"We have to hurry." gasped Shayla as she ran up to the temple gates as
well. "Who ever awakens Ifurita will be it's master. We can't let a nut
like him get control of the demon."
	"Well then stop him, don't wait for us!" said Makoto as he
started to jog on his own at last.
	"Remember no matter what happens we can't let him get control of
the power Key staff!" said Shayla as she placed her palm on the eye
symbol on the great stone doors, they opened immediately.
	"The control key power what?" said Fujisawa in confusion.
	"Well, that sounds important." commented Ryo.
	Shayla glared at her a moment and then just sighed and shook her
head.

	Jinnai growled as he found yet another cross path in the
seemingly infinite tunnels. It was a large room with several tunnels
going in every direction. "I am getting really sick of this idiotic
maze!" he cried and the Bugrom just grunted.
	He turned as he heard foot steps behind him. "Jinnai wait! You
don't know what your doing!" said Makoto as he tried desperately to catch
up.
	"I'll teach him how to listen!" said Shayla as the aura of her
gems flared up around her. "There are allot of places to run and hide in
these catacombs, but not from Shayla-Shayla!" she finished her heroic
dialogue and floated into the air.
	"Bra-vo!" said Ryo with a casual smirk as she clapped.
	"Shut up!" said Shayla with a blush as she tried to concentrate
on her targets.
	Jinnai shoved the nearest Bugrom forward. "Go! Go on and kick her
ass!" he cried.
	The Bugrom scampered behind him and cowered in fear.
	"Did you hear what I said Harpo!? Kick her ass!" said Jinnai as
he tried to pull the frightened bug forward.
	"Well how about you Harpo? You can do it! Gummo? How about you?"
	The Bugrom shoved Jinnai forward and he backed away from the
priestess. "I didn't teach you cowardess!" he screeched.
	Shayla snorted out a laugh, "They only learn the hard way, HA!"
she was about to release a fireball when Jinnai vanished in front of
them.
	"Huh? Where did he go?" muttered Shayla.
	Ryo tensed herself and waited, then the rumbling started. The
group turned towards the tunnel that the noise was emanating from and
gasped as the water came rushing for them. Ryo felt herself fly back from
the sheer force of the water and land in the still floating Shayla. She
groped desperately for the needle she had pinned in her hair. She saw
Jinnai running safely into the tunnels, she felt the flames from around
Shayla, who was behind her, lick at her back, and the water gushing on
her and throwing her body in every direction as it filled the room.
Shayla latched on to her arm as she also was flung about and Ryo felt the
heat from the gems stone's aura burn his arm. All at once the Illusion
ended for him as pain raced down his body. 
	He looked to see the others gasping for breath and writhing on
the floor and screamed as Shayla's grip seared his hand. He wrenched her
grip off and turned towards a small figure in the rocks. "You!" he
growled as he nursed his hand.
	"What? How?" cried the boy as he faded and jumped away quickly.
He vanished into a nearby tunnel and Ryo cursed as he realized that
chasing him would be pointless.
	The others slowly escaped the illusion and began to regain their
senses. Alielle and Nanami raced up to them. They had fallen behind in
the tunnels during the chase and were just now catching up.
	"What happened?" said Nanami.
	"Where's all the water?" muttered Makoto as he glanced around in
confusion. Then he remembered something, "Jinnai!...How did he do that?"
	"It wasn't him." said Shayla and Ryo almost at the same time.
	"Shadow tribe." answered Ryo as he shook his wrist.
	"Sorry about that." muttered Shayla.
	"Don't be, I guess I deserved it the way I've been acting."
muttered Ryo a little bitterly.
	Makoto was shocked. He had never heard anything even close to an
apology from him before.
	Ryo's head snapped up as he felt a presence in the room, Makoto
followed suit almost immediately.
	"Oh, look! A little shadow tribe boy! How cute!" squealed Nanami.
	"Nanami, there's nothing cute about a worm!" said Shayla.
	"Worm? tsk, Shayla." said the boy.
	"So, you know my name. Good, if you know my name then you know my
power!" screamed the woman in an ever louder voice as she flung a few
fireballs at the young boy. They exploded and sent the wall crashing
down. The ceiling above them cracked and large chunks fell to the ground.
A larger piece fell straight towards the place where Ryo and Makoto were
standing.
	"Makoto!" cried Nanami.
	"Bakusai Tenketsu!" cried Makoto as he jumped up to meet the huge
chunk of stone ceiling. Ryo simply stood calmly and walked toward the
tunnel Jinnai had vanished into. The girls watched in shock as the stone
exploded leaving Makoto untouched. 
	"Shall we?" said Ryo as he walked past the girls, he did edge
away from Alielle and the horrible little monster that hung around her
chest. Makoto noticed this and smiled wryly.
	"We don't have time for this, he has a head start on us again!"
muttered Nanami.

	Jinnai stood in the doorway of a large round room with a staff
floating horizontally over a woman who seemed to be sleeping in the floor
of a large shrine in the center of the room. He gasped and entered
cautiously as his Bugrom guards cowered nervously in the door. "Ifurita."
he said in awe. He stepped forward hurriedly and stood over her. "Such
beauty, such power. All mine!" he said with a cackle as he reached out
and plucked the staff from it's position over her body. He lifted the
staff and she rose as if connected to it in some way. He smiled and
chuckled to himself out of pure greedy rapture over his new plaything.
"Mine!" he chimed excitedly with an evil giggle starting.
	
	"You should be ashamed of yourself, leading us into a dangerous
place like this." said Nanami crankily as she walked behind Shayla.
	"Ah, live with it." muttered the woman as she trudged onward.
	"You could have stayed with Afura and Miz ya know." said Ryo as
he looked around at the walls that seemed to surround them at times in
the long maze. Shayla seemed to have at least some idea of where she was
going.
	"Don't you two care about anything? We could have been killed!"
whined Nanami.
	"No, You could have been killed. With the exception of Alielle
the rest of us would have easily survived that." said Ryo with a mild
snort.
	"When did you become male again?" asked Shayla as she realized
that Ryo had changed.
	"Huh? Oh that, I guess the illusion and your fire powers were
enough to fool my body." said Ryo after a moments thought.	
	"This isn't a damn recess! Go find the demon!" roared Fujisawa
from behind them.
	Suddenly, from down the corridor they heard a familiar laughing. 
	"Jinnai! Maybe were not too late!" cried Makoto as he broke into
a run.
	Ryo and Shayla followed quickly with Nanami and Alielle being
left behind once again.

	Makoto turned the corner and stopped cold as he saw Jinnai
standing with the strange woman who had sent them to El-Hazard standing
next to him. He was shoving something into her back and twisting it.
	"Ryo...You were right! It is her!" cried Makoto in shock.
	"What?!" said Shayla.
	"We still have time!" cried Ryo as he jumped towards Jinnai. The
Bugrom stood around their leader and Ryo simply swatted them away without
breaking stride. Jinnai stood almost frozen in fear. Ryo decked him and
sent him flying into a wall. "Makoto activate Ifurita, twist the staff!"
cried Ryo.
	"What? NO!" screamed Shayla as Makoto jogged up to the demon
goddess.
	Ryo grabbed her and held her back before she had reached halfway
across the room to stop him.
	"It's the only way. We already know she'll be awakened or we
wouldn't even be here. We have to make sure that she doesn't fall into
Jinnai's hands, this is the only way. He knows where she is now." said
Ryo as gently as he could. Shayla promptly slugged him. 
	"You bastards! You don't know what your doing!" she screamed
angrily. 
	"Miss Shayla calm down, he's right!" said Alielle as she tried to
hold her back.
	"Yes, I'm afraid he is." said Nanami with a quick glance at
Ifurita. No one saw her eye's grow wide as she did and grow glued to the
demon goddess.
	"I understand." said Shayla with a saddened look in her eyes. "I
just...Oh God no!" Shayla had noticed Nanami had not been paying
attention to her and Jinnai had woken up.

		Makoto walked up to the demon goddess after Ryo had
dispatched with Jinnai rather neatly. "Hi, remember me?" he said as he
walked up and placed his hands on the staff to turn it. A strange energy
surged through him and his mind was filled with confusing images. "What
the?" he stammered as he let go almost immediately. That was when he
noticed the sharp pain on his back. He fell forward as it intensified and
he felt someone standing on his back. He faded in and out of
consciousness as he saw the energy crackling around him. "What?" he
muttered as he tried to understand what was happening to him.


	"How dare you challenge me like that!" cried the Jinnai angrily
as he regained his senses again.
	His rant was stopped as a concentrated beam of white energy shot
through his chest from the shrine. He looked forward in shock as he fell
to his knees and then on his face. He lay there in the growing pool of
blood that formed under him and lay silently. His eyes forever staring at
his sister who turned and looked at him in silent horror.
	"Makoto?" gasped Ryo as he turned to face his friend. He finally
saw what Nanami had not been able to take her eyes away from. 
	"My brother!" cried the Nanami in shock.
	"Makoto?!" repeated Ryo this time in shock and anger.
	Makoto was lying on the floor with a knife sticking from his back
desperately groping at the ground as he tried to crawl out from under the
demon goddesses foot. The owner of the knife, the young shadow tribe boy
just smirked. "Kill them, Kill them all." he said as he turned to face
her.
	Ifurita's face twisted into a mask of battle hardened
indifference and she formed a ball of energy on the end of her staff.
Makoto grabbed her leg and she stopped and gasped in shock. Makoto sat
wide eyed at the images and feelings that flooded his mind. Ifurita just
stood in shock, frozen. The Shadow tribe boy frowned and stepped on the
knife driving it deeper. Makoto cried out and let his grip fail as he
passed out. Ifurita and the boy stepped towards the rest of the group.
	Fujisawa ran up and grabbed Makoto from behind them and pulled
out the knife. He ripped off his shirt and pressed it against the wound.
	 Ifurita and the shadow tribe boy ignored him and stalked towards
Shayla and Ryo.
	
	"Shit we're too late!" grumbled Shayla as she jumped to action. 
	"No wait!" cried Ryo as he tried to stop her. "Damn."
	"Your going back to sleep now." said Shayla as she charged the
demon goddess. "I've got a knock out pill that will help." 
	Ifurita looked up at her passively. "I recognize your battle
technique, northern capital isn't it?" said Ifurita on an emotionless
monotone voice. 
	"Get ready to die!" cried the fire priestess as she dove for the
woman.
	"Too bad, merely a novice." said Ifurita as she effortlessly
dodged and deflected Shayla's fire based attacks.
	"Impossible!" Shayla gasped as she was slammed into the wall and
then the ground hard by a fire blast twice the strength of any she could
produce.
	"Damn hot headed..." grumbled Ryo as he raced to catch her and
barely made it. 
	Nanami simply sat over her brother's body and sobbed as she held
his head to her chest. "Katsuhiko." she gasped.
	She felt arms around her and she was lifted into the air just as
a blast knocked the remains of her brother into a pile of nearby rocks.
"Ryo!" she gasped as she turned to see who had saved her. 
	"Shut up and stay down." he growled as he shoved her with Alielle
in a pile of stones near the door.
	Ifurita stood over Shayla and frowned as she struggled to rise.
She pointed her staff at her and another ball of energy formed. Ryo
turned to see this and screamed as he charged her hoping to draw her
attention away from the downed priestess. It failed and she ignored him,
he did the only thing he could. He dove in front of Shayla and crossed
his arms over his body. Ifurita blasted him at point blank range and he
was sent flying across the room.

	Nanami was distracted from the battle by Alielle. She pulled on
her shirt sleeve and was trying to yell over the noise.  "Miss Nanami! We
have to help Makoto, Mr. Fujisawa said to get him out! He'd dying, please
Miss Nanami!" the girl was crying as hard as she could and the words came
out in a confused babble but Nanami understood enough. She felt ashamed
of ignoring the living and injured. Makoto was gasping for breath and
completely pale. Sweat poured down his face and he swallowed hard as he
tried to look around. Nanami wrapped one of his arms around her neck and
gasped as he fumbled and grabbed one of her breast. She was about to yell
when she realized that he was in far to much shock to realize what he was
doing. Alielle took his other arm and they ran down the corridor towards
the exit.
	
	Ryo was having problems of his own he lay on the ground in the
dust and struggled for his breaths. "Damn." he managed to cough.
	Shayla just stared at him. "Oh god!" she cried as she rushed to
his side. 
	"Foolish human." said Ifurita coolly.
	Ryo stood and clutched his chest. "You won't hurt any of them! I
swore that!" he cried angrily as a ball of chi formed in his hands.
"Makoto is dead, you killed Jinnai. I won't allow you to hurt any of the
others! Eat this! Shi shi houkou dan!!" cried Ryo as he blasted Ifurita
with a huge ki blast. She was thrown back into the wall hard and fell to
the ground with a loud crunching noise. She stood and twitched for a
moment. "Unidentified energy source. Unable to replicate. Basic structure
synthesized. Adapted." she said mechanically.
	"Unable to replicate?" thought Ryo in shock. Then he realized,
she can't use Ki without emotions!" he rushed forward and kicked at her.
She dodged easily and back handed him, he returned with an Amaguriken
speed flurry of punches, all of which were easily dodged. She returned
the attack at double speed and sent him flying it to a pillar. He cried
out in pain as he slammed into the stone and jumped back up at her. He
smirked and he punched at her almost connecting. The demon's smile
disappeared when she realized that he too was adapting. If he lived long
enough he might find a weakness. Ryo took advantage of her momentary stop
and he punched at her face, it connected. He wished it hadn't. 

	Shayla watched in horror as the boy shot a huge blue beam of
energy at the monster. He stood for a moment in thought while the
demoness regained her own senses and then he charged her. The battle was
short and at speeds even Shayla couldn't follow. Then it happened he
connected directly with a solid punch. She felt her heart leap with
joy.	That joy was quickly shattered.	

	Ryo screamed in pain and Ifurita just shook with a look of what
seemed like shock on her face. Energy shot from her body and arced
directly into Ryo.
	As he hung suspended several feet off the ground by the high
energy levels. He hung and screamed as images and power surged through
his body. Yet these feelings and images were not emotions or memories,
they were something different. She threw him off and he slumped to the
ground. He lay there and pushed his torso up with his arms. He looked at
Shayla and she could swear his eyes went red for a moment.
	Then Ifurita was over her again. She was still unable to move.
The demon god smiled again and pointed the staff at her. The energy
formed on the end of the staff. Shayla prepared to die.
	"NO! No one dies!" cried Ryo as he threw himself into Ifurita as
hard as he could and threw her off balance enough to make her miss. The
energy surged through the both of them for the split second they were
touching and faded as soon as they fell apart.
	"Ifurita jammed her foot into his ribs and kicked him against the
wall. She raised her staff and blasted him directly in the chest. He
screamed in pain and she repeated the blast again. This time he slumped
down against the wall. She walked over and kicked him and he reached up
and grabbed her leg. The both of them screamed and writhed in the energy
once more before Ryo's hand fell. 
	"Ryo!" cried Shayla as the walls began to crumble around them.
	Ryo smiled and raised his hand. With the last of his strength he
willed a ki ball into existence. It exploded and sent Ifurita into the
ceiling hard. Fujisawa finally stood from Jinnai's body. He had gone over
to check on the boy after he had seen to Makoto and had not moved.
	He turned and frowned at the scene he saw. Ifurita was recovering
fast and Ryo and Shayla were both down. "Damn! I gotta pay attention!" he
scolded himself seriously. He charged and grabbed both the youngsters and
hauled them easily over his shoulders without stopping he ran along the
wall and into the corridor dodging blast from the still recovering
Ifurita. He made it to the corridors and rushed down the halls as they
crumbled behind him.

	Ifurita stood next to her new master. He smiled approvingly.
"Let's try you out shall we? Go destroy the alliance." he said playfully.
Ifurita shot up like a rocket and flew away.

	On the beach Afura and Miz were cleaning up the last of the
Bugrom. Miz turned and saw a light streaking across the sky. "Oh no!
They've awakened it!" she cried.

	Ifurita stopped over a large city. She gazed down at the people,
some of which stared straight back. She raised her staff and shot a
single blast into the center of the city. It exploded beneath her in a
great dome of fire. Everyone within the walls of the once great city was
destroyed in the blast, all that remained were a few smoking ruins in the
center of a great crater. She looked on with an unfeeling gaze.

	Near the entrance Alielle and Nanami supported Makoto as best
they could and hurried along jogging at a modest pace. It had only taken
them twenty minutes to reach the front. Apparently the maze was designed
only to be difficult to enter, not exit. The door way appeared before
them when Fujisawa ran up behind them followed boy the destruction of the
cavern. They almost made it to the door.

	A few moments later The group climbed out from the rubble as
Fujisawa pushed up a large pile of debri from on top of them. No one had
appeared any worse from the collapse of the tunnel. That was a good thing
too, because Makoto would have surely died. They gasped and sat resting.
Makoto had stopped bleeding but still needed medical help. Ryo just lay
on the ground and Shayla had begun to stir.
	Miz rushed up over the hill towards them. "Oh, Mr. Fujisawa! Are
you hurt!?" she cried in concern. 
	Fujisawa just looked at her and frowned as he lifted Makoto up
and carried him back towards the ship without a word.
	Makoto stirred in his arms and spoke a single word. "Ifurita."
his mouth was so dry that Fujisawa was barely able to hear it. He frowned
at the boy and simply looked at him.
	"Oh, I'm so glad your alive, the ceremony would have been
ruined." said Miz as she caught up with Fujisawa. She gasped when she saw
Makoto in his arms. A great shame filled her as she realized that he was
only concerned with the boy right now. She hadn't even noticed him in her
fantasies. She turned away in personal disgust and let the man carry the
boy solemnly to the ship.
	"I only hope we can make it to civilization fast enough to save
him." said Afura quietly.
	Miz nodded silently. For the first time since she had met him
Fujisawa was the last thing on her mind. The dying boy's face haunted her
mind as it would for years after that moment.
	Nanami waked by the two women and gave a hopeful smile. It was
weak, but a smile none the less.

	Ryo just lay on the ground and Shayla kneeled next to him. "I
didn't even thank him yet." she said softly.
	Nanami gave her a strange look and walked after Fujisawa. 
	"I'm sure he'll be fine sister Shayla." said Alielle
reassuringly.

	Diva stood in the throne room and stood when the six favored
Bugrom carried in what remained of their master, Katsuhiko Jinnai. She
gasped and felt her heart skip a beat. She looked at him for a moment and
sighed as she settled back into her throne. "So this is what our great
savior has become?" she said solemnly. "We will avenge this
transgression. Mr. Jinnai, I swear your death will not go unpunished."
she said as she waved the body off.	

	TBC...

C&C to Catbert25@juno.com.

	Boy I screwed everyone this time. The phantom tribe has Ifurita,
Makoto is almost dead and may not live. That leaves Ryo to fill his shoes
if he does, but what of his strange new powers? Are they the same as
Makoto's, if not, what is the difference. I guarantee you won't be
expecting the answer when you find out. Have the Bugrom lost their
fighting spirit over the loss of their warlord? Many strange things
develop in the next chapter. Don't think I've forgotten about the Phantom
prisoner. Do they even still have that card to play? Did she escape? Bet
ya didn't expect Ryo to get his ass kicked did ya? How will this effect
him? And on a final note, what of Shayla and Nanami's rivalry over
Makoto's heart. Not much of a story there if he's dead is there? 
Until next chapter, The fifth night the world of Thunder!
	Ja-ne! 
Catbert25

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