It was the perfect day to relax at the lake behind the house and the guys and girls took great advantage of this opportunity, all dressing in their swimsuits and heading down to the waters edge the next morning.

“CANNON BALL!” Kento screamed as he jumped into the water, creating a huge splatter that soaked all of the unfortunate souls that stood around him.

Sage yelped. His once perfect hair now hung down to his shoulder blades haphazardly.

He growled, “Ken! One of these days I’ll--” He never had the chance to finish his sentence for Mia playfully shoved him into the water. Sage came up for air sputtering and glaring at Mia who stood on the dock laughing.

“S-sorry!” Mia stuttered between giggles, “It was just such a wonderful opportunity and AAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEE!” Mia was now submerged into the water thanks to Sage who had grabbed her by her ankle and pulled her in, smirking.

“Sorry,” he teased, “It was just such a _wonderful_ opportunity. I just couldn’t let it pass by.” She responded by splashing him in the face.

Ryo found a vine hanging over the water and grinned, swinging off of it while screaming like Tarzan.

Oriana grinned gleefully, “You Tarzan. Me Jane!” Before Ryo had the chance to move out of the way she swung on and let go of the vine, landing on top of him.

“Oof!” Ryo exclaimed surprised at the body mass holding him underwater. Oriana giggled and swam off of him.

Rowen was contently reading a book on the shore. Tamara pouted and watched him.

“Come on and get in Rowen!” Tamara exclaimed, “It feels great!”

Rowen shook his head no, “I prefer to stay dr--” He was cut off by a huge splash of ice cold water that hit him directly and soaked him and the book he was reading, “That’s _it_! You’re gonna get it TK!” he yelled mischievously.

Yelping, Tamara swam off in the opposite direction fast, gliding smoothly like a fish through the water. Rowen proceeded to dive in, intent on catching her. Trying to help Tamara out, Emi grabbed Rowen by his swimsuit as he went by her in the water so he couldn’t swim any further. He kept going though, but Emi still had his swimming trunks in her hand.

Cye burst into a giggle fit, “Hey Ro, buddy, you forgot something!”

Rowen turned around, momentarily forgetting about Tamara. He was feeling a bit…odd for some reason. That’s when he spotted Emi waving his swimming trunks around like a flag.

“Yoo hoo! Smuuuuuurf!” Emi yelled gleefully, “Lookie what I got!”

Rowen paled, “You’d better give those back Emi.”

Emi just smiled innocently and tossed them to Cye. When Rowen started to advance towards Cye to retrieve his precious swimming trunks, Cye tossed them to Kento who promptly tossed it back to Emi. This went on for quite sometime. Playing “Keep Away from Rowen” proved quite amusing amongst the three jovial participants. Rowen soon gave up on it and swallowed his pride.

“Ah, hell, keep the damn thing.” Rowen said, “I can swim without it.” He then proceeded to swim back over to Tamara’s direction planning on getting her back for splashing him.

Emi nearly fainted. He was going to skinny dip! She had always wondered if his hair was naturally blue. This would be a good opportunity to find out. Only she had to get an eyeful of the part of him that was underwater and that would prove to be impossible…or not. Emi grinned evilly, took a deep breath, and submerged into the cool water.

Oriana was laying on White Blaze, using him as a floatation device much to the tiger’s dismay. On land it was fine, but someone on his back in the water was another thing. Oh well, He’d put up with it.

Ryo swam up to the tiger and Oriana, whose eyes were closed. She looked to have complete sun stun. Smiling, he lightly scratched White Blaze behind one of his ears and watched Oriana.

She stirred and looked at him, “Do you always enjoy staring at people?”

“Do you always get pleasure from landing on top of people?” Ryo shot back recalling what she had done earlier, amusement dancing in his eyes.

“Only if that person is you.” Oriana chuckled, “Now move please, you’re blocking the sunlight.” When he didn’t budge, she spoke again. “C’mon Ye Olde Flame Retardant, Oriana needs her sunlight for she is pale and therefore needs to get a tan.”

“Why dost thou feel the need to tan? Ye is pretty when pale.” Ryo replied, smirking.

“Flattery will not work on me, Sanada. Move.” Oriana tried her best to sound serious as her heart was doing flip-flops in her chest.

Ryo grinned at White Blaze who seemed to understand what Ryo was telling him, “I think White Blaze here has other plans for you.”

Oriana was confused, what’d he mean by that? She found out soon enough after she was bucked off of White Blaze’s back by the white tiger and Oriana made a loud splash into the water below.

“GEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!” Oriana squealed, “You’re dead Sanada!” She then lunged after him.

Ryo moved out of the way quickly before she could grab him, “No, I’m very much alive thank you very much.”

Out of nowhere a mini version of a tidal wave walloped Ryo, sending him sprawling sideways into the water. Ryo came up for air spitting water out of his mouth and onto Oriana playfully then glared in the direction of Kento and Cye.

“Ew! Gross!” Oriana exclaimed, “Ryo saliva water!”

Kento smirked at Cye, “You were right, he’s not water resistant.” This prompted a splash war between the four. The two on two quickly turned into a fend-for-yourself match after Cye turned on Kento and dunked him and Oriana sent a spray of water in Ryo’s direction.

Tamara and Rowen were swimming around just chilling out and enjoying the nice afternoon when suddenly bubbles began to pop on the surface of the water and Emi popped up between them.

“Hi guys!” Emi chirped cheerfully, before pulling Tamara aside, “Guess what!”

“What?” Tamara asked, a bit reluctant to leave Rowen.

“He’s all blue!” Emi exclaimed, a hentai grin spreading slowly across her face.

“I know that just by looking at his hair.” Tamara answered, not quite getting the meaning of Emi’s words.

“Nono! You misunderstand, TK. He’s naturally blue…all over.” Emi wriggled her eyebrows and chuckled.

Tamara’s eyes widened, “You saw his--”

“Yup! That I did!”

“No way!” Tamara exclaimed.

Rowen swam over, “What’re you two being so secretive about?” Tamara turned beet red, Emi just grinned and said, “Oooh nothing.”

Rowen smirked, “Nothing huh?”

Emi was about to say something but Tamara dunked her underwater and said, “Nothing at all.” Emi resurfaced and knocked Tamara over into the water.

Rowen eyed Emi, “So, where’s my shorts?”

“Last I saw them, some huge fish mistook them as bait and ate it.” Emi grinned, obviously lying.

Rowen shook his head, “That isn’t scientifically possible, I bet you just wanted to see me in the nude.”

“She already has!” Tamara blurted, “And I’m jealous! I wanna see to!” Emi just continued to grin.

Rowen stuck out his tongue, “Too bad.” He then started to swim off in the direction of Sage, “Yo, Sage! Seen my shorts floating around anywhere?!”

“Last I saw, they were underneath the dock!” Sage yelled back. Rowen changed directions again and swam to the dock on search of his beloved swimming trunks.

Sage chuckled at Rowen then turned his attention back to Mia, “Hey Mia lookout! A shark!”

Mia screamed and jumped into Sage’s arms, “Where? WHERE?!” When Sage started to laugh uncontrollably, Mia slit her eyes at him, “You dolt, there aren’t any sharks in lakes.”

“But there are Alligators.”

Mia’s eyes widened then she realized she had been had again and whapped him in the head with her free hand. She squirmed to get out of his hold but he held her firmly. “Somebody wants some nookie.” Mia commented to Sage, winking, “And ya ain’t gonna get it.”

“Why deny me?” Sage asked, grinning, “You know you want me.”

“In your dreams Static Cling.” Mia shot back jokingly.

Staging disappointment, Sage gasped and said, “I think I will die of heartache.” With that, Sage fell backwards into the water with Mia still in his embrace who was now screaming from being dropped into the water.

“Ooh, Mia you’re all wet.” Sage commented to Mia, grinning, after they had resurfaced, “Do I really excite you that much?”

Mia rolled her eyes, but in good humor, and shoved him back into the water after answering, “Not nearly.” Her stomach growled and she headed out of the water to grab a bite to eat from the large picnic basket. Unfortunately, Kento had reached the picnic basket before her. That usually means no food left for her or the other Ronins. He was stuffing himself silly.

“Kento Rei Faun!” Mia barked.

Kento looked up at her guiltily with his mouth full, “Yeash Meeeia?”

“If I walk up there to find that you left no food for the rest of us, I’m going to stuff an apple in your mouth and roast _you_ for dinner!”

Kento looked into the picnic basket and paled, “Um…errrg…I’ll get everyone a pizza!” Thus he ran inside as fast as his feet could carry him. Upon locking the door to avoid Mia’s rage, he called Pizza Hut for a delivery. Who could imagine? The Ronin of Strength afraid of a woman. No one but the Ronins knew that her temper could get worse than Ryo’s if she gets ticked enough.

Meanwhile in the Nether Realm, at the absolute butt-crack of dawn Kayura and the girls had gotten up and were scheming what they were going to make the guys wear as they helped the girls, minus Kayura of course, clean.

“How about they wear maid’s costumes?” Venom suggested.

“Oooh yeah!” Crimson agreed, an evil glint in her eyes.

“But, that’s not nice.” Purple protested.

“Not _nice_?” Asa asked, “How is it not nice? I think Dais deserves to wear a little black dress and frilly apron.”

“ Same with Anubis.” Crimson snickered. “I can see it now. The former warlord of Cruelty doing my bidding while wearing a frilly maids outfit and holding a mop.”

“Or,” Kayura suggested, “Black g-strings and a bow tie?”

“Now we know what’s always on Kayura’s mind.” Purple stated laughing.

Kayura blushed, “Not always!”

“Sure Kayura, whatever you say.” Purple replied.

Suddenly Venom put on a pair of glasses, a hat, and held a tiny notepad and pencil like a interviewer, “The gold star question of the day is: Kayura, which ex-warlord do you want to make wild monkey lovin’ with the most?”

Kayura stuck her nose high in the air, “None of them.”

“Really?” Crimson asked, “I always thought you had a thing for Anubis.”

They’re more like four annoying older brothers than love interests.” Kayura answered.

“Good! Cale’s all mine then!” Exclaimed Purple, who was now dancing around gleefully.

“So, who _do_ you like Kayura?” Venom asked.

Avoiding the question, Kayura stated, “Aren’t we supposed to be coldly calculating the fate of the guys right now?”

“C’mon Kay! I wanna know!” Asa exclaimed.

“DON’T call me Kay!” Kayura yelled.

“M’kay Kay.” Asa snickered.

“Why I oughta! Come back here you brat!” Kayura yelled again.

Purple, Crimson, and Venom sweatdropped as Asa ran backwards trying to avoid the wrath of a ticked descendant of the Ancient’s clan and bumped up against something very hard…yet squishy…and breathing. It wrapped its arms around Asa trapping her.

“C’mon Kayura. I’ll hold her while you hit her.” Said the mystery person.

“Alright Dais!” Kayura chirped.

“Dais?” Asa asked, “Good morning Spider Dork.” Using a move that her older brother taught her, she bent forward and flipped a stunned Dais over her and in the direction of Kayura, “Finally those old wrestling moves my brother taught me came in handy.”

Laughter was heard from a nearby doorway, “That was nice but it won’t help you any here.” Anubis stood there, his arms crossed.

Sekhmet appeared beside him, “He’s right. That’s nothing compared to what we can do.”

Do I sense a wrestling match between the sexes coming on?” Purple asked.

Venom nodded gleefully, “I believe you do! Later on after we clean the place up, how about we have a wrestling competition outside?”

“And in mud!” Crimson said excitedly.

“Stay out of the gardens in that case.” Kayura said.

“Yeah! Like the Mud People from Woodstock ’99!” Purple replied.

Sekhmet raised an eyebrow, “Some ancient clan of warriors from your world?”

“You could put it that way, yeah.” Venom answered, snickering.

Cale had been lurking in the shadows ever since the girls’ earlier conversation, “There’s no way in Hell I’m wearing anything remotely close to what you girls are conniving. Besides, we don’t even have any stuff like that here.”

“It’s still fun to visualize ya’ll dressed in those ways.” Purple replied, a look of surprise on her face as he appeared with the group, her cheeks slightly flushed at the thought of him hearing her previous comment about him.

Crimson clapped her hands together, “Let’s get started! Dais and Anubis you two take care of the bathrooms. Sekhmet and Venom work on cleaning the lab. Cale and Asa you two start dusting and Purple and I will--”

“Objection!” Anubis interrupted, “Why’ve I gotta clean bathrooms?”

“Same goes for me.” Dais argued.

“Come on guys and suck it up.” Cale said, “Be a man and do it.”

“Well, _you_ don’t have to clean any nasty bathrooms.” Dais replied.

“Look who I have to work with though.” Cale answered, “El Spazzo chic over here.”

“Am I supposed to be offended?” Asa asked, poking Cale in the ribs, “Come on Wolverine Wannabe. We’ve got stuff to dust.” She drug Cale off, feather dusters in tow.

“Wolverine Wannabe? What the hell’s that supposed to mean?” Everyone heard Cale ask as they walked away from the group.

“I can see the resemblance.” Purple snickered, “I wonder if Cale and Wolverine could be related…”

“Poor ‘X-Men’ deprived man,” Crimson commented about Cale, shaking her head in pity, “One cannot live fully unless they know who the X-Men are. Gambit…” Crimson swooned then sighed dreamily, almost melting into a giddy puddle after saying the certain male X-Men member’s name, “I’d do anything for just a split second grab of his cute butt…”

Anubis gave her a funny look and then shook his head, muttering, “Women…”

“Hey!” Crimson replied, “Same can be thought by those of the male sex, it’s no different. I’m sure you have a huge collection of Play Boy magazines hidden in that library of yours somewhere that you fantasize over.”

“Hidden?” Anubis asked, “Ha! Why would I have any need to hide such beautiful art?”

Crimson dug around her pocket for a lighter and was delighted when she found one. She planned on finding those magazines and burning them when Anubis wasn’t looking.

Sekhmet rubbed his hands together, “Might as well start tidying up the lab, eh Venom?” He held out one of his arms for her to hold onto. Venom gladly accepted and linked one of her arms with his.

“Right-O Sekhy!” Venom stated, “After we finish it’ll be time to open up a can of W.A.! I’m gonna do a Stone Cold Steve Austin on yer ass.”

“Maybe I’d like that.” Sekhmet smirked as the two headed back to his laboratory.

Before Dais and Anubis had a chance to bitch more about their cleaning duty, Crimson grabbed Purple and the two of them raced off to find something to clean.

“Man,” Dais complained, “We got royally screwed over.”

“You’re tellin’ me,” Anubis replied, “I say we get back at Crimson for volunteering us to do the nastiest work.”

“Count me in if we can include Asa in that list,” Dais said, “That girl gets on my nerves.”

And so the two ex-Warlords went off towards the palace bathrooms, armed and ready with plungers in hand, all the while calculating the fate that soon will rest upon the two unsuspecting girls…

to be continued in next chapter...