The Legend of Chaos by Korogi CHAPTER TWO (Standard disclaimers apply) "I will drain him dry as hay; Sleep shall neither night nor day Hang upon his penthouse lid; He shall live a man forbid. Weary se'nights, nine times nine Shall he dwindle peak and pine; Through his bark can not be lost, Yet he shall be tempest tost." -1st witch in Shakesphere's Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 3, lines 18-25 A fire was well and burning when Kento brought Ryo into the house and set him down in the living room, gently laying his head back on the soft carpet. Ryo lay still, breathing heavily, tiny little crimsons streams of blood arching around his forehead and cheeks. Kento wiped his brow and quickly retreated from the hot fire, banishing both Hardrock and his sub-Armor. Mia, toting her much- used first aid kit, plunged down next to Ryo, breaking out the iodine. "Just what in the hell was that all about!!" Rowen yelled, banishing his armor and wrapping a blanket around White Blaze. The tiger gave a sickly growl and laid down beside Ryo, curling beside his master. "I don't know," Cye answered, "But who ever ... or WHAT ever she was, she froze the entire lake and shattered Ryo's armor into pixy dust!" "You've got to be joking!" Sage said, removing the Halo helmet, his impossible violet eyes dancing in the light of the fire. "Nothing can shatter our armor! ... Right?" Kento floundered for words and looked down to Ryo and Mia. "Your armor is said to be invincible," Kayura said, a tight grasp still on the magic staff. "Talpa made sure of that when he created the Armor of Gin." "Yeah, but Talpa's dead," Kento said, all to obviously. Everyone looked to Kento, then back to Kayura falling silent, all thinking along the same lines ... could Talpa somehow have made it back to Earth from the Abyss? "No way ," Rowen whispered. "You thinking what I'm thinking?" Sage shook a worried head. "If it WAS Talpa's power that created the Armors ... then his death could mean that the Armors lost their invincibility." "No, Halo," Kayura said. "It was the Ancient One that split up Talpa's evil armor into nine separate pieces. As long as the Ancient's legacy lives on, your armors will too. Nothing can destroy them." "But Ryo's armor wasn't destroyed," Kento pointed out. "It was turned to razor snow, and then reformed." A groan came from Ryo and they all leaned in. His forehead had numerous tiny, bleeding cuts, streaking his face in deep red stripes. The shoulders of his shirt fabric were shredded in long strips, in places shredding the skin beneath it, leaving streaked, crimson. He slowly opened cut eyelids, blinking the blurry aura's from his vision and looked up, the fire ever so slowly closing a few of the open wounds on his body. His eyes went from concerned face to concerned face, and he sat up suddenly. "White Blaze!!" His response was a rough tongue grating across his sliced face like wet sand paper. Ryo bit back a painful cry as his cheek began to bleed more profusely. Ryo let his face fall into the cool, soft fur, burying his head into White Blazes's shimmering, white coat. "What happened?" he asked, muffled in the fur. He felt Mia gently lift the shredded remanent of his red sweater, trying to clean his wounds. "That was something we were hoping you could answer, buddy," Rowen said, leaning over Kayura's shoulder. Ryo sat back out of White Blaze's fur and met with a cotton ball full of iodine. Mia smeared the orange cotton ball all over his forehead, leaving sickly orange-yellow streaks. He forced his fists together and a dull moan escaped through clenched teeth as the iodine bit into him. Kayura stepped forward, Rowen almost toppling at the loss of his support. "I think I know ... or rather, I can GUESS at who that was." All eyes turned to her, the entire room leaning in as a giant collective. She gripped the staff tightly and chimed it once against the floor, ringing a brilliant chime throughout. "Talpa had been forging a new suit of armor after the loss of his armor of Gin back when the Ancient split it. He kept referring to this new armor as the Armor of Chaos ... an armor possessing the powers of nature and weather : Frost, Scorch, Wind, Storm and Earthquake ; drawing power from the evil sides of the human soul. As far as I knew, Talpa had never completed the Armor of Chaos. Instead, he ran across Anubis, then a young man, eager for power. Anubis had found the Armor of Cruelty, and Talpa quickly recruited him and the other three Warlords, leaving the Armor of Chaos in a back room, thinking it was a waste of time, and pursued to find the other pieces of his old armor. "And now, it looks like Talpa HAD recruited warriors to fill the unfinished Armors of Chaos. What we saw tonight was a piece of that Armor, the Armor of Kryos, holding the ability to freeze anything and everything ... or cause freak snow blizzards." "Are you trying to tell us that Talpa's back?" Sage asked, worried, his voice remaining as calm and cool as it ever was. "No, I don't think Talpa can ever come back.... Unless ..." "I knew there was a catch!" Kento moaned, tossing his arms behind his neck and leaning back. "Unless it's true that the immortal soul of Talpa can never truly be destroyed." The room let out a collective moan and Kento fell back onto the couch. "Oh man, not again!! This is getting old!" "You're telling me," Ryo said smugly as Mia was plastering his face and body with bandaids. "I think that for now," Mia started, struggling with Ryo to place a bandaid on his nose, "...we should all try to get some rest and deal with this tomorrow." "Alright! No school!!" Kento cheered. "After school," everyone rang. Kento groaned. Kento woke first ... at least he thought he did, for Cye was not in the other bed across the room from him. Instead, the smell of Cye's famous gourmet waffles wafted up to his nose. Like a giant stimulus, Kento shot straight out of bed, tossing the sheets and blankets around like so many loose sheets of paper and was out of bed and down the stairs before you could blink. Navigating the stairs in great leaps, he hit the landing and slid into the kitchen, stomach first, foaming at the mouth. "Alright!! Waffles!!" he cheered. Cye startled slightly, groaning to himself as he took up the rich batter and poured it into the waffle iron. Kento preceded to hover over Cye's shoulder as he poured batter in to the waffle iron. "Make sure you make plenty for me, man!" he said. Cye elbowed him in the ribs roughly, causing Kento to shuffle back. "Get back, heathen! Don't crowd, or your nose will be the next thing in the waffle iron. Got it!!" Kento pouted, a small 'ok' peeping out as he turned, slumped and slid into a chair at the table. Cye brought over a stack of his waffles, almost a foot high and set them down. "You eat what you will so I know how many I'll have to make to feed the others." "No problems here!!" A perfectly kept head of blonde hair poked around the corner, violet eyes darting around the kitchen as he entered. " I though I smelled waffles," Sage said, sliding in beside Kento. The two promptly began wrestling for control of the butter knife when everyone else started showing up. Mia and Kayura were more worried about morning coffee than waffles, which barely left enough room for Rowen, Cye and ... "Hey, where's Ryo?" Sage said, looking around the kitchen, flicking a disobedient strand of his golden hair from his face. A groan answered him from the living room by the fireplace where Ryo came stumbling from. Kento, Cye, Sage and Rowen took one look at Ryo and about passed out on the table as they began to laugh hysterically. Ryo was wrapped in a dark blue blanket littered with white cat hairs (White Blaze had obviously slept with him) and his hair stood straight up in huge cow-licks, also from White Blaze's doing. His face sat plastered with odd assortments of bandaids, streaked orange with iodine Ryo ran a hand through the strange hair-do he now possessed "Shut up," he growled, rubbing his eyes. Mia rose easily and met him at the kitchen table, beginning to peel bandaids from his newly heeled skin. Ryo tried to fight her off, digging her hands and swatting thin fingers to no avail. A few cuts remained still visible, making Ryo look like he had tried to fight a briar patch last night. "Didn't get much sleep last night, huh?" Mia asked, removing the last bandaids and tossing it into the trash on top of piles of mud and sea weed, also from one of last night's fiasco's. Ryo just nodded slightly. At the local high school, the five guys all had one class together, and that was Chemistry. They were there discussing events secretly when the bell rang and a new student walked in with the teacher. "Alright class, to your seats. Now, I want to introduce a new student to you." She gestured to the girl with an easy flick of her wrist. The new girl stood straight, staring down at the floor in her school sailor uniform, quietly. White hair flowed down over pale skin to her shoulders. Yoraguchi-sensei reached over and tapped the new girl's arm and she looked up a bit. Green eyes shot out from her pale skin and hair, driving into everyone in the class room like a burst of bright light in the darkness. The entire room took a collective gasp. Kento blinked his eyes. "Whoa. Hello green eyes," he whispered. Cye leaned forward behind him, tugging on the arm of his orange shirt. "Just need to keep her away from Sage." "I heard that," Sage grumbled beside them, eyes firmly planted on the new girl. "Her name is Sarjenka Sands." Yoraguchi-sensei leaned over her desk. "There's a seat by Sage Datei if you'd like to sit down." Kento and Cye both let out a muffled 'doah!' Sage flashed a smile, pushing his blonde hair out from infront of violet eyes, possibly as stunning as Sarjenka's. She smiled back slightly and moved slowly into the seat beside him. "Now today, we will be study different reactions involving the alkane series of the elements .... " the sensei began. Ryo took a deep breath and rubbed his eyes. He had been trying to sleep in all his other classes, but just couldn't keep his eyes shut ... it was like he was too tired to sleep. His body whined and ached at him with every small movement, sending unwanted ribbons of dull, aching pain running through him. His eyes were glazed, more from lack of sleep than anything else, leaving everyone around him in fuzzy aura's. "Now, get into your groups for the experiment ... "Yoraguchi-sensei clapped her hands calmly, causing a chain reaction of scooting chairs and desks. "Uh, Sarjenka-san? Would you mind joining in Datei-san's group?" she smiled keenly over to Sage's unbelievable head of blonde hair. Kento got to his feet as Sage stood proudly to attention, and smirked. "Casanova," he glared at Sage. "What?" Sage shrugged innocently, tossing him a half smile that showed his rambunctious attitude at the moment. "What'd I do?" Cye, Kento and Rowen headed back to their lab table with a knowing groan as Ryo managed to make it to his feet. He stumbled, circumnavigating his desk, carefully avoiding desks and made it over to Sage. "I need a nap," he groaned, rubbing his eyes. "You look like you need to be put into a coma!" Sage said, laughing. "That bad, huh? White Blaze kept me up all night." "White Blaze?" the new girl asked softly. 'That voice..." he thought. '...so oddly familiar...' Ryo turned and almost panicked inspite of himself to see the huge, green eyes on him as Sarjenka looked him straight in the face. She cocked her head to the side and stared into the depth of his marbled- black ones, blinking light lids waiting patiently for her response. "Uh ... White Blaze is his cat," Sage said, taking her arm and tugging her gently away from Ryo. "Here, I'll show you to the lab table," he flashed a suave smile. Ryo watched the two head back, raising one eyebrow after Sarjenka. His wounds ached again, sparking the slow beginnings of a headache and he shook his head. "Whoa. I need a vacation." "Okay," said Rowen, leaning heavily on the lab table, his genius mind going straight to work. He quickly shot wild blue eyes around the table, looking over the jars. One labeled Na, for sodium, another labeled Rb for rubidium, and the last one Li for lithium. Rowen chuckled to himself... child's play... and took it to himself to arrange the jars in increasing atomic weight. As he did, he pulled out the lab manual and flopped it open before himself. "Ok, we have to put some sodium in a chlorine gas environment to make salt ... " He looked up. Cye was listening intently, leaning up on the table like a curious child, an amused smile playing lightly across his kind face ... chemistry was one of his favorite classes. But Kento beside him had his head jerked around watching Sage flirt with the new girl. Cye glanced over, the cute smile fading instantly. He scowled and planted an elbow in Kento's rib cage. "Pay attention you oaf!" "Hey!" Ryo reached a pair of tongs into the rubidium jar, fishing frantically with the slippery, soft metal. He rather thought of giving up and just dumping the entire bottle on the table, not something he would normally be prone to do. But he had absolutely no patience today. Sage put down a beaker full of water for the second part of the experiment, neatly tucking it in a corner of the lab table, brushing imaginary dust from his hands onto his pants. Now, for those of you who aren't the typical high school Chem buffs, mixing rubidium with water makes a nice, fiery explosion, capable of blowing up glass containers and various other objects. "Looks like we go to the fume hood and mix sodium and chlorine gas," Sage read off, flipping a golden strand back up on his head. "Table salt," Sarjenka said quickly, rocking back and forth on her heels beside him, smiling. She more or less ignored Sage as he turned to smile back, instead, she was staring intently at Ryo. He still sat fiddling in the rubidium jar, tossing his jet-black hair about him as he did. On one particular toss, the hair flipped momentarily reveling a deep gouge across his face, hidden immediately as the disobedient hair tumbled back. "What happened there?" Sarjenka pointed a thin, pale finger at Ryo's face. Ryo faltered, looking up from his battle with the jar. He stared back at her quickly, his mouth flopping open to try to think up a good excuse. "Uh.. got in a fight with my cat!" "That must be some cat," she said simply, raising a thin brow. "Oh, he's pretty big ... uh, for a cat," he lowered his eyes quickly and regained his fight with the rubidium. "I'd say. What did you say your name was again?" "Ryo Senada," he said simply, never looking up from the tongs. They clamored around the jar, finally successfully latching onto a piece. Sarjenka smiled keenly to herself, eyes narrowing in an odd, feline glare, watching Ryo fish the chunk of soft metal from the jar to wield it proudly before himself. Ryo silently congratulated himself, looking the element over approvingly and looked down at the lab manual. It instructed to produce RbOH by placing solid rubidium it in a beaker of NaOH, Sodium hydroxide base. Ryo looked to his left. There he found the beaker Sage just set down filled with a clear liquid. He took it up and sniffed it... no smell, this was probably the base. He set the beaker before him, brought the tongs out.... Sage had a piece of sodium on a watch glass and was busily reading instructions, jabbing at a few of the Japanese characters with the tip of his pencil. He read silently to himself, lips murmuring like he was chanting an odd incantation when Sarjenka began to tug frantically on his arm. "Uh, Datei-san!" "You can call me Sage," he smiled over at her. "Uh Sage ... that was a beaker of distilled water you brought over, ne?" she pointed frantically. Sage looked down her finger in time to see Ryo release the large chunk of rubidium onto the water. "Ryo! NO!!" Sage grabbed Sarjenka and pulled her to the floor as Ryo ducked, realizing his folly. The entire lab turned in time to see the falling chunk of rubidium meet with the water in a firey KER-POP! that shattered the beaker on the table, sending water rolling onto the lab table, cascading off the surface and onto the three partners huddled underneath it. There was a surprised silence hanging about the room for several seconds before anyone moved. Ryo and Sage exchanged a glance under the lab table, Ryo blinking his cloudy vision as he looked shamefully down to the floor. "Uh, sorry Sage," he said. "Don't worry about it." Rowen let his head fall into his hands and groaned. "Idiot. It says right there in part one. Do not mix with water." Kento broke out laughing across from him, tossing around his lab book. "Alright Ryo! Trying to blow up the chem lab, huh?" "Shut up, Kento," came Ryo's voice from under the table. Cye grabbed a hand full of paper towels and headed over, pushing past the hysterical Kento as Sage was helping Sarjenka off the floor. The broken beaker was all over the table and on the floor as Cye was cleaning up. It was something everyone expected Kento to do ... but Ryo? "You sure you're feeling okay, Ryo?" Cye asked, wadding up the paper towels and carefully disposing of them. Ryo sighed from the floor as Sarjenka bent down over him, her hand extended. "Can I help you up?" He hesitated momentarily, looking up at her, trying to avoid the huge, green eyes. He tried to smile but failed miserably, reaching out to accept her hand. He watched her as he grasped the hand... and felt his hand grasp what he thought was an ice cube. The two exchanged a puzzled glance as Sarjenka tugged him to his feet. She smiled vainly. "So you ARE Wildfire." Ryo stopped straight, his eyes became as large as saucers as he looked back at Sarjenka, the once kind and intriguing little girl now cold and calculating. He opened his mouth to say something, but felt his veins freeze over, like a huge cold had just over taken his body. He struggled for a moment to release his grip from Sarjenka.. but she held on tight, the corners of her mouth arching into a complexly evil smile. Ryo's mind clouded over and he shivered violently as his body began to convulse, his body slowly beginning to freeze, watching as her smile kept deepening, the feline eyes thinning to searing green slits in a storm of white. The sickening pressure of his heart begin to slowly stop beating overwhelming his mind ... he felt his lungs refusing to take in air ... his vision blurring ... He tried to call out... tried to scream to his friends just a few feet away busily cleaning up the water and glass. Nothing came from his vocal chords... and he collapsed. "Three CC's of adrenaline , now!!" the doctor said as Ryo was wheeled into the emergency room. IV bags hung at dizzying heights above his head, above his pale face and blue lips his eyes set in a dead stare at the ceiling. "And get some heat packs! This kid's cold as ice!!" The others raced in behind them, Mia having heard the emergency and drove them over, including the new girl Sarjenka, half smiling half shocked as she floated in gently aside from Sage. "Hold on, Ryo. You're gonna make it, pal," Kento was saying, close to tears, patting the top of his buddy's hand as they rolled him through swinging doors marked 'no access'. The gang all stopped, watching forlornly as the doors before them swung open and closed, the cart carrying Ryo disappearing quickly down the hall and around a corner. "Ryo must have gotten hit harder than I though," Rowen said quietly to Cye. Sage and Sarjenka walked up behind them, Sage looking a bit pale. Mia brought up the rear, frantically dialing Kayura on her cell phone, switching her briefcase around frantically before tossing it to the floor. "What happened?" she asked between rings. "Don't know really," Rowen answered in his usual, straight-forward tone. "He caused an explosion in the lab, and when Sarjenka went to help him up, he had a heart attack," Cye explained, panicked, nervously running a hand through his short, red hair. "Kayura!" Mia yelled into her phone suddenly. "Get down to the Metropolitan Hospital right now! Ryo's dying!!" Sarjenka shuttered softly, but just enough so that Sage could feel it, watching the nurses and doctors scurry around her. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and held her, rocking her over to lean on his shoulder. "It's not your fault." She hesitated to answer and slowly looked over. "Can we take a walk? I don't like hospitals." Sage looked to his friends a moment. "Sure, just let me tell Rowen where I'm going." "We got a pulse!!!" the nurse yelled over the mass confusion, rushing around one side of the gurney as a stream of doctors walked briskly in. " 'Bout damn time. How's his breathing?" "Steady, but awfully low. Dr. Kotenuki-san. This boy's body temperature is falling rapidly.. he's already well below safety limits." "Get another I.V in here and some blankets." Dr. Kotenuki ordered quickly, looking down at Ryo. Four thermal blankets were already piled over the boy and the temperature gauge was still falling rapidly. Three IV's already tried to pump fluids into his system, dangling at heart-wrenching heights above him. The dorctor took a flashlight and pried an eyelid open, watching the pupils dilate with the changing light. "Hmm, he's not in shock ... and his brain's still functioning normally. " He looked to the read out. 71 degrees, and normal body temperature was 98.6 degrees. "What in the hell happened to this boy?" he asked himself out loud. A team of doctors poured into the ER, each gasping at the low heart rhythm, almost non-existent breathing rate and low body temperature. "These readings can't be right!" One doctor said. "This boy should be dead by now!" Rowen concentrated his thoughts as he watched Sage lead Sarjenka out of the hospital. : Ryo: he thought, trying to force a mindlink to him. : Ryo, answer me buddy.: All he got was a jumble of emotions, mainly cold and fear, images of the red razor-snow falling around his vision. Rowen scowled deeply, watching the jumbled emotions. "What are you trying to say?" Behind him, Mia was quizzing Cye to the point of insanity, extracting every little bit of information in a gigantic round of 20 Questions. "... and who is this Sarjenka anyway?" she demanded. "A new girl," Kento answered, " with amazing green eyes and white hair ... " "White hair?" Mia asked and gave Kento a look. "Like Daes' hair?" "Whiter. Like ... well, snow." Kayura burst in, her straw hat flailing helplessly behind her as she ran, the golden staff in hand. She sought them out like a magnet, pushing through strings of doctors over to where they all gathered. "Mia! What's going on?" "The guys say Ryo had a heart attack at school ... " Mia began. "Yeah, and he's cold as ice ... " Cye picked up. "And if you can't heal him soon, he's gonna die!" Kento finished. Kayura's head spun as everyone preceded to talk all at once, demanding everything they could from her. She looked at Rowen, then back a Mia, holding up a silencing hand. "Could this have come about due his battle with the Armor of Kryos last night?" "The doctor's say his body temperature keeps dropping," Rowen said. "That's my best guess." Kayura looked around. "Where's Sage?" Mia shrugged slightly. "He's walking outside with Sarjenka." "Sarjenka!!" Kayura yelled. The entire hospital silenced and looked at her for an instant ... then returned to their frantic hustle and bustle, the low roar of hospital traffic striking up again. Kayura's face paled. "Oh God no!!" "What is it, Kayura?" "Sarjenka was the name of one of Talpa's Warlords of Chaos!!" (c) 1995