The guards trembled in fear as they stood their ground around the operation room. Many of the researchers in the floor above had already started to evacuate the underground base while the rest boldly watched the room below in curiosity. The doctors all picked up their surgical tools and vials and began to make their way towards the back away from the scene. As one doctor made his slow crawl away he reached out to retrieve the vials of blood samples taken from Joel and Ryan, but as he wrapped his fingers around each vial they cracked and shattered apart. The blood from the containers spilled onto the floor and drained through the dry cracks.

Ryan looked towards the doctor near the table of vials and then looked deep into each man’s eyes and said, "Have you guys ever thought about becoming professional piss offs?" He paused for a moment to let the words sink into everyone’s minds, and he then crossed his arms with a disappointed look and said, "Because you’ve really pissed me off!"

The whole room staggered back with intimidation from Ryan’s words, but they were still too afraid to make any courageous moves. Ryan let out a deep sigh and then moved his left hand up to his head. He closed his eyes and began concentrating is energy around himself. A fierce field of energy surrounded Ryan and began to wind around him as it shaped itself into Ryan’s clothing and armor. This sight caused the whole room to shriek and cry in fear as they all assumed that Ryan was about to release a death attack out upon them all.

The commander stepped up bravely and yelled, "Damn you demons! How did you get out of our restraints?"

Ryan snapped his fingers and brought his left hand down to his side as his sword transported back to his hand, and he said, "I’m not stupid enough to tell you, man." He looked to the side as two men returned with new restraints to throw onto Ryan and said, "But I’ll tell you now that those things won’t affect me now." He took a step forward and let out a sly grin and said, "Because I disabled them all!"

The guard shook his head in total denial and cried, "That’s impossible! How would you know that?"

"I told you. I’m not stupid enough to tell you." Ryan said as he shrugged his shoulders. He turned his right hand towards Joel and said, "Now if you’ll release my friend here."

"Never!" the commander resisted. He raised his hand and shouted, "Fire, men, fire!"

At this point the remainder of the watchers from the level above began to flee as the guards all around the room took out their guns. Ryan stood there and waved at them with his casual grin as the men pointed their guns at him. They all hit the triggers as fast as they could at Ryan, but the guns felt flimsy as if they were broken or improperly constructed. The triggers all pulled back without a click or a sound in the men’s hands.

"What the… How could they all be duds?" the commander complained. He grabbed his head and squealed, "This is insane! I don’t believe it!"

"I tried asking politely, didn’t I?" Ryan asked the man, waving his finger at him.

The commander threw out his commanding hand and ordered, "Go men, go! Beat him down instead!"

Ryan twirled his sword around and then placed it inside the sheath on his belt, and he stood in a readied position with his fists in the air as the guards took their clubs out and began a rushing attack for him. Lynn looked quickly around as her personal space started to diminish and ducked under the table that Joel was restrained to. As the guards approached and started to swing their clubs around rampantly, Ryan spun to the side and released his right arm out into the air, letting one of the guards collide with his fist and knock them down. Ryan then ducked down as a club came flying towards his head and then turned the other way and hit another guard with his flattened left hand into the man’s side. He followed up his movement and came back with his right arm over the same man and hit him to the ground. Another guard closed in on him with his club held high, and Ryan caught his arm and pulled him down. He leaped up and kicked another guard behind that man and released his grip on him. Before the guard could make any reactions, Ryan quickly turned around down low and kicked the man behind his knees, causing the guard to lose balance and fall down. The guards saw Ryan’s stance low and unleveled and decided to aim high, but as they came to dog pile onto their opponent, Ryan released his Masamura and swung it through three guard’s uniforms, almost cutting into their bodies. As the sword edged near real harm towards a fourth soldier, Ryan winked with a grin and quickly flung it back into his sheath and rammed into the guard with his shoulder. The man was knocked back into a wall with great force as he stumbled back from the hit. Ryan turned back to the three soldiers and began to send several punches up and down their bodies as he turned around.

Ryan’s backside had become too open and more guards were appearing through the doors. Soon Ryan found the guards flinging themselves aimlessly at Ryan without any thought of tactical attacks. They leaped onto his back and tried to hold him around his neck in an attempt to choke him. He gritted his teeth and winced a bit as he felt the clubs hitting him rapidly from behind, but he felt nothing weighing him down. The Guardian started to toss and turn as he tried to get the men off of him. The men still held on tight as held Ryan’s arms back. He crouched down then and then leaped up high into the room and floated there, letting the men dangle from his back. Some of the men fell down and crashed into the metal floors and tables down below. Ryan looked around and to his back to see where the last guards were on him, and he started to once again toss and turn and eventually began to rotate himself back and upside-down. The guards cried and waved back and forth on Ryan until they finally lost their grip from Ryan’s constant movement and found themselves falling out into the upper level and through the chairs and computer equipment parts around the room.

The soldiers on the ground watched in grief as Ryan glided in the air above them. Some soldiers brought out their guns and tried to fire at him, but they were left with the same success as the many before who tried with Ryan that day. Other guards began to take tools from around the room and threw them at Ryan as they could as they yelled at him. Ryan focused on the small, sharp surgical instruments and caught them and quickly threw them away, and he batted away the lights, bottles, and chairs that approached him with his fists. All around the rooms on both levels had become decorated with cracks and dents as the objects crashed into the walls and jabbed into the chairs and computers. The masses on the ground then encircled the empty table that Ryan once laid upon and lifted it off the ground with all their might and heaved it up through the air towards Ryan. Ryan stared at the large table with just a grin and then put both of his hands out in front of them towards the incoming mass. As the table came within inches of Ryan the Guardian channeled his powers out from his body and around it, stopping the large mass in front of him. He then sent a blast from his energy wave into the table, causing it to break and rip a hole in the center and fall back towards the ground from where it was thrown.

"That’s enough playing around." Ryan said as he creaked his neck from side to side. He dropped swiftly to the ground in the middle of the soldiers, causing them all to jump back in surprise, and he pointed towards the commander and told him, "Come on. I made a simple request, and you send your whole army out after me." Ryan tossed his hands in the air and said, "What’s worse is you just sat there and did nothing to help your men."

Ryan dropped his arms to his side for a moment, and then he crossed them over his chest in disappointment. The commander still stood and commented on nothing, watching Ryan in astonishment. The tall guardian walked through the floor of stunned soldiers in the room, pushing them aside one by one until he confronted the commander. He looked down at the smaller figure for a while before he brought his right arm up and out towards the man’s head. The commander’s sweat became more apparent the closer Ryan was to him and was then dripping from his face down onto his uniform.

"Piss off, piss off." Ryan told the man before shooting him with a force pulse that caused him to fly back head-first into the wall behind him.

With a loud cry of humiliating defeat, the commander crashed into the wall, breaking through the thick metal and dirt of the underground. His legs still shook and wiggled about with liveliness, and a muffled cry for help could be heard through the wall. Ryan turned around and blew at his hand briefly and returned his arms to his side. He walked up into the group of soldiers again, who still watched Ryan and the wall in stunned grief, and stopped beside Joel. When the soldiers noted Ryan’s position, several of them ran for their leader to assist him in recovery and escape, but their attempts proved to be failures due to how far the man was stuck inside the wall.

Lynn rolled out from under Joel’s table and bounced back up onto her feet in surprise and asked, "Oh my god! Did you really kill him?"

Ryan shook his head with his grin and told her, "Nah. But he will be if they don’t get him out of there. He’s got a fair chance, though!" He flipped his left hand up into the air and Joel’s restraints began to open, and he exclaimed, "Well I think I’ve proved my point today! Let’s go, man."

He cleared the restraints out of the way and pulled Joel up from the table and onto his feet. Joel shook his pale head and held his face for a moment as he staggered about from his weakness while his body reenergized itself. Ryan then placed his left hand over Joel and placed his clothing over his body.

"Thanks Ryan. You saved me again." Joel said. He slowly looked over Lynn who was almost offended by the comment and said, "You, too, Lynn. Glad you could make it."

"She did a lot of work trying to get here, I bet!" Ryan exclaimed with a nod.

The three adventurers stopped their idle chat and looked around at the mass of guards still surrounding them. Several had gathered around their leader to continue to pull him out, some ran for help, and the rest still stood around quivering in fear without a clue as they watched the three in the center of the room.

Ryan gave a sly grin and tilted his head down with his arms crossed in front of him and asked, "You guys are still here?"

Lynn took a step forward and waved the back of her hands at them all and said, "Go on, shoo! Shoo!"

Many of the guards there jerked back and let out deep sighs of grief as Ryan and Lynn commented at them. The room was still loud with the mumbling sounds of the guards shaking about rapidly. Ryan turned away from the guards and looked towards the camera with his hand raised up in the air in victory.

"Alright! Hey Traquo, listen up!" Ryan spoke through the camera, "Us Guardians don’t want anything bad to come of Traquo. We only want a few things. One is Dirk, the other is Luke. I’m sure you know good and well who we’re talking about! We want a chat with both of them for the better of the city."

Lynn turned around and gave Ryan a funny look, and she poked at his side as she whispered, "Hey, that’s a local camera. It’s only broadcasting throughout the base! We’re not getting anything to anyone in the city like this!"

"You think so?" Ryan said as he looked down at his friend with a wink, "I reworked a lot of things around here while I was down and out, rather than use my remaining core powers to regenerate myself on the spot. See, it gave me some time to work undercover!" He paused for a moment as he ended his explanation, and he then slapped himself on his head and said, "Well now I’ve gone and told everyone my little secret plot!"

Joel stood up tall and stretched his arms and legs, then leaned back a bit, and then turned around as he finishes stretching and asked, "How much of the show did the whole world get to see?"

"Most of it." Ryan said as he shrugged his shoulders, "It took a while to direct my energy flow back into the camera systems in the middle of my work as soon as I found out they were filming this stuff, man. I’d say about three quarters of the torment." He turned back towards the soldiers and said, "Hey guys, how does it feel to be celebrities now?"

Many of the soldiers continued to gasp, and others covered their face, whimpering in misery as they collapsed to their knees."

"I wasn’t well rehearsed yet!" one soldier cried.

"You ruined my future acting career!" another soldier pouted.

"I look ugly without my makeup on…" another man complained.

Joel looked away from the camera for a moment, and then looked back towards the camera and said, "You’ve seen what they really want from us, and now you all know what we want from you." He pointed up and said, "The sky around Traquo isn’t getting any more pleasant here, so if you’re content with growing night lilies then don’t help us."

The three continued to watch the soldiers attempt to pull their commander out from within the wall, but the remaining soldiers still failed to budge the stuck human. A medical crew rushed into the operation room followed by a team of construction workers who began working on cutting the commander out of the wall. They revealed high precision cutting lasers and blow torches to remove the plates of metal around the commander and worked as fast as they could. Tiny pieces of shrapnel and sparks emitted from the wall and shot out towards the ground and over the leader’s lower half. The trapped man irked in pain and cried an even louder muffle as the super hot bits touched his legs.

Lynn inched next to Ryan and nudged his side and whispered, "Hey, don’t you think it’d be a good idea to get out of here before they get that man out from there?"

"Nah. They’ve learned their lesson from the first time around." Ryan assured Lynn with a wink.

Joel shook his head at them both and said, "But we still haven’t done anything to move towards our goal. How are we going to find Dirk at this rate?"

Ryan snapped his fingers with his right hand and then pointed towards the door and said, "Just like this, man."

Joel and Lynn turned their attention curiously towards the door and watched as another soldier confidently walked into the atmosphere, ignoring the three intruders, and approached the video phone on the far side of the room near the opposite exit. Joel and Lynn whispered between each other some more, but Ryan touched them both on their shoulders and shook his head at them as they watched the man dial up a number on the phone.

"Sir. Are you there?" The soldier asked into the phone, looking at a blank image on the monitor. He nodded his head slightly and said, "Yes, sir. I’m transferring you in now." The man pressed several more buttons on the video phone and a picture of a more defined Luke appeared on the small monitor, and the soldier turned towards the three and said, "General High Commander and Mayor Luke wishes to speak with you regarding your broadcast upon his private channel."

Lynn squinted her eyes in technical disgust and mumbled, "How many job titles can you get in one career?"

As the two guardians and young woman approached the monitor, Ryan grinned with enjoy and rubbed his hands together with a slight chuckle. They positioned themselves in front of the phone and readied themselves for a hard verbal fight with the new Traquo mayor.

Luke raised his eyebrows slightly and greeted them openly, "Ah, hello. And hello again, Joel." He waved to Joel, "We always seem to meet in the most inconvenient times, don’t we?" He looked over to Ryan slowly as he noticed the Guardian motioning his hands over the phone and said, "I see you’ve picked up additional friends as well. Don’t worry about trying to make this conversation global, because this is my own special private channel that has no connections with the outside channels."

"Let’s try to make this as easy as we can, Luke." Joel told him.

"Yes, indeed." Luke said with a nod. He waved his hand forward towards the stuck commander and said, "But before we move on, please remove my commander from the wall before I answer any questions or handle any requests."

The three looked away for a moment at the group around the wall, still trying to work the commander out from captivity, and Joel looked up to Ryan and said, "We should, you know? We do look bad with him in the background over there."

Ryan nodded his head and said, "Alright man. No problem."

He walked up to the wall and through the crowd of busy soldiers, and he held onto one of the commander’s squirming legs with one hand. Ryan gave a slight tug once on the man’s limb and pulled him clear out of the wall and dirt. The commander was covered in dirt and mud, and his uniform was ripped and torn from the impact and slide through the metal wall. He spat out dirt from his mouth and rolled around gasping for fresh air again on the ground.

"There you go!" Ryan exclaimed as he turned around with his hands shrugged up in the air.

"Tell me, who exactly are these people you have met?" Luke asked curiously.

Joel looked at them from side to side and said, "Two of my only friends in the whole world." He looked towards Ryan and said, "Ryan, the Guardian of the Mind. He’s helping me find out who I am so I don’t cause anymore trouble."

Ryan bowed his head slightly with a regular grin as if he were bowing to royalty.

"I see. Or more for that matter." Luke accused.

"Whatever you say, man." Ryan retorted.

Joel turned towards Lynn and said, "This is Lynn from a town we were in recently. You might have heard of our actions there almost a year ago taking out the gang called The Suits. She’s an entertainer, but she’s traveling with us for now."

"Yes, I remember that. Before I took up the job as Mayor here it was quite good news for Traquo’s trade industry to have been able to reopen with that town again." Luke said.

"There’s two others out in the world somewhere that I know, too, but they didn’t want to join us." Joel told Luke.

Luke nodded once more and exclaimed, "Fascinating." He backed away from the monitor for a moment and directed his audience’s attention to his company and said, "Allow me to introduce you to my advisor."

A larger figure in a long flowing cloak appeared from the dark background and approached the video phone. His robes were of dark sleek velvet colors with a tone of yellow crossing down from his side to between his legs. A thin mantle set over his shoulders with shimmering silver chains that came down to where the man’s elbows should have been if they were not hidden under his cloak. His head was also hidden under a large helmet that almost seemed like a thick hard bucket. The face of this figure only showed through a hole towards the front with what seemed to be a smooth and shiny mask peering out. This mask showed a happy, delightful face of a man that almost appeared to have been stolen from another human being if not for the shiny white texture over the front.

"His name is Junicon." Luke said, pronouncing the J silently as a Y. The large figure of Junicon stood there silently, and Luke informed the three, "Don’t worry; he doesn’t talk much when he’s around public. But he is of much help to us when we handle private discussions."

Joel attempted to peer deep within Junicon’s mask, trying to make something out of his soul and emotions, but he carried no success trying to get through the man’s field of secrecy.

Ryan inched forward and pointed at Junicon sharply and asked, "Hey big guy. Are you not human, or are you just really tall?"

They could hear Junicon’s deep breath through the video phone, and Lynn pulled Ryan’s arm back and said, "Come on, Ryan! Don’t taunt them at a time like this!"

Junicon made a sudden move and bowed at them and suddenly said, "Greetings, Guardians. It is a pleasure to meet you. And you, Miss Lynn."

Ryan snapped his fingers and exclaimed, "Hah! I knew he could talk!"

"My apologies for being so quiet." Junicon said with another bow, "I am Junicon. My origin is of far away from Traquo."

Joel crossed his arms and put his left hand up to his chin and thought for a moment with a sigh before saying, "Well that could explain your differences. But Tranquo is a city of trade, so it’s bound to bring up types of people who don’t always look like us." He looked down towards the side from the phone and thought of Celia, then mumbled, "And Celia has green skin."

Luke stepped up to the phone again as Junicon silently stood aside and asked, "Did you say something, Joel?"

Joel perked up and gazed directly into the camera and shook his head with a, "Oh, no. It’s nothing."

Luke put his hands on his hips with a disappointed look over his face and said, "Come now, boy. No need to hide things from your audience. Especially at a time like your intrusion."

Joel sighed and looked away to the side for another moment, and Lynn approached Joel’s side and peered at his face to see what was wrong with him. She shook her head in decline before turning around towards the phone again.

"Oh, don’t worry, mayor." Lynn told Luke, "He’s not hiding anything unless his face turns blue and he begins to stutter." She turned her head over her shoulder to look at Joel and suddenly appeared to him with a devilish look with a fiery aura about her and gleaming red eyes as she asked, "Right Joel?"

Joel let out a quick irk and jumped slightly as he said, "Yeah!" He cleared his throat and told Luke, "Just thinking about different types of people made me think of a girlfriend of mine." He closed his eyes and thought to himself, "I wish I hadn’t have said that."

Luke crossed his arms as Joel thought quietly and said, "Another girl, eh?"

The young Guardian shuddered and raised his hand and quickly said, "Don’t even go there, Luke. This one is nothing like Sarralyn, and she’s not going to share the same fate."

Lynn’s shoulders perked up as she heard Sarralyn’s name, and she turned around and quickly said, "Sarralyn?" Her eyes let out a strange twinkle and Lynn grabbed the video phone, pulling it close to her face with an aggravated look over her then and she yelled, "Luke, you rat bastard! You’re such an idiot for screwing with my city and my father! When I get my hands on you I’ll make you pay for everything you’ve screwed up when you worked for us!"

Joel stepped back in surprise of Lynn’s sudden change as the girl yelled into the phone with what seemed to be her Sarralyn subconscious. At the same time Luke had bolted away from the video phone screen with a highly surprised look of his own. Ryan tilted his head at the girl with only a confused look from the background, and he moved up passed Joel and pulled at Lynn’s collar away from the phone. The young lady was dragged back far away from the video phone kicking and still screaming into the device in her strange fashion as Ryan moved her back.

"Sit. Stay!" Ryan told Lynn as he restrained her.

She continued to growl and claw for the phone in a ferocious rage, even in Ryan’s grasp. Ryan immediately drew an image in his powerful mind of Lynn with cat ears and paws with sharpened claws. With that image in Ryan’s mind, Lynn began gnawing at Ryan’s hands like a crazy beast. Across the video phone Luke and Junicon could be seen looking at each other with an odd look through their eyes.

Ryan cackled loudly and said, "This is why I have gloves, man!"

"Is Miss Lynn really like this all the time when she’s not putting on a show?" Luke questioned Joel.

"Don’t look at me! I’m at least trying to be serious about all of this!" Joel told Luke.

Lynn jumped lightly up in Ryan’s grasp and flipped back, slipping out of Ryan’s hold. She immediately charged for Joel as her feet hit the floor again before Ryan had the chance to grab her again. Joel looked down at the incoming young lady and braced himself for an attack as fast as he could muster, but he was instead embraced at his arm by a cuddling Lynn.

"Lynn?" Joel asked with a surprised tone.

Lynn shook her head at Joel and glared at the phone and said, "No, not Lynn. Sarralynn!" She cuddled closer and more tightly onto Joel’s right arm and mumbled, "Leave my Joel alone! Can’t you see he needs me and my city?"

Joel looked down at Lynn, and then towards Luke in the video phone, and then repeated the same actions several times.

"Joel." Luke began, "Is this some kind of sick joke?"

Ryan slowly approached Joel and Lynn and tapped Lynn’s head several times and said, "Looks like some of Lynn got mixed up with some of Sarralyn and created this mess, man. Who knew little ol ordinary Sarralyn could be so racey!"

Joel remained silent for another moment as Lynn continued to rub her face against Joel’s arm and body before he slowly said, "No, it’s not a… joke." He shook his head rapidly, clearing all strange thoughts from his mind, and told Luke, "I’ll explain it all if you just meet us in person, face to face, and hear us out."

"It will be considered." Junicon said abruptly, looking down at Luke for a moment.

Luke cleared his throat, giving a slightly unwary look towards his counselor, and said, "Yes, I suppose it will be then. I will discuss this with my people in the meantime, and until then I trust you three won’t try anything to disrupt Traquo again?"

The young Guardian courageously nodded his head and said, "That was never our intent. But remember: please release Dirk in the meantime."

Luke began to think to himself for another moment before he mumbled, "Dirk, hmm?" He looked back up to the video phone and said, "Yes, he will not go without being discussed. Don’t worry, Joel. We will reach an agreement some how on both parties."

Ryan rubbed Joel’s head with his hand and said, "Don’t worry, man. I’ve got Joel under my leash! Everything’s under control!"

He removed his hand from Joel and crossed his arms with a sly grin as Luke hung up his phone, causing the video phone to go blank. His young Guardian friend let out a brief sigh of relief, and then a sigh of confusion as he looked slightly down and to the side with his hands on his hips. Thoughts ran through his mind as he realized the whole point of having Luke call them was completely turned around on them to prevent any real information from being put out.

Joel snapped his fingers as he mumbled, "Dang, why didn’t I get a chance to ask my real questions?"

Ryan shook his head and said, "Don’t worry, man. It’ll all come together soon for all of us!"

His friend let out a faint smile through his concerns and then looked up again. The two found themselves watching Lynn then as she approached the downed leader surrounded by medical attention. She kneeled down and observed the man while the head doctor ordered the medics to touch the patient up with disinfectants and bandage his body up.

"Will the man be alright?" Lynn asked in a soft voice.

The head doctor turned his attention to Lynn, and with a threatened tone he growled, "If you’re so concerned, why did you let your friend do this to him in the first place, huh? Huh?" He snapped suddenly, but as he noticed Lynn jolt back he took a deep breath and shook his head, saying, "I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be so mad." He looked down at the captain and said, "Our supplies are running low due to lack of funds from the city. Ever since Traquo has started to go under things have been grim, like you said. If we had some Healing Tonics left we could fix the captain up in no time with little recovery time."

Lynn looked back into her bags and then up slightly and asked, "About how many? I have a few here."

"A few?" The doctor asked with a brightened face. He motioned his medics to stop bandaging their patient and said, "A few would be just about right for this job."

The young lady presented the human doctor with several tonics from her supply bag, and those tonics were graciously taken from Lynn and quickly applied to the captain. A few drops were poured down the man’s throat while the rest of the Tonics were randomly applied onto the captain’s body wounds. The patient turned and moaned as the liquid tonic struck his body and began to activate its healing procedures into him. Soon his skin closed from where he was cut, scraped, or scratched from where the dirt and heavy metal caught into him. The captain jolted up into a sitting position within several seconds of the magic tonics activation, but he was still uneasy about almost being suffocated underground through thick metal walls.

Ryan turned around towards the man and leaned down to him and said, "Welcome back to the real world, man!"

Several more deep and uneasy breaths came from the captain as he exclaimed, "I’m alive? But there hasn’t been tonics for sale in months! I must report this to my chief in command!"

The doctor held the captain down by his shoulders and said, "Now, now, you still need a little rest to recover to your full strength. Where the tonics came from is not important right now."

Lynn stood up and flicked up her hair and said, "Would you assume that someone like Mister Howe would have saved some of the last tonics for a rainy day?"

The captain’s eyes gleamed in awe as he heard Lynn and looked up to her and her friends and asked, "What?" The man moved onto his kneels and said, "You brought these here just for me then? Thank you!" He bowed and pleaded to the three, saying, "Forgive me, you demons really are godsends!"

"Hey!" Ryan exclaimed as he put his left hand up. His teeth gleamed for a moment as he said, "Only if you stop calling us demons!"

Joel stepped up between his two friends and said, "Another believer has made it. It’s good to have you alive and well, captain."

With the midday passed and the three adventurers reunited they have enlightened more people to their true purpose in Traquo. They must now wait for a response from the mayor and his right hand man as to what they think to the idea of their meeting in person for a talk. If Luke and Junicon have something planned to use against Joel, Ryan, and Lynn, they have yet to discover it lurking in the shadows of the future. But regardless of any fears and concerns the trio may have about the Traquo leadership they know the city is slowly taking steps into liberation and peaceful times again.

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