"I doubt they care who she is or what she stands for," he muttered with a disgusted look. Jade chuckled.
"Yeah, but she can punish ME anytime." They paused, blinking, then whirled toward each other.
"Computer Nerd!" Jade cried, and Z grinned.
"Grease Monkey!" he replied in kind.
"Fancy meeting you out here."
"No kidding."
"Knock it off," Malcolm suddenly growled, interrupting them and causing the two to turn and gasp again.
"Hey, it's the arrogant bastard from the airplane!" Jade cried even louder, then blanched as Malcolm's face darkened. "I-I mean . . . that's not what I meant."
"Sure sounded like it to me," Nathan followed with a quirked eyebrow.
"Oh stay out of this, tree boy," Z snapped back.
The four of them faced off, fists clenched and growling, ready to pounce. Then someone cleared their throat behind them, forcing the men to turn before they could really get going good. Immediately Jade burst out laughing.
"You lost or something, Phantom? I believe the Opera's that a way." He jabbed his thumb over his shoulder, then both he and Z just about fell over themselves with laughter, despite the severity of the situation at hand. Even Nathan and Malcolm seemed hard-pressed not to crack a smile.
"My name is Tuxedo Mask," the individual announced haughtily, and at the sound of his commanding voice all four straightened up and tensed, that strange sensation of familiarity tickling the backs of their brains once more. "We're here to save your lives."
Z peeked around the towering individual clad in the three-peice black suit and top hat and then sighed wearily.
"And doing a MARVELOUS job of it I might add," he noted wryly. At that Tux whirled and gasped.
Sailor Moon was now running around in circles away from all four of the monsters who were now chasing her, screaming her head off, with the other four Scouts following trying to help her out.
"Sailor Moon!"
The four men watched as the "Tuxedo Mask" fellow launched himself in front of the Moon girl just before she was trampled by the yellow bull creature, shoving her out of harms way and instead taking the brunt of the charge himself. The man released a loud, pain-filled cry and tumbled down into the grass. He didn't get back up.
"Tuxedo Mask!" the girl with the pig-tails screamed out, face stricken, reaching for him where she lay sprawled in the grass.
Something snapped in the minds of all four of them at that sight . . . the sight of their Prince in mortal danger.
Malcolm raised his fist in the air.
"Generals, to Arms!"
All four extended their right arms, palms up and fingers splayed, and yelled out in synchronisation, "Earth Mineral Power!"
Out of each of their palms, stalling just before their outstretched hands, materialized a stone of some sort. Before the palm of Nathan there rested a slightly rounded, unevenly cut hunk of transluscent, lime green nephrite. Resting in front of the grasp of Zachary there was a square- shaped, smooth piece of silvery lavender zoisite. Hovering before the hand of Jadrian there was a rough, unrefined, oval-shaped chunk of red and green swirled jadeite. And held in front of the grip of Malcolm rested a large, rectangular and perfectly cut piece of blackish green malachite.
In turn they closed their fists around the stones, then reopened them. The stones had reverted to dust. And as the fine-grained debris swirled back and over them, their clothes melted away, replaced by the battle armor of a time long past. The trappings of an age long forgotten.
Instantly the four of them disappeared, and re-teleported into a protective ring around their fallen Prince. Gone were the men known as Malcolm, Nathan, Zachary and Jadrian, replaced instead with the shadows of the men that had at one time been known on this planet as the Four Warrior Kings. They were the High Generals of Elysian; Malachite, Nephrite, Zoisite and Jadeite.
The four Generals paid no heed to the five women staring at them now with slack jaws and saucer-sized eyes. Their only concern, their only care, was the man they now stood ready to protect with their very lives. The monsters circled around them, their expressions or movements suddenly hungry and eager, as if this was what they had been waiting for. Malachite scowled, then began snapping out orders.
"Jadeite, you take that plant thing, Zoisite, you get the yellow fur ball, Nephrite, you're on the lizard."
The pale-haired warrior clenched his fists, and with a brilliant flash there suddenly materialized two deadly looking falchions made of pure white light in each. He sneered, facing off with the humanoid monster and lazily twirling the swords in a myriad, flashy display.
"Sword-boy is mine."
Not questioning his order, not even batting an eyelash, the other three singled out their ordered foe and bore down on them, drawing the threat away from their fallen monarch.
"Man you're ugly," Jadeite growled as he forced the huge vegitable away from Endy. It snarled and snapped in protest, then reared back to release it's pollen.
A quickly errected sheild of blue flame wasn't errected quite fast enough, and he cried out slightly as the acidic spores burned clear through the cloth of his black body suit and ate into his flesh. He dive rolled away from the brunt of it and then got back to his feet, his hand clutching his arm. He could feel the blood welling and gritted his teeth against the pain. He'd felt that type of pain before, too. It was the same sort of sting that came with Z's sakura blossoms.
"All right you little bastard," he snarled, then closed his eyes briefly in concentration.
Suddenly there was twenty Jadeites, formed in a perfect flank. The monster reared back, stunned and confused, then charged at one and passed right through. That Jadeite disappeared, leaving nineteen others that raised their fists, fingers splayed.
"Blue . . . Flame . . . DAWNING!"
The plant creature screamed and writhed in agony as a wall of pure blue flames roared up to engulf it. Jadeite was stunned to see that, after the fire had fallen away once more, the creature was still alive. Though only barely. It gave one last snap, then abruptly disappeared. Jadeite sneered in triumph, his replicas disappearing with a flicker, then he dusted his hands and turned about, heading back to where his fallen Prince lay, defenseless.
Nephrite nimbly dodged one of the many spurts of blue flame that the reptillian creature sent his way. He scowled. The only thing he'd ever seen capable of producing blue flame like this had been Jadeite. Something wasn't adding up. After the sixth time of dancing around the foul-smelling lizard's attacks Nephrite had had enough.
He pounced back far enough away, then raised both of his hands to the sky. Above the monster, the air seemed to shift. And then, miles above their heads, the very blueness of the atmosphere violently twisted aside, revealing a circular hole. The blackness of space peered down at them, marred by the large white dots of the stars beyond.
"Grant me your strength," Nephrite called, almost like a prayer. Below the monster there suddenly formed a blackish purple pentagram.
"Rage . . . of the HEAVENS!"
With a loud crash the stars above released bolting arcs of violet black energy, each snaking down and thundering into a point on the star below the monster. It released a howling wail, then all at once disappeared. The pentagram dissolved, and the hole above closed back as swiftly as it had formed. Nephrite frowned, sighing.
"Well that was ridiculously easy," he muttered, then turned and strode back to where Endy lay unconscious.
Zoisite easily side stepped the huge yellow puff ball as it charged him, and ended up sailing right on past. He rolled his eyes and shook his head, sighing, the sheer stupidity of the creature nearly unbearable. It made another pass and again Z easily dodged, but paused as an arc of violet black lightening errupted from it's horns. That was the same sort of energy that Nephrite produced from the stars . . . . He shrugged. No time to dilliberate on that deliciously mind-tingling puzzle. Zoisite dropped back and stretched both arms out at his sides.
"Sakura Blossoms . . . SURROUND!"
From out of the void there swirled thousands of pink cherry blossoms, each one more venemous than the deadliest of poisons. They swirled around and surrounded the hairy beast, and where each one struck there arose a small puff of smoke and the sound of sizzling flesh. The creature screamed in agony, rearing and bucking in protest, then all of a sudden it disappeared completely. Zoisite let his arms fall back at his sides, sniffing slightly with dissapointment. He then shrugged and turned back to where he would find Endy.
"Come on you mutated piece of shit, show me what you got!" Malachite snarled, easily deflecting blow after blow. The thing was sloppy, over- zealous and eager to die, apparently. Sparks flew, the sound of screeching metal roaring through his ears as he continued to dance around his opponant. The humanoid face before him contorted, the maw opening to release a frustrated howl of rage.
"You're gonna have to do better than that, friend," Malachite announced, reaching up to block one arm with his left, while easily deflecting the other that swung in from the side with his other blade. Then he suddenly spun out of reach and brought the handles of both his blades together.
"Blinding Chaos!" he roared, and in a brilliant flash they merged to form a single weapon. Malachite spun the enormous double-ended swallow in one fist, then crouched down, the weapon angled out behind him, ready to strike. His narrowed eyes lifted to his stalled opponant and he grinned, then motioned with his free hand for the creature to approach.
Just as expected, the thing went completely berserk.
It charged full tilt with a wild scream of fury, and just as it would have rammed into him, Malachite spun out to the side, using the momentum of his turn to bring one of the bladed ends of the swallow down that much harder across the monster's back in a textbook maneuver. The blade sliced deep, though not completely through as he'd intended. With a high-pitched wail the thing fell forward, it's backside flooded with a sickly black- green blood, before abruptly disappearing.
Malachite remainded at the ready for a second longer, assuring himself that the danger had passed, then straightened again with a sigh. He dismissed his falchions back to the Void, then slowly returned back to where Endymion lay in the grass. The others had approached as well, and they resumed their ringed vigil. After only a few moments the Prince stirred and then sat up. Ignoring Endy's suddenly flared eyes and stunned expression, all four Generals snapped to attention and slammed their closed right fists over their left shoulders.
"Generals," Malachite thundered, "dismissed."
At that, the armor that encased them abruptly melted away back into that fine powdery dust, and then sifted away on the summer wind, taking with it the personas of the Four Warrior Kings. Malcolm, Jadrian, Zachary and Nathan were left in their wake. The four blinked somewhat stupidly, staring around at their surroundings with blank expressions. Then all at once, all four of them collapsed to the ground, unconscious.
