Lucas shook his head. That wasn't what he had meant, but it seemed to get the point across. "I had meant escorting them out, just in case the cops are out there." he said casting a glance over at the Guardian and the Benefactor.
Guardian's head flew to the side and he shot his hand towards the Benefactor's wrist and twisted sharply, focus was all this battle would take. Focus and time, this was one fight he knew he couldn't win quickly.
The Benefactor's face didn't change its expression as the Guardian twisted his wrist. In fact it looked like he was enjoying the pain. But being on the side of Guardian also ment open attacks against his own person and the Guardians. Timing it right the Benefactor throw his knee at the Guardian's side, aiming for the ribs.
Sailor Amazonia slowly got up from the crater. Running wasn't her style. She figured that the Benefactor could throw his worst at her and it wouldn't poke through. No, despite how much she wished differently, she was a rock.
She was the Earth Senshi.
And she was a team player, too. So she went over to Mark and Lucas.
Mark shrugged. "Whatever works, man. If I was any of them, I'd tell me to stick it up my rear, personally. I'll gain tact, I'm sure...just give me time..."
He felt the ribs crack and simply let a rose form in his hand and slammed into towards the Benefactor's neck. Time would definetly be his ally and enemy here.
The Benefactor moved his head in time but the rose cut the side of his neck. The blood started to run down his neck. A slow smile crossed his face. His his other hand grabbed the Guardian and the Benefactor started to spin.
Sailor IronStorm burst through the doors in a battle frenzy, hearing the messages of soldiers rattling her brain as they shot options back and forth. But now was not the time for options. This time, IronStorm would attack first and ask later in retrospect, and in the quietness of the church sanctuary.
But now, two of the three least trusted people on her list were locked in mortal combat.
Without a thought to her safety, Sailor IronStorm rushed the duo and swung her poker back, then brought it swinging out and down, the red-hot end hoping to sear across a limb.
Earth Knight walked across the gym toward the other knights, slinging his claymore over his shoulder, broad side down. As he got near, he looked at them and said, "So what's the plan? What is going on?" He kept one eye on the fight, praying that it didn't get too close, but ready to swing his sword at, ... well, either one would be fine for him. He had no place for Guardian or this evil Benefactor.
Guardian focus his mind on one spot, using time honored techniques of retaining awareness and resisting diziness. He felt the heated metal tear across his calf and bit back the pain, this had to end.
Despite the force acting against him he pulled his feet towards his body and thrusted them towards the source of his spinning.
The Benefactor let go of the Guardian just as he hit him in the chest. Jumping back the Benefactor was a few feet away from Guardian and the Sailor Senshi that had attacked them both without thinking of the actions that would come along later. "This ends now. All of it," he hissed and then ran a hand long the cut of his neck. The blood on his fingers felt so good.
Licking his fingers clean of blood the Benefactor smiled. Taking out his sword he started to back up towards the doors of the gym.
Sailor IronStorm was about to lunge forward when the boot underneath began to slip.
Taking a step back in disgust, her eyes widened as she suddenly took notice of the monumental destruction in the gymnasium. Students crying, groaning, clutching their sides or other parts of the body where they had been attacked. In the middle of the floor was a rag-tag group of knights, with Sailor Amazonia joining them. Creation stood apart, separated it seemed by the amount of blood on the floor. The blood of the innocent.
Her breath caught in her throat as she looked back to the man who heightened her powers, just in time to seem him... revoltingly enjoy himself.
"Benefactor!" shouted Sailor IronStorm, her voice breaking with rage. "You will pay for your crimes against humanity! These unknowledgeable children you have killed, the death you have inflicted, and for what!? I knew you were wrong from the moment you created IronStorm within in my soul and took away the blessing of Jupiter! SHIN'NE!!" she screamed, launching the Iron Poker like a polevault.
The Benfeactor stopped and looked at Sailor IronStorm. He then watched the Iron Poker come towards him. A evil grin froming on his face. With a quick motion the Benefactor deflected the Iron Poker, knocking it out of the air.
"So you think I took the power you once had away from you?!" he growled. "Then I see. You do not like what I have given you?" he asked. "So be it!" he hissed and stabbed his sword in the ground. Taking hold of the handle he raised a hand into the air. Soon it started to glow red. As the red glow started to intensify it waved out in a circle around and away from the Benefactor. Going through walls and continuing out of the school. The only people it was affecting was the Sailor Senshi and the Knights.
Rikko soon noticed that his clothes were back to normal. He looked at his trench coat and then without much ado, schethed his sword into his jacket and then looked at the rest of the senshi. "This is not good...." he said simply. *What do you mean?* asked a familiar voice in his head. It was Keikko. Rikko had managed to suppress him better while he was with Master Kane, but part of it was from the link that they both had to the Earth Knight. Rikko's face simply turned white at his own affairs, and a few shades lighter as he looked on at his comrades.
Sailor IronStorm held up her arms over her face defensively as she felt a wave of warm energy wash over. She felt her hair being pinned back in place and a familliar swish around the ankles.
She gasped as she looked down and found herself to be Sister Noshiko again.
"Come on, Umino, we're going to help Jakurin!" said Ureshii abruptly. "The other senshi might be fine, but if we keep ringing her and she hasn't called then... Meet me outside in the front, we can take the bus to Juuban 12th Station and then go from there to the school."
Ureshii then ran back up the stairs, then made her way to her bedroom. Tudo was massaging his temples as he saw his daughter run pass his door.
"Uri-chan?" he called quizzically. "What are you doing??"
"Oyaji!" she exclaimed, stepping back out with a jacket on. "I... I need to find Jakurin. She hasn't come home yet. Please."
"I didn't pull you out of school for no reason. There's a murderer on the loose!" said Tudo in a firm tone.
"I-I'm not going alone. There's a boy downstairs. He's outside, waiting for me. He's going to help me. You've heard Jakurin and I talking about him, ne? Umino-san? And who said the killer is in the Juuban Districts at all anymore?"
"Hmph..." grunted Tudo, folding his arms over his meaty chest.
"Oyaji... please... even before adoption, I always felt Jakurin was a part of the family."
Tudo's head snapped up at that. "Adoption!! I completely forgot! She's been around so long and I did it so the social services wouldn't take her away...- hai! Hai! Go on and bring her home. Here, go downstairs and take one of our pizza cutters for self-defense-"
"Oyaji!"
"- just in case!" he continued, standing up. "If you need to go to the emergency room, use my credit card. Here, take my wallet!" he said abruptly, nervously fumbling for his leather fold. "In case you need a taxi or need to go to the hospital or-"
She kissed her father on his cheek and held his hands. "I love you. Don't worry... pray."
"Pray? What has prayer ever done for us?" he asked, surprised at Ureshii's choice of words.
Ureshii took the wallet and gave her father a tiny smile. "Prayer's a powerful thing I learned. It's kept us from going out of buisness, Oyaji."
Tudo huffed again as Ureshii took the stairs two at a time and raced across the resteraunt floor to meet Umino. Her father's wallet was in one hand, and a light blue crystal was in the other.
Mark felt a little strange, and looked down at his arms. He was clothed normally. Not transformed. "...yeah, that's definetely NOT good..." he quipped in a Leon Phelpsish voice, too confused to know what else to say.
The red energy washed over the stone Amazonia, standing in classic block position. Then after feeling like her internal organs were juggling themselves, her skin, hair, and clothes softened. With a look down, she saw she was only Dura Materyo now.
"No!" she cried. "What happened!?"
Umino sailed from the roof and hovered overhead Ureshii. "Forget a disguise and bus pass for me!" he said. "No time! I'll keep us low over the unused rooftops so we're not spotted!"
And with a swoop, Umino's four slender arms wrapped gently but tightly around her waist, and off they flew for Juuban.
"I warned you," the black cowled Guardian spoke, "to stay out of this. You should have realized that if the man gave you your abilities that he could just as easily strip them from you. Had you not interfered," his face turned toward Iron Storm, his eye narrowing beneath the blackness that concealed him. He kept his stature straight, his voice even though, "Had you not interferred you would have likely retained you abilities. You have much yet to learn."
He turned his stance towards the Benefactor. He kept his voice even by shere willpower, despite the urge to let the venom inside drip on them, "You have caused enough harm Benefactor. Leave now and we will wait until another day to discover who is the superior combatant."
The Benefactor's own red eyes gazed back at the Guardian. "That we shall," he said with a smile at the end. Taking his sword out of the ground the Benefactor bowed slightly. "Be seeing you all," he said. "Now I must 'visit' the other side of the conflict," he said with a laugh and teleported away.
Dura stood agog. Losing her Amazonia power was a big enough whammy. Losing her schoolmates was devastating. But the Benefactor's leaving her stuck at her excessive height and mass on top of all that... that took absolutely no class.
For want of the proper sounding board, she vented on Guardian.
"YOU BLOCKHEAD!" she shouted. "Why'd you let him go like that!? We shoulda all jumped him, and hog-tied him! Then batted the big ingrate around like a hockey puck, until he gave us our powers back!"
She looked around at all the wasted humanity. "And even if he didn't, he still has to pay for all this misery!"
Lucas looked at his hands, and clinched them slowly. "I never thought that it could have been gone in such an instant." he muttered. "Dura, there's nothing we can do now. There's nothing that the Guardian could have done either. Look at him. A few more hits and he would have been just like the rest of them." he said pointing to the blood bath at his feet. He nodded slowly to the Guardian. "Even though they don't show it we do appreciate your help. It seems that now you are the only one who can help humanity. If you need anything, please call on us. Even without powers we might still be able to help."
Michiru held her crystal tightly. ~Senshi!~ she cried out into it. The glow around her crystal slowly faded and it was no longer aqua in color, but a dull grey. "What has happened?!" she cried, cluching the crystal close to her body.
Guardian simply nodded, his voice even, "I let him go because I had no choice. If my leg not been sliced as it had I would have stood a better chance. Don't forget that not all of your identities are safe, the Dark Kingdom knows who some of you are and if they find out what just happened they will use it."
With that the dark cowled warrior turned for the fire exit and vanished thinking, *They and I have much to learn.*
Dura glared at Lucas. "Appreciate it? Look, Mr. Solo Stalker always took on the fight himself, and when we try to help he said 'stay out of it, you don't know what you're up against.' So I followed his advice to the letter," she said, and spread her arms. "And look what it got me! And us!" Near tears, she fingered her comm crystal, ready to have a nice, calm, relaxing nervous breakdown.
Mark shook his head. This was all crazy, but he had to at least try to give this a positive spin. He looked at Dura and Lucas, with a slight smile on his face. "Just take a deep breath, Dura. Relax. I can't say how... and I'm sure no one else can... but we WILL find a way to get our powers back, and until then, we'll also find a way to do our jobs..." His voice waivered a bit. He was plain old Mark again... what he had kind of wanted, and now he didn't know how to handle it.... and it had only been such a short time too.
Jakurin was still hysterical when she saw the red wave come towards them. She struggled, falling out of Elizabeth's arms and beginning to stumble down the hall to get away from it, her vision blurred. However, the trauma and wave overtook the fool, and she dropped like a rock as her transformation energy was ripped from her and her mother's antique opal that was shoved under her shirt. The communicator around her neck changed to a dull gray as she hit the floor on her knees then fell to the right, out cold, the phone tumbling out of her jacket and skittering across the floor, coming to stop against the body of another dead student.
Noshiko bit down on her lip so hard she tasted blood. The coppery smell was already offensive as she added to the pile, becoming a whirlwind of black fabric as she ran back through the doors she had come from, angry tears threatening to pour out from her eyes.
Ureshii gripped the crystal tightly against her as Umino and her lifted into the sky. ~Oh, Jaku-chan, what's happening?? Why can't you contact us? Are you in pain, Jaku-chan, are you awake and in pain???~
They weren't going fast enough, and Ureshii knew she was an added weight for the poor boy. He needed to concentrate on flying for himself, not worrying about her safety.
Deciding against Jakurin's warning, Ureshii breathed in deeply, scared and determined at the same time as she dropped her head, letting her mind go blank as she sought out the crystal's owner within.
Rearing forward with her leg then ramming back, she aimed a light kick at Umino's mid-section.
Jay looked down. Now he was just Jay, who killed for nothing. That was an unpleasant thought. "I'm going to be danmed if I don't get my powers back. Literaly."
"There's nothing we can do right now. We have to stop, relax and think this out. Why would the Benefactor do something like this? What can we do as normal humans to stop the Dark Kingdom." Lucas said calmly. "This is going to be hard to put behind us, but we have to if we...we're going to defeat these monsters."
"Hey, if you need my sword, I knew how to use it BEFORE I came here. If you need a fighter, I'll give my blade." said Rikko in his best mideval accent.
Like Ureshii, Umino was scared, but determined. True, his passenger wasn't as light as Jakurin, but he didn't care. He'd ignored the discomforting fatigue and focused even more fiercely: *You're an insect... you can carry several times yourself... speed up... get to Jakur--OUCH!*
His body shell took most of the impact, but shattered his focus. Fumbling, he saw Ureshii plummet for Tokyo below.
"NO!" he screamed, diving and not caring what hit him.
Ureshii felt the wind rushing past her, she knew she had succeeded before blacking out.
As she fainted, the crystal fell from grasp and enveloped her in a bright blue flash.
A few seconds later, a small green elf shrieked as she opened her eyes, flailing a bit as she grabbed the Light Blue Rainbow Crystal and halted her descent. Catching her breath, she quickly yanked off Ureshii's shoes, socks, and pants and rolled up the sleeves.
Zooming upwards she almost smashed into the Dark Bug and threw on the brakes, the crystal tightly enclosed within her green-skinned fist.
"Dark-Bug-chan!" she commanded, shoving the crystal into Ureshii's breast pocket and buttoning it shut. "Ahou-chan doesn't know how much kawaii time she has in this kawaii little form! Ahou-chan knows that the jester-chan is in trouble! Ahou-chan's gonna protect the kawaii senshi-chans!! Ahou-chan needs your kawaii help to do it! Ahou-chan needs you to show her where her kawaii jester-chan is!!"
Umino stood agog at the excessively cute floating minion. "Ureshii? This is your Dark Warrior...?" Then he snapped to the task. "Last I heard, she was getting transcripts at Azabu Juuban!" He pointed towards it. "Thataway!"
Lucas looked to Rikko. "Thats a very good point. All the knights know how to use their respective weapons. We might be able to use that to our advantage. The main thing now is we have to keep the enemy's target on us, not the senshi." he said seriously.
Dura looked down sadly at her comm crystal, amber no more, but dull grey. "Yeah, and with my size, muscle, and physical condition, I'm practically a supergirl in my own right." Then she snapped to. "Jakurin! Where is she?!"
And she dashed out the hall to find her.
Rikko noticed Dura dash out and remembered that Jakurin wasn't in the best of shape the last time that he saw her. He dashed after Dura and said, "Dura! You don't know where that Benefactor loon went! He may be ready to strike again by now!"
Elizabeth had followed Jukurin. "Jakurin!" she said as she finally caught up to her. She knelt down next to her and placed her head into her lap. "Don't worry Jakurin. I won't let anything happen to you," she said.
Umino cursed under his breath as he zoomed over the city skyline. Grateful for his unloaded arms and wings, he still wasn't flying fast enough. Finally his dreaded Alma Mater showed up. *Never dreamed I'd be glad to see this place again,* he thought sourly. Then he remembered why he showed up, and realized he wasn't.
Not caring who saw, he dove for the entrance, fighting the nausea from seeing all the corpses. "Jakurin! JAKURIN!" he cried. "Where are you?!"
Ahou-chan was red-hot behind him, dressed now in a red and pink nurse's outfit with a tutu and yelling at the top of her lungs, "Jaku-chan!! Jaku-...Bug-chan, look at all the unkawaii people, lying there!! What happened to the unkawaii people?!" she asked, then shrieked as a nun smacked into her at top speed, causing the two to crash hard onto the floor.
Ahou-chan cried as she wriggled out and her hand slipped out from under her.
The scared elf girl brought her elbow up to see that she had been scratched and was bleeding green, but the blood on her hands was red.
Ahou-chan froze in place, her eyes as big as saucers and turning into liquid. "...This... this is so kowai..."
Sister Noshiko had her own agenda running through her head when she collided with a small child, getting the wind knocked out of her as she made her way back to the shop she had entered in previously. She rose to her feet, her robe ripping as a student grabbed on for dear life. A garbled cry came from him as Noshiko quickly unzipped and left her robe behind, the crash also disleveling her hat.
The cap came off and Noshiko's auburn hair fell down around her shoulders and neck in soft waves as she ran for the metal shop.
Michiru kept yelling and cursing as a doctor came into her room. "What is all the fuss about?!"
Michiru landed a punch on one of the nurses' chest as another tried to keep her restrained in the wheelchair. "She just keeps shouting that she needs to go to school!" said the beleagured nurse, rubbing his chest and coughing.
"You're damn straight!" shouted Michiru, spinning in her wheelchair fast to take the other nurse by surprise. "My friends are in trouble and they need me!!"
The doctor sighed and gestured to someone out in the hall, another doctor who came in with a needle. "I wanted to work on therapy, Ms. Kaioh, but it seems you're too keyed up today. We'll put you to sleep and then release you into the custody of your parents for the day."
"Are you out of your f------ mind?! S-Shimatta!! Get your hands off me!! I have to go save them! They're lost without me!!!"
After a few more blows and moments later, a defeated Michiru sunk forward and the nurse pulled her out and replaced her on the bed. The group sighed as the doctor wiped his glasses. "It's nice to see a dedicated student, but there is SUCH a thing as going overboard."
Jay stood in a foul mood to one side. He was very unhappy about loosing his powers. And normal knifes and swords didn't work on Youma. The others were trying to make themselfs feel better. It didn't work on him. Then a thought struck him. "Crap...Michiru is out of contact. She'll need to know about this stuff." He turned to Jonas. "You're up Jonas. Time to play Michiru a little visit." Jay turned and began to leave.
Ahou-chan was sniffling and walking now, conjuring up bouquets of flowers and resting them on students' chests and heads. She made no sound other that the occaisional stuffy sniffle, but the tears poured down her green-skinned cheeks. "Student-chans..." she sobbed, wondering in her own little mind if Jaku-chan had met an unkawaii end as well.
Meanwhile, the Kaiohs took their drugged daughter home, while across town Sennyo Tudo wrung his hands and listened to the radio, all the while pricing tickets to visit America.
Jonas blinked at Jay. "Why me...?" He followed the shorter student. "Why me..? I have enough to do as it is!!" Jonas sighed. "Okay let's go...YOU are comming with me."
Umino followed, sick to his stomach. *Who... WHAT could have done this?* he wondered. He hated how quiet it was. He would've been grateful to see someone get up and say something, even if it was "Agh! There's a big bug here!", followed by a sprint away.
He saw so many students, many he'd forgotten since he'd been in hiding as the Dark Bug. He originally thought he would've been perfectly happy never to meet them again.
Now his wish had come true. He wished with all his might that it hadn't. Jakurin's head laid in Elizabeth's lap as Ahou-chan finally rounded the hall corner. The little elf girl gasped and held her tiny fists up to her cheeks as her eyes scrunched up.
"JAKU-CHAAAAAAAN!"
She zoomed over and was at Elizabeth's side. "Jaku-chan Jaku-chan Jaku-chan!!!!!" she wailed, conjuring up a heart and bow-tie printed cloth as she wiped at Jakurin's face. "Jaku-chan... Bug-chan... BUG-CHAN!!!" she screamed at the top of her lungs, standing up as the tears blinded her to the carnage, then she sat back down and tried to fix up Jakurin with kawaii bandages, regardless that another human was holding her.
Slamming the doors of the metal shop behind her, Noshiko paused as she passed towards the wall, and then began to shake as she sank downwards, the fabric being caught and ribbed on the concrete wall as she brought her knees to her face and started sobbing.
Hearing Ahou-chan's squeal, Umino zoomed like a missile to her. Then he spotted Jakurin in Elizabeth's clasp. He didn't know what Elizabeth would think of a huge insect coming in, and frankly didn't give a wet slap.
"Jakurin," he buzzed anxiously. "Jakurin Jakurin Jakurin. It's me, Umino. You're going to be all right. Your're going to be all right."
He kept repeating it over and over, trying to wish it true. Unable to concentrate, he tried to think of everything... anything, that an insect could do to help the healing. Bee's honey? Ants... aphids... no, he couldn't think of---
Then he saw the flies all around. They homed in on the corpses nearby, rubbing their feelers together, and drinking the blood. A few mosquitos took advantage of this, too.
Umino would've puked if his needle nose weren't so narrow. "You little maggots!" he shrieked. "Show some decency! CLEAR OUT OF HERE!!!" And in one bang, the entire insect population within three blocks of Azabu Juuban shotgunned outward and away in a mass exodus.
Dura fell down, bowled over by a swarm of flies. "Huh? Wha... what's going on?"
Jay sighed as they got on to the street. "Your her knight Jonas. Or was at least. She might like to see you while were telling her the really bad news."
Misa finally managed to stand up. She looked around, trying to make the dizziness go away. Had she really lost her powers? It looked like it... she felt different. " Who else is in here?" she shouted, hoping that there were not only corpses in that gym.
Ahou-chan covered her pointed ears at the force of Umino's yell. "Waaaaah, this is too unkawaii for kawaii Ahou-chan!! All the kawaii students are lying around in an unkawaii red pool-chan!!"
Jonas bowed his head, biting on his lip. "No i don't think we should tell her just yet... We have problems enough at the moment.."
Ahou-chan shrank back against Umino as Elizabeth addressed her, grabbing a feeler for comfort. "'Who... are you'?" she repeated quizzically and fearfully. Who was the girl holding her Jaku-chan?
"Kawaii Seventh Shadow Warrior, Ahou-chan," she said finally. "Kawaii Ahou-chan is here for her jester-chan!" she whimpered, eyes getting all big and watery.
Jay sighed as he walked dow the road. "Your an idiot Jonas. She must be freaking by now, cos she just lost contact with us all. Get lost if you want to keep her in the dark."
Jonas shook his head from side to side as he walked. "I don't want to do that, it's just I don't want to bear more bad news. I mean we've had enough as it is!
But then I suppose you are right," he added silently, -for once-, and was glad that jay couldn't hear it. He let out a sigh and slipped into his own thoughts as they walked. What would he tell her? How could he tall her? Should he let jay tell her and let her pummel him into mush? He grinned slightly at the last thought. Maybe not, he conceeded. He still didn't know where he was though, he streets a little unfamiliar to him. "Which way Bishop?"
Dura slowly got up. Then she remembered: Where the bugs were... there had to be Umino!
Remembering they were fanning out, she figured the Dark Bug sent them away. So she ran the way they came. And that was where she found her friends.
"Ahou? Umino?" And right down in the middle was the one that worried her sick: "JAKU!!!"
She rushed right up to her. "Jaku-chan... Jaku-chan... it's all right... Dura's here for you..." And Dura's tears flooded out.
Jay turned off down a street. "I'm more often than right Jonas. You just tend to ignore me. And you know, you can call me Jay. I mean, where both in the same boat."

---

What's going to happen to them? Purge ahead or run away?