Lavender & Scarlet

Just like with my Dream Angel story, this is a mere teaser. I'm only posting the first chapter to see if there's any interest whatsoever in the storyline.

A little back story on this one: my six toads love the classic anime Ronin Warriors and in my own goofing off online, I've found a number of good fan fictions. One such that left me a bundle of ideas was simply titled "Ransom." While my story starts out similar to that fan fiction, the characters are all my own.

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Lavender & Scarlet

Chapter 1

The small form approached the sleeping figure and waited patiently for it to move. When it didn’t stir, the creature hopped up on the bed and sat down, still no reaction whatsoever from the lump under the covers. As if knowing what it was about to do would be somewhat cruel, the creature seems to smile to itself.

“RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!” it squeals loudly, causing the figure in the bed to jump and bounce on the springs while letting out a blood-curdling scream.

“You would do something like that!” a girl yells at the creature, shoving it off the bed and getting out from under the covers. “I get the picture, you silly cat! It’s morning and you want to be fed!” She pads lightly around the room; gathering clothes for her morning shower under the watchful eye of the small black cat with a white tail called Neko. A knock at the door causes the girl to stop rummaging through a drawer for a t-shirt.

“Yeah?” she says. The door opens and a concerned face appears. Framing the face is strawberry blond hair.

“I heard a scream, are you all right?” another girl asks. She smiles and nods, then looks at Neko and glares at the cat, who begins innocently cleaning herself.

“Just Neko at it again trying to get me up to feed her,” she answers. “What’s up?”

“I’ll be gone for most of the day; did you have any plans, Maryanne?”

“Nah, I figured I’d stay here and keep Neko company, Marie,” Maryanne answers, pulling out a t-shirt that says, “I don’t have an attitude problem, it’s my personality!” with a cat clinging to a screen in the image.

“All right, looks like you’re home alone, you two,” she says and laughs at the innocent-looking cat still cleaning herself. “Be careful, Blondie!” She quickly closes the door after making the comment to avoid the pillow that suddenly went flying across the room at her. The laughter in the hall implies the pillow missed, but Maryanne doesn’t care. She picks up her brush and begins brushing her long, blond hair as she always did before a shower. This is one thing she never forgot to do, as the one time she did forget, she regretted it as she nearly pulled out her hair by the roots trying to get the resulting knots out. Her hair is simply too soft to not brush constantly without risk of nearly impossible knots building up.

A yell of, “See you later, Maryanne.” Tells her she’s now alone. She smiles to herself, thinking about how peaceful the house would be without anyone else in it as she goes into her morning shower. Neko meows plaintively outside the door as she’d been hoping to be fed before her mistress’s long shower.

“You know my routine, Neko!” Maryanne yells from inside the bathroom, causing the cat to sniff angrily. “Don’t bother trying to change my habits, cat, you know it doesn’t work!” Ten minutes later, the cat hears the hair dryer and runs away from the noise. Fifteen minutes later, Maryanne goes downstairs to find Neko mewing by her dish.

“Yes, yes, I know already!” she laughs at the cat’s pleading look. She gets out the cat food and puts some in Neko’s dish. Finally, she makes herself breakfast and settles down to eat it. She snorts a laugh as she sees Neko finish and hop onto the couch to nap.

“Lazy cat!” she laughs. “You get me up only to serve you and then you take a nap, is that it?” A golden feline eye half opens, the head turns and the cat goes back to sleep. “You used to be more fun, Neko. Such a lazy cat these days!”

Outside, a reddish black car pulls up. Three men inside it look at the quiet house. It’s not a mansion, but it’s not a cottage, either. Just a nice, medium-sized house fit for two girls and a cat.

“Nobody’s home,” the one in the back seat says. He’s dressed in all black, with medium length black hair. The man in front of him sees a movement in the kitchen.

“No, there’s someone there, all right,” he says. He’s dressed in a respectable blue shirt, blue jeans and has light brown hair.

“So, do we have a plan?” the driver asks, folding his arms over his chest. “Several things come to my mind, naturally, but I’m interested in your thoughts.”

“Murder and rape?” the back seat guy suggests.

“Don’t be disgusting when we could get so much more than physical pleasure,” the driver says, screwing up his face in an expression of disgust. The guy next to him looks over and grins.

“Kidnap for ransom?” he asks. The driver nods. “Okay, so how do we go about it?”

“Like this…” the driver begins.

Inside, Maryanne is eating her breakfast while half ignoring the TV playing a soap opera and Neko dozing on the couch. She looks over at the cat when she hisses angrily and goes over to the door.

“Neko, you’re a house cat,” Maryanne laughs. “You can’t go outside.” A knock at the door makes her stop eating and give the cat a puzzled look. “You’ve never been a guard cat, Neko. Is something wrong?”

“Meow.” She throws the cat a disappointed look.

“You would simply meow at me,” she grumps as she goes over to the door to answer it. “Who’s there?” she asks before she considers opening it.

“Excuse the intrusion, but my car broke down just up the road and I need a tow truck,” a voice calls through the door. She lets out a sigh of relief and opens the door to see a man at the door.

“Could I borrow your phone, miss?” he asks politely. A hiss behind Maryanne causes him to hesitate a moment.

“Neko! Don’t be rude!” she scolds the cat. “Go upstairs if you’re going to act so silly.” She ushers the cat to the stairs while he waits at the door. Neko is still wary of this stranger, but obeyes anyway. To her, he is bad news.

“The phone’s in here,” she says, leading him into the kitchen. She goes upstairs to check that Neko is out of trouble and hears his voice on the phone downstairs. She goes back downstairs and continues eating her breakfast when he comes in and thanks her.

“No problem,” she answers. “Always happy to help someone in need.”

Outside, the two other men are about to enter the house when they hear a growl.

“Whoa! A black cat!” one whispers in fear. His comrade rolls his eyes.

“You superstitious idiot,” he snaps in a low tone. “It’s just a cat!” He picks up a nearby pipe and swings at the cat, who dodges nimbly, hissing and spitting all the way. The other guy finally grabs a sack that formerly held potting soil and quickly puts it over the cat, who hisses and struggles to get out. The other guy taps the cat with the pipe and the form inside the sack goes limp.

“Tie it off or something if you’re so scared of it,” he says.

Inside, Maryanne finishes off her breakfast and goes to take care of the dishes in the kitchen. She’s rinsing the bowl when she hears something behind her. With a quick, smooth motion, she whirls and slams the bowl down on top of the figure that had been sneaking up on her. What she doesn’t hear is the other two enter the room and as they attempt to grab her from behind, the plastic bowl is flung like a Frisbee, hitting one right in the head. The first she’d hit with the bowl manages to scramble to his feet. She senses him getting back to his feet and kicks back like a mule, hitting him in the stomach and sending him crashing into the stove.

“Who are you and what do you want?!” she yells. She considers using her special power against them, but decides she can handle them without it, since they’re just normal men. She assumes a fighting stance and glares at the two invaders. She happened to be well-trained in martial arts, but that didn’t prepare her for what happened next. To her way of thinking, these three had to be masters although one did cheat and use cheap moves in an attempt to grab her.

“If you’re trying to do something stupid to me, you’re in for quite a fight,” she warns. “Although I must say, I was foolish to allow you in the house in the first place to use the phone. My bad – never to be repeated when I’m home alone!” She turns and tries to run past them, only to find her way out of the kitchen blocked.

“Have it your way, then,” she snaps. “But don’t say I didn’t warn you!”

THWACK! She’s suddenly hit from behind with the pipe. She slumps to the floor in a heap and all three men stand over her, panting heavily from the effort of trying to catch her.

“Get some rope or something to hold her, we don’t want this wildcat to fight us in the car,” the man holding the pipe orders.

“Sure,” one of the others says and leaves to find something to bind the unconscious girl. The other man puts down the pipe and finds a pen and paper to write the note. By the time he finishes, the others return with a length of rope and they proceed to tie her wrists and ankles.

Hours later, Marie returns from her day’s outings including shopping, library research and a relaxing walk in the park. She pulls into the driveway and sees the sack with the lump inside it.

“That’s strange,” she says. “I didn’t move that sack and certainly didn’t put anything inside it.” She gets out of the car and goes to investigate. She picks up the sack to find Neko’s limp form lying on the ground. She can see the cat’s breathing, but immediately sees she’s got a bloody lump on her head. She places a hand over the wound and in a soft glow of reddish purple, heals it enough for the cat to get on her feet and hiss angrily.

“Now what was that for, Neko?” Marie wonders. “I just healed that nasty lump and you hiss at me?” She notices the direction of the cat’s stare and sees the front door of the house is open.

“That’s strange…” she says cautiously going to the doorway to inspect it. “No signs of forced entry, no evidence of a struggle here…” she moves around the house with her guard up, ready to fight if she needed to. She gets into the kitchen and sees the dent in the stove.

“I just got that stove and already it’s dented?” she groans. She looks around the kitchen further to see a dented plastic bowl on the floor and the water running, something Maryanne would never do.

“Neko!” she suddenly yells. The cat enters the room, ears flattening as she smells the three abductors. “What has happened here, Neko?” The cat looks up at her with large golden eyes and meows plaintively. The cat sniffs around the kitchen a couple more minutes before Marie finally finds the note and lets out an audible gasp, covering her mouth in the process.

“What kind of creep…?” she wonders, angrily crumpling the note that read, “We have the girl, bring five million dollars to the park at noon tomorrow or you’ll never see her alive again. We will call to confirm the exact location in the park to place the money for the exchange.”

Maryanne, meanwhile, is just waking up and finding herself unable to move. She finds her wrists and ankles firmly tied to bed posts and wishes she’d been more cautious. Added to her annoyance are a headache and a lump where she’d been hit. She manages to look around the darkened, tiny room to find no sign of her captors.

“Just my luck,” she mutters an instant before her captor enters the room.

“You’re awake, my dear,” the man she’d spoken to before about the broken down car says calmly. She now notices the respectable blue shirt, blue jeans and light brown hair.

“YOU?!” she shrieks, fighting the ropes holding her to the bed.

“Still trying to fight back, I see,” he says. “I suppose you want to know where you are and why.”

She stops struggling long enough to spit at him and snap, “Who wouldn’t want to know why they’ve been kidnapped for doing a good deed?!”

“Perhaps introductions are in order here,” he says, completely unruffled by the girl’s struggles and temper. “My name is Kemp, and you are?”

“Mad as a hornet, you -----!”

“No need to be vulgar, girl,” he says, still quite calm in spite of her cursing.

“Then let me GO!”

“Quite the temper you have, miss,” he says. “You should learn to control that, but no, we’re not letting you go as you’re here for a special reason.”

“And what might that be? Rape and murder me? Or is it the other way around: murder and then rape me?”

“No,” he answers. “I have no need of such vulgarity. You’re here for a different reason.”

“Then what’s the reason?”

“Ransom,” he smiles evilly. She continues struggling, knowing it’s useless, but wants little more than to be far away from this eerily calm man and his evil intentions. He leaves the room and she stops, knowing full well it is far better to conserve her energy for later.

“Why didn’t I keep my power gem with me…?” she wonders to the empty room softly. “Duh, because I was at home, alone, and not being attacked. I had nothing to provoke me until this creep’s ambush.” She groans softly as the pain in her head renews and seems to intensify. Silently, she promises herself that these jerks would regret tangling with her. Considering her current mood, she’d make the lot of them unicks if she could!

Marie now uses her skill to track the struggle in the kitchen and begins to get a picture of what happened. She rushes upstairs to find Maryanne’s power gem sitting on her night table.

“No wonder she was taken so fast!” she says to the cat who’d followed her. Neko just meows. “She couldn’t morph and take her attackers down. I just wonder who it really was… it shouldn’t have been Celida and company, we took them out already. Anyone ordinary shouldn’t have been able to take Maryanne against her will…” She goes into her room and picks up her own power gem and clutching it tightly, concentrates.

‘Maryanne?’ she pleads silently. ‘Maryanne, are you awake?’

‘I’m here,’ Maryanne answers. Marie breathes a sigh of relief.

‘Are you all right?’

‘For the moment, I suppose, just tied to a bed and pissed off at these three jerks I tried to help.’ Marie smiles thinking that’s so like Maryanne to attempt to help someone in need. She might have a temper, but she has a warm, caring heart.

‘Are they ordinary people or Celida’s?’

‘Just three ordinary men who got the drop on me. Neko tried to warn me, but I didn’t listen and should have.’

‘Too late now for regrets, we need to work on getting you home safe. Do you know where you are?’

‘No. I wish I did because I really want these guys to meet my foot in a place where the sun doesn’t shine.’ Marie chuckles.

‘Have they hurt you in any way?’

‘You mean, aside from leaving a painful lump on my head and tying me to a bed?’

‘Maryanne…’

‘I’ve got a whopper of a headache and my wrists are sore from these ropes, but no, they haven’t hurt me otherwise. I feel so stupid…’

‘Don’t start that! It was a simple mistake anyone could have made. You know that, Maryanne! You’re anything but stupid! At least you’re not seriously hurt and I can try to find you as quickly as possible.’

‘Hurry, Marie.’

‘I’ll come as fast as I can, don’t worry.’ She closes the mental link and goes back into her friend’s room to pick up her power gem. Marie smiles when she sees the transparent lavender orb go stone grey and solid. She knows it simply means she’s not its owner, but it would return to normal when it came near its owner again. She’d use it, and Neko to track down Maryanne. She thinks about the note saying something about the captors calling.

“Well, if they’re going to call, I’ll just leave a ‘friend’ for them to talk to,” she smirks, calling up her powers. Her own orb, a reddish blue, happened to have a few useful powers for this sort of situation. She’d leave a copy of herself created by her orb’s power to answer the phone. This copy would be able to act like an answering machine and record any conversation with the kidnappers. As she makes preparations toward the rescue of her friend, she talks to the cat and again goes into the kitchen to scan with her power the struggle to really see what happened.

Maryanne struggles to look at the door when she hears it opening with a creak of the hinges. This time, she pulls hard enough on the ropes on her right wrist to bend the bedpost it’s tied to.

“Feisty,” the man dressed in all black entering the room observes. “Kemp told me about your temper. My name is Larek. He also mentioned you might be hungry by now.” He maneuvers around the bed and she’s finally able to see the plate of food in his hands.

“How can I be sure it’s not poisoned or something so I’ll be dead anyway when you get your money?”

“Smart girl,” he observes, sitting on the bed beside her and setting the plate down long enough to straighten his black shirt. “You’re right: there are poisons slow enough to accomplish such a task.” He patiently takes a bite of each thing on the plate to show her it’s definitely not poisoned. When he is clearly not getting sick, she accepts the food with no more fighting.

Elsewhere, someone else is observing the activities of Marie and Maryanne. A vile empress by the name of Celida.

“So, Lady Lavender has been kidnapped by ordinary men,” she chuckles cruelly. “I believe I can turn this situation to my advantage, since she does not have her power gem. FOSTEN! VORAN! In here, NOW!”

Two men appear in what at first glance appears to be just simple street clothes, but they’re really in battle armor of a sort. One is tall with short-cropped black hair and deep, dangerous blue eyes. The other is slightly shorter with shoulder-length light brown hair and dark green eyes.

“Celida, my empress,” the taller one says. “How might I be of service?”

“Fosten, Lady Lavender has been kidnapped by ordinary men,” she explains. “I believe we can take advantage of this situation by capturing Lady Scarlet. If Scarlet is not there to rescue Lavender, those ordinary men will kill her and we’ll be rid of her bothersome presence and able to take over the world!”

Maryanne once again struggles against the ropes holding her, but finds they still won’t give even a little after she bent the bed post. She stops as Kemp walks in again.

“Tell me your phone number,” he demands.

“So you can kill me after you get the money?” she snaps back. “Now, why would I want that?”

“Would you prefer your friend lose her innocence?” he says, still eerily calm. “Your phone number or your friend’s innocence. Your choice.”

“Touch her and I’ll…” she starts, only to find his hand on her throat in a flash.

“Your phone number, girl!” he snaps. He lets go when she finally chokes it out and leaves the room with her still coughing to breathe again.

“So much for this being a peaceful day, Marie,” she says to the empty room. “I hope you find me soon.”

“Got yourself in quite the fix,” a sinister voice says from the shadows of the room. Her eyes widen then narrow as she recognizes the voice as Voran of Death.

“Come to make life more interesting?” she wonders sweetly. “Or actually help me out for once rather than trying to kill me unsuccessfully?”

“I could kill you right now so easily, but I thought you’d want to know your friend Scarlet isn’t coming,” he answers without appearing for her to see. “You see, if your ransom’s not paid, those men in the other room will do the dirty work of killing you for me, which is something I won’t mind.”

“What? No threats of revenge while I’m stuck here unable to defend myself?” she taunts, hoping he’ll cut her free just so he’d have the pleasure of trying to kill her himself.

“Oh, I know you don’t have your gem and wouldn’t be any challenge to me right now,” he laughs cruelly. “I could so easily take my revenge on you, but why risk you escaping? No, I’ll let those men do the hard work for me, while I go capture your friend Scarlet.”

“Voran, you…” she snarls, but can’t think of a word cruel enough to describe him as he starts laughing. His laughter fades and she knows he’s left her alone in the room.

“Just great,” she thinks. “One more problem to solve while stuck here waiting to be killed as a kidnapping victim! Can this day possibly get worse?!”

‘Marie, I’ve got bad news.’

‘Are you hurt, did they do something to you?’

‘The worst they’ve done is feed me since bringing me where ever I am. No, that’s not the bad news. Celida’s sending Voran and Fosten both to keep you away from me. Their aim is capture – be careful, my friend. If they get you, Voran’s little prophecy during his brief visit with me just now would be true: those creeps that kidnapped me would kill me.’

‘I’ll be ready, don’t worry and I’ll get you back safe and sound.’

‘Worry about yourself first right now. I’m all right.’

‘Only you could say something like that. Stop the self-sacrifice stuff and just trust me to come help you!’

‘You win on that one, but you should still be careful.’

‘Worry more about yourself and focus on trying to escape. I’m coming as fast as I can.’

‘First good news I’ve had all day.’

‘I’ll see you soon, hopefully in one piece!’

‘There’s a comforting thought…’

‘You know what I mean.’ Maryanne closes the mental link with her friend and lets out an exasperated sigh. What could she do now? She was tied to a bed that now has one bent bedpost. Maybe that could be exploited somehow. She flexes the muscles in her right arm and gathers strength to pull hard on the already buckling metal post. One good yank on the ropes and she feels the metal giving just a little more. Another tug and a metallic screech is heard, unfortunately for her, audible in the next room, drawing all three men in to see what the noise is.

Marie now follows her friend’s glowing orb and cat in an effort to track Maryanne’s kidnappers. Using her power, she’d created several illusions of herself to throw off Celida’s men and make her more difficult for them to find. That, she hoped, would buy her enough time to find Maryanne and give her the power gem so they could both transform and be ready to beat the crap out of all their assailants, human and otherwise. A wicked laugh causes her to pause in her search.

“All right, Voran,” she yells. “I know it’s you, just come out and fight me.”

“Why spoil my fun of keeping you on your toes so I can attack from any angle and take you by surprise?” he wonders from the darkness of the wooded area she was now searching for her friend.

“Really, Voran,” she sighs. “You haven’t learned by now that I’m not easily taken by surprise with such a corny trick?”

“Awww…” he says with mock sweetness. “I’m offended you think so little of my versatility.”

"Wow, a five syllable word!" she exclaims with false excitement. “Cheap theatrics and false intelligence, Voran, and I think even less of your mistress’s goals for this world, creep!”

“Temper, temper,” he laughs cruelly. “Such a thing doesn’t become you, Scarlet.”

“Temper? I thought I was just calling you out on your pathetic tricks?” she smirks.

“Pathetic?” he says thoughtfully. “That’s funny, since I seem to recall that in the past, you’ve repeatedly fallen for my plans.”

“And escaped every time,” she adds. “Now, are we going to get this over with so I can find Maryanne and get back to a normal life?”

“Normal…? Now, what was that again? Oh, yes, I remember,” he laughs cruelly. “It’s what everyone else has and you will never have!” She rolls her eyes impatiently.

“Care to make a bet on that, buster?” she snaps. “My life will be normal when you’re gone!”

“Me? Gone? Nah,” he laughs again. “Now, you being gone, that’s more likely without your friend Lavender.” She rolls her eyes again.

“When pigs fly!”

“There goes one now,” he laughs hysterically.

“Must’ve been your imagination, Voran,” she smirks. “There’s no flying pigs, no cows going over the moon, no pink elephants for you to chase, just me and the fact that I’m about to kick your sorry butt back to the stone age!”

“What fantasy is this? You haven’t even found me yet!” he says.

“Care to lay odds on that, buddy?” she says from behind him on a tree branch. “You really haven’t learned anything, have you? I’m just too clever for poor old Voran of Death. Celida’s gonna be furious that you still can’t even defeat a girl!”

“OW!” Maryanne squeals, as she feels someone pulling on her hair. “Do you have any idea how long it takes to detangle my hair?!”

“Vain, are we?”

“No, just constantly annoyed by overly soft hair! It takes forever to detangle and it’s a pain to keep detangled!” She finally opens her eyes to see Fosten of Fear standing over her.

“Oh, go away, Fosten!” she snaps. “I’ve got enough problems right now!”

“I’m here to add to them and make sure you don’t get away,” he chuckles, still clutching her hair. She pulls hard on the already bent bedpost, feeling it give a little more. “Temper, temper, little girl.”

“Leave me alone!” she shrieks, drawing her three captors into the room.

“Whoa!” Kemp says, seeing Fosten in his casual armor, clutching their captive’s hair. “Who are you and what do you want?”

“I only want to compliment you gentlemen on the fine job you’ve done in kidnapping Lavender here. Such a fine job of getting her off guard and without her power.” All three blink in pure confusion.

“Honestly, you idiots!” she yells at the three men. “I’m Lady Lavender and this happens to be Fosten of Fear! I suggest you let me go unless you want him to kill you outright!”

“But… he was just complimenting us…” Kemp mumbles.

“That’s because he’s my mortal enemy and his boss wants to rule this world with an iron fist!” she screams. “You idiots would die horrific deaths under Celida’s rule!”

“While she speaks the truth, I’m not going to let you free her, whether you want to or not,” Fosten says. “I intend to stick around and make sure she can offer my mistress no trouble. Or even better, I might just take her to Celida to die one of those nice, “horrific deaths” Lavender just mentioned.”

“What about our ransom money?” Kemp demands. “We kidnapped her fair and square; we should get our money for that!” Maryanne rolls her eyes, knowing Fosten would be more likely kill them than pay them, even if they did kidnap her while she happened to be powerless.

“Interesting,” Fosten says. “What amount were you trying to demand?”

“Five million.”

“A spit in the bucket compared to the headaches Lavender here has caused my mistress,” Fosten says thoughtfully. She sighs and thinks, “Just my luck.”

Marie brushes off her sensible pantsuit and looks over at the fallen figure.

“I told you, Voran,” she laughs. “You wouldn’t be able to defeat me, again. Last time was a fluke and you didn’t enjoy it very long thanks to Maryanne’s temper being quite short.” She looks around the forest.

“Neko!” she shouts. “Where’d that cat get off to?” she wonders as she walks off in the direction she’d been originally headed before Voran’s attack. Neko, meanwhile, has found the dismal house where Maryanne is and to the cat’s anger, hears Fosten inside talking. Instead of getting into a confrontation, the cat takes off to find Marie and guide her to the rescue. It doesn’t take long for Neko to find Marie and quickly return to the house, but before they can arrive, Voran stands in her way again.

“Still didn’t learn your lesson?” she wonders, crossing her arms over her chest. “I didn’t even have to transform to take you down not more than fifteen minutes ago and still you insist on getting your butt kicked again?”

“I have reinforcements this time,” he snaps. “And you didn’t defeat me.”

“Funny,” she laughs. “I wasn’t the one on the ground drooling with a huge lump on his head.”

“You’ll pay for that lump and so will Lavender,” he snaps.

“Really? Last I checked, you couldn’t beat her, either.” She shakes her head sadly as several armored figures appear around her. “Honestly, you never learn and rarely fight your own battles. What good are you to Celida?” She shrugs and pulls out her power gem, a nice reddish transparent orb with a gentle glow. She gently squeezes it and appears in a much more form-hugging version of her medium red pantsuit. While it doesn’t look tougher, it’s a great deal tougher.

“You want to get serious, I can handle that,” she says. “Lady Scarlet at your service and ready to defend the world.” She bows quite gracefully, knowing all too well that Voran will be highly irritated by her gesture. She looks up and sees him scarlet-faced with anger.

“Now, now, Voran,” she laughs. “Scarlet’s my color and you just look awful in it!”

Inside, Maryanne hears Voran’s wild scream of anger, but notices that her captors and Fosten apparently did not hear it as they are still negotiating the terms of her being turned over to Fosten and Celida’s “care” as it was being called. She rolls her eyes as once again her captors begin negotiating more aggressively for obscene amounts of money.

Outside, Lady Scarlet is nimbly dodging Voran’s furious attacks. She’s forced to stop dodging when a number of the armored figures begin attacking.

“Can’t handle getting your butt handed to you by a girl, Voran?” she laughs, drawing a long, decorative sword from her back and slashing several of the armored figures. “Gotta get the little pets to do your dirty work?” She laughs again as he once again turns scarlet with anger and attacks her head-on. She flips neatly backward and catches him under the chin with her feet before landing on her feet.

“Oh look, Voran,” she says, brushing some invisible dirt off her foot. “You made my armor dirty!” Another loud scream of rage escapes his throat, this time gaining the attention of Maryanne’s captors and causing the negotiations to cease.

“Well,” Fosten says. “We seem to have a visitor outside.” He turns to Maryanne. “She won’t find you here, though.” A wave of his hand before the girl can protest causes her to disappear from the bed. When she reappears, she’s in a dark dungeon cell with a good number of warriors outside the barred door. She lets out an exasperated sigh and decides to sit patiently.

Her captors, meanwhile, stand dumbfounded as they stare at the impression she’d left on the bed and the now empty ropes that had held her. Kemp is the first to recover his wits.

“Where is she?” he demands.

“In my Mistress Celida’s care,” Fosten says simply. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have other matters to attend to.”

“What about our money?” he presses.

“You’ll get it.” The men watch as the armored warrior leaves the room.

“What just happened?” Larek asks, still seeming puzzled by the day’s events.

“Do you really think we’ll be paid?” the other man asks.

“Who knows?” Kemp says. A loud voice outside causes all three to jump.

“THIS IS THE POLICE! COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP!”

“So much for being paid.”

“Really, Lady Scarlet,” Voran laughs. “I wouldn’t take you for one that would use such a cheap trick.”

“Then you don’t know me at all,” she smirks. “I’m full of surprises.”

“Is that so?” a new voice says, causing the battling pair to pause.

“Fosten,” she says with a mild snarl. “Where’s Maryanne?”

“In my Lady Celida’s care.”

“Well then,” she says. “I’ll just have to pay Celida a visit, won’t I?”

“So, you’re willing to come quietly?”

“Who said anything about coming quietly?”

“You’re not going to see Celida unless you’re in chains, like your friend Lavender.”

She sticks out her tongue at the two evil warriors, “You’ll have to catch me first!” She takes off fast and hard, just as Maryanne’s former captors come out. Fortunately, Marie had been smart enough to fix her double to call the police immediately after they called her so the call could be traced. She smiles to herself as she hears sirens wailing up toward the house.

“Seriously guys, is that the fastest you can go?” she yells back as she blows past the cop cars going the opposite direction causing the men inside the vehicles to wonder what the streak of red they’d seen was. Fortunately for her, her armor is light and allows her great speed. Her aim now that she knows Maryanne is no longer in the house is to take the battle away from any populated area so she could go one level further with her power and not worry about people being hurt.

She comes to a lake surrounded by trees and stops. By her own calculation, she’s at least two minutes ahead of her pursuers, so she has time to look around and plan the fight. Being near water happens to give her strength. She smiles to herself, thinking that her armor is a great piece of irony. Traditionally, red is associated with strength and fire, but hers deals with water and illusion. Not that her armor isn’t strong, just that its color is a deception as much like its power. She laughs to herself and calls her armor.

“Fire, water, earth, air, bring forth the power of Scarlet!” All her pursuers can do is watch as the red glow around her becomes a cross between European-style armor and a classic samurai armor of pure red decorated with various symbols representing water. She draws a matching long sword that has a scarlet blade. At first glance, it could be a nodatchi, but the blade is straight and thin, much like a traditional Chinese sword. By the time she draws the sword, Fosten and Voran have caught their breath from chasing her.

“Ready to have your rear ends handed to you, boys?” she grins from under the helmet that deceptively hides her eyes while making her appear to have larger, more fierce eyes. “I’ve defeated you before, and I’ll do it again.”

“You defeated us one at a time before, not together,” Voran snaps angrily, drawing his own serrated sword while Fosten pulls out his claws and morning star.

“Well, we’ll just have to find out when I take both of you down and cream your mistress,” she says. In an instant, she’s locked in battle against the two men and several creatures of different types. Neko finally catches up with her and in a blur of black and white fur screaming wildly, attacks Voran, leaving Fosten alone against Marie.

“Water Weaver!” she yells, causing a huge wave to appear behind her from the lake. Fosten’s eyes go wide as he watches the tsunami rush right at him head on. Her eyes go wide as she sees him standing in the same spot only wetter than before and once again scarlet faced with anger.

“I…hate…water!” he screams, leaping at her. “Fearful Flight!” She screams painfully as the unavoidable black energy hits, knocking her to the ground hard.

“Neko!” she yells. “NOW!” The cat leaps clear of Voran and begins attacking Fosten. Voran is left nursing the multitude of scratches the cat had left on his unprotected face.

“How do you expect to defeat me when you can’t even defend yourself against a cat, Voran?” she wonders, laughing at the expression on his face as he tries to get a particularly deep scratch to stop bleeding. She laughs harder when he gives her a particularly dirty look. She stops laughing as the armored figures begin appearing again. Knowing larger numbers against her increases her odds of being captured, she starts taking the fight far more seriously.

“Water Weaver!” she yells again and as the tsunami begins crashing down, she hits both Voran and Fosten especially hard with her sword, giving the wave even more power as it hits a split second later. She continues pressing the attack even after the water has dissipated, causing both of her opponents more trouble than either could handle. When they finally disappear, she swats the last of the armored figures and sheathes her sword. Neko walks up next to her and shakes the water off her fur.

“Hey!” Marie protests as the water lands on her face. “You crazy cat! Couldn’t you do that elsewhere?” She pats the cat on the head. “I get it; you’re getting even with me for all the water I’ve been playing with.”

Maryanne watches Fosten and Voran appear in the dungeon both looking mad as wet hens and twice as drenched. Before she can burst out laughing, they both give her a chilling look that tells her laughter could be costly and painful so she hides a smirk instead. As soon as she’s sure they’re out of earshot, she starts giggling. With just a glance, she’d been able to tell the outcome of their battle with her friend Marie. They’d both lost badly to Lady Scarlet and of course, Lady Lavender knew their adversaries absolutely abhorred water, so of course in the event of their defeat they’d both look mad as wet hens. When her giggling draws the attention of the armored figures outside her cell, she stops; knowing that without her armor, she’s completely at their mercy. Even still, with the thought of her enemies’ expressions at being thoroughly drenched, she can’t help but hide a grin of pure pleasure: they’d failed to capture her friend and Celida would certainly not be happy about that!

===========================end teaser=============================

Okay, I ask for constructive criticism and please, be ready to support your arguments! If you want to add sketches of the characters, I have no problem with that.

In case you haven't figured out from the multiple polls, I'd really like thoughts on this one. It's not in for publisher consideration because it's not done yet, but with enough of a following, it could be when it is done.