"Are we there yet?" Amariie yawned, as she sat up from her sprawled sleeping position across the back seat. Sage just shook his head. This was the 157 (or was it 158?) time she has said that and it was beginning to piss him off. They both knew the only way to shut her up was to let her drive.....but he would allow that when hell froze over. Bored as hell, she smushed her face against the window and peered out into the gloomy mountainous landscape. Suddenly a shadowy thing raced by. Then another. Then another. "Uhh Sage...." she began.
"NO WE ARE NOT THERE YET!" He said in a very loud voice (because you scream when you loose your cool, and as you know, Sagey NEVER looses his cool ;D ).
"Whatever jerk," she mumbled and swished around in her purse looking for her discman, "that whoreface! She took my discman! GRRR!"
"Ahhhhhhhhrrrrrrrrrrrrooooooooowwwwwwwwwwww"
"Shut up Sage"
"Huh? I didn't say anything"
"Ahhhhhhhrrrrrrrrrroooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwww"
"What the....oh shit!" Amariie shrieked, turning to see that the car was surrounded by wolves. A huge pack had slowly been enclosing around the moving car, and now a huge mess of them had blocked the road. Sage swerved the car and it flew right into a ditch. A few minutes later Sage opened his eyes. Well he didn't really want to but was forced to by the odd shaking of the car. At first he thought it was his imagination but when he felt another slam and heard the unmistakable sound of crunching metal, he snapped his eyes open. He noticed he was on his side yet still sitting in the seat upright. Then he realized the car was on its side. Suddenly becoming all warrior-like, he yelled at Amariie.
"Amariie?! Are you ok?" Sage tried to twist in his seat but the annoying seat belt locked him in place. After a few tugs he got flat out pissed. "FUCKING SAFETY DEVICE! THEY CAN ALL GO TO HEL--HECK!"
Amariie slowly opened her eyes to find herself crunched low in the back seat. "What the fucking hell did you do this time, Sagey? I told you, you should let me drive but noooooooooooooo "Mr. I'm A Better Driver" said no. I think this is evidence that I was right."
"Amariie?" Sage said lowly.
"Yup."
"Shut up."
"Screw you."
Sage suddenly remembered 'Hey! There are probably some evil dudes I have to fight now!' So he used his super duper strength and prompt hauled himself out. He turned to get Amariie, who was leaning over, trying to get herself out while still desperately clenching her purse. "Saaaaaage! Get me outta heeeeeeeere!" she whined. Sage took a quick look around to find no wolves anywhere. Thinking they were safe for now, he rolled his eyes and walked over to the hunk of metal formerly know as a car and grabbed Amariie's outstretched hand. With a grunt, he yanked Amariie out of the car and both fell ungracefully ontop of one another.
Amariie scrunched her eyebrows as she opened her eyes to find a much too happy Sage on top of her. She raised an eyebrow slowly as Sage's grin grew wider. She finally got the courage to speak. "Uhh...Sage?"
"Mmmmyes?" he replied smoothly.
"Get off."
"Mmmmno."
"Mmmmyes you ass, get off."
"I'm quite happy where I am now."
"I. Do. Not. Care. Get. Off. Now. Or. My. Purse. Will. Find. Its. Place. Up. Your. Unfortunate. Assholio." Sage just merely grinned lecherously at her. After a few seconds, Amariie's face turned to question. "How did you end up falling on me?"
He chuckled a bit. "Not the first time I've done it, you know."
"You pervert. Get off, I think I'm laying on a stick."
He winked at her and nonchalantly replied, "That's not a stick, darling."
Amariie then promptly freaked out. "GET OFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF YOU PEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRVERRRRRRRRT!"
::SMACK::
A few minutes later when the beatings ((oh VERY bad pun!!)) stopped and Amariie managed to wriggle free, she gave him a final swift kick to the ribs. Sage groaned in pain. He wasn't used to this kinda treatment.
"Oh get up," She huffed, quite exasperated at his intense display of chavinism, "don't we have go find Blimpo?"
"Kento?"
"Whatever"
A small walk from the wreck they found a beaten hiking trail. Amariie despaired once more. "I don't believe this! I, am actually going to have to get some EXERCISE?!"
Sage grinned, "I can carry you if you want."
"...walking doesn't seem so bad after all," she murmered quickly, starting to do something that could resemble jogging ( do remember she is still wearing heels). Sage followed and they continued up for about a half hour, until the ground started to get really stoney and the trees wore down to scraggly bushes. It also started to get chilly. Really really chilly. They came back to the road near the summit and observed the strange giant rock. It had what looked like to Amariie as banners and little tassels draped around it. Sage scratched his head. "Well, Ronin Warrior guy, now what?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.
"We free Kento obviously," he replied, just as cocky.
"How?"
"Uhh split the rock open?"
"..won't you kill Esso if you do that?"
"..you mean Kento?"
"Whatever!"
At a loss for words, Sage shrugged and did his lil transformation thingy into his green armour. Poising his no-datchi in front of him, he shouted, "Thunder Bolt Cut!" and a light blue ball of energy blasted the rock. There wasn't even a dent to show for it.
As if on cue, the howling started up again, but this time accompanied by a rather high pitched girly laughter. "Uh oh..." Sage groaned, eyes widely flitting around, searching for the voice. But all he could see was a newly formed snowstorm. White flakes drifted around rapidly, shielding his view. He took a quick look at Amariie to be sure she was still beside him..but she wasn't. His eyes widended as he spun his vision all around him, trying to see through the blizzard. In fact, he couldn't even see the stone anymore. All he could hear was a cackling laughter filling his ears.
"LET ME GO YOU JACKASS!" screamed the blonde female. Just before the sudden snow hit, a large arm snatched her up like a baby and she was hauled onto the man's shoulder. Struggling was usless for Amariie. Everytime she'd fight, she'd hear a deep chuckle.
"My my, aren't you the fiesty one," said the strained voice as they ascended to a high cliff. Amariie tried to yell for Sage but she couldn't see his bright green armor through the snow. Sage wandered aimlessly, angered to an extreme level. No make that pissed off. The voice and Amariie had disappeared and now even though the snow had died down, his comrade was no where in sight.

"DAMMIT YOU :BEEP: ING WHOOOOORE! WHERE THE ::BEEEEEEEEEEP: DID YOU :BEEEEEEEP: ING RUN OFF TO??" Sage couldn't find the stone Kento was in. Hell, he didn't even know which way they came from, much less where he was. Stumbling, he found some shelter in a low cavern nearby. Feeling strangely calm, he sat down and closed his eyes.
"Halo.." a soothing voice rang in his head. "To help your friends, find your inner strength, unite your mind, body and soul"
"How can I do that? Please tell me" Sage begged, but there was no answer. Wisdom... He felt a pattern etched on his forehead. Opening his eyes he could detect a faint green gleam coming from it. The light bathed the walls of the cavern. He looked around and saw it was a small shallow cave, and that opposite the side he entered there was another opening. It overlooked a noisy waterfall, running down a cleft cut in the side of the mountain.
"AAAIIIIIEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!"
A shrill scream bolted him back in reality. "Come out, come out where ever you are, Sage of the Halo," a voice taunted. It wasn't the globby voice of Sehkmet, the strange purr of Dais, or the crazed tone of Anubis, so it had to be...
Purely from process of elimination, Sage cried "Cale, Warlord of Corruption!" and hopped to his feet. He jogged over to the waterfall side, pressed against the side of the cave, staying out of sight from unfriendly eyes. A flash of pink caught his attention. He saw Amariie, securely bound by a chain, which was firmly fastened to a rock outcrop. She was being held in the air infront of Cale
The Warlord burst into wicked laughter. "If you don't bring your skulking self out of your hiding place Halo, your precious little friend will die!"
"Don't worry about me, Sa.." Amariie's pleas were cut short as Cale pushed her off the rock face. She hung in the middle of the waterfall, managing once in a while to kick off the back of the mountain wall so she could gasp for a breath of air. "Save Kento! You mus.."
Cale was laughed. "Fine then! Freeze with her in a frozen hell!"
Summoning his dark powers, the air became painfully cold and the landscape was covered with ice. The wildlife froze solid and the trees crystalized. Finally, the icy death passed up the water and it turned as to solid glass. Before she could get one last breath, she was caught in the process and remained staring wide-eyed outwards, an expression of fear on her lips. Sage was not spared. He had remained shocked from seeing his female companion turn into a popsicle when he felt the cold tingling climb up his legs. He clenched his eyes shut. "No! Amariie, Kento... I won't let this happen.... grrr Cale!" he growled, anger boiling inside of him. At the last second, a desperate rush of power flowed visible green through his subarmour. "Armour of Halo, DAO CHI!"
With a newly discovered strength, he leapt out of the cave and climbed harshly up towards the cliff. He found Cale standing casually, the rusted chain holding Amariie tied around a small boulder. Sage unsheathed his nodachi in an instant and was ready to attack. Cale slowly raised his sword until it was eye-level to Sage. The green warrior narrowed his eyes angrily and with a loud growl, he slashed his long sword at Cale. He was sure that the steel had pierced his enemy, but it had only dug itself in snow. With no warning or sound, Cale smashed his fist against Sage's backside, how the warrior of darkness managed to appear behind him, Sage didn't know. "Come, come, Sage. Where is this powerful soldier I heard of? All I see is a small boy," Cale whispered tauntingly.
Sage tried to ignore him, but it wasn't working well. A cold whip of wind made him turn his head towards the edge of a wide river that he never noticed they were by. Amariie. She was still entrapped in that waterfall of ice. She could be dead by now. She could...
:WHAM:
Sage opened his eyes to see...well white. The cold harshness of the earth bit the dry skin on his face. He would need to get a face mask done when he was back home. He had barely taken a breath of air when he felt his leg being nearly ripped from its socket. Cale had grabbed his ankle and swung him into a rather large, unfriendly boulder. Sage knew he was getting his ass handed to him so he did the only thing Sage could do. He ran.
Cale laughed at this. "So the mighty Warrior of Light runs before me! How delightful!" Putting a cork in his gloating, he remembered his main objective. Kill Hardrock. Poising his sword towards the tassled boulder he hurled it with all his might. The sword jabbed into the rock like a hot knife through butter, creeping inwards towards the sleeping Ronin. Meanwhile, Sage took the opportunity to be the knight in shining.. erm.. green armour and save the girl. Making his way back to the cave, he concentrated on the warm power flow his armour supplied him with.
Wisdom.
Drinking in his newfound strength he threw himself across the gap over to where Amariie hung like a rag doll. In one quick motion he smashed the ice along with her bonds. Using his power to defrost her ((don't you wish you had that when trying to cook that chicken last night, ne?)) he rebounded back to the safety of the cave.
Placing her gently on the ground, he turned his attention back to more pressing matters. Sage noted his prey and charged, seeing he was unarmed. Cale blocked him with a clawed fist and poised to slash his face, but Sage called his faceplate in the nick of time.
Bringing his sword forcefully down upon the Warlord's head, Sage managed to break away from the duel and leap backwards to higher ground. Before you can say "I love apple pie with triple brownie fudge ice cream, and maybe some caramel sauce on top", Sage raised his weapon and gathered his energy. Cale dashed towards Kento, bending all his own power to speeding up the sword in the stone. He was too late though. "THUNDER BOLT CUT!"
Instead of the lightning ball that his previous attack was, the energy was contained in Sage's sword, and as he flew towards his opponent, his sword unleashed the potent wave of light into the stone. This catalyzed the instant explosion of the boulder, flinging Cale's sword and Kento vertically. Overwhelmed with raw pain the two Warriors seemed to emit from their mere presence, Cale shrieked before disappearing in the mixed green and orange lights.
Kento landed on the shattered remains of his resting place and stretched his burly arms outwards, recalling his faceplate and sending Sage a grin. "Man, why'd ya wake me? I was having the nicest dream.." he mused, silly grin spreading.
Sage leaned nonchalantly back on a pole and smirked. "Ha. You sleep too much."
With that Kento walked over and gave Sage a hard whack on the back, then started down the path.
"Kento hang on," Sage called, suddenly remembering something.
Kento stopped and turned his head, "Wut?"
"I left Amariie back at the cave..."
Kento raised both eyebrows. "So?"
Sage sighed, "Hang on while I go back and get her."
The orange man slumped his shoulders in pre-emptive defeat, "Do you have to?"
"Are you kidding me? Rain would pan fry me if I left her here," Sage muttered, almost at the cave entrance.
"..good point."

With luck, the tourist station equipped with a car rental was not far off, and furthermore, Amariie brought her wallet. "I'll drive!" Amariie happily called out, skipping towards the purple minivan. She didn't want it, of course, but Sage insisted on it because of the large seating capacity.
"I think not," Sage countered, slipping in the drivers seat before her.
"Jerk"
The car started up and they were off.
Kento smirked and sipped at his hot chocolate. "That Warlord couldn't have beaten me. They don't call me Esso for nothing!"
"Umm... don't you mean Kento?" Sage asked, eyebrow raised.
"Oh yeah... meh, close enough. They both got the e and o in them," Kento trailed off sheepishly, passing the mug of hot chocolate up to Amariie, only to have it slip from her hands and scald Kento's foot. So after another ten minutes of cleaning up, the trio were off to meet up with Ryo, Rain and Cye.