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"FRAAAAAAANKLIIIIIIIIIIIINN!" screamed Min. She was deep in the forest behind the school, thinking that he had gone in it. She was scared for him. He was only ten years old and if she heard those dark thoughts, then having him missing wasn’t good. A soft crying interrupted her thoughts. Min ran toward the sound and almost stumbled over Franklin. "You’re here!" she cried, picking him up. "What’s wrong?"
Franklin was wearing jeans and a polo shirt but it was covered in dirt. His face was red from crying. "B-b-bad m-man was he-here!" he said, trying to calm down. "H-he wa-wants y-y-y-y-you!"
Min carried the young boy back to the school, thinking about what he said. Did he hear those thoughts too? "Franklin? Did you see this man?"
"N-no," he answered. His next statement made her shiver. "I heard him."
NO! No, please! I have to leave! But then they’ll be involved. I have to help Franklin understand. "Frank dear, I want you to do me a favor. Don’t tell Ms. Frost."
"Why?" he asked.
"It’s kinda dangerous to say but the bad man wants me because of my…cool power."
"Your ‘sixth’ sense?" he asked, confused.
"No. Something better. But you can’t tell. Promise?"
Franklin stared at her, wide-eyed. "Promise," he said.
"Tomorrow, I’ll show it to you for making such a promise, okay?"
"Cool," was all Franklin said as he put his head on Min’s shoulder. He was soon asleep.
Min emerged from the forest five minutes later. Emma saw her with Franklin and ran to them. "You found him!"
"Yeah. The lil’ tike was dreaming some bad stuff about someone getting hurt and he ran. But he’s okay."
"We better get him into his bed." Emma and Min went back to the house.
Seiji woke up to a pounding headache. He tried to move but he couldn’t. He knew he was on his back and tried to sit up. I’m tied up, he thought. He looked up and saw that he was right. His hands were tied tightly above him. His arms were going numb. He moved his legs and knew they were tied tightly as well. He looked around.
He was in a small, damp, dim room with no other furniture other than what he was on, which he suspected was a stone table. Seiji pulled on his arms, hoping that the chains were weak. They weren’t.
"Trying to get away, Kourin no Seiji?" said Dark Soul as he came into view. His dark blue-gray figure was still ghostly as he watched Seiji double his efforts of getting away. "You can’t get free. Stop trying to." He paused, thinking about something else. "You should have went with Starja. She might have been better protected. Those stupid mutants were mere children and were no match for me," he lied.
Seiji’s eyes widened. "You lie!" he cried, refusing to believe him.
"Then I’ll prove it to you." Dark Soul stepped aside and behind him was a limp Min hanging from the wall in her yellow and silver sub-armor. She had huge, deep gashes in the armor and a few were bleeding fiercely. Her head rested against her raised arm as he saw that blood was in her curly hair and on the side of her head.
"You monster!" he yelled, yanking on the chains to no avail. "I’ll kill you!"
"She’s mine. I pulled her armor from her already." As if on que, the Starja armor walked next to Dark Soul. "Right now, your girlfriend is weak and dying. I will have your armor as well."
"Never!" Seiji yelled, determined. He then tasted blood on his lips. He knew it was from his nose.
"I beg to differ." Dark Soul lifted a hand to Seiji and a fiery pain pushed through his body. He screamed. He never felt anything like it before. It touched every part of his being. It faded a bit as his kanji glowed fiercely. <Courtesy> The fire came through again and it tore another scream from his throat. The pain intensified and Seiji found himself screaming and arching his body in agony as it continued. It was so unbearable that he began to let loose the armor. Min…he said faintly. I’m so sorry, my bright star…
A small ball of green energy was forming a few feet above Seiji. Dark Soul was pleased.
Min bolted up from her almost restless sleep. Seiji? She then grabbed her orb from the nightstand and held it tightly, trying to reach him. Pain hit her with such force that it she almost fainted from it. Seiji!? I’m okay! She said urgently when she heard his thoughts of her being hurt and dead. Please! Don’t believe what you’re seeing! She knew she had to tell the other troopers. She searched them out, hoping that they could hear her.
Seiji bolted and arched in pain as the armor was slowly being pulled out of him. He heard Min’s thoughts suddenly and knew she was fine. "You…lied!" he said with conviction. Seiji began to fight back. It was a hard struggle to keep his armor with him. Through teary eyes, he saw that the Starja armor and Min was gone, as if it was an illusion.
Dark Soul was mad but he had begun the process. It would be a matter of time before Kourin would be his.
RYO!?
Ryo bolted up from his slumber. He thought he heard Min call to him through the mind-link. Min?
Ryo! Seiji-he’s in trouble! I know it!
Calm down. I’ll look for him. Ryo tried to feel Seiji through the link but didn’t hear his mind. He isn’t here, Min. He’s gone. SHU! SHIN! TOUMA!
Hey, Ryo! Thought Shu. What’s up?
Why did you yell? asked Shin.
I’m trying to sleep here, Ryo, said Touma angrily.
Seiji’s gone! Min said frantically through the link. I heard him! He’s hurting somewhere!
Calm down, said Touma. Don’t panic. You just focus on those dark thoughts-
That’s just it! Whoever owns those thoughts has him! I know it! I heard it say something about getting us all!
Great! Said Shu. I was hoping for a vacation. Is it Arago? (Arago is the Japanese name for Talpa. He was the ruler of the Nether Realm.)
No. That I’m sure of.
Min, Shin said, trying to reach her through his calm and gentle voice, We’ll come to you. I’ll call Mia in the morning so we can get tickets to Snow Valley.
Are you sure you guys want to come?
Min, you’re almost hysterical, replied Ryo. You need someone there to help you get through this. And we’ll find Seiji-together.
Guys-I don’t know what to say but be careful. And we have to hurry. He won’t last too long.
Hang in there, Shu replied cheerfully. We’ll get lover-boy back for you.
The link was broken. The guys knew that their vacation was over. It was time to get to work.
The next day, Min, wearing the clothes that she wore to find Franklin, was the last to get to breakfast. She had dark circles under her eyes from the lack of sleep. Thinking that she was next, Min kept her orb in her jean pocket.
Angelo saw the way she looked. "Chica, no sleep?" he asked.
"Lack of sleep," she corrected, sitting at her place at the table, next to Paige. "I can function better on four hours than I do on two and a half."
<; Why so little sleep, Min?;> asked Jonathan.
"Dreams," she answered. She stared at the eggs and sausage before her. She ate slowly, trying to control her shaking hands.
But Monet saw them. "Does your hands shake on having little sleep?" she asked.
Great! I’m beginning to hate her probing. "Yeah," she half-lied. It did happen a few times but it wasn’t the reason this time. "Ms. Frost, am I starting today?"
"No. I just want to see the potential you have with your powers by probing your mind. I don’t want to do anything hard until that’s done-and you get more sleep." Sean? Can you hear me?
Loud an’ clear, lass.
She’s hiding something. I can’t get through. It’s like she has a strong defense against mind probes. I won’t get much out of her mind today.
Aye, I can tell somethin’ wasn’t true about her. But it doesn’t seem major. She’ll tell us when she’s ready. I do know that she isn’t like Monet. That’s a plus for us.
Min lay exhausted on her bed around five in the afternoon. She fought Emma Frost’s mind probe for three hours straight, hiding her time as a Samurai Trooper from her before Emma gave up. Min knew that she had to tell Paige the truth-and soon. Gathering her energy, Min bounced off of the bed and literally ran from her room to Paige’s. The door was open so she walked in. "Paige?"
Paige looked up from her geography book. "Yeah?"
"I need to tell you something. But not here. In the forest."
Min didn’t know that Angelo, Jubilee and Everett were in that hall and heard what she said. They hid in an empty room but were at the doorway, listening.
"Why?" Paige put the book down and stood next to her in her doorway.
"Something might go down and I need you to know just in case something happened to me."
"Like what?" she asked.
"I have to get Franklin first. I promised him that I’d tell him so both of you will know."
"Okay. Let’s get him." Both of them left Paige’s room.
Angelo, Jubilee and Everett came from the empty room. "Somethin’s up," said Angelo.
"I know. Why does she have to tell hayseed and Frank? Ev, get Jono, Monet and the teachs. We have to find out what’s up with Min," said Jubilee.
Everett was gone. Jubilee and Angelo followed them, being careful not to get caught.
Paige and Franklin sat on a log as Min stood before them. Min was tensed because what she was about to tell could get them in the middle of the problem. By then, the rest of Gen X was hiding behind bushes near them.
"Guys…I’ve been hiding something from everyone. It’s hard to say this but I’m not a mutant. I never was." Paige looked a bit hurt.
"If you aren’t," said Franklin. "Then what are you?"
"I’m a warrior with armor. I, along with five others, are suppose to protect this world from demons of another realm."
"Ah’m not following," said Paige. "And Ah don’ believe you."
"I’ll show you then," said Min, pulling out her orb. "This gives me my armor." Her kanji began to glow on the orb and her forehead. Everyone saw it. "Courage," she said, throwing it in the air. She leaped after it and in mid-leap, her clothes changed into her yellow and silver sub-armor. Min landed lightly.
"Cool!" Franklin cheered.
"Wow!" said Paige, surprised. "So that’s what the orb was for?"
In the bushes…
"I don’t believe it!" whispered Jubilee.
"I’ve seen armor like that," said Everett quietly. "It’s Japanese."
<; No offense but I think we knew that much ;> said Jono.
"So, this was her secret," said Emma.
"You could not get through her defenses?" asked Monet, acting as if she knew about Min’s secret. But she was just as surprised as the others. (About time, right?)
Emma scolded.
"We better listen," said Sean.
"Remember about what you asked, Paige? About Toyama?"
"Yeah." Paige was ready to learn what really happened in Toyama.
"Here’s the full truth." Min sat on a log across from them. "Arago, an evil being from the Nether Realm, came in his floating castle to Toyama, planning to conquer the world. Well, he took everyone but Mia and Yulie. Yulie’s about your age, Frank and Mia was a college assistant at an university. They were about to be taken when five of us showed up: Rekka no Ryo, Kourin no Seiji, Kongo no Shu, Suiko no Shin and Tenku no Touma. They stopped the soldiers but Arago’s four warlords showed up to fight. The Samurai Troopers, as we are known, were defeated and sent to the places where their armor was made. I was visiting the graves of my parents, older brothers and twin sister when I felt my armor being called on. I went to Toyama and kicked the warlords back to Arago. With Mia and Yulie's help, I returned to my armor’s place, which is space. Ryo was revived first. Then he, Mia and Yulie, using Mia’s knowledge on the Dynasty, searched us out, me and Touma being the last ones. See, he is air and I’m space so he was in Earth’s orbit and I was like fifty miles from him. So, together, we got Sh’ten, the Warlord of Cruelty, back to our side. As it turned out, he was from the clan that created the armors. Anyway, Arago managed to get him back but couldn’t turn him against us. So we went to Arago’s castle, got our butts kicked, kicked back, and one by one, the others were trapped inside of Arago. With each armor he captured, he got solid. Soon, it was just Ryo and I. I wasn’t in great shape mostly because I kept Ryo from being taken. Eventually, he did and I fought back with a vengeance. I knew if I lost, the world was doomed. But Ryo returned minutes later when I was at the end of my rope, with the combined powers of Kongo, Kourin, Tenku and Suiko. The new armor was white and was called Kikotei or the Sun Armor. Ryo bashed Arago good and we thought that it was over." Min coughed to clear her voice. "Then others from the Nether Realm came, wanting the armor. Ryo was getting weaker because he and the others had to use the Sun Armor to save the world again and again. I don’t know why my armor wasn’t taken. But one time, an honorable warrior known as Sabre-Strike came with the Sun Armor’s true twin katanas. I fought him and I was mortally wounded but I managed to get one of the swords from him. The others came and Ryo fought for my life and the other sword. I didn’t die because Seiji’s armor could heal. So he healed me. Sabre-Strike died and Ryo got the swords.
"Then Arago came back and took Shin, Shu and Seiji. Touma and Ryo went after them and I was on a quest with Sh’ten, who came back to life to guide us, to find a jewel. We found it and then I discovered my ‘sixth’ sense. He and I, along with Mia and Yulie, went to the Nether Realm. Everyone was saved and we got Kayura back. She’s a member of the clan I mentioned earlier. But Sh’ten died bringing her to our side. Anyway, the other three warlords saw the truth and joined us in destroying Arago for good. The warlords and Kayura went to fix their world and the rest of us has been together ever since."
"Man, you guys went through a lot," said Paige. "More than Gen X."
"I know. That’s why we became a family. Anyway, new evils came and we stopped them all. For almost a year, no more showed up and Seiji and I fell in love. We dated and got teased by the others but we’re still together."
"So why are you telling us?" asked Paige.
"A brand new evil is here. I came here to find the dark thoughts that I’ve been hearing for a month now. Your invite six months ago was the perfect way to get here. But I don’t know who it is but he took Seiji. And he needs me. But I wonder why…Franklin, you heard him. When you did, was it as if someone was in the same room as you?"
"Yeah. That’s why I ran into the forest. I wanted to get away."
"But why did he hear him?" asked Paige.
"Franklin, what’s your mutant power?" asked Min.
"Altering reality. I’m not good at controlling it."
"He needs Franklin’s power. And he’s young enough to be controlled…"
"But how do we protect him?" asked Paige. "By the way he sounds, Gen X won’t have an easy time with him."
"There’s no ‘we’. Just me, Paige. I’ll fight him. But someone has to watch Franklin just in case I go down for the count." There was a gleam in her eye as she said, "And taking me down is never easy."
"I’ll do that," said Paige. "But that can’t be the whole armor. And what is your armor’s name?"
Min giggled. "You’re right. My title is Starja no Min. This is the sub-armor. I’ll call on my full armor right now." She stood up and brought her arms across her chest. "Busou…Starja!" she cried. Stars from the sky crashed around her, forming a beam of inner light too bright to glare at for long. It was slowly absorbed and Min had on the Starja armor. It was bright yellow with silver trimming and facemask. Her symbol was a shooting star crossing the path of a comet. In her hands was the Star No-Datchi (a sword that is very long, just like Seiji’s). On her waist was Kayura’s twin jitte (an early form of the sais) called the Starlight Swords. "Well…?"
Jubilee forgot about hiding and ran out to greet them. "That was beyond cool!" she cried.
"Jubilee!?" Min replied in shock.
"What’re doing here?" asked Paige as she and Franklin stood next to her.
"Uh, well, I followed her!" Jubilee said harshly.
"Did everyone else?" Paige said icily.
"We did," answered Monet as she and the others came from behind the bushes. Min moaned sadly.
"You could have told us," said Emma. "We would have helped."
"I didn’t have to until whoever it is that I felt came after Franklin. Since you all know about me, you can protect him and I’ll deal with whoever I felt."
"That’s crazy!" exclaimed Angelo. "You don’t even know who it is!?"
Min was about to say something but a sharp, twisting pain ripped through her. She cried out and fell to her knees. Hugging herself, she cried out in agony, "SEIJI!!" Min’s kanji of courage flared brightly.
Emma felt the pain as well and swayed a bit. Sean managed to steady her. "Emma?" he said, worried.
"The pain. She can feel it. But it isn’t hers."
"Run that by me again?" said Everett, who was truly confused.
"It’s a Samurai Trooper’s pain. And it’s spreading to the others. All of them have a link with each other."
At that same moment, Ryo, Touma, Shin and Shu felt Seiji’s pain. Each one couldn’t handle the pain that came from the mind-link and all of them passed out from it.
Dais, Cale and Kayura were drinking tea when they felt it. An echo across the armors link. A sudden weakness washed over them for a few moments. When it passed they looked at each other, confused.
"What was that?" asked Dais. He was the Warlord of Illusion. He was wearing his maroon and forest green sub-armor. He has longish white hair and a patch over his right eye. The left one is blue. His kanji is Serenity.
"It felt like something was taken by force," answered Cale, the Warlord of Corruption. He has wild blue hair and hard brown eyes. He was in his brown sub-armor. His kanji is Piety.
"Something happened to one of the troopers," replied Kayura softly. She has ver long blue hair (held in a ponytail) and blue eyes. She was wearing the full armor that once belonged to Sh’ten (minus the helmet). Her kanji is his, which is Loyalty. She is the last of the clan that made the armors. "An armor is missing."
"Which one?" asked Dais.
Cale didn’t know how he knew this but he felt an emptiness that could only been brought upon by his opposite. "Kourin," he whispered to himself.
Seiji was limp on the stone table. Above him in a small ball was all of the energy and essence of Kourin. The armor was trapped inside.
Dark Soul smiled cruelly. He pulled out a dark prism crystal. It was blacker than night and had infinite amounts of Nether Energy. He aimed it at the essence of Kourin. The Nether Energy crashed into the ball of energy. Seconds later, Kourin appeared next to him, dark spirit energy running through it. "My armor. It is time to claim your sister, Starja." He and Kourin vanished from sight.
Min sensed it first. A pull on her armor. "Franklin, get behind me! He’s coming!" The young boy ran behind the female Samurai Trooper as she drew her Star No-Datchi.
"Correction, Starja. I’m here." Everyone looked up and saw the blue-black form of Dark Soul. "Give me the boy and I’ll take you to your boyfriend."
"Suuure," she said sarcastically. "Go and kill yourself! I’m not doing anything for you!"
A slight flick of his hand and the Dynasty soldiers appeared all around Gen X. "Then, I hope you want his death on your soul."
Paige took Franklin as the others began to fight. "I got him, Min! Go and get your man back!" She went to help her teammates.
Min was very tensed. Dark Soul was just standing there, staring. "Who are you?"
" I am Dark Soul…Talpa’s brother. You and your friends have my armor and I want it back."
"What are you talking about?" she asked, not sure if he meant the Sun Armor of all nine armors. She wasn’t sure if she believed this guy or not.
"Kikotei." He smiled. "I know that your armor gives you a ‘sixth’ sense. It will not help you tonight. Your armor is mine."
Kourin leaped from the shadows, his No-Datchi aimed for Min’s throat.
Min managed to block the blow and they fought. Kourin was faster with its new dark power but Min had agility on her side as well as her kanji to guide her. She felt the pull again and a dull pain came to her. She pushed it aside, knowing that there was something up with her armor.
Kourin then summoned its full power and his sword flared with it. "Thunder Lightning Thrust," it replied in a mechanical monotone. (The sure-kill is the Japanese translation of its power.) It threw it at her.
"Silver Crescent Cry!" The power gathered on her sword and she hurled it at Kourin’s attack.
Her power was sliced to ribbons. Her eyes widened as his dark-aided sure-kill hit her body with a force strong enough to take out a country. She shrieked in terror and agony as it tore through her body, sucking her dry. She fell with a clang of her armor and was very still.
"MIN!" screamed Paige as she began to fight twice as hard to get through the soldiers and to reach her best friend.
<; Sunshine, no!;> cried Jonathan. He tried to get to Paige’s side to stop her.
Kourin had its sword posed over her head as Dark Soul stood at her side, smiling at the sight of her so very still. "Time to part with Starja, Warrior of Courage." He pulled out his dark prism crystal. It sent out black lightning to Min’s body. Her armor began to glow.
