Luke turned his video phone off and began to slowly turn away as he entered deep thought. The new mayor took a deep breath and began to take long steps towards his work desk. Junicon, who was still standing behind Luke, quietly glided across the floor from side to side, watching and following Luke to the desk. He stood next to his commander and awaited any questions and requests from him as the mayor sat down in his chair and cuffed his hands together in prayer.

"We could just turn them down and keep things working as planned." Luke mumbled. He closed his eyes and said, "But that would only lead to further disasters than we know already. As mayor of this city I cannot allow that to happen anymore. I promised that it would all stop when I assumed the position when Howe dropped out." He paused and looked to the side where Junicon was standing and asked, "Well then? What do you think we should do? Do nothing or answer the intruders?"

"Hmm." Junicon hummed with his high toned voice, followed by a strange, distorted slithering sound from the far depths of his cloak. The tall figure stopped and stood silent as he always would when he acted unresponsive or in deep thought until he said, "The Guardian demons are not to be taken lightly."

"We know that." Luke said.

"It is unwritten history that Traquo once belonged to the Guardians until the human race began their pilgrimage across the world in search of a better place to live." Junicon continued, "We humans found Traquo and the demons within the city and coexisted with them for many years until we realized our superiority on this planet over them and overran them from the city. Joel and Ryan are no doubt back to claim what was once their own."

The mayor sipped his mug of coffee a little and said, "Long ago in unwritten history? Where did you read of it then, Junicon?"

"There are many unwritten things about history, Luke. Some were left out because they were forgotten while others were left out for security so that no one would find out of humanity’s imperfect misdeeds." Junicon explained, "But some how, somewhere, and some way, you can find those pieces of history again. I just have dug enough to know that much."

"Interesting." Luke expressed, "Then if Joel has discovered other Guardians, they must be filling his head with all of these historical facts. But why destroy a city full of hundreds, if not thousands, just to take it back?"

"Barbarians." Junicon gloated.

Luke paused for a moment and raised an eyebrow at his right hand man before saying, "Yes, of course." He placed his mug down on his work desk and said, "If that is the case then we will not abide by their requests. We will not take any actions at this moment, however. Instead we will wait another day and see what the two demons and their human friend, Miss Lynn, do within our city, but if they begin to terrorize the populace again we shall take immediate action."

Junicon began to appear slightly restless in his body and jittery slithers sounded all around him. Luke pushed out and away from his desk and turned towards him and peered over him as Junicon followed his every movement.

"Junicon’s been acting very strange ever since Joel and his friends came back to Traquo. I hope he’s alright." Luke thought. He started to notice a thick bad aroma filling the air from around Junicon, and he covered his nose and exclaimed, "Geez Junicon, when was the last time you took a shower and cleaned yourself? Get the hell back to your home and out of those dirty old robes and mask!"

The mayor shuddered and pushed Junicon away from his desk and looked away.

"That’s just the way politicians work, man." Ryan explained to Joel as they walked out from the underground base and into the city, "They try to grab onto a subject and make sure it’s going how they want to. Otherwise they can’t win and don’t get paid."

Joel slumped his shoulders and sighed, then said, "Man, I don’t think I’ll ever get the point across then." As they stepped out from the base and were hit by the shallow rays of light that fought its way through the thick dark clouds, Joel creaked his back and shoulders and let in a deep breath and said, "The city is just as it was yesterday."

Lynn ran up from far behind the two Guardians and asked, "So guys, what are we going to do for now?"

"Ah, Lynn! Back from the restrooms, I see!" Ryan sang, "Didn’t get enough of those men in the showers in just one trip, so you had to make two!"

Lynn froze herself with a blue face and gave a funny grin-like look, and after clearing a lump in her throat she began scratching the back of her head and told Ryan, "No, that’s not it at all!" She motioned her hands towards her two friends and explained, "I just partied a bit too hard with Mister Howe last night. I was about to explode during all that action!"

"Really." Ryan shortly said, rubbing his chin slightly with his thumb and forefinger.

Joel approached Lynn and asked, "How is he now?’

"Peachy!" Lynn told Joel as she turned toward him, "We talked a lot and played a few rounds of chess. Needless to say he’s not a vegetable anymore!"

"That’s great, Lynn! I can sleep a little easier now thanks to you." Joel thanked Lynn with a warm smile.

Their friend smile back in appreciation, and Ryan crossed his arms and said, "If you really want to know what comes next while we wait, missy, it’s going to be a trip to the mountains to restore the Masamune."

Joel dropped his head down and caught it with his hands and sighed. He thought about his sword and began to dig his fingers into his skin while feelings of humility rolled through his mind. Lynn looked up at Joel from below and then looked over to Ryan, who was calmly patting Joel on the back.

"There, there, man. Let it all out." Ryan told his friend.

"The sword?" Lynn quickly asked.

Ryan nodded at the small young lady and told her, "Sword plus thick steel giant robot equates to broken sword."

Joel shuddered, shook his head, and stood up straight and said, "There’s no reason to stand around and do nothing. Let’s do this." He stepped forward and waved at his friends with a, "Follow me!"

An agreement struck between the three, and once again they began their travels through the city. The day would consist of finding their way up to the mountain and into Joel’s chamber and look into fixing the Masamune while they waited for a response from Luke and Junicon. Everything seemed just like the day before with the homeless and hungry watching from the shadows. Military soldiers patrolled every street and corner in search of danger. All eyes seemed to be on the trio for the whole walk towards the mountains of the west.

"This is really more eerie than the city shadows." Lynn pointed out as she looked from side to side at each set of glowing eyes.

"Tell me something I haven’t noticed yet." Joel told her with an apprehensive expression.

Lynn grabbed onto Ryan side, causing him to stop in his place and raise his arms in the air as if a critter had attached onto him, and she asked, "You have some sort of trench coats or something to conceal our identities and all somewhere in that magic hat of yours, right Ryan?"

"Err!" Ryan blurted out abruptly. He paused himself and lowered his arms into a thinking position for a moment, and then he said, "No shady trench coats in stock, sorry!"

The young woman began to get jittery with the feeling of strange people around her, ready to jump out and grab her at any moment for who she was, and she pleaded to Ryan, "Please! You’ve gotta have something for us somewhere!"

"Well there is one thing…" Ryan said, quietly trailing off.

Lynn closed in on Ryan slowly in anticipated and repeatedly asked, "Yes?"

Ryan put his left hand up into the air with a grin and said, "How about face paint?"

"Face paint?" Lynn cried.

"Yeah!" Ryan exclaimed with a nod. He snapped his left hand and the three adventurer’s faces were covered with white paint with different colored marks over them, and Ryan followed up and said, "We could be a psycho clown posy, what do you think, man?"

Red shot through from under the paint on Lynn face as she cried, "What kind of idea is that, you idiot?"

"Idiot? No." Ryan said as he reached into his cape and revealed a red nose cap.

As the tall Guardian popped the red nose ball onto Lynn’s face, Joel looked down at himself with a strange yellow suit with red polka dots and large white gloves and said, "He is the Guardian of the mind."

Lynn continued to give an unsettled look, and Ryan proudly exclaimed, "Right!" He removed the nose piece from Lynn and tossed it away with a poof of energy and said, "So no clowns, huh?" He brought his left hand back out in front of him and chimed in a wave of energy again and said, "Then how about a guitar, crazy hair, some leather, and…" Ryan trailed off as he summoned black leather suits over the three of them, followed by a guitar strap and guitar, and then a wild black hair wig for each of them, and he continued, "We’ll be the world renowned rock group, Hugz!" He dropped his left hand down and raised his right hand up and said, "That way we don’t have to waste the face paint by taking it off!"

Joel fell back onto the ground with dizzy eyes as he was covered with the strange wig and clothing. His mouth dropped open and he found a foot long tongue extension attached to his tongue fall out. Lynn looked down at Joel as she heard him drop to the ground and noticed the extended tongue. She grabbed it and tugged it from Joel’s mouth, pulling her friend up and over with her, and presented it to Ryan.

"You idiot! That’d only attract more attention to us!" Lynn snarled at the Guardian."

Ryan nodded with a grin and wink and told her, "I know, babe, but think of the fans!"

Joel shook his head and came out of his brief daze and stood up straight, and he asked Ryan, "Don’t you think you’re over doing this a bit too much, Ryan?" He looked at the area around them, noticing the extra beady glowing eyes surrounding them and dark shady figures hanging in the shadows, and he whispered, "It’s really not helping us get away from the weird guys!"

Ryan paused himself for a moment and bowed his head with a quiet snicker, and as he finished his grateful little moment of silent giggles he reached over his two friend’s heads with his hands and said, "Alright, guys. I guess you’re right." He transmitted his energy around them all and switched their proper clothing back in place and then said, "In that case I’ll have to switch to Plan B."

Lynn placed her hands on her hips with a disappointed look over her face and sarcastically said, "Oh, please. Do tell."

Joel moved his head in closer in curiosity as Ryan cleared his throat and began working his mind magic again. The young Guardian was starting to become eager to move and escape the scene so they all could move on and get to restoring the sword. The trio had already moved half way through the large city on foot before they had stopped. Finally Ryan had motioned his hands in a way showing that he was ready to bring in the next suit of disguise for the three.

"Alright, man, this is the last bit I can think of that won’t make us look suspicious." Ryan told them as his hands lit up with transforming energy again.

In a short instance, a black suit appeared over each of the three adventurers. Bowties wrapped neatly around their necks under the collars of white shirts that came under the suits. Each of their footwear was exchanged for shiny black shoes, and in the front pockets of their black suits were both a pink flower and handkerchief. Finally, over each of their faces appeared a set of sunglasses to shade their eyes from sight. Ryan lowered his hands to his sides and clicked his heels together and waited for a response from each of his friends, who were both standing in shock of the appearances.

"What… is this?" Lynn slowly asked.

"Tuxedos, what did you think?" Ryan told the young woman, "We are now the secret organization group known as The Tux."

"You don’t mean The Suits, do you?" Joel asked, "Because that’s what I feel like right now."

Ryan waved off Joel and told him, "Fine, you can go start an evil gangster group bent on further depressing the city of Traquo, but while you’re at that I’m off to fix your sword, man."

Joel paused himself then and felt stupid from Ryan’s remarks. As Ryan was finally getting on with the day, Joel spun around and dropped to the ground with dazed eyes again. Lynn looked down at the young Guardian and sighed. She picked up his leg and began dragging him with her behind Ryan as they progressed through the city again.

"I guess he’ll never learn, will he?" Lynn mumbled to herself.

In due time the adventurers were able to pass safe and quietly through the city of Traquo westward to the mountains. There was still no stopping the eyeing feeling all around them. As they passed by guards of the city, some of them spit at them with great spite while others looked at them for a moment and then looked away and paid them no mind. Rubble and broken vehicles set randomly along the streets all the way up to the adventurers’ destination. The roads were patched up with mismatched cement pavement where there had been corrosion. Every tree that they saw wept and wilted with no sun or water. Only stray animals were kind enough to run out and greet the travelers with an open smile, even though they were obviously greedy, hopeful little smiles of hunger.

Road blocks were still placed in front of the trail to the mountain path to prevent people from entering the area. The human leadership of Traquo did not want the citizens of the city to find out about the cave in which Luke and Dirk found Joel after the earthquake, and the area had been covered up and guarded ever since. They knew what dangers lye inside the cave and what other things might slip inside to make home to make things even more dangerous.

The three stopped as they approached the first blockade, and Ryan stepped forward ahead of his companions and proudly pushed the heavy blocks to the side as he said, "Well guys. Let’s get this baby restored!"

Ryan brought his arm out and began his summoning of the bag with Joel’s destroyed sword, but Joel reached up to his friend and said, "Don’t do it yet."

Ryan ceased his summoning and looked down at Joel and asked, "Why, man? Aren’t we good to go?" He turned around and put his arms up and exclaimed, "The whole city of Traquo here’s yielded to us for a day!"

"They might be on hold until we get the call, but I still can’t help but wonder if there’s still someone out there in Traquo who wants to get us no matter the cost." Joel told Ryan, "I won’t accuse Traquo right off, but by summoning back the back of Masamune bits we could attract more trouble sooner than we need."

Ryan grinned as usual and placed his hand around his chin and said, "Ah, very perceptive! Someone’s playing the brains today!"

"It’s just a gut instinct." Joel said as he looked back into the city, up around the mountains, and then started to venture ahead into the path.

"Well if you got a hunch…" Ryan said as he began to follow, but he stopped as he noticed Lynn behind gazing up into the sky around the mountain, "Yo Lynn, we don’t have all day!"

Lynn had taken stand behind the barriers. Her eyes were blank as if she was under a trance and her body was like a puppet. She appeared to be suddenly waiting for something to come. Ryan scratched his head and then placed his hands on his hips as he looked over the little lady. He approached Lynn and waved his hand over her face in an attempt to gain her attention, and she jumped suddenly in the near vision of Ryan’s hand. Lynn gasped out loud as her eyes regained the sparkling light within them.

"Are you okay, man?" Ryan asked as he kneeled down to her level.

Lynn shook her head rapidly and said, "Fine!"

The tall Guardian thought for a moment and then asked the young woman, "Need me to scan your mind for any problems? You looked psyched out for a while there."

"No, I’m really fine!" Lynn argued, "I don’t see why you don’t bring the Masamune out now. It’d save you the trouble of doing it later after all!"

Ryan stood up and chuckled briefly and followed it up by saying, "Was that all you were standing there for?" He closed his eyes in pride and motioned his face to the side and said, "Joel’s the boss today. No can do until he wants me to."

Lynn grumbled and folded her arms together along her chest and said, "Fine, let’s go!"

As Lynn walked off ahead into the mountain path to catch up with Joel, Ryan turned around and thought of Lynn in confusion. He did not recall doing anything to make his human friend this stubbornly angry with him again. The tall Guardian took several slow steps forward as he attempted to analyze the situation, but all he was able to come up with as an answer as natural stubbornness. He looked up after several more slow steps and realized the time that the sun provided to him and then quickly jogged back up to the front to join his friends again.

Upon arriving, Ryan was greeted with a tossed bag of supplies from Lynn, who told him, "Take these!"

Ryan looked inside and viewed the status restoring potions that Lynn revealed to have received from Howe earlier on and promptly attached the bag onto his belt.

"If we’re going inside an underground volcanic area it’d be better for you to have those." Lynn told him.

As they reached the top of the path and were able to see the mouth of the cave itself, Ryan said, "Right, but dude, I don’t think you’re coming with us on this one."

The tall Guardian summoned a long rope into his hands and approached Lynn with them as she cried, "Hey! What do you think you’re doing?"

Joel looked deep inside and then turned around and saw Ryan tying Lynn up and said, "Well he does have a point." He scratched his head and continued, "It’ll be really hot in there. A lot hotter than a human could take."

Ryan summoned a roll of duck tape next and covered Lynn’s mouth as she squirmed about, and Ryan told her, "And without the proper flame retardant gear for you we’d be poor friends for getting you into danger like that!"

Joel walked up and looked over Lynn closely and said, "Maybe tying her up this much was a little too much."

Ryan shrugged his shoulders and raised his hands high and said, "Hey man, it was either the rope or the handcuffs." He looked down and slightly away and then said, "And I’m not feeling very kinky right now."

Joel paused for a moment as he tried to imagine what Ryan was referring to, but he slowly turned around and instead said, "Anyway. We can’t spend all day out here. We have a schedule to keep." He nudged his head towards the cave and said, "Let’s go Ryan."

Lynn began to squeal with great volume through her covered mouth as she watched Joel and Ryan wave at her. After her friends disappeared she hung her head low with a stubborn, disappointed look over her. She continuously attempted to free her hands, but Ryan had made sure to tightly bind them behind her before he tied up her legs and then body. The young woman wobbled back and forth trying to loosen the knots, but all she was able to accomplish was falling over on her side and becoming stuck on the ground in an immobile position.

"You know, man, not many Guardians ever return to the places they were reborn at." Ryan told Joel as they moved deep into the cave, "For some reason something absolutely repels us from doing it."

The deeper they traveled into the cave, the more the rocks which constructed the tunnels glowed with heat energy. Hot fumes emitted from the floor through small cracks, and the ordinary cave creatures such as bats and other weak monsters became scarcer. Small lava pools appeared as they moved even deeper, and Ryan began to need to shield himself from the heat by fanning himself off and dousing his face with shots of water from his supply bag. Joel took note of Ryan’s weakening state from the heat and ran ahead from Ryan and began to absorb the heat power from the cave.

"Maybe if I take in this energy the cave will cool down some." Joel said as he hovered his hands over the heated walls and lava pools.

Ryan nodded and said, "Thanks man, but I shouldn’t have gone in with this heavy black suit of mine."

"Some sun screen would have helped, too." They both mumbled to the side.

They eyed each other for a moment and began to cackle amongst themselves. Their voices echoed into the tunnels further down as they sounded off. The echoing ended as they reached a larger, more open area. It appeared to be a large room that bared many decorations of jewels with gold and silvery chains and plates. Tall pillars of flames encircled the room around the sides, and the jewels reflected the light around in a majestic sparkle. In the middle of the room as Joel and Ryan cleared their way through the bright lights from the flames and gems they found a fairly large statue of a beast-like creature.

Ryan kneeled down in front of the statue and inspected it and explained, "It’s the Guardian protector, Ifrite."

Joel looked around the body of the statue and noted the hands set out as if it was holding onto an object and asked Ryan, "Have you heard anything about these things?"

His companion stood up straight and told Joel, "They’re strong guys who protect us when we’re in hibernation between lives." He looked down at the hands of the statue and said, "And protectors of our weapons."

Joel shook his head in disbelief and leaned to one side as he said, "That can’t be right. Dirk and Luke said they walked right in and took me and the sword without a problem."

Ryan put his hand up to the statue and began to slide his hand down the carving and said, "There’s definitely something wrong with that. Maybe it thought you were ready to go since you were breaking free."

He drew his hand away and then summoned the bag containing the parts to the Masamune, and Joel asked, "How do we fix it now?"

The tall Guardian placed the bag into the hands of the statue, and the stone figure began to shift and rumble. The arms wrapped around the statue’s chest as if it were trying to shield the sword pieces. In a very slow manner it turned ever so slightly, and as twenty minutes passed the statue had finally completed its turn and began to make slow, but sturdy steps towards the next room which contained Joel’s crystal.

Ryan nodded and waved at the statue and told it, "No hard feelings, man. We’ll appreciate this one!"

"How long do you think this’ll take anyway?" Joel asked his companion.

Ryan placed his hands on his hips and said, "Judging by his creepy crawling pace I’d wager a really long time! By the looks of things this is meant to look more like a natural transition if someone else were to intrude. They’d see it like a plain statue with the sword in its hands and not suspect anything!"

Joel scratched his head as he watched the slow statue and said, "Oh, that makes sense, I guess." He began to tap his foot on the rocky floor repeatedly with impatience after several more minutes passed, and out of his boredom Joel cried, "Can’t we do anything else while we wait?"

"We might as well!" Ryan said as he tossed his hands up in the air, "I can’t stand being around this place much longer anyway." He dropped his hands into his pockets and turned to the exit and said, "It’s been long enough, and Lynn’s probably getting bored out there waiting for us."

As the two began their departure from the fiery hot cave, Joel rubbed his belly and said "It’s time for breakfast."

Ryan lifted a hand up and told him, "If it weren’t passed lunch time, man." He looked down and away to the side and began to look worried as the two exited from the tunnel, and he asked Joel, "Dude, have you noticed anything strange about Lynn today?"

Joel shook his head and replied, "Still the same stubborn girl we know and love."

"You might think so, but I was hoping she knew how to take a hint by now." Ryan told his friend, "She kept asking me to take the Masamune parts out before we got to the cave." He shrugged his shoulders and said, "Some things the last two days I could understand, but other things don’t to me. I’m also having a hard time tapping into her mind."

"Maybe she’s learning how to resist your powers?" Joel assumed, "You’ve been doing it for so long, so it was bound to happen, right?"

Ryan presented a crushed look and cried, "One day I’ll be the weakest Guardian of all if this keeps up! Everyone will have the power to resist my magic!"

Joel patted the tall Guardian’s back several times to assure him that his life was not going down hill as a fighter. The glow of the heated rocks faded away and they once again were surrounded by a less than lighted path to follow through the cave, but not much farther ahead they were greeted by a crack of light from the outside. With the final turn out of the mountain tunnels and a step into the brightened light outside the two tasted the fresh air, but at the same time they were greeted with a hollering screech from Lynn with a hint of fright on the side as her voice shot through the muffling duct tape.

Joel and Ryan quickly turned their attention immediately for Lynn. She appeared to be struggling to crawl away from something as she looked back at it in the eye. Lynn looked up at her two companions for a moment and then nudged her head down the mountain path towards what looked like a face mask on the ground. It was white with black outlines around the rim and facial features, and there were no holes for where the mouth or eyes were to view out from.

Ryan summoned his sword once more and quickly moved beside Lynn and lifted her up to remove her bindings as he asked, "What’s gotten into you?"

As Lynn was freed she struggled out of Ryan’s grasp and readied her twin hoops and cried, "That little mask moves on its own!"

Joel slowly side stepped around the idle mask and examined it from afar. The dim light from the sky gleamed over its glassy surface. For a moment it began to rattle, but it went still again soon after. Joel scratched his head as he gazed at it again, and he kneeled down and pressed his face to the ground to look under the mask. He saw nothing underneath the mask but heavy shadowed, but he still could not see through it to the other side.

He stood up and scratched his head again and then shrugged as he said, "It looks weird to me, but nothing but the wind seemed to make it move."

Joel put his hands into his pockets and turned away to join his friends again. The mask rattled more again but even more so than the first time, and it began to lean back onto it’s own, revealing small beady brown eyes and red legs from underneath. They sparkled glamorously as it watched Joel walk away. Lynn began to tremble and whimper as she saw the mask move again, and Ryan grinned and waved pleasantly at it as he peered over Joel.

"Look out, Joel! It’s moving again!" Lynn cried. She tossed a well balanced hoop up into the air and threw it down at the ground towards the mask as she called out, "It’s a nasty bug that I’m going to smash!"

The creature within the mask immediately ducked down to shield itself with the hard mask and flung itself up towards the hoop. Its hard shell-like mask hit Lynn’s weapon and deflected it back, and the creature fell back to the ground. It once again crawled around on its feet and looked up with a mean glare of desire at the three. Joel turned around as soon as he heard the loud clang emitted by the hoop hitting the mask and jumped back a bit to gain distance from the monster.

"Aaah, I feel a much greater power than the girl!" a tiny voice came from the creature, "I must bring it back to the master!" It jumped high in the air like a tick once again and charged towards Joel’s head as it cried, "Give me your face, boy!"

Joel’s eyes widened as the small mask monster flew his way in attempt to knock him out with its shell. He shot his right fist forward in an attempt to hit the creature back, but the monster dodged to the left. Before it made any contact Joel ducked to the right and nimbly dodged the monster at the same time. In his quick movement he began to tumble and fall off balance to his right side, but he recovered by reaching his left hand down and rebounding off the ground and onto his feet again. Joel looked back at the monster as it turned around to make another attack and returned its vile look with one of determination to not be taken for what plans it might have in store for his body.

"Graah, there are two greater powers! The master must have them!" the monster said with a tiny voice again as it peered up at Ryan.

Ryan patted Lynn away and told her, "Move along little girl, it’s my turn now!"

The tall Guardian stood firm with his sword ready and watched the mask closely for its quick movements. Patiently he waited in front of his friends as the air flowed around his clothing and stroked his hair. As the small critter rapidly skittered forward along the ground, swerving back and forth in an attempt to confuse the three in strange movements, Ryan slightly adjusted his posture with his sight locked on it.

As the mask monster closed in several feet away from Ryan it tumbled forward again and launched itself towards Ryan with high speed. The Guardian’s eyes gleamed cleverly as he took action against the monster with a slight leap up and a high speed bat-like swing with his sword across the monster’s shell. A loud clang sounded off as the Masamura struck the monster, causing it to deflect back across the mountain path and into a stone and rock wall. The mountain seemed to shake with the great force of the collision from the high speed projectile smashing into it, sounding off a thunderous boom for miles across the land. Boulders fell down the mountain side and great clouds of dirt and dust flew up into the air. As Joel and Lynn cheered Ryan’s attack on he tilted his head down with a sly grin and lowered his weapon.

All was not over yet, as the small critter dashed out into the air from the thick cloud of dust just moments after the collision. Its hard mask had become cracked from the center out after being smashed by Ryan’s sword. The creature howled and hissed as it flew quickly towards Ryan again in an attack. As the fiend neared Ryan again it was greeted with a firmly positioned fist, but the Guardian was not able to deflect it away with just that. It continued to push forward persistently against Ryan’s fist, and Ryan continued to hold his position, gritting his teeth as he felt his arm slowly give in.

"Ryan!" Joel called out, stepping forward, "Do you need a hand?"

Ryan chuckled and shook his head slightly and said, "Nah, man. I’ve got this covered."

Lynn jumped up and down like a cheer leader and said, "We’re here for you!"

As the fist-to-face fight struggle continued and Ryan began to gain control again and push back into the monster he thought, "My normal punches aren’t doing anything to this thing. It must be immune to physical attacks." Ryan began to channel energy through his fist and readied an energy wave attack to send through the monster as he announced, "Hey! Here’s a present for you!"

The light from Ryan’s energy filled through the cracks of the monster’s shell, and the light emitted a high pitched rocket launching sound as it was readied to be blasted into the monster. However, just as Ryan was going through his final firing procedures, the monster let in and dropped down to the ground at Ryan’s feet. Ryan’s eyes opened wide in surprise as his arm shot out, releasing his energy into the sky, which soon dissipated into space. He regained his balance on the ground and looked down at the creature in confusion.

"Man, the things in motion staying in motion really applied that time around." Ryan said as he scratched his head. He rubbed his fist with his other hand for a moment and brought a foot back to kick the idle creature away and said, "Here’s for making my fist hurt."

Ryan’s leg came down, flinging his foot forward, cutting swiftly through the air towards the monster. As his foot came in contact with the small creature it came back to life and grabbed onto Ryan’s foot and began crawling up with its strong legs like an insect around his body. Before too long, before Ryan was able to reach down and knock the thing off and away, the mask monster latched onto Ryan’s face and began to dig its legs into his face. Joel held Lynn back as they watched the monster suffocate Ryan, causing him to struggle, holding onto his face while the monster sliced his face off. At this point the young Guardian desired to protect the young human woman from the unknown to come.

"Power! Power! Power for the master! Give it! Give it!" the creature cackled. As the monster made the final cuts off from Ryan’s head and was able to remove the skin with an easy slide, it dropped down to the ground from the mask, even though the mask stayed sealed onto Ryan’s head, revealing the small insect-like creature’s true form of a dark brown and red colored body with a set of transparent wings, and it announced to the party, "Off I go to the master! My work is done! We have another slave!"

"Slave? Ryan?" Lynn asked.

Joel removed his guard over Lynn and they quickly rushed to their friend’s side. Ryan stood silent, though still with his hands over the mask. They looked over him as the blood trickled down around the mask and tried to pull it off for him. The crackled mask emitted a dark humming aura and refused to be removed from the Guardian’s head. Instead it gleamed with a reflective ray of light, and Ryan put his hands out quickly, silently, pushing the others away from him. He then adjusted his right arm out to his side where Joel was standing in confusion and extended his finger with a ball of energy ready to fire.

Joel shook his head at his possessed friend and said, "No, Ryan. Don’t make me hurt you."

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