Young Writers Society

Brittney watched as Kai walked up to her. "If it wasn't for Arachna's bad aim, you'd all be under my mercy right now," she said.

"Tell us everything you know about Tsurekin," Kai told her.

"Tsurekin?" Sean asked. "What's that?"

Kai looked toward Ryukin who was still holding down Arachna. Tala and Reiky went to his side to assist him if he needed it. "Them. It's what she called Ryukin and the others." He turned back to Brittney. "Now, tell us."

She looked at him for a moment, then began to laugh.

"What's so funny?" Skylar demanded.

"Do you honestly believe I'll tell you anything?" Brittney asked.

"You don't have a choice," Kai said. "We're not letting you go until you tell us everything we want to know."

"It won't take long for someone to notice I'm missing," Brittney said with a smile. "When that happens, you'll all be goners."

"And who are these friends of yours?" Kai asked. Just then a thought occurred, a scary one. "Do your friends have Tsurekin, too?"

Brittney stared directly into his eyes when she said, "A storm is coming, one that will threaten us all, and only the strong will survive."

Skylar walked over and looked down at her. "You won't have one if you don't start explaining it all to us. I'm pretty sure the three of them can easily get rid of your little spider."

"Ya, I doubt it." Brittney smiled smugly.

"Don't tempt me. I might let Tala do away with you too. She can dig a really deep hole, I've seen her do it before. No one knows we were to meet with you. YOu kept it quiet. We can all aliby ourselves. SO either start talking, or you get to watch your spider friend go first." She growled. S he didn't like this girl, but she didn't want to hurt her. The spider, well lets just say she wasn't found of spiders in the least little way and she wouldn't lose any sleep over disposing of a huge metal one.



(:S)

Brittney simply smiled at her. "You don't want to hurt me, I can see it in your eyes. You're just a scared little child."

That was it. That remark pushed Skylar over the edge enough to do what she had wanted to do all morning. She marched up to Brittney and punched her in the face. "I'm really getting sick of you."

"Such a temper. You know, it's not nice going around hitting people."

Sky clenched her fist. "You're right, it's not. Which is why I'm going to do it again!"

Kai and Sean both caught her arm before she could throw her punch. "Stop it, Sky! We're not getting anywhere like this," Kai told her.

Brittney smiled. "Yes, listen to the nice boy."

"Why you..." Skylar started grinding her teeth in anger.

"Please, Sky. Let me handle this," Kai pleaded. After a few moments, Skylar relaxed. Sean led her off to the side where she could calm down. He turned back to Brittney. "Now, are there others with Tsurekin like us?"

"I'll give you some advice," she said. "Leave now while you have the chance. If anything were to happen to me or Arachna, dire consequences would await you."

"Like what?"

"Did you honestly think I didn't plan for all of you showing up and beating me? We're not the only ones in this forest."

Kai's heart skipped a beat. "Who else is here?"

Something caught Brittney's attention. She looked past Kai and smiled. "Turn around and see for yourself." Kai looked over his shoulder to see a guy standing a few yards away. "You sure took your sweet old time, didn't you, Alex?"

(I'll let you describe this guy. You can make him look and sound like anything you want, but keep in mind he's going to be the tall, dark, and mysterious type. Okay? )

Skylar looked into the trees and Tala was at her side in a second. The guy that stepped into the light had shaggy black hair that nearly covered his coalbalt blue eyes. He stood a good 6 feet at least and wasn't stick thin, but deffinatly worked out.

"Who are you?" Tala growled low in her throat.

"Names Alex." He replied smugly. Skylar tensed up. Where was his Tsurekin? Did he have one?

"I knew that." Skylar replied. She narrowed her eyes watching him. What did Brittney and he want with them anyway?

Alex turned his attention back to Brittney. "The boss isn't going to be happy when he hears about your defeat," he said.

She glared at him. "Just shut up and get me out of here."

The newcomer sighed and shook his head as he walked toward Brittney and Kai.

"Stop right there!" Tala growled. She ran toward the guy, determined to tackle him to the ground. Alex merely glanced at her, lifted his arm, and snapped his finger.

A green and blue blur passed along her body. A large wound opened up along the side of her body, from her neck to her hind leg. She howled in pain as she collapsed to the ground. The thing that had cut her open was now standing beside her. It was the newcomer's Tsurekin.

The Tsurekin was a large preying mantis. It was green and blue, and stood at about half the height of its owner. It stood on four thin legs and had razor-sharp blades as arms, like a scimitar attached to each elbow.

It all happened so fast. One second Tala was charging toward the guy, the next she was on the ground writhing in pain with bits of her own metal littering the ground. Skylar's shock was so great it froze her in place. After a few moments, she finally screamed, "TALA!!!"

Ryukin roared. He jumped off of Arachna and rushed toward the man. Kai yelled, "Ryukin, STOP!!" but it was too late. Ryukin jumped at him. In a blur of movement, the new Tsurekin appeared underneath the dragon with its long bladed arm through his body.

The Tsurekin tossed Ryukin off to the side as if he were trash. Kai ran over to Ryukin, kneeling at his side. "Ryukin, say something!"

Alex shook his head. "What a waste." He pointed at Brittney and said, "Mantia, cut her down." The Tsurekin seemed to disappear, the re-appear beside the tree. The webs holding Brittney to the tree were suddenly ripped apart.

She smiled as she looked at the now defeated Tsurekin. "Arachna, finish them off."

"No," Alex told her.

She glared at him. "Why not? In this state their energy is ripe for the taking!"

"The boss only said to test their strength, nothing more."

"You're just going to let them go!?"

Alex gave her cold eyes when he asked, "Are you questioning his orders?"

She flinched. After a moment, she sighed and said, "Fine, we'll let them go...for now. Let's go, Arachna." Brittney and the metal spider walked off into the forest.

Alex went to follow her, but stopped and looked at Kai. "I'm telling you this for your own sake. Do not get involved. You and your friends will live longer that way." With that, he and his Tsurekin left.

(I know you were expecting something to happen when he showed up, but nothing like this, eh?)

***Nope. ***

Skylar ran her hand over Tala's head. She looked over at Kai and then Sean. "What do we do?" She asked as Tala stopped withering in pain and just laid there. Skylar wasn't sure she liked not having any movement from her. "Tala, are you ok?" There wasn't a response for a few minutes.

"Pain." She moaned.

"I know, you'll be ok. Maybe we can get them back to Gram. She'll think of something!" Skylar could tell Kai wasn't paying much attention as he tried to get a response from Ryukin.

"We're so ill prepaired." Sean said walking over with Rieky on his shoulder.

"We got to make sure their ok before we do anything else. I can't lose Tala." Skylar replied blinking away tears.


**How'll they move them?**

(Didn't think of that. I'm sure our characters' new friend who did this wouldn't have cared, though.)

"We'll wait for everyone to go back inside, that way we won't risk anyone seeing," Sean said. "I'll back my car up to the treeline, and we'll put one of them in the trunk and the other in the back seat."

Skylar nodded. After that they could bring them back to her house. "Help me with Tala, I can't lift her on my own."

"No," Tala said as she got up. Skylar could hear the motors inside her whining in the effort to move.

"Don't move, Tala!"

"I'll be fine," she said. "Go help Ryukin."

Skylar looked at Ryukin. Kai was lightly shaking him, trying to wake him up. "Ryukin, say something, please!"

Skylar bit her lip and then walked over to Kai and knelt next to him. "Lets get him to Sean's car." She said. She helped him carry the heavy dragon to the car and lay him in the back as Tala climbed into the back seat. Skylar winced everything time Tala groaned in agnoy. They all jumped in and Sean sped to Tala's house where they moved the two inside and to the living room.

"Gram? You home?" Skylar called as she looked at Ryukin. He had to be ok. Kai was still trying ot wake him.

"What are you doing home young la....What happened to Tala and who are they?" Gram asked walking in.

"There are others, they got in a fight." Skylar replied.

"Oh my. Well, how do you go about fixing one of these?"

"We don't know, we were hoping maybe you could think of something." Skylar replied as she glanced at Kai. He looked so upset and scared.

"Well now, your gramps loved engines and the likes. I'm sure we have some of his equipment here some where. These guys can't be much different." Gram replied looking around. "I helped him with some of it, not sure I'll remember any of it though."

"I think the tools are in the basement," she said.

Sean turned to Reiky, who was on his shoulder, and said, "Reiky, go help her."

"Okay." The little monkey hopped off Sean's shoulder and followed Skylar's grandmother to the basement.

Skylar sat down beside Tala, stroking the wolf's head and giving whatever comfort she could. "Don't worry, Tala. You're going to be okay."

"Of course I will. If anything happened to me, who would keep you out of trouble?"

That made Skylar smile. The pain must have been receding if Tala had enough strength to tease her. She turned to look at the wound. Tala had never been in this bad of shape. The wound was even worse than the one she got after stopping that car from hitting Skylar when they first met.

As she continued to look at the wound she noticed little bits of thread inside it. At first she thought it was the web from Arachna during their fight, but these threads were different. They seemed to have a feint blue glow about them. She reached down to touch one of them, but quickly drew her hand back when it shocked her. It didn't hurt or anything, the jolt of energy simply surprised her.

"Tala, what are these thread things inside you?" Skylar asked.

"Are they glowing blue?" she asked.

"Yes."

"They're what fixes me. Whenever I get hurt they always seem to appear inside the wound and slowly mend it."

Skylar had a thought. She went over to Ryukin, who they had put on the couch. Kai was kneeling beside him on the floor with an arm over the dragon's neck. Kai watched Sky as she tried to get a better look at the wound. The blade had gone all the way through, so there was an opening in his back. As she expected, there were more threads. The only difference was these ones glowed red. The color must have been different for each Tsurekin.

Skylar looked up at Kai. "He'll be fine. He just needs to rest. He's healing himself." She said as she walked over and put a hand on his shoulder. Gram came back up and looked at them.

"Any ideas as to what we do?" She asked.

"Maybe nothing." Skylar replied.

"They're healing themselves. Come look, these threads are slowly working everything back to the way it's supposed to be." Sean jumped in and said.

"But it might take a day or two for Ryukin, I'm not sure how long for Tala." Skylar replied walking over to her Gram.

"Alright, I'm not going to make you kids go back to school, but stay here until its normally over. Anyone want some cookies, I just baked them?" Gram smiled. Skylar smiled her thanks, she knew her Gram loved to cook.

Reiky came scampering in from the kitchen with a cookie in her hand. She jumped up onto Sean's shoulder and handed it to him.

"Reiky, what did I tell you about taking things without asking?" Sean asked.

"But you also told me not to be seen doing it," Reiky answered.

He smiled as he shook his head. Sean looked at Skylar's grandmother and said, "Sorry about that, she forgets these things."

"Oh, that's fine," she said. "I've made enough for everyone."

Kai didn't want any cookies. He just wanted to stay by Ryukin. He wanted the dragon to wake up, to at least say something. Skylar said he would be fine, but he wouldn't believe it until he heard Ryukin's voice for himself.

"...Kai..."

Kai perked up. "Ryukin, are you awake?" Ryukin's eyes, which had been absent of light, began to glow their usual yellow. He shifted his body a little, but made no attempt to get up. "Ryukin, how are you feeling?"

"I'm sorry...I failed..." he said.

"What do you mean?"

"I failed...to protect you..."

Skylar rubbed Tala's head as she saw something flash across Kai's face.

"You did your best. We weren't ready for that." She heard Kai said. Skylar laid on the couch that Tala was on and looked at Sean.

"Find somewhere to sit, we'll be here a while." She smiled. "The tv remote is over there." She wanted to give Kai some space, if Ryukin thought he didn't protect Kai, Kai would want privacy to maybe convince him otherwise.

"That was a stupid stunt you pulled earlier going up that tree." Tala said to her.

"But it would've worked if I stopped to think it fully through." Skylar replied with a smile. "You shouldn't have gone after that guy without knowing where his Tsurekin was first."

"Didn't know he had one." Tala replied with a small shrug.

"And look what happened because of your assumption," Skylar said. "Next time, don't assume."

Tala nodded, but didn't say anything else.

"You're right...we weren't ready..." Ryukin said. "He...beat us so easily...because we...we weren't ready..."

"Don't try to blame yourself," Kai said. "There's no way any of us could have been ready anyway. That Tsurekin moved so fast it became nothing but a blur. Let's just be thankful that no one died."

"That man...The next time we see...him and his Tsurekin...I will defeat them..."

"Lets hope we don't see them any time soon." Skylar said as she rubbed Tala's head. "I'm not so sure he won't kill them next time."

"Who was he. I've never seen him before." Sean said looking at each of them. "I mean Brittney, that's one thing. But I"ve never seen him. And who where they talking when they said the boss or whoever."

"There must be more Tsurekins around here. Alot, like there might be a whole group and one is the most powerful or something." Skylar shrugged. "I don't know, I just want these guys healed first."

"Me too. But we'll need to find out sooner or later and this training, we need to get on it faster. No trusting anyone out of this group until we know we're ready." Sean replied.

"Until then, I think we're going to need to think of a better way to train these guys," Skylar said. "I don't think pushing around rocks and running through the forest will be enough. I mean, you saw how fast that one moved, it was too fast for any of us to see!"

"Wait a minute," Kai said, recalling his conversation with Brittney while he was on the web. "Brittney told me how Tsurekin gain power before you guys showed up."

"And you believe her?" Skylar asked.

"It's worth a shot. I mean, it's not like we have anything else to go on."

"What did she tell you?" Sean asked.

"She said when two Tsurekin fight each other their bodies begin to leak energy. When one of them wins, it absorbs both the energy it lost, and the energy of its opponent. That's what makes it stronger. If our Tsurekin fight each other, it may make them stronger."

"So, what, you suggest we pit our Tsurekin against each other?" Skylar asked with a little threat in her voice.

"No, not like that," Kai said. "More like sparring, fighting for the sake of practice."