryo got into the car, he looked in the direction of the volcano, which was presently giving off large sparks from the top, giving a warm beautiful glow that hung in the now evening air. He sighed and thought about his other friends. Were they even still alive? Or killed by Talpa? He hung his head and stared at the ground, kicking a few stray stones with his subarmor; he click of stone against metal echoed through the air. He felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned and saw Rain smiling at him and White Blaze at her side.
"Nice strategy back there," she noted.
Ryo smiled sadly and went back to looking at the ground.
"Are you thinking about the others?" she asked curiously.
Ryo simply nodded.
"Don't get down on my now. I promise you, we'll find them and kick Talpa's crippled ass."
Ryo looked up at her, his eyes began to gleam with hope. "Yeah?"
Rain's smiled broadened. "Trust me. I have a feeling it'll all be alright."
White Blaze rubbed up against Ryo's leg to comfort his saddened friend.
The two turned their heads and watched the sun glistening behind the volcano as it was setting.
They were interrupted by Amariie. "Come on already!! I still have my toes to paint and hair to fix and I so-o do not wanna do it by light of the moon."
Ryo and Rain rolled their eyes and climbed into the car and drove off with White Blaze following.
