Now realizing what is going on Ryu evades as quickly as he can and uses the icicles to climb up to where Cross is. “Black sun,” shouts Ryu, but this time it’s different since the black sphere at his hand as gotten larger and in the shape of a lance , aimed at Cross’s head . Cross watching this taking place is too late to do anything about it, but Ryu misses. Ryu has gone by Cross missing him by mere inches but he took too long to decide all this and Cross’s body is surrounded by black particles as he falls. Ryu now begins to descend fast enough to catch his buddy before he hits the ground, while having a bleeding hand nearly cracks his skull. The crowd began to cheer at the show these two 9th graders had put on for them stunned at the sight of their Armorth. “Thanks for catching me, you really are something,” Cross tells Ryu as he is being stood up and Ryu puts his arm over his shoulders. “Anytime,” Ryu responds to Cross, then added “It was a good fight.” So far all the fighting has stopped and everyone has gotten new ranks or a look at the 9th grade Elite and his squad already. Kiter seeing Ryu carry Cross out of the arena, whispers to himself “Weaklings, carrying one another out of the ring like that. Friends? Who needs them?”
* * * * * *
“Hmmm, I see he has grown to be a strong boy. But he’ll have to die, if he gets in my way, doesn’t matter who my kin is. I will get rid of all the Flux and become supreme leader of the world!!!” states bald man in his mid 50’s, although he isn’t a man exactly, the accident years ago changed him forever. He begins to laugh to himself enjoying his dark plot and takes a sip of wine, while looking over the city of Melaz, on the top floor of his 35 story hotel. He turns around and looks at a portrait of his former self with a young woman, pregnant of a small boy, no tears run down his face, no signs of feeling anything for his past life. He simply has the portrait to remind himself that he was human once and he had a family once……………
Ch.10
Ryu arrives the next day at the dojo to find a celebration party taking place. He walks in and watches his squad come over to him, standing out from the rest of the students. “How is your arm?’ asks Dayan, “Its ok now that I got it wrapped and stuff. Where is he?” replies Ryu, “Well he is with his girlfriend right now. But hey we all got this celebration party going since we have a new 9th grade Elite,” responds Dayan almost cheery. Ryu please can you report to the Elite’s office instructs the loud speaker, “Great! What now? Well I got to get going. See you guys later and train hard,” shouts Ryu leaving the dojo. “Good you’re here already,” implies Roy, as Ryu walks in and is greeted by Pilot. “You see I have something for you to do and it’s very, very important so listen up. Do you understand?” Roy now moves a bit closer to the desk to pull out a map and a pen, “Yeah! I’m up for anything. What is it? But can Alexis come with me? I haven’t been dedicating much time to her, and she sure is pissed about it” asks Ryu ready to commence his Elite role. “Well since there are no tournaments for another five months. I’ve got something for you to do , you see a long time ago I was searching with my older brother for something called the sphere of Bauza . It is believe to be a secret weapon for Armorth, because it enhances a Flux’s power to great levels. Another thing is that we have been assigned to this task by the world government and assign it to you. Do you accept? And no she can’t go with ya” Roy asks Ryu like he has an option, seeing him shrug he continues “The problem is the sphere is said to be located in Sudan but it’s a clue we don’t know exactly where it is. So here take this map and this key, it’ll direct you in the right direction it was the only thing we could find from the burned laboratory. Also the sphere was broken in three pieces it seems” Roy hands Ryu the stuff, but the key is not any original key it went in perfectly into is precise. The precise being the new cell phone went on the user’s face like a pair of sun glasses except with a clear screen. “I know I found it awkward to that it fit in there. But get going! Oh here is your envelop with everything you’ll need. Also take Cross and Randy with you.” Roy tells Ryu as he pushes him out the door. “Do you know, what you’re getting him into?” ask Pilot a bit displeased, “Yes, but it’s for the greater good of this world remember that some Kenton’s are looking for the device as well and you know how jealous some of them are of those who can wield Armorth.” Pilot stands up and gives a look at Roy, but then smiles and whispers “They can’t get it, or else the Flux race will be wiped out.” As Pilot exists a shadow appears in back of Roy’s door “I knew it!” the person says, “Alright go with them but hold your distance, I’ve been informed that Kiter, our 10th grade elite has disappeared since yesterday” Roy tells his brother. “I should hit you for not obeying my orders of going to South America you know. Now I might have to send someone else instead, less capable of finding what we’re looking for.” “Whatever traveling to Africa will be a lot better,” replies Serot to Roy disappearing into the shadows once again. “What will this world come to when the truth is out,” whispers Roy.
* * * * * * *
Ryu goes to find Randy, and Cross to tell them what’s going on but first decides to pass by Alexis ‘classroom to tell her about the trip. He walks into the class and asks the teacher for permission to speak in private for a few seconds, the teacher accepts and Alexis walks out with Ryu into the hallway. “Let me guess you’re being shipped to Africa and came to tell me you have to cancel on meeting my parents?” Ryu bug eyed about the question can’t believe she knows he is going to Sudan and asks her “You know?” “Know what?” she asks him back “That I was summoned by Roy to go to Sudan and retrieve some sphere thingy and you can’t come along, I leave in two days . Cross and Randy get to come with me though…..” He lets her capture every word and looks at the ground hoping not to get yelled at by Alexis-zilla the non-typical type of girlfriend who might be even able to defeat him in a one on one. “WHATT!!!!” she screams “I’m going to talk to Roy about this. You’re supposed to meet my parents this weekend!!!” she begins to think out loud furiously, Ryu is too afraid to interrupt her since he might receive a K.O. blow. “It’s ok honey; there is nothing you can do about it. But once you get back you have to promise you’ll meet my parents,” Alexis finally lets out a clear statement, “I promise” responds Ryu. The two lovers look into each other’s eyes and kiss like they haven’t seen one another in ages. He releases Alexis and watches her every movement until she is behind the classroom door, he wishes he could have taken her; it would have been like a camping trip. He begins to move again and heads towards the 9th grade dojo to find Randy and Cross sitting with the others. “Hey Cross, Randy come here for a second,” Ryu shouts across the dojo at the two. Both men get to where Ryu is, Cross asks “What’s the deal?” “Well we’re going to Sudan in two days, so pack up fast. We have to retrieve the sphere of Bauza, I’ll explain the rest while we’re on the plane,” Ryu tells them both. “Great, can’t it wait? Elizabeth will kill for sure this time if I stand her up,” remarks Cross, “No sir it can’t! Trust me you’re not the only one that might get hanged for this,” Ryu lets his friend know. “Hmm, women are all the same, that’s why I prefer to be single,” states Randy. Ryu hands each their plane ticket and waves farewell to his friends since its time to go to the next period.
Ch.11
“Ok I’ve summon you five here for an important mission. You have to recover something valuable to us, that if it lands in the hands of any Flux, we Kentons will have to walk around the world scared. I wish you the best of luck Roleb team,” instructs a shady figure from an arms chair and handing the five an envelope containing the pictures of Ryu, Cross, and Randy along with their destination. “You are dismissed!” Once again he looks at the portrait sitting on his desk and utters one word “Ryu,” like if venom was being injected into his blood. “Franklin, get all troops mobilized, we’re hitting them with everything we’ve got once the sphere is in our hands,” the being gives the orders to his leading commander. He gets up now and walks towards the wall of the office where a bookshelf stands. He pulls
forward a book on the far right corner then another at the very top to the center of the shelf, a book pops out and flips horizontally to demonstrate a keypad. He engraves his initials C.P. and the bookshelf flies up into the ceiling, an Armorth standing on a glass case can be seen now on the other side of the wall. On one hand a canon and in the middle is a circle where a sphere can fit in. The being unlocks the glass door in front of the Armorth and runs his fingers through it enjoying the metallic cold exterior of the armor. “Soon, soon I’ll show how much stronger science is than an Armorth from a Flux.”
Ch.12
“Great out of all the places we could have been sent to; it had to be to Sudan. Did I mention how much I hate the heat,” complains Ryu while sitting under an Acacia tree. “Well you wanted to be an Elite right? This is what you get, now we are going to be eaten alive by these wild animals,” cries Cross, taking a seat next to Ryu. “Oh! Come on you big babies! We have to walk just a few more miles to our first destination remember, and then we might have to go somewhere else to finish this expedition. We might end up in Fiji!” exclaims Randy trying to make them lighten up, but he’ feeling the heat and it might be getting to him. "I’ve seen this before I tell you. Three young adults get send into the wild with a map and some weird instrument believed to be a key. They never come back,” Cross whispers into Ryu’s ear, making him get scared and tense. The three now huddled together under the tree, begin to drink water, the sun rising now even more and a wind began to pass by the tree. The loud snort of a beast wakes the guys up from their Fiji daydream, Ryu being the first one to be up, points at it, “What is that thing?” “That thing is a Renore. It’s a new high-breed of Rhinos that got affected by the experiment has well” Randy responds to Ryu’s question. “Hey guys? He doesn’t look to happy!” Cross mentions stepping back, a hand on his water container and the other on his bag of supplies. “Holy cows! Run, he is about to charge!” screams Randy passing by Cross and Ryu leaving a trail of dust behind. The three start to run for what seems like ever until Randy finds a small opening in the ground, jackpot it was the perfect spot to get away from the beast trailing behind them. Randy motions to Ryu and Cross to follow him as they get closer to the cave entrance. The three make it into the cave and crack on their glow sticks; the cave was weird looking with jagged rocks sticking out from the ceiling dripping water. Ryu hurled his glow stick forward has hard has it could and it a wall displaying three different ways to go and of course they couldn’t turn around because of the giant beast was outside smashing it’s giant horn into the cave entrances trying to get in . Cross let’s go a hard drawn sigh but is interrupted by Randy’s voice, “Cool! According to the map that Roy gave us we’re in the right place except…..Hmmmm…..Well it’s not specific on which path to take to the get across.” “Great I guess we’re going our separate ways on this one. Unless you want to take care of that beast outside,” announces Ryu to them, and trying to man up to the darkness of the cave engulfing everything at arm’s length. “Fine, we should tune into frequency forty-seven point six on our precise so it can be used as a radio”, Randy let’s Ryu and Cross do as he instructed and begins to walk towards the three passages. Randy does a quick iny mini mieni mo and goes into the middle passage. “Well I get the left one then, cya,” Cross tells Ryu as he begins to head his way. “Great! From all the things I could have been doing I had to be an errand boy, I didn’t accept to be an Elite for this,” grumbles Ryu heading into his corresponding entrance.
* * * * * * *
Randy is alone now walking slowly through the central tunnel with his glow stick held high in front of him. He begins to whistle after five minutes of slipping and bumping into rocks, wet damp rocks that shouldn’t be there. How could a cave like this one be here in the middle of nowhere and especially be this humid when out-side was blazing hot, Randy began to think to himself.
Terrified to death by the squeals of bats passing by him he lets out a loud yelp which Ryu and Cross ask “Are you ok?” over the precise and Randy answers “Yes! It was just some bats. That’s all.” “Ok……if……..can…...” Ryu’s precise begins to break up, “Hello! Ryu are you there?” Randy yells, “It sounds like your breaking up. Hello Cross?” but it is no use all three of them are disconnected from one another and it would be hopeless to walk all the way back now, especially after he is so far in. A far more damp smell comes into Randy’s nose, he feels he is getting closer to something and begins to run. Nearly stumbling over a set of rocks Randy comes into a small clearing, up in front is a small lake with a waterfall coming from god knows where. It is not so dark anymore, and Randy can make out some figures a bit better now, he notices a torch a few steps ahead and grabs two rocks to spark a fire. “Come on! Come on!” Randy repeats to himself while slamming the rocks hard against one another. After six unsuccessful tries he decides to take a seat and wait some more minutes before he collapses trying. After ten minutes of giving a hard and concentrating look to the two stones that won’t spark up he attempts a seventh time but sadly fails. “You stupid in animated object!” he screams tossing it against the wall, only to see sparks flying out. He now had an idea, why not put the torch near where he tossed the rock and repeat his actions surely the sparks would fly into the torch’s cloth. As he put things into their places he wondered how Ryu and Cross where doing and of course if they had found anything at all. Randy goes for the pitch with his left arm and sends the rock flying towards the wall with all his might, like he had done earlier. The rock hits the wall and tiny sparks go into the torch, Randy rushes over and begins to blow air softly into it so the sparks would burst into flames. “Yes!!! It worked!” echoed through the clearing has a joyful Randy carried the torch forward. But there was more than meets the eyes in this place and he finds another torch and then another and another all in a row surrounding the clearing. Randy ponders a bit, but it doesn’t take him long enough to realize to touch one torch with his to see what happens. He lets only the tip of the torch touch the other has if scared all his hard work would be wasted , the other torch lights up and fire goes in a straight line as if it were soaked in gasoline and all the torches in the clearing begin to catch on fire , lighting up the room. Randy is dazed by all this, he notices a small match box near the way he came in , and looks at it angrily “Darn it!!” he lets out . Randy begins to inspect he surroundings and tries to guest the last time there was a human in this place. He searches south and north, east and west but finds nothing in the clearing to indicate that there is something hidden in it. An object sparkles once and fades and then it sparkles again in the waterfall, Randy seeing this leaves his bags close to the lake and begins to fold up his pants and shirt. The water was ice cold and it felt like it was going to peel off Randy’s skin, once he got to where the water fell he saw the sparkling thing once more, got closer and closer to the wall and touched it. Nothing happened, so he took out the map, on it read “Tap, Tap, Tap, three, three, three,” great is this prank, he asks himself. “Well doesn’t hurt to try” Randy said out-loud, and did has he read on the map, seconds later a digit panel came out from where the sparkling thing once was. On it he presses the number three, three times and nothing happened. “I knew it! This was just a waste of……” but was cut off by the moving wall. The middle of the wall split in two and a light pierced through it, what looked like a rock wall was now two sliding doors revealing an entrance to a room, Randy confused by all this nearly falls back, but the entrance is a few inches high and he climbs up.