There are some funny sayings down below, and some are mine and others do not belong to me! I am merely borrowing them!!

Flash was at Travel World at that moment. She was highly agitated but as a trained ninja she didn’t show it. She thought about Ryo as she waited in line to purchase tickets and passports for America. He is so sweet, she thought. Of course all of them are, but for some reason, I feel like I can to talk to Ryo about anything. We’re so much alike. I know Sage likes me, but it’s more of a crush. Kento and Rowen treat me like a friend, and Cye treats me like a sister, he reminds me of Jacob. She frowned. No! I won’t cry! Jacob wouldn’t want me to!

The line moved. Her thoughts continued. Ryo is cute though. Sweet, loving, bad tempered, impatient at times, but he’s so caring. She looked down at her bandaged hand. Underneath it still hurt, but she did not let her bother her. A sigh escaped from her lips. I just hope when we battle Tutock nothing happens to Ryo, or the others. I’d hate to lose them. Especially Ryo. I don’t know why, but I’m more concerned about him, than the others. It’s like something is being planned against him more so than others, but what? Flash didn’t know. She did know however that she wasn’t going to let anyone hurt her friends.

Ryo stood at the window, tapping his fingers impatiently against the windowsill. Flash had been gone for what seemed like an eternity, and he was getting worried. "Where is she?" he murmured.

"Ryo?" He turned to see Sage at his side. "You’re worried aren’t you?" Ryo nodded his head. "I’m sure she’s fine, Ryo," Sage assured him.

"Sage," Ryo began as he looked up, "what do you think of Flash? I mean really think of her."

Sage paused for a moment as he considered the question. "Well, she’s beautiful, she’s got grace, she has spirit, she’s funny. She seems to care a lot about her friends. And I really wouldn’t mind having a date with her."

Ryo lowered his head and suddenly found the floor to be interesting. Sage caught that. "You like her, don’t you?" he asked. Ryo nodded quietly, then lifted his head to gaze out the window.

"We’re alike, Sage," he said softly, but loud enough for the Halo bearer to hear. "We both deal with fire, we’re both the fastest, except she’s a hundred times faster than I am, she’s the leader of her team, and we both care very much for our friends, not to mention she’s funny like you said, she makes me laugh."

Sage smiled. "Yeah, it takes a lot to make you laugh. You’re always blaming yourself for something, even when it’s not your fault."

Ryo nodded. "Yeah, I’m good for doing that." He smiled at little. "But I more than like her, Sage. I care about her. I’m just (sigh) worried about her."

Sage nodded in understanding. "Ryo, if you like her that much, tell her." With a friendly pat on the shoulder, Sage left Ryo alone.

Ryo stared out the window, thinking about what Sage had said and waiting for Flash. Just when he thought he could wait no longer for her, he suddenly saw her coming up toward the mansion. He sighed in relief and went to open the front door.

Flash hurried in as everyone gathered around.

"Well?" Rowen said.

"Ryo told you all, huh?" Flash said. Kento nodded his head as he stuffed several chips into his mouth from the bowl he was holding.

"I was able to get the tickets, but we can’t leave until tomorrow after school, which is a bummer. I only hope Tutock doesn’t plan an attack soon."

"This Tutock," Cye began, "is he really worse than Talpa?"

"Sit down," Flash said. "This is going to take a while to explain, and you’ll need to know this." They did as she requested. "Tutock is the emperor of the netherworld called Tophet. It’s like the Dynasty, but only it’s bigger, and uglier. And it smells of death. When you’re there, it feels empty, and it smells like death ten times over. If you’re not careful to ignore it all, you can lose yourself and become lost without knowing it. Now Tutock is a giant tyrant. He is very evil. He has no love in his heart at all, and he has powers beyond your imagination. If he wanted to, he could just snap his fingers and you would be unconscious."

The Ronins’ eyes widened with surprise. They wondered how Flash and her friends could battle such a monster. Flash went on. "He is always trying one way or another to gain the world. He forces people to become his slaves. They have one choice, either work for her, swear loyalty to only him, or become killed. And he could do it with just a raise of his hand against unarmored people. We Warriors are the only ones that stand up to him, which is why he hates us so much, especially me. He wants me the most of all."

"But why?" Kento asked. "For your armor or for your power?"

"For my power. Tutock is trying to figure out a way to absorb my power so he will become even more powerful. If that happens, the world is in big trouble."

"We won’t let that happen," Ryo said firmly. "We made a promise we would help you. And we are going to do it, and we will win."

Flash laughed. "I thought virtue was your symbol, not faith." Ryo blushed a little but smiled. The other Ronins laughed.

"Ryo, you are as red as your armor!" Rowen laughed.

"I’ll say!" Cye said.

Ryo just rolled his eyes, but smiled. Inside he was thinking of the battle that was to come.

"Well, since we have school tomorrow, and tomorrow is going to be a long day, I say we all get some sleep," Sage suggested just as Blaze and White Blaze came into the living room. "And one of us will have to leave a note for Mia and Kayura explaining why we aren’t home from school tomorrow."

"I’ll take care of that," Rowen said.

"Well, then let’s go to bed," Ryo said as he stood up. And they all said good-night to another and went upstairs to their rooms for the night.

He was tossing and turning, dreaming of a huge battle, only this time there were more on their side. He saw another green armor, another red armor, an orange armor, a dark blue armor, a light blue armor. Suddenly four of the armors combined powers and joined with the red armor. The red armor became a powerful white armor, a large black tiger wearing a white armor leapt over the armor bearer’s shoulder, and the white armor took out two powerful swords from the tiger’s back. He joined the two swords together with a powerful cry of ‘Rage of Inferno!’

And Thunder suddenly shot up in bed with a startled gasp. That dream, he thought. Could it have been something of the future? Were more warriors joining them?

He looked across the room toward Scorpio. The boy was sound asleep, one arm flung over his face, a stuffed Flounder doll sitting on his chest. Thunder smiled and drifted off to sleep.

Chinook walked into the kitchen calmly, addressing the situation before him. It was early in the morning, and so far Tutock nor his Guardians had attacked. But that didn’t mean they weren’t up to something.

"Come on, T-boz, just a bite!" Ice begged while trying to steal a waffle. She smacked his hand away. "Ow!"

"Ice, you can wait until I’m done cooking everything! You don’t have to be rude!"

Ice pouted, staring at the waffle, but T-boz watched him a hawk. Scorpio, Thunder, and Snow were all sitting at the table, calmly waiting for breakfast to be served. Chilie was in the bathroom, fixing her hair, no doubt, and Shades most likely was still in bed.

Chinook sat down after pouring himself a cup of coffee. "One of you had better go and wake Shades for school."

All six of them groaned. No one liked getting Shades up. In their book Shades was a bitch in the morning. But one of them would have to do it. Finally Thunder reached for a piece of paper.

"What are you doing?" Snow asked.

"Writing my will," Thunder replied.

"Hey, if Shades kills you, can I have your stereo?" Ice asked. Thunder gave him the look. And Ice turned away. "Or not," he said.

Chinook just shook his head and sipped his coffee. Teenagers.

Thunder headed upstairs. Inside the room, it felt different without Flash’s stuff there. She and Shades shared a room, and they were probably the closest out all of them together. Then again he and Scorpio were pretty close as well.

He looked toward the sleeping girl and gulped. He shook her. "Shades, get up. It’s after 6."

"Go the fuck away!" Shades grumbled.

"No. You have to get up for school."

"Fuck school!"

Thunder was tempted to ask, ‘alright who are you and what did you do with Shades?’ Shades loved school, but then again, in the mornings Shades was worse than Tutock. And that was scary.

"Shades, get up! Stop being lazy!"

"Get out before I mess you up big time!!"

Thunder sighed, thinking. Let’s see, how to get her up. He left the room, walked down the hall, and came to the bathroom. The door was open. Chilie must have finished in here, he thought as he walked in. He spotted the bucket immediately.

A few minutes later he returned to the room with a bucket of ice water and stood near Shades’ bed. "Shades, get up now."

"Fuck off!"

"You asked for it!"

SPLASH!!! "AUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGHHHHH!!! YOU SON OF A BITCH!!! (POW!!)

"OW!" Thunder’s hand flew up to his jaw as he was knocked off his feet. He stared in surprise at a soaked Shades standing on her bed, glaring at her. He climbed to his feet, empty bucket in hand. Mission accomplished. "Get dressed. We leave in 45 minutes." He left the room, wincing at his jaw.

Shades shut the door as calmly as she could. "Asshole," she muttered. (hm, nice girl huh?)

By the time Shades was dressed and ready for school, and eating breakfast with the others, she was more calm, and apologized to Thunder who had an icepack to his jaw.

"Don’t worry about it, Shades," Thunder assured her. She bit her lip, but nodded and finished breakfast.

Chinook looked out the window. The sky was still the same red color as it was before. What could Tutock be planning? he wondered. 6:45. It was time for the Warriors to leave for school. He wished them well and safety, and they wished him a good day and protection, hating to leave him alone, but Chinook pushed them out the door, and closed the door behind them, and then turned around, leaned against the front door, and put a hand to his forehead. "Teenagers!"

At Ha’na High, the announcement was heard over the speaker. "The school will be holding auditions for the Talent Show in five minutes. All students willing to perform please come to the auditorium. Thank you."

The auditorium was practically full. There were many students there, along with several monitors to keep the situation under control.

It was there that Flash found the Ronins. "Boy, I am so excited!" she told them.

"Because of the talent show?" Rowen asked.

Flash nodded. "It keeps my mind off Tutock for a little while. I was having a hard time concentrating in math class. The teacher yelled at me."

"Sorry," Ryo apologized. Flash only smiled at him, wondering why he was apologizing.

"So what do you guys plan on doing?" she asked. Already a few kids were up on stage getting ready to perform.

"Songs," Sage said. "We know two of them by heart, and they have instruments we can use."

Flash nodded. "Sweet."

"What are you doing?" Cye asked.

"Well, I’m doing a comedy act," Flash said.

The Ronins grinned.

The auditions began. Some students were good, some bad, some were very excellent, and some were just normal. The Ronins had their turn, and they sung two songs. The audience went crazy, especially the girls. It took a while for them to calm down. Finally it was Flash’s turn.

"Thank you very, great to be up here!" Flash began, holding the audience captive. "It’s been a great time here in Japan, I’ve met some really interesting people. Several months ago, I was playing street hockey with my friends, and if you ever want to tire your younger siblings out, that’s the game to play. (pauses.) Well, until they hit you over the head with the hockey stick." The audience laughed. "Dang, it was a bad day. I kept tripping over the stupid cracks in the street, and then finally I hit the putty far and out, and right into a swamp area. And that’s the worst place I wanted to be: The Snake Pit. I hate snakes with a passion. I don’t think they’re natural. I mean they can move, they don’t got any legs. That ain’t right. It’s the devil, alright? It’s in the American Bible." More laughter. "So I’m walking through the swamp area, smashing my hockey stick on the ground going, "HIYAH!! Like the snakes are gonna go, ‘ohmigod!’ My friend thinks I’ve gone crazy, and I know what he’s thinking. Never trust something that bleeds for five days and doesn’t die."

Uncontrollable laughter. Ryo could hardly believe it either. Even Principle Heke was laughing, and he never laughed. In fact he never even cracked a smile!

"Boy this is great! I was just thinking about my family. I have a dad, a stepmom, and two half younger sibilings, they have two dogs and one cat. You know, I found something out. You nuteur a dog, they kind of understand about it. Dogs are more like, ‘alright, alright, ALRIGHT!!! Dang, I just knew this was gonna happen. You nuteur a cat, be prepared for the guilt trip of your life. We brought my stepmom’s cat home from the vet, and he started dragging his butt on the carpet, like, ‘look at ME! What’s missing from this picture? What am I gonna tell my friends?’" More laughter. "And I know you cat owners all made this mistake. You’re lying in bed, and you think your cat’s asleep at the foot of bed, and you move your foot, and they’re like, ‘MOUSE! MEOWR!!!’ And I don’t care how hard you throw that cat against the wall, it never stuns them. Believe me, I tried it. They just bounce off with that attitude, ‘Oh, is that the way we’re gonna play, alright!’"

Kento almost fell out of his chair, but managed to pull himself back up. Boy, Flash was a riot! She had the entire audience laughing! Cye himself was red in the face. He wondered if Flash would be able to get Talpa to laugh. Sage himself hardly ever laughed out loud, but he sure was now. Beside him Rowen’s ribs hurt from laughing to hard. But he didn’t care. This was way too much fun. Ryo was laughing so hard he got the hiccups. Cye patted him on the back to help him get rid of it, but it was no use. They just kept coming.

"My stepmother loves her cat and went berserk with it," Flash continued. "She taught this cat how to go the bathroom in the toilet, and he does it. Do you how weird it is, to get up at the crack of dawn, stagger in the bathroom, ‘AUUUUGGGHHH! Whew! Hey, kitty!’ He’s sitting there with the funnies. ‘Flash, what’s up? That Garfield’s sure a blast, ain’t he?’" Laughter struck again. "But I find dogs more interesting than cats. There's a strange dog too. The Basenji. It’s a barkless dog. Wouldn’t that confuse you? Walk up to someone’s yard and that dog is like, (does impression of a barkless dog causing more laughter) AUUUGGGHHH! I’m deaf!! I can’t hear the dog! But I love people with pitbulls. Cause the owner is like, ‘Oh, he don’t bite! He’s always got blood on his lips!’ And you’re like, ‘Killer Dog! Run for your lives!’" The audience laughed again. This American girl was a classic. It was too bad they didn’t have a talent show more often.

It wasn’t long before the Talent Show was over. And even though the Ronins and Flash were to be in the Talent Show in one month’s time, each of them wondered about the battle that was too come. And Flash knew it was going to be a battle the Ronins would never forget. She could only hope they could handle it.