Chapter Eleven: Between a Rock and a Hot Place

   Ryo and Lita had left a little past dawn, without waking the others. They had a long walk until they'd reached the volcano. Ryo and the guys thought that Lita's orb with the Volcano Armor was in the same volcano that Ryo was revived in. She looked at Ryo out of the corner of one eye. He kept looking ahead, but had a glazed look to his blue eyes.

  "What are you thinking about?" Lita asked, trying to break the silence.

  "Huh? What? Oh, just thinking about how we're going to destroy Talpa once all of your guys, uh girls, armors are revived," he said. Lita sighed and sat down on a rock. Ryo stopped and said,

   "Why are you resting? We're almost there." Lita unbuckled her snow boots and slid out of her ski pants. Underneath, she was wearing cut off jean shorts.

   "Its going to get hot once we get there. I, personally, am going to drop off this dead weight here," she said. She slipped into the snow boots again and began to rip the sleeves off her turtleneck. She threw the ripped cloth to the ground. Ryo just rolled his eyes.

   "You look worse then I did when the orphanage found me," he said. Lita looked at him as he realized he said too much.

   "You're an orphan?" she asked. Ryo started walking on, trying to ignore the question. Lita ran up to him.

   "Hey! Don't take it so personally. I understand what your going through," she said as she matched his stride. Ryo looked at her through the corner of his eye.

   "Really?"

  "Yes, I do. My mom and my dad divorced when I was three. Custody placed me with my dad. He was a heavy drinker and went to parties all the time. He hardly knew I was there. One day, he didn't come back. He had run off with some girl he met at a party. The police found me about three weeks later, when the person my dad payed rent to didn't get a payment. I was skinny, had just been living off of bread and water, and they thought I had no one. So I was sent to the orphanage down the street. My mom saw me on the news and quickly went to the orphanage to get me. It was five months after my dad left that I got to leave that flea ridden place. My mom takes good care of me now," finished Lita as she stopped at the base of the volcano. Ryo said,

  "My mom died when she was having my sister. I think the baby died too, but I was only two. My dad died when I was six, in Africa. After that, I went to the orphanage, where I met White Blaze. Speaking of White Blaze, there he is!" said Ryo happily as White Blaze jumped on him, knocking him to the ground. Ryo laughed and smiled. Lita smiled at him, but quickly stopped. She looked around, having an uneasy feeling go over her. She turned around and looked up the volcano.

   "Hey Ryo, time to melt some metal!"

  "Huh? Dynasty soldiers!" Ryo said. He looked at Lita.

   "Run behind us. We'll clear the way. Wait for a break, then run up the volcano and find your armor." Lita nodded as she trudged along behind Ryo and White Blaze as they ran into the mob of soldiers. Lita went behind a rock and watched Ryo fight.

  Ryo ducked under a soldier's spear as he tried to impale him. Ryo reached up and punched him in the chin. Squatting, Ryo tripped a soldier and the soldier crashed into three others. All three went down in a cloud of green-black smoke.

  "Lita, now!" Ryo yelled. Lita raced up the volcano's steep slope, not looking back. It tired her, running in ski boots. She panted as she stopped at the top of the volcano's crater. She slowly looked in. She felt the heat traveling up from lava. She squinted at a red glow. Her eyes widen as she saw her Kanji ball floating in the middle of the Volcano. She was so excited, that she jumped at the sound of a twig snapping.

  "Ryo, I see it. But I can't get it," said Lita as she slowly turned around. Sun Devil stood in front of her.

  "No such luck," he said. She stood slowly. His glowing eyes were more then two feet above her head and his long braids of black hair moved around from the wind.

  "Not to be rude, but braids on a guy is not my idea of a perfect date," said Lita in a cocky tone.

   "Oh, be sarcastic now, but you won't be so happy when your inside the volcano, without your armor," said Sun Devil, taking out his whip. He snapped it out at Lita. It divided into several strands and wrapped around Lita. Bolts of black electricity raced down the whip. Lita closed her eyes as she expected pain. Instead she heard the sound of armor against armor and a gust of wind. Lita opened her eyes to see that the whip was cut into two halves and Ryo was standing in front of her, fully armored.

  "You guys surely know how to make an entrance. Hey Sun Devil, get ready to get your butt cooked. Ryo, I like my villains medium rare," said Lita smiling.

  "Really, I prefer them well done," said Ryo as he blocked Sun Devil's sword with his own. Lita took a step back as Ryo backed up. Sun Devil cracked his whip and it went sailing over Ryo's head. He saw it twist around Lita's right wrist. Sun Devil pulled his whip back and Ryo cut through air. Sun Devil put his sword up to Lita's throat.

  "Power down or she won't have a head to see the sunset with," said Sun Devil evilly.

  "Don't listen to him, Ryo. Just get him to freeze over the," started Lita but Sun Devil's sword pressing harder against her neck caused her to stop talking.

   "This is lower then low," said Ryo through gritted teeth. He started powering down, when Lita stomped her foot down on Sun Devil's. Sun Devil yelled,

   "You little pest. Time for you to die!" He threw Lita over the edge of the volcano.

   "Lita!" yelled Ryo. Ryo looked at Sun Devil, anger burning in his eyes. White Blaze took this opportunity to tackle Sun Devil. Sun Devil threw him off, and looked for Ryo.

   "Hey bug eyes! Your mother wears army boots!" he yelled at him from the other side of the volcano. Sun Devil, in his rage, said,

  "We'll see if you can insult me from inside ice. Tomb of Black Ice!" Ryo smiled as he jumped out of the way. Slowly the volcano began to freeze over.

   "Gotcha," said Ryo.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  "Kayura, can you please tell this pig to leave me alone," I asked. Kayura looked at her and said to Sage,

   "What did you do this time?"

  "Me? I did nothing but ask her why she hates me when she doesn't even know me!" said Sage, agitated. I stopped walking and looked at Sage.

  "You want to know why I hate your guts? Look into my eyes. What do you see?" I asked.

  "Nothing. No emotion," said Sage, a little confused.

   "Exactly. I can't show my emotions any more because of people like you," I said. Kayura sat down away from us to meditate, or to just get rid of a headache we were causing her.

   "Aren't we being stereotypical?"

   "I've seen enough to be right about people like you. I've never been noticed. I'm not important. It makes somebody's day to see me get hurt. I've been tortured for being different since as long as I can remember. I had no friends. Nobody wanted to be friends with me. Then, one day, I was walking into the lunch room. As usual, nobody wanted to sit with me. So I sat alone, til the new kid walked over. Her name was Amy. She knew no one, because she was new. I yelled at her and told her not to be sorry for me. She started to cry. I realized that I was being just as mean as the people I hated. So I apologized and told her she could sit with me. We became good friends. We stood up for each other, and soon, we met Lita, Rose, and Selene, though not in that order. They are the only friends I have. I don't need anymore. I don't need your help. You know why? Because you can't do a thing. If I went to your school, you wouldn't have ever talked to me. I'm not the kind of girl that runs and swoons over your looks. I'm lower then you are, so therefore conversation would be unlikely, unless you had just fallen from popularity. So, just stay out of my way. I don't like you and I don't want to try!" I yelled, my face still blank from emotion. Only my eyes gave way slightly to the penned up emotion inside me. I blinked and walked ahead. Sage just looked dumb founded. Kayura walked over to him.

   "She's a walking time bomb. When she explodes, will she be able to control her emotions?" asked Kayura.

  "No, I don't think so. She's a lot like Ryo though. She doesn't like opening up to people and she hides her emotions," said Sage as he and Kayura walked after me, following my trail of anger.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Lita looked where she was going. A second ago, she felt like she was boiling over, but now she felt cooler. She opened her eyes. The entire volcano was frozen over. Lita put pressure on her hands as she tried to get to her knees. She hadn't fallen far, just about a fourth of the way, where she landed on a ledge. She was bruised all over, but nothing was broken. She looked up. She saw Ryo fighting Sun Devil, and apparently losing.

  "Ryo!" She yelled, but her voice was not heard.

  "I'd just get in the way. But maybe if I get my armor first, I can help him," said Lita as she slowly slid over the ledge. The sides were slanted like a slide and the ice made it slippery. So Lita slid down on her butt. As she neared the ground, she noticed that the pressure under the ice sheet was building. Lita walked carefully over to her kanji ball, which floated above the ice. As she grabbed it, she felt her kanji sign glowing on her forehead.

   "Harmony," she said, closing her fist around the ball. In an instant, sub armor formed around her.

  "Huh?" she asked. It was white and red, like Ryo's, but it wasn't her outfit. It was sub armor.

   "This is much better then that dumb dress any way," said Lita. The ice around her began to crack. She realized that the armor would protect her. She said,

   "Armor of the Volcano, Tao Chi!" Molten lava jumped up from the volcano and covered her. When it left her body, she was dressed in red armor. It looked just like Ryo's, only in girl size. She flipped on her visor, metal that went over her face, leaving only the eyes showing. The volcano erupted.

   Ryo blocked another of Sun Devil's attacks when he heard the volcano erupting. Taking his eye's off of Sun Devil, he looked into the volcano for Lita. Sun Devil quickly slashed at Ryo with his sword. Ryo wasn't prepared and got knocked back into boulders.

  "Tomb of Black Ice!" said Sun Devil. Ryo's body became enclosed in black ice.

   "Time for me to finish the job," said Sun Devil. He began to push Ryo down the cliff side of the volcano.

   "Hey!" Lita yelled. Sun Devil turned around and gasped. Lita stood, fully armored.

  "You can't be alive!" said Sun Devil.

  "You bet. Why don't you warm up to the idea that your going to lose?" said Lita, as she pulled out her staff. Sun Devil stepped away from Ryo and drew out his sword. Lita was blinded by the reflections coming off the sword from the light of the volcano. Sun Devil struck, and Lita was forced back into the ground, leaving a skid mark about five feet long. Sun Devil put away his sword and began to push Ryo toward the cliff again.

  "Don't take the heat unless you can dish it out again," said Lita, her staff glowed with red energy.

  "Volcano Eruption!" said Lita, slamming her staff into the ground. Lava spouted out of the ground, collapsing on Sun Devil and Ryo. As the lava flowed down the volcano, Lita watched Ryo stand up and walk over.

  "Thanks. He was a little too cold for me," said Ryo.

   "All I did was turn up the heat," said Lita, laughing. Her laugh was cut short as the wind was knocked out of her. She fell to the ground and skidded to a stop. Her head was over the edge of the creator. She flipped over to see Sun Devil hurling a boulder at Ryo. He was hit and sent flying into a pile of rocks. Sun Devil lifted a large rock and tossed it at Lita. It landed on top of her. She was forced off and in desperation grabbed the edge of the creator.

   "Talk about being between a rock and a hot place," she said to herself. Lita looked up to see Sun Devil grinning evilly at her. He raised his foot and slammed it down on her hand. She cringed in pain. Sun Devil kept applying pressure with his heel. The more pressure he had, the more Lita felt her fingers slipping. Lita closed her eyes as Sun Devil prepared to stomp on her hand again. She opened her eyes a crack at the sound of screaming. Sun Devil went over her head into the volcano. Lita sighed, but at that moment her hand lost its grip on the ledge. She began to fall, but was jerked to a stop. Lita looked up to see a red armored hand pulling her up. She helped Ryo by using her feet to climb up. Once she was safely on the crater edge she said,

   "I hope he'll cool off now."

  "I bet he's steamed," said Ryo in a joking manner. Lita looked into the volcano. She jumped up as black ice crested the crater edge. Sun Devil was soon seen jumping up the sides of the volcano.

   "Is he insane?" asked Ryo.

  "I bet," said Lita. Ryo jumped back and drew his katanas as Sun Devil appeared from inside the crater.

  "That wasn't nice," he said. He cracked his whip and it circled around Ryo's feet. Pulling back on the whip, he sent Ryo slamming into the ground. Sun Devil lifted him into the air again and slammed him into the ground on the other side. Lita stood back, her anger growing. Her armor glowed red. Each time Ryo was slammed into the ground, her anger rose. Each time her anger rose, the glow grew brighter.

  "Hey Bam-bam. Time for a time out!" yelled Lita. She raised her staff above her head and began to twirl it.

   "Reign of the Firebird!" she yelled. Lava began to spurt up from the end of her staff. She stopped twirling her staff and struck it out at Sun Devil. Lava sped out of the end and formed a massive firebird. It struck Sun Devil and pushed him back into the volcano. A bright red light emanated from the volcano, followed by an eruption. Lita flipped on her visor as molten rock flowed around her. She saw Ryo and gave him a thumbs up.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

   "He's gone," said Ryo, jumping out of the crater one last time. He and Lita powered down. Lita sat down on the cool lava and said,

  "Sub armor is cool. It doesn't look as comfortable as it feels and it's better to fight in." Ryo laughed and started walking down the volcano with Lita.