"A New Beginning"

By Toma-chan

Chapter Two - Weird Happenings

"NO! Stay away from me!!" the brown-haired young man ran down the hill as several youja that looked like wolves chased him. He found himself trying to call the familiar light-blue armor of Suiko so he could fight them, but it never came. Desparately trying to find shelter, he ran around a curve in the trail, and there was the new set of Suiko. He backed away - but it moved closer. "Join with me," something whispered in his mind. "No, I don't want any part of you!" he yelled at the new armor, for that was where the voice had seemed to come from. He heard the youja race around the corner behind him, and he turned around just as a sword was coming towards him --

Shin Mori woke up screaming. He calmed himself down, and realized the phone was ringing. "Yes?" he answered shakily.

"Shin, it's Ryo. We found something that might be important. Are you all right?"

"I-I'm fine. What is it?" he asked.

"Well, it concerns the new armors and-" Ryo started to say.

"No! I refuse to be a Trooper anymore!!" he shouted and slammed the phone onto its receiver. Back at Nasti's house, Ryo looked at her and prepared to teleport. "I have to go there." He felt a piece of paper being pressed into his hands before he disappeared.

Shin had just shut the door to his room, thankful his mother and older sister had just left the night before for their home in Kobe, when suddenly a bright red flash lit up the room. He backed away until he hit the door, one hand protecting his eyes, the other instinctively reaching for the door handle, til he saw it was Ryo. "Ryo? How--What?" he stuttered, confused.

"Evidently the new armors give us the power to teleport. That was one of the things I was going to tell you on the phone," Ryo stated, his arms folded.

"Look, I'm sorry. I just don't feel like fighting anymore." Shin said softly, looking at the floor.

"Yes, we know," Ryo nodded, his voice lightening. "Don't worry, though, we'll always support you no matter what happens."

"Yes, I know..." Shin then smiled slightly. "So what's so important you had to magic yourself here and scare me half out of my wits?" He began to get the sensation of feathers tickling his mind, and shook his head.

"Well, earlier this afternoon, Seiji and Touma felt and saw things that apparently the work of the armors. Actually, from what Touma told me, his started acting up three days ago. I had to get in contact with you because you were the second to receive it," he explained what Nasti had told them.

"No, I haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary, aside from you appearing here," Shin said, sitting on his bed. The 'feathers' were back, and he shook his head again. "Do you know why they're acting up now?"

Ryo shook his head. “I haven't got a --"

He didn't get much farther then as a mental scream rippled through their heads. They clapped their hands to their ears and looked at each other, mind-blasted. Then it cut off sharply. Dark blue and green flashed in the dark, and Touma and Seiji were there. Shin was not surprised to see that they would have followed, but right now he was trying to pinpoint the strange feeling in his mind to be miffed about the sudden uninvited appearences of his friends.

"What was that?" asked Touma, his hand holding his aching head. Then he looked around, and noticed the one person, or rather his absence. "Shu!"

'Hey guys, I could use some help here,' Shu's voice rang out in Shin's head.

"Where are you?" he asked aloud. Everyone stared at him, but he held up a hand to quiet them, straining to hear Shu.

'The Tokyo Tower--' Shu was gone. Shin tried contacting him, but there was no answer. "Come on, he's at the Tokyo Tower!" Shin said and teleported. The others looked at each other. "So much for meeting this weekend...," Seiji shrugged before they disappeared too.

* * * * * *

When they arrived, they found Shin carefully attacking people holding Shu Lei Fung by the arms. They seemed to be in a trance, so he was doing his best not to hurt them. As Ryo ran to help, he noticed Seiji hang back with his eyes closed. Touma and Shin had managed to free Shu, but the people were heading towards them as well. Suddenly, there was a green light that enveloped the rooftop. The people woke up and looked around, vocally wondering what was going on and why it was night. Ryo moved towards Seiji, who had fallen to his knees. "Did it work?" Seiji asked, exhausted.

"What did you do?" asked Ryo, holding out his hand to Seiji.

"I guess I broke some kind of spell that had been laid on this platform to capture people," Seiji said, rising to his feet with Ryo's help. "It didn't affect Shu though".

"What did happen, Shu?" Shin asked, helping his friend sit.

"Well, I'm not sure," Shu replied, putting a hand through his blue-gray hair. "I came up here with some of my friends that live downtown. There were people already up here acting strange. As soon as we got here, the others started zoning out, too. I then saw this weird thing come out of a small hole in the wall--"

"A portal," Touma suddenly interrupted, a distant look in his eyes.

"Anyway," continued Shu, after glancing at Touma. "It started to give off this annoying sound, and everyone else was heading towards it. I guess it spotted me not doing anything 'cause it came towards me and said something like 'he is one'. So the people grabbed me and that's when something told me to call you guys. I panicked after nobody showed up, and then Shin heard me. Oops, almost forgot about my buds I came with, just a second...." He left after seeing them near the stairs.

"Oh, that's right," Ryo held up a piece of paper. "'Shin' it says 'can hear from far away', and Shu can resist minor magic. Sorry not to have other descriptions, but trying to translate as best as I can.' So what do you guys think we should do?" he asked.

By this time, the people had left, and Shu asked his friends to tell his parents he would be all right. He came back just in time to hear his description, and Ryo's question.

"If what I saw is some sort of invasion, we should be ready for it!" he said, smacking his right fist into his other hand.

"Hey, wait, where did this thing go?" Seiji interrupted. They looked around. "No sign of it, "Shin replied.

"It went back through the portal when it sensed us coming," said Touma flatly, still appearing distracted.

"What--" That was all the furthest Ryo got as a bolt of lightning struck the platform. The Troopers grabbed for the railing as part of the observing floor broke off, except Touma, who woke up from his daze too late. He disappeared, screaming as the floor dropped from under him. "Touma!" Ryo ran to the side of the hole, not knowing what to do, when there was a flicker of blue light below. He stopped and stared as Touma rose over the side and stood in midair.

Touma opened his eyes to find the other Troopers staring at him. "Ryo, what--" then he looked down. He was floating! No bubble, no armor - he was flying by himself! Then lightning again flashed, and whatever was keeping him up in the air died away. He started to fall again, but Shu caught him and helped him up.

"What is that!" Shin's startled shout made them look out the side. They saw a black hole open up, and several things popped out. They were almost like the youja of Arago's realm in that the armor was the same, but instead of looking human-like, these were wolves! They landed on the roof, and snarled viciously.

"How do we get the armor?" Shu yelled at Ryo.

"I don't know. Let's try the way we did before," Ryo raised his hand. He was about to shout the armor-up call, when an odd sensation enveloped him. He closed his eyes as he could feel fire circling around him. When he opened them again, the new armor was on him. He glanced about and saw the others' armors appearing the same way, each Trooper had a shocked expression at what had happened. On Shin's face, however, there was a look of fear and recognition. Ryo rushed towards the creatures with his twin katana drawn, as did everyone but Touma, who found he couldn't move.

'What is going on?' he thought, struggling to move. 'Wait' someone softly said in his mind, and he tried to look around. 'Who's there?'

'You'll find out soon. Let's just say I'm here to help. You have to switch to your magical Sight.'

'How do I do that?' he thought, bewildered.

'Concentrate. Focus on the lines you saw before.' Touma closed his eyes, and felt the odd whoosh again. He opened them, and just about fainted. The other Troopers were so bright!

'Don't worry,' the voice soothed. 'All you have to do is put a block around each one. It won't do anything to them, just shield them them from magic.' He did so, and the others disappeared, although he could still hear them. 'Now what?' he thought to whatever it was, but there was no answer. He glanced about again. The lines were flashing fiercely, especially the ones that were joined above a robed figure surrounded by wavy lines. As an experiment, he touched one of the lines leading to the figure by probing it with his mind.

SHOCK-- his body stiffened and he cried out.

"How dare you?" the demon shrieked as it flickered into normal view, and the creatures the others had been fighting disappeared. The other Troopers lowered their weapons, and stared first at the demon, then at Touma who was glowing a brilliant blue. His eyes were glowing the same color, and he was gazing at the demon strangely. "What's happening?" Shu quavered.

Touma, meanwhile, was concentrating on pulling power towards himself. The demon tried to resist the power drain, but Touma had taken a lot away before the demon had realized what was happening. He was acting on instinct, and had no idea what he was doing, but this seemed like the right thing to do for some unknown reason. He felt the power gathering inside him, so on impulse he drew his bow and focused the energy there. The demon desperately tried to distract him by attacking the others, but Touma's shields held, to the surprise of the others who had held up their weapons to try to shield themselves, only to see the bright energy bolts disappear a foot away from them. Then Touma released the arrow. It hit the demon--"NOOOOO!"- and the demon disappeared in a sudden burst of light. Touma wavered and fell. The others snapped out of their stunned stares, and rushed to him.

The next thing Touma knew, he felt himself lying in a bed. "Where am I?" he asked, opening his eyes to darkness.

"Touma, you're awake!" Toma heard Ryo exclaim, and felt him sit on the bed.

"Can you turn on the lights? It's so dark..."

"What did you... Oh..." He heard Ryo suck in a breath through his teeth.

"Gods, I don't know how to tell you this, but it's eleven in the morning."

"No" a soft moan, for now he could feel the warmth of the sun on his face. Then, “NO! I'm blind!!" Touma yelled.

End of Chapter 2 .....

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