3.

... Before any of the rebels could as much as flinch, the dark figure engulfed itself in a dark forcefield, which then vaporized, and the fiend was gone.  His red eyes glowed for a split
second, and then too disappeared.
Heta looked around and asked, “Is everyone all right?”
Sammy looked at Heta as though she where from mars.  “RAI IS LYING ON THE FLOOR DEAD!!! HOW CAN EVERYONE BE OKAY???”
Heta looked sheepish and then ran to Rai’s assistance.  She looked down at Rai’s
bruised body, checking her pulse.
Meanwhile, Sammy was running around in small circles biting her wrists thinking that she would never talk to Rai again.  “WHY???” she questioned to the small insect beside her.
Heta, somehow knowing what to do, lifted Rai’s head and placed the damp rag
that she found conveniently hanging on the rocky wall onto her forehead, telling Sammi-chan, “It’s OK... I think she will be OK.  But we’d better take her to a hospital.”
Sammy nodded quickly said “yeah... hospital... let’s go.” Sammy looked around as Heta picked up Rai, and called out into the darkness, “Gadget Boy?... Caluna?? Ryoga??? MINI -CHI!!!!!!?????”  Her voice echoing throughout the area.
Heta, trying to get Rai-chan to a hospital as soon as possible, convinced Sammy
that the small replica and the others had probably already left and were waiting for them.
Sammy, still worried, muttered, “Yeah... I guess so... let’s get going.”

***

Meanwhile, in an immensely large, gothic room, lit with thousands of candles, the
dark forcefield reappeared at the end of a perfectly formed line of three other dark, red
eyes figures.  The forcefield vanished, leaving the flaming figure behind, as well as a much
frightened group of freaks, Mini-chi included.  The four weirdoes, being too frightened to
even blink, stood perfectly still, knowing what consequences there may be otherwise.
Just then a dark booming voice that seemed to come from every direction spoke. “You have done well Ferno-Kami.  Put your hostages in the dungeon.”
With nothing more being said, this new Kami headed down the tall spiral stairs, to
the dungeon.  Ferno-Kami open the bared door and threw the small chi and the others into
the gloomy cell, making sure that the bars on the door to the cell were close enough together so that the small runt could not escape.  He then closed the door and two guards promptly stood in front of it.  As Ferno started walking back up the stairs, he paused and his eyes very quickly glowed a gentle shade of blue, but he continued on his way.

***

Back at the hospital, Rai-chan was just re-gaining consciousness. As she opened
her weary eyes, the first thing that she saw was a considerably zoomed in view of Sammy
hovering over her.
Sammy gasped with joy and jumped for joy.  “You’re not dead!!!” she squealed as
she pulled up a half sleeping Heta from the hard hospital chair.
Heta, being almost as unstable as Rai at the time, slowly opened her eyes to see
Rai-chan awake and well.  Her eyes popped open and bugged out for a few seconds.  She
neatly stuffed them back in and screamed, “YOU’RE OKAY!!! WWWWEEEEE!!!!!!!” She was obviously still half asleep, but her enthusiasm was much appreciated.
After both Rai-chan and Heta-chan where wide awake, Sammy delivered the 
bad news.  “You know back on the roof... with that demon?  Well... Caluna, Ryoga, Gadget
Boy, and my Mini-chi have gone missing and we’re afraid that that beast took them!” she
snorkeled as a tear ran down her cheek.
Rai gasped in astonishment *GASP* “Oh no!  We have to go and get them back... somehow... but where are we going to look?  We have no idea where that freak took them!”
“I don’t know...” Heta replied, “... but  I’m getting depressed in this small room... now that you are OK, I’m sure that they will let you out.”
Rai nodded  and got out of her sterile bed.  She dressed herself and walked out the
door, ignoring the angry looking doctor that was running after them.
Having just obtained her license, Sammy-chan hopped in her car and took off. Rai-chan and Heta-chan looked at each other, and then at the vehicle that was rapidly making it’s way towards the horizon.  They saw it come to a screeching halt, and then reverse.  Sammy chan looked at the two and screamed, “get in the car... let’s ROLL!!!” 
The two rather frightened chans reluctantly made their way into the automobile, and
promptly  fastened their seat belts... tightly.
“Where exactly are we going?” Heta asked.
“How about we go to the park, and try to figure out where our friends have been taken!” Rai-chan decided, not being able to think of anything better to do as usual.
“OK... um... here we are...” *SCREECH!!!*
The Sammy and the other two queasy heroes stepped out of the death trap... err... car... and walked over to a vacant pick-nic table to sit down on something that wasn’t moving around like a bucking bronco.  “How are we ever going to find everybody?” Rai questioned.
With those words, and a BIG puff of smoke, four dark figures appeared in front of them.  One of them they had seen before.  He had flaming hair and was quite ugly.  The other three where quite handsome though.  One of them had vines that were wrapped around his body, another had skin that seem to be made of liquid, and the last one, the leader, was hovering lightly above the ground.  “Let us introduce ourselves,” the floating one began, “I am Thermo-Kami.”
“I am Ferno-Kami.”
“I am Aqua-Kami.”
“And I am Terra-Kami... and we are the Kami-Kazi.”
“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH THE OTHERS!?!?!” screamed Sammy-chan.     Ferno-Kami stepped forward and chuckled, “Don’t worry about your friends; they
will be safe for the time being.”
“WHERE ARE YOU HIDING THEM?” Sammy was growing impatient.
“You will find out soon enough... we will meet again.”
The four figures began to glow, turning themselves into a ball of pure energy and flying off to a building in the distance, leaving behind a small, neatly gift-wrapped package behind. Heta, loving presents in any form rushed toward the box and began to open it. 
Rai screamed, “NNNNNOOOOOO!!!!!!!” as Heta opened the flap.  A small animated
explosion came from the box, turning Heta’s face black.  She looked angry, and felt very
stupid.  The other two began to chuckle, and then started rolling on the ground laughing.
“This isn’t funny!!! They got away!” Heta yelled, all upset-like.
“Well, where did they go?” Rai snapped.
“I don’t know... I just saw them fly off into the distance! WE’LL NEVER FIND THEM!” Sammy pouted.
“Ferno said that we would meet again... so we probably will... somehow.” Heta
shrugged.
“I guess we’ll just have to wait and see...”

***

In the dungeon cell, Mini-chi was trying to think of an idea. Gadget Boy kept saying unintelligible things that weren’t helping anything, and Ryoga and Caluna just sat in the corner moping.  Mini-chi jumped in the air, “I’ve got it!!!”
“What is it?” Gadget Boy looked confused.
“We can use all of our powers and send them a message telepathically!”
“We can’t do that!”
“I can..” Mini-chi stuck her tongue out, “...but I will need all of your help.  Here... everybody get in a circle and hold hands.”
The other three did as the small thing said, and closed their eyes.
“OK” Mini-chi began, “Everybody concentrate REALLY hard about where we are”
*concentration*
    
***

“OH MY GOSH!” Sammy yelled as she put her fingers on her temples.
“What is it???” Heta scratched her head.
“I can hear them!”
“Not those silly voices again!” Rai rolled her eyes.
“No, it’s Mini-chi and the others!”
“Really???” Rai-chan looked shocked.
“Yeah... they are in someplace dark with a lot of candles.”
They all thought about it for a while and then Rai shouted, “I KNOW WHERE
THEY ARE!”
“Really?  Where?” Sammy opened her eyes.
“They are at............ The CANDLE FACTORY!”
“But that place has been closed for 7 years now!  And it’s so far away! AND it’s
on top of Mt. Void!”
“That HAS to be where they are... I’m SURE of it!”  Rai looked determined.
“It’s very dangerous up there... but our friends are in danger... let’s go!”
The three girls hopped in the car, and head off to the jagged peaks of Mt. Void...

"All-right! South to the candle factory!! Don't worry, Minichi, we're on our way," Sammi vowed softly as she sped at 120 miles per hour down the freeway; "Night on Bald Mountain" playing loudly on the CD. 
"...h-h-hey.. Sammi-chan....?" asked Rai shakily as she watched the scenery fly by the window. "Are you sure you should be driving this fast.....? 
"Don't worry, Rai-chan, I am a good driver. really. Just stick your head out the window to get some air and you'll be good as new!" Sammy said enthusiastically, pressing on the gas further. Rai-chan rolled down the window and poked her head outside. The wind power nearly ripped her head off. Her eyes nearing the back of her skull, tears streaming, and cheeks flapping wildly in the wind, she tried to relax. It wasn't really that relaxing. Everything was flying by so fast that she could only make out certain objects from the blur. A cow here, a large menacing semi there, a warning sign for the Canadian border...... Rai-chan quickly yanked her air-blown head inside the car in a panic. 
"SAMMI! WHY ARE YOU HEADING TO CANADA?! THE CANDLE FACTORY IS THE OTHER WAY!!!!!" she screeched at the top of her lungs. 
*screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeech* Sammi's foot dropped upon the brake instantaneously. The incredible inertia power then prevailed over Heta-chan and Rai-chan and smashed them both through the front windshield onto the road. Sammi stared, wide eyed, with an enormous sweat drop on the side of her head. 
“Oh my God…I just killed my friends!” Sammi-chan quickly exited the car and rushed to her friends sprawled upon the pavement. 
"You guys OK? Speak to me?! Rai, Heta?! I'm so sorry!" she spoke briskly. Heta managed to utter "....pain...much.. pain.." before she passed out again. "Oh shoot!! I have to wake them up somehow.... I hope this will work." Sammi muttered as she gently let some of her chi flow into her comrades. 
Both began to slowly blink their eyes and then sat up. "Sammi-chan, ........how bout from now on...you stick to the speed limit, huh?" Heta grumbled groggily. 
"Hehe....sure thing, Heta-chan. I am reallllly sorry you two." Sammi apologized, blushing while she helped her friends into the damaged car and drove back in the right direction, the wind blowing right in their faces. Several minutes later, Mountain Void began to come into view. 
"All-right everyone, it’s, "make a quick plan and hope it works" time," Rai said gravely. "Sammi can lead us to where mini-chi and the others are, but I doubt we will be able to rescue them without a fight. 
"From what we saw of Ferno-kami, and how he zapped Rai-chan; this is going to be a hard fight." observed Sammi-chan. 
"If they're that tough, maybe we should all gang up on them?" suggested Rai-chan 
"That wouldn't do any good. Since they are kamis of each element, I wouldn't be able to help Rai at all if I shot aqua-kami with one of my water attacks." added Heta 
“Ok, so I guess we will…. 
“Therefore we all need to split up. Each of us must go against our opposite elemental enemy to fight, because fighting against the same element will not work.” Heta interrupted. 
“I think we got the idea, Heta-chan.” Nodded Rai-chan. 
I know this because water against water does no damage. Same as with fire against fire and electricity against air elements.” 
“OK!, So we go against our opposite Kami! Shuddap!,” snorted Rai-chan again. 
“My opposite would be Ferno-Kami since I am water and he is fire. Rai-chan, you will fight aqua-Kami since you are electricity and the opposite of water. And Sammi you will…...” 
“Why the hell do you keep repeating the same thing in different ways?!” whined Rai exasperated 
“Arrrggg can’t moovvvve….feet…..stuck…to….floor…THIS IS A JOB FOR A TWENTY!….oh sorry stuck in anime “explain all obvious details” again. 
Rai still looked a little annoyed but continued on anyway. “I guess we will take on the leader together after we crush the others. 
"How are we gonna get in without anyone noticing, Rai?" Sammi asked, still trying to stay in contact with mini-chi. "They already know we are coming, so it won't be easy." 
"hmmmmmmmmmmmmm....." Rai-pondered "There would have to be some old water pipes that were used to cool the wax. We can buy ourselves some time by sneaking in through one of those." 
"Turn left here, Sammi. The pipe should drain out into that river over there." Pointed out Heta-chan. 
After Turning right and then making a dangerous U-turn the other way, the three girls hopped out of the car and wadded into the ice-cold water and climbed into the rusty antiquated drainage pipe. Fortunately, it was big enough so that they could stand upright. Unfortunately though, the pipe was filled with spiders and ankle-deep mud and wax. They trudged through the filth into the darkness. The only light they had was from the holes in the ceiling where the metal had rusted so badly that it had decayed. 
"EEeeeek! Get it off me, get it off me!!!" Heta yelped in fear. 
"What is it? Are you hurt, Heta-chan?" Sammi asked in concern. 
"Nooooo, there was a really nasty spider!!!" she said, shivering in disgust. 
"You're so pathetic! Scared of a little spider?" Rai smirked. 
*grrr* "Thank you for your concern *Rai*" Heta spat as she shoved the unsuspecting girl into the mud. 
"EEEEEEeewwww! Heta! How could you?! I can't go into a fight like this!!" Rai screamed while wiping the mud off her face. 
"Now who's being pathetic? Hahahaaa!!" Heta gloated. Before long though she got a ball of mud right back in the face, thrown by an angered Rai-chan. 
"Aaaaaack! That got in my mouth!!! Now you're really askin for it!" The two furious girls went at it. Mud ball after mud ball flew in anger until they were stopped by a strange melody. 
"DO THE HUSTLE!! doo doo doo, do do doo dooo doo doo...." sang Sammi-chan happily, doing a little dance, making a little love, and over all, getting down tonight. 
"....Sammi, what are you doing?!" Heta and Rai asked simultaneously. 
"I'm doing the hustle!" Sammi chirped "Mini-chi has been singing it in her head for the last hour and I the music touched my soul. 
".....ok... We better get going; we've wasted too much time already. Heta, will you wash this mud off me?" Rai sighed quickly letting her crack-whore complex go. 
Heta and Rai apologized as they cleaned up and then headed back down the pipe. 
"There's the opening!" Sammi whispered. They crept out the end of the tunnel and into a large empty room. The metal walls were gloomy and covered with a pungent mildew that deadened the senses. The trio quietly moved towards the only exit of the room and opened the creaking door. When the door was fully opened they were almost blinded by the contrast. The dark and musty drainage room lead into a regal throne room. The floors were done in a black, but sheen marble. Rich red tapestries lined the gothic walls cluttered with jeweled encrusted gold light fixtures. At the far end of the majestic hall was an imposing throne flanked by two torches with a mysterious black fire. The chan's awe was interrupted by a booming voice from the right side of the room. 
"Do you like what we've done with the place? It is so much homier now don't you think. But really, I'm disappointed in you three. We expected you all much earlier. Did you get lost?" The leader of the Fna lackeys, Thermo-kami said in a mocking tone. Behind him were the three elemental kamis of fire, water and earth. 
Sammi blushed but soon got her courage back. "Let's skip the small talk and the insipid villain clichés and get to the inevitable!" 
"I couldn’t have put it better myself. Follow me ladies." Thermo-kami smirked. With that, the kami-kazis stepped back through the door chuckling. 
"Should we follow?" asked Heta, not at all happy with the turn of events or the annoying evil chuckling. 
"We have no choice, to get to the others we are eventually gonna have to fight these guys." Rai said matter-of-factly as she lead her group after the kami-kazis 
The room through the second door was even odder. It was completely bare except for three other doors, excepting the one they came through. Each one of the three doors had an elemental sign upon it. The girls were just able to see the water, earth, and fire elementals slipping behind the doors as they entered; except for Thermo-Kami who was standing in the corner, a little flustered. 
“Are we to fight you first!” Heta yelled combatively 
“Actually…no. I forgot there is no exit in this room. And I started out so dramatic too.” He said sadly and quickly rushed out the door. 
Rai looked at little confused at the situation and wondered why the building code didn’t include a fire exit, but then realized that it was useless information because the author just forgot to write in the fourth door and was too lazy to go back and change it. She turned to her fellow warriors and wished them luck "I guess this is it. See you guys in a bit; good luck, Heta-chan, Sammi-chan. 
"No problem, Rai-chan. I am in the mood to kick some butt!" Sammi smiled. They all separated to their adversary’s door and stepped through. 
********************************************************* 
A gust of heat hit Heta-chan's face as she opened the door. The massive door slammed behind her, sealing her in with the intense tepidity. The vast chamber had massive coals for a floor and innumerable amounts of torches lining the walls. The entire room seemed to glow with heat except for the parts that had disintegrated into a black chalk. Ferno-Kami stood at the opposite of the corridor nonchalantly juggling balls of fire. 
“Welcome to my humble abode, Heta-chan. Hope it isn’t to hot in her for you.” He smirked. 
Heta whirled her hands around her while saying a few magic phrases. Ice flew from her palms as she spun around, encasing a large area around her in a frigid glass. 
“No, not at all, Ferno-kami; but thank you for asking.” She replied smugly watching her enemy’s face contort in surprise. “You’re right to be scared; now, if you tell me where my gadget boy and Caluna are, I won’t turn your house here into a refrigerator.” 
“I would love to see you try. Prepare to burn in hell, literally.” Ferno-Kami retorted, regaining his stance. 
“We’ll see about that!” Heta yelled firing a water attack. He easily responded with a blast of is own turning the rapid water into steam. She tried again by flinging shards of ice at him; but a fire shot from the not-very-nice man’s hands and once again melted her weapons. 
“This is too easy!” Ferno-Kami laughed loudly. “I was expecting a real struggle from a rebel of Fna, and instead they sent a little girl tossing ice cubes! Haaahaaahaa!” 
Heta clenched her teeth in anger. This bastard had it coming to him. 
“How do you like these *ice cubes*!” She then blew a sheet of glistening ice around the whole room, extinguishing the oppressive flames; hoping to weaken his abilities. Ferno-Kami growled with irritation soon afterward manifesting a cluster of flaming embers. With a ferocious shout they swirled randomly around the room, igniting everything in sight. Heta-chan frantically dodged the darting debris and the occasional spurt of flame from the impacts. A shriek of pain was forced from her lungs as two of the flaming shards pierced her in the side of her abdomen and her arm. She pulled the embers from her body and held down the bleeding. The searing pain was growing more overwhelming by the minute. To buy some time to recuperate a little she sprayed an attack akin to “Mercury bubbles” cloaking the room in clouds and drew tow deadly looking daggers from her belt. And as an extra precaution, she tossed a tiny but really high-tech looking microchip to the far side of the room. 
“You’re hiding?! Some warrior of Fna you turned out to be!” Ferno-Kami randomly threw fireballs around in disorientation. 
“I’m right here Jack-ass! Come and get me!” A voiced yelled through the fog. 
He turned and saw the blue-clad girl sticking her tongue out at him defiantly. Determined to give that girl what she had coming, he ran forward and reached for her throat. Instead, he ran straight through her image and heard a small “crunch” under his boots. A second after he thought, “oh shit! A hologram!”, the real Heta’s arms were felt squeezing tightly against his windpipe. 
“Tell me where the hostages are and I’ll let you live!” she uttered coldly, pulling her arms around his neck tighter. 
“In your dreams rebel freak, they’re as good as dead.” He strained. She brought the icy daggers up the side of his throat and prepared for the strike. But he saw it coming and grabbed the end of the dagger. Intense heat rushed through the dagger and burnt her hand. She jumped back in surprise cradled her hand. Ferno-Kami wasted no time and let loose another arsenal of flaming embers that Heta was barely able to avoid. 
“I’ve gotta do something stronger.” She thought disconcertingly, “maybe that trick Rai-chan did!” Heta froze a water shield around her to give her time to complete the spell. While Ferno-kami mercilessly assaulted the protective guard, Heta began to draw all her powers of water and ice together. While screaming her battle cry a lengthy sword appeared in her hands. It glimmered with endless shades of azure and sapphire. The blade edge of the sword was of pure, sheen ice, sharp enough to draw blood from the slightest touch. She looked upon it with a triumphant smile. Then, with a powerful strike, she shot the edge of the sword through her icy amour directly in Ferno-kamis's torso. He roared in agony and fell to the ground cursing. Without hesitating, she raised the weapon for a final blow. Her strike was interrupted in midair when Ferno-kami began to pulsate with an overpowering heat that knocked her off her feet. 
“I was just having fun before; but this ends now!” Ferno-kami bellowed as he climbed to his feet, still nursing his wound. Heta-chan immediately sliced at him again with the blade while she cast an ice assault. He was able to stop the sword from hitting him with his hand but the shards of ice relentlessly gashed his face. He stepped back in agony to pull the ice from his eyes; which gave her enough time to get to her feet and retreat to the part of the room which she had frozen earlier. 
“You’re right Ferno-kami. This does end now!” Heta screamed while shooting a powerful water attack. Still blinded by the ice shards in his eyes, he took the full power of the blow. Then rushing toward him with the icy blade still in hand, she raised it to destroy him. Ferno-Kami shot an explosion of fire at point blank range, knocking her across the room. Her head bashed against the wall and she crumbled to the floor. She tried to stand up again but her muscles would not react. 
“You little bitch, Your weak attacks are only nuisances to me! Look what you did to my face!!” He roared in anger. 
“Now you’re even uglier; didn’t know it was possible.” Heta replied weakly. 
Ferno-Kami growled at her in disdain. Then, disregarding the insult with a laugh he walked the few feet over to her sword and crushed it under his feet. Heta was really beginning to hate this guy. While Ferno-Kami chuckled at his feeble opponent, she pulled a tiny blue vial from behind her ear and tossed it at Ferno-Kami’s feet. It exploded in a dizzying blue swirling haze. She listened to him choke and hack and waited patiently. After a few moments the room became silent and the mist cleared. Ferno-Kami was encased in an ice tomb, his expression of rage still visible through the frost. 
“That was for breaking my sword.” Heta scoffed, turning to walk out the door. A low rumble behind her stopped the girl in her tracks. She circled around to see the destructive elemental radiating a deep red from inside the frigid glacier. Gasping in horror, she was thrashed backwards as the ice encasement exploded violently. Coughing remains of frozen water out of his throat, Ferno-kami once again regained his fighting stance. 
“oh my God…you should be dead…..!” panted the still incapacitated warrior. 
“Hmmmm..a combination of suspirostillicidium and glacialisletum. Frozen Death” He said, picking up the broken vile. “I thought only Fna was capable of making such weapons. You’ve even improved on it, I see. Very clever, Heta-chan.” Still convulsing from the ice in his lungs, Ferno-kami banished his look of non-enthusiastic admiration and replaced it with a regard of vengeance. 
“Time to die, rebel of Fna.” With that, Ferno-Kami ignited an eruption of fire at the helpless girl. Heta-chan writhed in pure pain as the flames enveloped her body. Even with her piercing shriek of torture echoing of the walls, Ferno-Kami did not let up his lethal attack until she fainted of the extreme pain. 
************************************************************** 
Sammi_chan strolled through the wooden door. It led into what look like an endless rainforest. Leafy vines were entangled all over really nifty looking. Sparkling waterfalls cascaded at every turn,. Tropical bird flew about wildly and flowers of every color imaginable sprung from the earth. The room was immensely large and bordered of by lime stone cliffs. Sammi-chan’s eyes grew big and sparkly while she looked around the colorful paradise. 
“Ok, now that you’re here, lets get this over with; I have rhododendrons waiting.” Terra-Kami remarked coolly, tending to a bed of flower. 
“whoa, I never thought a Kami of Fna would be into flower arranging?!” she commented, suppressing a giggle. 
Terra-Kami’s face reddened with annoyance. “IT’S NOT FLOWER ARRANGING!! Why does everyone say that?! My flowers are deadly weapons!!” 
Sammi, surprised by his reaction, burst our laughing. “There’s nothing wrong with being effeminate. Be proud!” 
His face twitched oddly as he growled loudly. “Fine! I’ll just have to show you the true strength of flower power!” 
“You go girl!” 
“SHUDDAP!!! Let’s see if you still will mock me after you have a taste of my skill. MARTIAL ARTS, ANYTHING GOES FLOWER ARRANGING TECHN…” 
“Oh, so it *is* flower arranging!” Sammi mocked smugly. 
The vine-covered boy blushed even more and glowed red with anger. Taking a shiny red rose from out of nowhere, he threw it at Sammi’s heart with such deadly force and speed she did not even see it coming. Suddenly a small family of white Bengal tigers romped playfully out of the dense forest behind Terra-Kami. With a chirp of delight, she rushed forward avoiding the deadly rose. She gently threw her arms around one of the tigers and began to scratch the back of its head. The large feline gladly accepted the affection and rubbed his head against hers. 
“Hey! Mr. Bigglesworth is *my* pet! Mr. Bigglesworth!! Stop playing around and go for the jugular!!” He whined, flailing his arms in the air. 
Ignoring him Sammi continued to tell the cubs how pretty kitties they were and rubbed their bellies lovingly. 
“Will you please stop that! I want to get this fight over with, I have better things to do that watch you play around!” he ranted loudly 
“How can you even fight in such a beautiful place?!” she asked looking around “With all these wonderful trees, flower, and kawaii animals, I don’t understand how you can have any unpleasant thought at all!” 
Terra-Kami could see that he was getting nowhere. Then with a strike a genius, he rudely kicked one of the tiger cubs much to the dismay of the mother and Sammi. 
“How could you!? A poor defenseless cub!” she wailed as she gently held the injured kitty in her arms. 
“Now will you fight me, freak?!” 
“Fine! If that’s what you want, you got it!” she was quite bellicose now. 
“Good, now the rul……” Terra-Kami began before his face was torched by wave of fire from Sammi-chan’s hand. 
His two large eyes blinked from behind the blackened mess that was his head. “We haven’t started yet, fool!” he yelled, now also very bellicose. 
Sammi stated a simple “sorry” and let him continue on. “what I was going to say that there are no rules, so anything goes.” 
“How dare you use the techniques of great anime for evil purposes! Prepare to receive my might blow!” 
The fight began. Terra-Kami materialized vine whips in his hands and Sammi reached for the Katana strapped to her back. Vines rushed toward her with snake-like movements and tried to tie themselves around her limbs but were sliced down by her sword. Tenaciously, the evil elemental Kami kept reproducing the tangling vines. Sammi thought she was beginning to wear her opponent out, but unbeknownst to her (but beknowst to us) a tangling vine sprouted out of the earth behind her and began to inch forward. I wrapped around her ankle and jerked her off her feet. She fell hard to the ground and lost her tight grip on the hilt of the sword. As she desperately struggled with the aggressive plant’s death like grip on her leg, the adversary screamed “Stinging Nettle Breeze!” Sammi turned to see at cloud of insanely enlarged version of stinging nettles fly straight for her. A huge leaf above her was grabbed and used as a shield against the painful missiles but it was a weak protection. Although some of the poison shards were blocked, a great deal of them ripped apart the leaf and embedded themselves into Sammi-chan’s body.
“OWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!! That really hurts you bastard!” Sammi cried. 
“Then let me put you out of your misery!” another cloud of stinging nettles were manifested over his head. They still were no match for a fire blast from Sammi; and fell to the ground in a crispy pile. 
“Do you think barbecued nettles would taste good?” she asked curiously 
“They might, if all the poison was burned off.” He responded. They both dove for the crispy pile and shoved a handful in their mouths soon the spit it out from the foul taste. 
“I just not, oh well.:” sighed Sammi. And then the battle continued. 
“time to get serious!” Terra-Kami shouted. Once again he willed the snake-like vines from his palms but this time caught Sammi unawares. She was bound head to foot and was unable to move. Flexing her muscles against the plant was only met with a tighter grip. Soon her strength gave out and she began to get crushed by the powerful weeds. 
“Give up all-ready?” jeered the evil boy. 
“just…started….” She strained. Then with a flare of her red aura, an intense white flame flew down through the constraining vines to Terra-Kami and exploded in a bright flash. With her restraints burnt to ash, a slightly singed Sammi fell to the floor. Her attacker lay withered and twitching violently a few feet away. Katana now in hand, she walked over to his side and raised her sword high. 
“Sorry, It looks like I’ll have to put *you* out of your misery.” She whispered sadly. The Katana was suddenly ripped from her grip violently from another vine from behind; and then tossed into the lake. Sammi quickly backed away from the sizzling body and let a wave of fire rush from her soul at her enemy. Screaming painfully loud again, Terra-Kami rolled over to the lake to extinguish the flames on his body. When he rose out of the water again he was dripping with masses of seaweed like plants and a beyond enraged look on his face. 
“THAT REALLY HURT DAMN IT!!!” he bellow with water spurting out his mouth at every word. 
“….that …..was the…point…” she giggled nervously. His fearsome gaze was quite disturbing. More disturbing than a really fearsome doorstop! 
“Let’s see how you like this, freak! Mr. Bigglesworth! Bird of Death! COME TO ME!” he called vehemently. An enormous cockatiel flew from the inner forest and dove directly for the poor girl’s head. She dodged successfully but was propelled several feet away by the powerful wind gust of its wings. The cute Mr. Bigglesworth hesitated a few moments but eventually gave in the will of his master. His sped in her direction and leapt high in the air, coming down on her back. Her frightened shriek shatters the air as the tiger raked his claws deeply across her shoulders. Before the muscular assassin sunk his teeth into her neck, the tiger-sized bird pecked him away. (No reason, just a psycho freak that bites anyone for no apparent purpose) As the two animals fought over her blood, Sammi rolled onto her back, with much excruciating discomfort, and charged up what was left of her chi. With a powerful blast of power the bickering minions flew across the room into Terra-Kami, and were knocked into unconsciousness. Bruised and battered, the elemental shoved the comatose bird off his head angrily while watch his opponent warily. She staggered to her feet and tried to look ready to fight. Although she was quite the opposite; she had lost a dangerous amount of blood from the deep gashes and her healing chi was not strong enough to do much more the slow the bleeding. Her eyes turned to Terra-Kami and the battered animals beside him. A powerful rage became to build up inside her. 
“How dare you…” she spoke dangerously low 
“Nani?” he asked calmly and continued to dust off his clothes. 
“How dare you use animals in a battle to fight for you! YOU COWARD!” 
“COWARD!? Now wait just a min….” he started again but Sammi disregarded his objection and let a powerful flare of her aura shut him up 
“You forced me into a situation where I had to hurt innocent creatures! For that, I can never forgive you, and for neglecting the welfare of such beautiful organisms you must die!” Chi powered fire swirled around her body and changed her into her rage warrior state. Steely claws sprung from her fingers and her eyes glowed red with anger. 
“……whoa..” stated the startled observer. But he wasn’t going to let her see that he was intimidated for anything. He got into stance for battle and put on a cocky face. 
“Don’t think just because you grew claws and are glowing that that’s gonna scare me! I can beat your fire power anytime!” 
She disregarded the insult and raced forward. With amazing speed she slashed at the enemy aggressively, shredding him piece by piece. The elemental was unable to move away from her grasp. Every time he got close to escaping he was bashed back to the ground. Her strikes were quick, calculated, and very lethal. His background in martial arts and stolen Ranma 1\2 techniques enabled him to block her hits to most of the vital places like the throat and heart. However, she always achieved numerous other hits everywhere else. His clothes were ripped and splattered with both their blood. It would only be a matter of time till she broke down his defenses so he had to act fast. With a quick motion of the hand he crushed a dark purple next to her face. Unable to avoid breathing in the spreading pollen the flower contents entered her lungs. She coughed uncontrollably and staggered backwards. 
“What was that flower?!” Sammi demanded, the world swirling before her 
“Don’t be alarmed. That was just one of my weaker hallucinogenic blossoms so it should only last an hour or so. Thermo-Kami wants you alive for some reason so by the time you wake up you’ll be safe and sound will all your friends down in the dungeon.” Terra-Kami boasted smugly. 
“No way, I have to protect…..” she stammered and tried to rise to her feet “….whoaa…..duuuuude…..look at all the funky colors…..” 
“I can see it’s all-ready beginning to work!” he laughed and backhanded Sammi across the face, knocking her to the ground once more. “That was for calling me a coward.” 
Sammi gazed up at him in hatred. This idiot, that now had three heads and turned purple, was a disciple of FNA. He would continue on to abuse his power and hurt millions of innocent people! Sammi would never let that happen, no matter how many pink bunnies were hopping around the room! His evil presence was drawing nearer to her so with all her mental willpower she cleared her mind and rose to her feet. 
“Don’t think I can’t fight just because I’m hallucinating at the moment! I’ve lived in a fantasy world in my daily life and kicked butt so I sure as hell can do it now tooooooooo.” She declared with slurred speech, but the meaning was understood just the same. A barrage of fire attacks rushed in Terra-Kami’s direction and encircled him in a river of fire. She leapt over the tall flames (which looked like spaghetti noodles to her) and continued to torch the elemental. Terra-Kami howled in agony as he burned in a swirling cyclone of blazing light. The impressive technique was too much for Sammi-chan to handle for long and she let the cyclone stop and hoped that it was enough to finally kill him. Breathing heavily, she watched the scorched remains of Terra-kami with fearful anticipation. To her utter horror, he pushed himself to his knees and started chuckling evilly.
“Heh, only the strongest and purest fire of an nonelemental can kill me. Close girl, but no cigar.” He coughed blowing a dark puff of smoke at her. 
“Shit! I don’t have enough power to do anything more powerful!” she thought in distress 
Terra-kami slowly and painfully rose to his feet, shaking badly. He was really pissed-off. Contemplating the best way to hurt Sammi, he noticed she was standing beneath the stone cliffs. With a destructive smile he slammed his fist into the earth. A small vibrating ripple moved through the ground and reverberated with powerful tremors. The shock swayed the trees dangerously and began to crack the earth underneath the warrior of Fna’s feet. She jumped back from the widening ravine and grabbed on to the side of the wall for balance. One loud “Crack” from above sent a ton of jagged rocks down upon her head, only protected by her ever-weakening chi field. Her body could not endure anymore. The rocks bashed her to the ground and thrust the air out of her lungs. Through the rubble she could hear Terra-Kami laughing at her, finally satisfied. Pieces of rock were lifted off her body so she could fully see that bastard gloating over her. In spite, she set his shoe on fire, which brought a weak smile to her face, as she watched him hop around oddly. The rest of his body was already burned very badly but the overlying shock deadened the pain. 
“Not dead yet, huh? Fine, all the better for me!” he spat harshly. Raising his arms in the air, six vines with thorns soared from his palms and wrapped firmly around her neck, arms, torso, and legs and hoisted her up in the air. 
“heehee, Goodnight, Sammi-chan! And good-bye!” Terra-kami shouted menacingly. Sammi felt the vine draw tighter around her throat, the thorns digging through the skin. She struggled but failed, with the air quickly running out and the noose around her windpipe stifling any hope of any more. Her neck slowly tipped backwards and the world in front of her was growing black. With the last breath of air in her lungs she let out a horrifying scream and then was forced to surrender to unconsciousness. 

Rai-chan tentatively turned the doorknob and peeked inside to check for immediate danger and then stepped through. Although she knew she was destined for an intense battle, the surrounding room drastically relaxed her tension. The room itself was very simple. A white marble bridge served as a link between two large platforms floating at opposites over a depthless pool under high arcs of blue-granite rounding the ceiling in a slight bubble form contrasting to the surrounding walls that plunged in a continuous free-fall along the water’s edge. (Ok, I’m really getting tired of all this description at the beginning of every fight, so I will just list…gentle waterfalls from ceiling, blah blah glittering blue light reflected off tiny crystal cut mirrors scattered about the walls, blah blah, reeeeeeallly pretty! Done!). Rai shuddered at the thought of the incredible amount of magic it would have taken to transform the old candle factory. The contemplation of that disconcerting fact was quickly dismissed and her attention redirected back to her purpose. 
“Aqua-Kami! Come out and fight!” she dared. A quick movement behind the second platform caught her attention. A perfectly hidden door opened and allowed the fluid-like form to exit. 
“Be patient will you! I was just trying to watch the end of “My little Mermaid. The Fna edition” he snapped. 
Rai furrowed her brow and slipped into deep thought. “It was indeed a dark day when Disney™ was usurped by an evil power.” She thought unhappily. “They perverted the innocent classic tales for children into cheap propaganda. The new stories were never the same warm and fuzzy type again. They started by changing the story of Cinderella; the ugly step-sisters changed into evil Fna rebels that are ignorantly trying to infiltrate high “Fna happy” society and destroy it. They force the beautiful and patriotic Cinderella to participate in rebel actions that deprive her of the blissful existence the Fna could provide for her. The climax is when Cinderella and a Kami fall in love and she exposes her evil relatives at a public festival, and kills them all by driving her glass shoes through their heads. With such obvious and annoying advertisements, people boycotted the videotapes until Fna basically had them all remade into plot-less, high violence, porn videos, which most of the populace clamored for. (Especially the depraved, corrupt Fna officials) I had unfortunately been assigned to help animate the Little Mermaid in her early days in office, because of my magnificent drawing ability. The new version had a “no seashells” policy; ahhh, how many times I had wanted to draw a giant censored box on Ariel’s chest. Those were terrible days…..” 
“HEY! Wake-up, idiot!” yelled a voice in front of her face. Her tortured inner thoughts receded once again and she looked up. Aqua-Kami had walked across the bridge and was rapidly waving his hand in front of her eyes. 
“Get away from me, jerk!” She backed away. 
“Well, sorrrrrry!” he said sarcastically “But I am in the mood to cause some serious pain and I can’t do that if you’re asleep in la-la land!” He sloshed back over to his side of the great hall. 
“I wasn’t asleep! I was just remembering how much it sucked to work for evil, that’s all!” she retorted bitterly. 
“You and your friends couldn’t handle the power, eh?” he smirked in a watery elemental way, “Not many can. You probably got all whiny and sick at the battle training sessions, right?” 
“You call that training!? They were innocent and defenseless people, damn it! Just brought in to be slaughtered needlessly!” 
“I wouldn’t say that. We had to learn not to be affected by pity or unproductive compassion in the heat of battle.” He stated coldly. “But from what I hear, you didn’t find it all that repulsive for a true insurrectionist.” 
“What?! You bastard, what the hell are you talking about?” demanded the enraged female, but she already knew what he was getting at. Although the three chans agreed to try and gain the trust of the kamis and then lead them to destruction, Rai-chan always felt like she had betrayed her cause by being the last one to break her alliance with Fna and be a part of the “so called” training. In the ritually sacrifice of human and animal life to the destructive God, large groups of victims were brought into a large hall where they were to breathe their last breath. All the kamis and commanding disciples were given the great *honor* of carrying out the executions to prove their loyalty. Sammi snapped first. When the first few people were lead into the bloodthirsty ceremony she became empowered with her compassion for their fear and pain and in her raging fiery blaze, she was able to escape alive and even save the lives of more than half of the intended prey. Even one of the Kamis and four commanders were killed in the fray. In a few moments that Sammi would always regret, she went totally psycho and impaled her razor-sharp claws through their abdomens, gabbed onto the spine from the front and then, with a deadly jerk, she broke their spinal column leaving it protruding out of the stomach. It was a dangerous attack, learned in her days at the monastery from an evil priest, called the Sekitsu. This unheard of technique was proudly admired by Fna disciples but Sammi-chan, already detesting inflicting pain to anyone, found the act simply devastating; even though she earlier dedicated herself to protect the innocent at any cost. Heta-chan was quite disturbed by the event as well but realized how many more lives she could save if she was higher in the system of government. She devoted all her time in the Fna libraries and laboratories to learn anything that could be used as weapons and the weaknesses of those already made. The only bad part was that she knew that all her experiments and high-tech weapons she created for the use of her allies could be used against them instead. Secret inventions were almost out of the question. Suspicion and paranoia were rampant so any sight of real or imagined rebel sympathizing resulted in immediate confiscation of all personal property for examination. Eventually, her hidden experiments were discovered and she was forced to flee for her life. Rai had advanced swiftly in her ranks. Partially because Wallace-Kami had a special interest in her, he believed that she had a lot of potential (or maybe he just had a big crush on her! Heeheheeeheee sorry) He always said that she was definitely cut out for the job and that the necessary abilities to become a Kami of Fna came naturally to her. Those words always disturbed her, terrible images of her as an all-powerful Megami haunted her dreams. It was untrue that she ever enjoyed killing or the tyrannical campaigns but, over time, it had become easier. Dangerously easy…….” 
“WILL YOU STOP DOING THAT!!!!” Rai snapped back to reality and was face to face with Aqua-Kami again, as he continued to rant, “what the hell is wrong with you? You kept staring off into space for the last five friggin minuets!” 
“Will you have a little tolerance here?! I just needed a little time to ponder my dramatic past, Okay?!” Rai-chan protested. 
“Fine, BUT DO IT AFTER I KICK YOUR ASS!!! Now before you go into another lengthy soliloquy, let’s get fighting!!!” Aqua-Kami bellowed with irritation. He took a step back and let loose a mass of swirling water that smashed her up against the back wall. 
Air was slammed out of Rai’s lungs as the stream of water pounded against her. She wiped the water from her eyes and looked up. 
“Now that was REALLY INSENSITIVE!!!” jumping to her feet, she did a flying kick into Aqua-Kami’s chest. Her foot sank halfway into his watery chest but the force was enough to send him sailing to the other side of the room where he landed on his feet. 
“Ahhh, now my shoe’s all wet!!” Rai-chan whined 
“Oh great, now you’re probably gonna go into another drawn-out trance about that too, right!” he taunted her and did the traditional anime eye-pull. 
“Grrrr. First you kidnap my friends and then you make fun of me, now you’re gonna learn what happens when you mess with a rebel of Fna, Aqua-Kami!” Rai-chan ran across the lengthy bridge and slammed a large electric charge down on his head that pulsated through his liquid form until it dissipated into the ground. 
“Ou-ow-ow-ch!!” he stammered “Take this, freak!” Rai-chan’s eyes grew wide as a large sparkling cloud of frost spun in her direction. Trying to dodge, she jumped backwards into the air, but not soon enough; her legs were frozen stiff before she plummeted back to the floor. 
“Haha! That ought to cool you off!” Aqua-Kami gloated happily before breaking into a silly chuckle at his own joke. 
“Where did you get such a horrible pun?!” asked Rai-chan in disgust while pounding violently at the ice. 
In response he whipped a book from out of nowhere and held it up; it read “Being a Villain; For Dummies.” Chock full of guidance and suggestions for the everyday “bad-guy!” Details common practices from planning slow, easily escapable but elaborate deaths, to how to explain your evil plots with ease.” He clarified with pride. 
“But aren’t those the same reasons why you people always lose!?” she inquired. 
Aqua-Kami cocked his head to the side. “I don’t get it. What do you mean?” 
She shook of his almost tangible stupidity and worked on setting herself free. An electric clash from her hands slit the solid ice in shatters. 
“Free already? I guess the real battle is starting now.” Aqua-Kami added happily. 
Rai, on the other hand, was not in the mood for any more idle chitchat with this brain-dead freak. Calling the “Legendary Zapdos Bird” from her inner soul, an orb of circling blue lighting emerged around her body and roared deeply through the shaking ground. With the completion of a deafening battle cry, the large sphere of energy engulfed Aqua-Kami in a furious assault and lifted him in the air while he convulsed in shock. As the intense power faded through the air, he fell to the floor harshly. 
“Well, that was easy. Are you dead yet?” She jeered, recovering from the massive release of energy. 
Smoking and sizzling softly, the toasted water-boy shakily rose to his feet. “I may not like being electrocuted, but this is far from over!” He recoiled in a snake-like fashion and made a rapid dash straight at Rai. She raised her arms in protection and braced the impact, but only a slight breeze whispered by her. Her eyes searched frantically around the empty room that had become disturbingly silent until a faint splash broke the stillness. A pluming mist clouded her vision as she looked for the source. The thick haze was so dense that she could no longer even see the bridge on which she was standing. 
“Shit. this isn’t good.” She whispered silently to herself. “’If he knocks me in the water…..“ A brutal force slammed into the back of her skull, sending her groping blindly for the bridge below. The cold water shocked her body, adding to the painful confusion of the blinding mist. Hurriedly, she stretched her arm far out and grabbed for the slick granite floor. As she pulled herself to land again, a swirling force tugged at her legs, gaining force and threatened her precarious grip. Her muscles ached against the accelerating whirlpool; but her superior strength prevailed and she was able to pull her self from the water. 
“Is that the best you can do, Aqua-Kami? Come and fight me!” she ordered but the mist remained undisturbed. Her heart began to beat rapidly, knowing that he could see her but she couldn’t see him. Rai sensed a menacing presence behind her and kicked but her foot only sliced through the air; a muffled chuckle bounced around the room from an unknown origin at her futile effort. She spun around quickly as a knifelike icicle darted past her cheek and, unfortunately, turned right into the real shower of the icicles. They propelled her up against the back wall and pinned her in place. Struggling helplessly against her frozen bonds she saw a glint of light from her side. The light came from an ice glaive that cut into her torso; the cut was not deep but ripped her clothing slightly. 
“I’ll slice you piece by piece!” a horrible voice laughed from deep within the mist as the strikes from the glaive became more severe and dangerous. Rai desperately tried to throw bolts at lightening in the direction where she saw the frozen blade glint from within the missed but Aqua-Kami dodged successfully each time. Her anger boiled ominously as she was being cut into shreds by the arrogant psycho. “Dodge this.” She hissed. A large strike of white lightning appeared in the air above her and struck down around her in a large cylinder of energy. A moment of utter stillness passed prior to the massive explosion. The cylinder of light burst into a thousand streaks of lightening that engulfed the entire area raging electricity that overpowered the screams of both Aqua-Kami and Rai-chan with its deafening claps of thunder. The water elemental fell to the ground, dropping and shattering his ice glaive, and twitched intensely, the electric current still sparking through his body. Rai did not escape unscathed either though, normally she could handle high voltages but with sheets of water covering her body, she became a victim of her own attack. The frigid constraints had been destroyed in the blast and she was free and in better shape than her adversary. While the mist disseminated without the elemental’s power, both of the warriors struggled to recover first. 
“Hmmm, maybe it’s time to try out “plan B.” the bellicose boy pondered out loud. “Don’t get me wrong, I could still beat you one-handed, but I always like to add a little emotional angst in my fights.” He staggered past the also bellicose girl and pulled a lever on the side of the wall. 
A small panel in the large mirror above slid open and allowing shackled figure to fall several feet with a startled yelp. 
Haha, Rai-chan! Your cute male warrior is tied up and unable to help you, what do you do Rai, what doooo you dooo! 
“Ryoga! Are you all right?” Rai-chan yells in concern up at the prisoner. Noticing that he was looking away what seemed like in shame, she squinted her eyes to her a closer look. To her complete surprise, he was wearing a frilly, pink French style dress with globs of badly applied make-up smeared on his face. After a few moments of second looks and enormous sweat drops she turned to Aqua-Kami. “uhhhhh……Why is he dressed as a girl?” 
“Villain rule 123. To gain advantage over annoying opponent use cute girl as hostage in fight. 
“But he’s not a girl, stupid!” 
“This is the best I could do, OK!” his said offensively “I was gonna use that little red-haired girl but she was just so damn cute!” 
Rai chan looks back at Ryoga who is blushing immensely while trying to hold in the laughter building up inside her. To then add to his embarrassment, a tiny Sasuke look-a-like man holding Que-Cards whacks Ryoga violently over the head with a rod. 
“Owwww! What the hell did you do that for!?” Ryoga yelled in anger up at the tiny man in black. 
“Say the line fool!” his hiss came back. 
“Never! You asshole!” Ryoga made several vain attempts to escape from the chains binding him but only got whacked on the head again. “Owww! Fine!” he agreed unhappily he began a monotone speech that sounded like a bad actor read from the cards “ahhh, help me. Please, Rai-chan help me. Oh noooo….” 
The Sasuke-man interrupted him again by smacking him across the jaw violently “Do it right!!!” 
Ryoga’s eye flinched as he looked down at Rai who giggly helplessly, but he began again with a very odd sounding falsetto. “AHHHH! OH help me! Help me! OH what tragedy!” 
Rai’s senses finally came back from shock and she burst into a hysterical laughter. “HAHHAHAAAHAAAHAAAHAAHAAAA! OH THAT’S FUNNY! HAAHAAAHAA” she tries to do an imitation of Ryoga “oh help me HAAAHAAAA 
“SHUT UUUUP! This wasn’t my idea you jerk!” Ryoga boils red with embarrassment “It’s not like I had much if a choice here!” 
“But that dress is so flattering on you!” Rai manages between burst of laughter 
“Stop laughing and fight this guy will you! I swear, the next time you get kidnapped I am just gonna leave you there!” He ordered becoming more angry than embarrassed. 
“Fine, fine. Don’t get your panties in a bunch.” she snorted 
“Shoot, I was hoping for a bit more woe and torment than this. I guess the “girl as hostage” technique doesn’t work like it used to…” Aqua-Kami complained from behind Rai. 
“THAT’S BECAUSE I’M NOT A GIRL, YOU IDIOT!!!” Ryoga bellowed irately. In a fit a rage he kicked one of his high-heel shoes directly at the oblivious elemental’s face. Instead of bouncing off after the impact, the shoe sunk through the water and bobbed oddly inside his head. Ryoga and Rai-chan blinked in awe and let their giggles escalate into uncontrollable pointing and giggling. 
“Damn it man! It’s not funny!” he blushed, which is hard to do for someone made of water. He shoved his hand inside his skull and removed the nine-inch heel while muttering obscenities. “Take this, freaks!” he yelled as he froze a large block of ice and hocked it at Rai-chan. 
The lost-boy, noticing that his friend was laughing to hard to see the danger, yelled “ICEBURG! RIGHT AHEAD!” and alerted her giving her enough time to jump out of the way. The boulder of frigid water splashed down in the surrounding pond, which caused somewhat of a tsunami effect. The wave surged high to the ceiling and drenched everyone in the icy swell. When the water settled the female warrior laid sloshed on the floor coughing up water and staring at a familiar pink dress wadding up and down in the water. She yelled for Ryoga and grabbed the dress from the water to find it empty. 
Aqua-Kami strolled up next to her. “How did he escape?!” his asked in pure confusion and then growled with rage. “Ryoga! Come out! No one skinny-dips in my pool and gets away with it!” 
Rai-chan search vainly through the water and looked for any sign of the little black pig but saw nothing but an endless abyss of water. Crying his name in desperate alarm, she jumped in the water and continued her search. She eventually ran out of air and had to return to the surface where she broke down sobbing. 
“Ryoga,……no.” she whimpered softly. “I’m so sorry.” 
The evil opponent waited patiently for her to return to the surface and then added “Guess, he must’ve drown. Serves him right for kicking that shoe in my head. But I still wonder how this piglet got in here.” The grieving girl stopped her lunge for his neck and quickly demanded, “Pig? What pig?” 
The soaking wet and comatose P-chan was held up in front of her for an answer. “Just pulled him out of the water a minute ago.” He responded in puzzlement 
“RYOGA!!!” Rai-chan lunged for Aqua-Kami and gave him a giant hug and then snatched the piglet from his grasp. “Oh thank God! I thought you were dead.” She let the happy tears flow freely. She turned back to Aqua-Kami with lightning in her eyes. “You shouldn’t have done that…..” she added numbly 
“You’re telling me! I just got sexually assaulted by a psycho freak girl! Who knows what diseases or cooties you might be carrying!” he wrinkled up his nose in disgust. 
Ignoring his irrational ranting, she gently placed the unconscious pig to a safe side of the room and then returned to the battle arena. 
“You’ve gone too far, minion of the most vile God, Fna! Nobody dresses Ryoga up like a girl and then almost drowns him and lives!” 
“You mean…..” he blinked in surprise, at last understanding the situation “that pig…..is Ryoga?!” he scoffed before breaking into one of his own moments of uncontrollable pointing and laughing. “Your boyfriend is a PIG! HAAHAAHAAA……. 
The thought caught Rai-chan off guard and she blushed suddenly. “Wha....? No, no ,no, you got it all wrong! He is just my friend!” she tried to explain defensively. 
“Whatever you say, Miss Piggy!” he taunted. 
She was very glad that Ryoga wasn’t awake to hear this. “Shuddap, fool! He’s just my friend I said!” Rai yelled while slamming another bolt of energy on his head. 
The corrupt boy sizzled for a few seconds and replied, but without his earlier merriment “That was a cheap shot. I’ll get you my pretty, and your little pig too!” Aqua-Kami bellowed “SPARKLING SWIRL!” liberated himself of his human form and morphed into a gyrating whirlpool around her. Before she could counter attack, shoots of water violently bashed her back and forth. In the chaos of bone-breaking water strikes, the electric revolutionist accumulated a high voltage charge at the elemental swirling around her, but the force of the spinning water altered the course of the bolt and forced it back at its initiator. 
“I gooottt yyyououuuu nooooowww, heeeheeeee” garbled up from the mortal water. 
But Rai already had already begun her act of escape; she collected her massive amount of shock and once again condensed it into its pure energy form of the sword. One quick slice and the spinning elemental backed away shrieking in agony. 
“You cut off my arm, bitch!” he wail, clutching the stub underneath his shoulder. 
“It’s only a flesh wound.” She smirked in a British accent. Spending time with Sammi always gave people urges to use Monty python quotes whenever possible. But her triumphant smile faded as she watched another watery arm emerge in the place of the old one. 
“You didn’t really think you could cut water did you?” he sneered as he noted her expression. “Stings like hell though!” he quickly added bitterly. 
Rai rushed at Aqua-Kami and swung her blade but was stopped as a flood of water from the ground rushed around her legs and froze her. She was so surprised that it gave the evil elemental enough time to knock the sword from her and slam her in the stomach cruelly. She doubled over, as much as possible, her legs being frozen and all, and gagged on the escaping air. Aqua-Kami looked down at her approvingly and then stepped back into a pose where he shouted “WATER HELIX!” The water from the giant pond soared up into the air as if carried by an inhumanly possible wind that absorbed Aqua-Kami as it flew higher into the air. The several streams of winding water became more powerful until they conquered the whole of the room. Rai was swept up in the air-born current and lost in the frigid pandemonium. As quickly as it started, the upward whirlpool changed direction and dove toward the earth. Desperately trying to stop the descending spiral, the frightened fighter released shock after shock of electric blasts, all from her weak to most lethal. From above the water flashed brilliantly intensely enough to blind human eyes. Randomly appearing thunderbolts appeared from nowhere and struck deep into the water but couldn’t even slow the bloodthirsty whirlpool. With all her strength used up, Rai-chan hopelessly clawed for the surface; which had long gone out of her view. The world around her had become dark and silent as she was pulled down further. Her adrenaline driven attempts to swim were no match for aching need for air as her body forced her to take a breath that filled her lungs with water. 
******************************************** 
Later in the dungeon…….. 

Gadget Boy looked around the cell apathetically. He had been stuck in captivity for what seemed like days with Ryoga, Caluna, and Mini-chi and was becoming extremely bored and annoyed with all of them. He had thought that Heta, Sammi, and Rai had *finally* come to liberate them but they had all gotten their butts thoroughly kick and where now all chained to wall unconscious in an adjacent cell; therefore adding very little entertainment at all. Caluna was asleep and Mini-chi was making friends with the rats and Pig-boy had been moping silently ever since the embarrassing “hostage” incidence. Then a devilish thought popped into his head and with a mischievous smile spread over his face, he scooted over in front of him. 
“What?” Ryoga pouted, obviously aggravated by being disturbed from his solitude. 
“We’ve known each other for a while, right?” Gadget Boy stated pleasantly 
“Seems like forever, what’s your point?” Neither of them had gotten along well in the last few days and he was quite distrusting of the perverted little robot. 
“Well, I just feel like we’ve grow closer lately and I remember the way you looked in that dress….I just don’t really know how to say this…..” 
“What?!” Ryoga impatiently demanded. Much to his confusion and alarm, Gadget Boy gently took his hand in his and inched closer. 
“Ryoga…” he whispered softly, “……..I would date with you!!” 
The lost boy let out a horrified “NANI?” before he jumped back against the wall until he noticed that Gadget-boy was laughing insanely and cut him short by a hard punch to the mouth. “You pervert! I’ll kill you!” 
“Lighten up, Ryoga! It was just a joke.” he explained while dodging intense punches at his head. “Besides, how could I help it if you just looked so damn hot as a girl!” 
“You bastard! I was already humiliated in front of Rai-chan today; I don’t need any help from you!” he growled angrily in response. 
Gadge scoffed. “Like she didn’t already know that you were a fem-boy.” He jeered, without anything else to do, messing with Ryoga’s mind had become a fun option for him. “Like you would have a chance with her anyway. If I were you, I would start dressing like a girl more often; I’m sure that you could catch a husband in no time. An attractive fem-boy like you oughta hav…..ooof!” He had finally pushed the guy too far and was jumped in mid-sentence. Both were now wrestling violently on the floor trying desperately to beat the other’s brains out. Brutal insults flew back and forth throughout the brawl, everything from “Pervert” to “Miss Alabama 99” 
“I’m three times the man you are, Frankenstein! Why don’t you go find the blue fairy and become a real boy!” Ryoga hollered as he bit his opponent in the arm. 
“OWWWW! Bet she’s not as cute as you Ryoga-chan!” he smiled maliciously. As a cruel joke, Gadge waited for an opening and then kissed him directly on the lips, freezing Ryoga in horror. A small yelp drew both their attentions to the three chan girls staring wide-eyed at the two boys wrapped around each other in a very compromising position. All stayed in an uneasy shock until Heta’s loud cry shattered their eardrums, “I’VE BEEN DUMPED FOR RYOGA!!!!!!!????????”