CHAPTER FIVE

     "Disease is an experience of the so-called mortal mind"
                - Mary Baker Eddy


   "KENTO!!! " Cye yelled in a horrified scream which rang through the prison.  He took one last
breath and sank to his knees.  "no no no no..."
   Rowen felt it too as Kento’s body died suddenly, though not as hard, as he was not directly linked 
into Kento's mind.

   Daes sat straight by in the car parked outside the prison, straight as an arrow and looked back to 
the prison from his position by his car, having felt the blow of Kento's heart stopping.

    Anubis inhaled deeply.  "Not Kento too ... "
    Kayura turned sharply from her position near Sage.  Her link with the Ronin's was not
powerful enough to receive emotions, and she turned a worried face up to Anubis.  "What do you
mean?" she asked quietly.
   Her answer came, but not from Anubis.  A loud, resounding clank-thud, like metal landing
roughly on concrete echoed through the caverns to their ears.  "What was that?" she asked,
rising from the floor and looking off into the darkness.
   "Kento."
   Kayura snapped her head back to Anubis. He looked sternly at the ground, then over at the
shivering Sage.  She took the magic staff from Anubis' hand and ran off into the darkness in
the direction of the sound.
   Anubis removed his cloak and knelt down beside Sage.  His skin was an icy blue and his lips
were as purple as his eyes as they fluttered open occasionally.  Anubis pulled the cloak up to
Sage's neck and laid a hand on his back.  "Hang on, my friend."
   A whimper came from his mouth as his shivering subsided a bit.  Anubis smoothed back the
blonde hair from his eyes ... 
   "NO!!   KENTO!!!" the voice drifted to his ears.
   Sage twitched violently and a single tear fell out of his eye, freezing into position halfway
down his cheek.  Anubis swore at himself for not being able to help the Ronin's ... and he got up
to follow the light of the Ancient's staff.  The caverns writhed around him as he found his way to
where Kayura knelt over Kento, a single tear falling onto the frozen body.
   Together, they managed to carry Kento's massive body over to where Sage lay, and placed
them side by side.  Their kanji's flared brightly on their foreheads as Anubis' was ... but nothing
more happened.
   Anubis turned to Kayura.  "Give me the Ancient One's staff."  His tone was more demanding
than asking.   She handed the glowing, golden staff over, and it chimed happily.  "You must
gather the Warlords and protect Ryo, Cye and Rowen until I can figure out how to revive Halo
and Hardrock from this cold sleep."
   "I understand," she said.

   Kayura snapped out of her trance quickly, stumbling forward as the magic staff was gone.  She
recovered quickly and touched a hand lightly to Sage's forehead, feeling the numbing cold that
still encased him.  She looked down and realized she was in her old armor, the Armor of
Cosmos, her twin jitte-sai's sprouting from their scabbards on her back.
  ...   And a gunshot rang through the hall ... 
   Kayura turned sharply and bashed open the door, surprised to find that all the guards were now
piling into Ryo's room.  She unsheathed a sai and ran down the hall, she could hear Kale yelling
at the guards.
   "Was that supposed to hurt, human?" he laughed.
   Kayura unsheathed her other sai and brought them before her, subconsciously commanding the
central blades to extend, forming the Starlight Swords.  "Hey!  Over here!!"
   The guards still in the hallway turned their guns to her.  "Freeze!!"
   Kayura smiled.  It had been a while since she was in battle, and she eagerly began. 
"Gentelman, put down those worthless excuses for weapons!  The stars will rain fire on those
who stand in my way!"
   "Take one more step, and we'll open fire!!"
   Kayura took a step forward rather swiftly, challenging their words ... and they stuck to them. 
A barrage of firearms went off, aimed at Kayura.
   Each guard watched with wide eyes as the bullets flinched off the twin sai's and fell
harmlessly to the floor.  "Hmph," she snorted.  "My turn ... "

   Kale turned swiftly to Ryo as half the guards began firing blindly down the hall and the other
half began in to take the Warlords into custody ... make that ATTEMPT to take them into
custody.  Kale picked Ryo steadily up and stepped behind Sekmet.  "You gonna cover me, or
what?"
   "I can ... but I'm not sure what the effect of my poison will be on these weak humans.
   "You two in the Ninja Turtle's getup ... " 
   Sekmet and Kale exchanged a glance.  
   " ... you're under arrest.  Release the boy and drop your weapons!"
   Sekmet snorted.  "You've got to be kidding me ... and they think WE'RE going to surrender to
THEM?"  He threw his head back and laughed.
   "I said drop your weapons!!"
   "Eat concrete, humans."  Sekmet drew his twin katana's, his arms splitting into two other sets ...
six arms each equipped with a poisoned katana ...
   "He's attacking!  Open fire!!"
   The rain of bullets bounced easily of Sekmet's armor and swords.  "Hold your breath, Ryo!" he
ordered back.
   Ryo inhaled deeply, wincing at the pain in his chest.
   A nauseating brown vapor began to slowly diffuse from Sekmet's armor, the Armor of Venom. 
It wafted to the guards who continued to fire, and one by one they collapsed quickly onto the off-
white tile floor.
   The vapor quickly cleared, and the guards in the hall, four of them, continued to fire away.  A
clang of metal echoed, followed closely by a war cry.  "Star Storm Scream!!" and the guards
were blown backwards down the hall by a blast of pink lightning .
   Quickly, Lady Kayura appeared, in full battle gear in the doorway.  "Come on, you two.  We've
got to get back to the prison.  Cye and Rowen are in danger!!"
   They filed out of the hospital by way of the huge hole in the wall of Ryo's room, landing on the
ground below where Kento's frozen body was being hoisted onto a stretcher.
   "Oh God!!" Ryo yelled, squirming in Kale's grip.  "Kento!! Damnit!  Not you too!!"
   Sekmet banished his armor as he pushed through doctors attempting to restrain him, and cops
pulling their guns.  "Looks like we're all taking my car!" he called back.

    Rowen had Cye in his arms, cradling his weeping friend, Mia kneeling beside the two of them. 
"When is this all going to stop?" she asked silently.
   Rowen raised a flushed face.  "It won't end unless we give up our armors ... and I'd rather die!"
   Mia put a hand on his shoulder as a huge crash came from down the hall.  "Hey you!  Stop!!
You're not allowed in there!!" the chief's voice floated into the cells.
   Rowen and Mia turned their attention out the cell bars to see Daes, in full battle armor running
down the corridor, bullets whizzing by him.
   Rowen called upon his sub-armor and pulled Mia around behind him and sheltered her and
Cye.
   Daes turned quickly, his sticky spider webs filling the gap in the hallway and through he cells,
stopping both the guards and the bullets.  He then made it to his friend's cell and easily sliced
through the lock with one of his scythes.
   Mia poked her head around Rowen.  "Daes!  What's happening?"
   Daes opened his mouth to say something, but was quickly cut of by a high-pitched female
laugh.
   Sarjenka blinked into the room, sitting comfortably on the cot in the prison cell behind Mia and 
the two guys, forcing everyone to change positions.  "So, who's next.  It looks like there's only two
 pieces of armor left to collect before I have the power of the Inferno.  I hope you know the drill 
by now."
   Daes clenched a fist as he took position between his friends and the threat. "Web of Illusion!!"
and they were immediately encased in a dome of Daes's webs.  "Hopefully that will hold her out
until the others get here.  Now.  We need a plan."
   Something brushed up to Rowen's ear.  "Who's he talking about?"
   "What the ... " Rowen turned sharply to stare into huge green eyes as Sarjenka knelt over Cye,
a hand over the weeping boys heart.  
   She smiled and laughed a little.   "It'd be a shame if this one went without a fight."
   "Rowen!! Look out!" Mia yelled.  Daes spun around and became speechless.
   Rowen jerked Cye away from her touch, handing him over to Mia as Cye slowly raised his
head to see what the commotion was all about.  Rowen reached into his coat pocket and retrieved
his armor crystal.  "Armor of St ... "
   Sarjenka promptly tackled him flat to the ground as his sub-armor enveloped him, easily taking
the crystal from his hand.
   "A bit stuffy in here, eh?" she yelled as the crystal absorbed into her armor, creating a blue
swirl to her shin plates.  "Arrow Shock Wave!!"
   "What in the hell!!!" Rowen yelled.
   A golden bowcaster and arrow appeared in her hands, arrow at the ready.  As she pulled back
on the bow string, a twirling light began engulfing the tip.
   "Everybody down!!" Rowen ordered.
   She released the arrow into the web and the whole dome exploded out with a tremendous
force, ripping the iron bars of the cell out of the concrete that held them.  Plaster and mortar
rained down on their heads as everyone lay sprawled on the floor ... except for Sarjenka who
stood tall outside the once domed area, arms crossed on her chest and the Strata bow no longer
in sight.
   They picked themselves up, one at a time, each powdered heavily with the dusty plaster falling
all around them.  "This is nuts!!" Cye said and jumped to his feet.  "Armor of Torrent!! Dao
Shin!!"
   Sarjenka smiled widely as she watched Cye's Torrent armor begin to mold around him. 
"Another challenger," she smiled.  "Two armors in one trip.  Though, you’ll be a bit more tricky…"
   The room was covered in a thin blanket of cherry blossom petals and the Torrent Spear was
pointed directly at Sarjenka in moments.  "You've killed my friends, lady.  And that leaves me no
 choice but to destroy you!  Super Wave Smasher!!"
   Sarjenka raised her hands to counter quickly as water pipes around her began to burst. 
"Iron Light Frost!!"
   Steam filled the room from the hot water pipes and a loud cracking noise floated through the
thick vapor as it clouded the room.  Crystalline snapping sounds could be heard as the room was
suddenly plunged into cooler temperatures, the steam clearing quickly. 
   "I don't believe it!" Rowen gasped.
   A large chunk of the cell floor had risen up to block the wave of water from Cye's Spear.  And
the water reached up to the ceiling in frozen fingers, suspending the concrete slab about two feet
in the air.
   Mia stood to her feet in front of Daes.  "She used Hardrock's armor to counter that!"
   Cye stood dumbfound, lowering his spear as Sarjenka began to pace through the room, circling
the group.  "And Challenger Torrent is sizeably blocked by way of his best buddy."
   Daes stepped forward.  Sarjenka regarded him with a smile.  "Long-time no-see, pirate."
   "You know her?" Mia asked.
   "She worked as Talpa's legion coordinator.  She organized his forces during the battles with the
Ronin Warriors."
   "Well, she didn't do such a great job, now did she?" Rowen put in snidely.
   "You saw what I had to work with, Strata."  She glanced over at Cye.  "Okay, child of water.  I
want your armor, and if I have to go through you ... "
   "You'll have to go through me!!" Daes boomed.
   She sighed.  "Very well.  Maybe you'll pose more of a challenge."  She readied herself to start
her attack as did Daes when a stray cherry blossom petal fluttered lightly between them.  She
looked down to the ground, but the petals that Cye's armor had discarded had long since
disappeared.  Another pink petal meandered through the gap between Sarjenka and Daes,
followed by another ... and another.
   "Oh great," she frowned silently.  
  Out of the corner of her eye she saw Kayura standing aside from the other two Warlords, each
warrior had weapons at the ready. 
   Kayura stepped forward.  "No matter what you do, you WILL be defeated."
   "I find that close to impossible.  And even though YOU may escape alive, your friends won't
be so lucky."