Emergency crews with flashing red-blue lights sparkled in the distance as Ryan hurried down the steps of the bus to the sidewalk along Q Street NW. He checked his cell phone. No missed calls.
Ronnie muttered behind him.
They’d grabbed a bus as fast as they could find one that would get them as close to Dupont Circle as possible. The police had shut most of the area down, and even from the intersection of Q Street NW and Massachusetts Avenue NW, Ryan could still see the devastation eastward.
It was a mess.
Normally the bus would have gone further, but the police barricades blocked the rest of the street. Ronnie grabbed the back of Ryan’s arm and pulled him away from the side of the bus toward an imposing building called Townsend House.
“Have they called?” Ronnie asked.
Ryan showed him his phone. “No. They really must have run out of quarters.”
Ronnie peeled his sunglasses off and scrubbed his hand down his face. “We can hang out here, but they won’t know to look for us.”
“We could ask one of the officers where the injured were taken.” Ryan peered down the street looking for law enforcement within shouting distance. “If nothing else we can talk to the Doc.”
Ronnie grunted.
“What?” Ryan glanced down at him.
Ronnie stood with his arms crossed, silver eyes shining in the sun, and he pointed across the street. Ryan turned. On the other side of the street, a large multistory brick building towered into the clouded sky. At the far end of the building, a narrow corridor led to a parking area behind the building, and sitting passively in the shadows of the corridor was a giant white tiger.
Ryan sighed. “Well, they said he was here.” He thumped Ronnie’s shoulder. “Come on.”
Ryan led the way across the street, and as soon as they were within the shadow of the building Shirotaro plodded out to meet them. The huge cat butted his massive head into Ryan’s stomach, and Ryan ran his hands into the cat’s warm fur.
“Hey, pal.” Ryan scratched. “Don’t know what you’re doing here, but I’m glad to see you.”
Shirotaro whuffed and turned around slowly, whacking Ronnie with his heavy tail.
“Yeah, I’m here too, thanks,” Ronnie spat.
Ryan smiled and followed the tiger into the corridor. Narrow and dark, it led to an alleyway behind the tall brick apartment building. Glass windows on the right inside the corridor showed a stairwell that wound down several stories. The left side had more windows that had been boarded over and barred shut.
The narrow alley behind the building led back around to another street, but beside the alley a brick wall rose six feet with long windows along the street level.
“Hey, took you guys long enough!”
Ryan looked up sharply.
Karl Goodson, wearing his battle gear, sat on top of the wall waving at him. Stan stood next to him, pale-faced and quiet.
Ronnie muttered something about needing a cigarette.
Shirotaro plodded over to the wall and sat his haunches down beneath where Karl kicked his feet. Ryan crossed his arms and scowled up at the two youngest members of their team.
“Is this area secure?”
Karl shrugged. “Who the heck knows, old man?” He slid off the wall and landed next to Ryan.
Stan jumped down as well. “There’s been no one past.” He met Ryan’s eyes. “It’s all rather disturbingly quiet.”
“What happened?” Ryan took the boy’s shoulder. “Are you both all right?”
“How did you get here so quick?” Karl craned his neck to look out the alley. “Did you hitch a ride on a magic carpet or something?”
Ronnie shoved his hands into his pockets. “Something like that. Korin showed up and got us here with—uh—magic.”
“Really?” Stan made a face.
“Dude! Magic? Awesome!” Karl beamed.
“No, it ain’t really magic, but it’s easier to call it magic than explain it to you two doofuses.”
Ryan rolled his eyes. “Karl.”
“Yeah, old man?”
“Where’s the Doc?”
Karl thought for a minute. “Hospital.” He pointed down the street. “Or maybe it’s that way.” He pointed the other way. “I don’t know where it is. It’s a hospital. Smells funky.”
“Howard University Hospital,” Stan said. “And it does not smell funky, Karl, you’re just sensitive.”
“I am not.” Karl jutted out his jaw. “Don’t say that, dude. Makes me sound girly.”
“Boys.” Ryan lifted one hand.
Karl and Stan quieted.
“What about Mia?” Ryan valiantly fought to keep the tremble out of his voice.
“We don’t know.” Stan shook his head. “Haven’t seen her since the battle.”
“Gideon’s gone too.” Karl nodded.
“Gideon?” Ryan glanced at Ronnie, who shrugged. “Who is Gideon?”
“Oh.” Stan stood up. “Mr. Gideon. He’s a new friend we made while we were here.”
“He raised Sam.” Karl leaned on the brick wall. “Super nice guy. Hard to believe someone like him was like Lurch’s dad.”
Ryan fought the urge to sigh. There was too much detail and not enough detail all at the same time. “All right.” He steadied himself. “What do we know?”
“What do we know?” Karl wrinkled his eyebrows together. “Like in general?”
“Yeah, Karl. What do you know in general? That’ll be a quick conversation.” Ronnie smacked the armored teenager’s arm. “No, Karl, about what happened here.”
“Oh. We made a mess.”
“I can see that, Karl.” Ryan ran his hands into his hair. “Okay. Start at the top.”
“We were eating at Moby Dick’s.”
“You what?” Ronnie looked stricken.
“Kebabs, dude, keep up.”
Ryan grabbed Ronnie’s shoulder and patted gently. “Talk, Karl.”
“They looked like good kebabs.” Karl shrugged. “We didn’t get to eat. Tall, yellow, and gruesome showed up and started making trouble.”
“Jinsoku. He came after you?” Ryan raised his eyebrows.
Stan hesitated. “Not exactly. He was here, but I don’t think he expected us to be. I think we surprised him.”
Ronnie scratched the back of his neck. “Well, that ain’t normal.”
“Not at all.” Ryan frowned.
“Yeah, so we had a big old knock-down drag-out in the middle of the street.”
“The press loved it.” Stan groaned.
“And Stan got himself stabbed.”
Ryan started. “You what?”
“Stabbed?” Ronnie wheeled on the younger boy.
Karl grabbed Stan and knocked on the boy’s chest plate. “Right here! See?”
Stan flapped his hands in Karl’s face until he backed off. “Is that really necessary, you numpty?”
“Stan.” Ryan stared at him. “You took a hit?”
Stan sighed. “It was—aye, I got stabbed. It was bad too.”
“How are you still standing?” Ronnie made a circle around him. “I don’t see no marks.”
“I think Kagami healed me,” Stan said. “I was a bit sore for a while after it happened, but then it just faded away. I’m fine.” Stan glanced at Karl. “But me getting stabbed kind of caused a problem.”
Karl bit his lower lip. “I kind of panicked, I think.” He looked down.
Ryan took his shoulder. “I would have too, Karl.”
“Yeah, but Shiren panicked too.” Karl held up his hands. “Shiren kind of—exploded?”
“Exploded?” Ryan’s eyebrows lifted again.
“That’s what happened to the street.” Stan pointed toward Connecticut Avenue. “Shiren made an earthquake, as far as we can tell. And the whole street collapsed under us. We ended up in the tunnels underground.”
“There were some soldiers,” Stan said. “But we only saw a few. I could sense a whole lot more. More than I’ve ever sensed in one place. But we didn’t see them. And we made it back up to the street a few hours ago.”
“And you haven’t heard nothing since then?” Ronnie asked.
“Not a peep.” Karl shook his head.
Ryan took both of their shoulders. “All right, boys. We need a plan. I’m guessing Sam is still underground too, so we need to get back down there and—”
Ryan lost his voice as a wave of nausea washed over him. The sense of electricity vibrating at the base of his skull made him forget how to talk. As he stood there, Stan, Karl, and Ronnie all gasped, glowing Japanese symbols flaring on each of their foreheads.
“Dude.” Karl grabbed his head.
Ryan blinked until the world stopped spinning.
“Did any of you open the armorlink?” Ryan glanced at all their faces.
“Why?” Ronnie scoffed. “We’re all talking to each other in person?”
“Sam,” Stan whispered, his eyes shut. “It’s Sam.”
“Sam can’t use his armor,” Karl said.
Ryan drew a deep breath and shut his eyes. The nausea hadn’t left him, and alley way still spun around him. A knot of worry and anxiety curled inside his mind, churning and roiling like a thunderhead.
No words. Not exactly. Just a sense of need. An urgent cry for help.
“I think you’re right,” Ryan whispered.
“Well, what good does that do us?” Ronnie snorted. “Can we find where he is?”
“I can find him.” Stan opened his eyes and nodded.
“Are you sure?” Ryan took the boy by the shoulders. “You’re sure, Stan?”
“Positive.”
“All right.” He looked back at Ronnie. “Let’s armor up and get down there.”
What’s happening with Sam that he can figure out his armor right now? Ryan’s stomach turned somersaults. Is Mia with him? What if she’s hurt? What if Sam is hurt?
In a flash of blue light, Ronnie donned his battle gear, dark blue and white armor replacing his street clothes in a burst of cold air.
Ryan dug in his pocket for his firebird menuki, the charm Korin had given him so many years ago. He folded his fingers around it.
“Sen Hifu no Kazan, Shinsetsu!” he murmured.
Kazan’s battle gear formed around him in a dizzying blur of red light and fiery energy. Ryan drew a deep breath as the armor locked in place, and his menuki transformed into a red-sheathed tanto. He attached it to his hip and turned to Stan.
“You boys lead the way.”
Stan nodded. “Aye, follow us.”
“Last one underground buys tacos!” Karl leaped forward to the side of a building and bounded into the sky.
“Oh, now when did we agree to that?” Stan yelped and leaped after him.
Ronnie followed but kept muttering about needing a cigarette and how he wouldn’t buy them tacos under any circumstances because Karl’s stomach was a bottomless pit.
Ryan sighed again.
Shirotaro made a noise between a yawn and a growl.
“I know, buddy.” Ryan patted his giant head. “But they’re my mess.”
Ryan braced himself and jumped.
The battle gear gave them greater strength and endurance, so they could jump higher and run faster. It was protection without the extra armor weight.
They would have to move quickly, though. Battle gear didn’t hide their faces, and it was still daylight. And half the city’s eyes were on Dupont Circle at that very moment. So hopefully Karl and Stan had a back door entrance somewhere.
Karl and Stan scaled the sides of the red brick building and ran to the very edge of the roof that overlooked the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue NW and 21st Street NW. The only activity on the streets were the emergency workers and vehicles bustling hectically a block away.
“Big jump.” Stan grinned at them.
Karl laughed. “Tacos, boys. Lots of tacos.”
“Yes, Karl, I know how you feel about tacos.” Ryan rolled his eyes.
Karl shrugged. “Hey, we found the ring, man. Mia wouldn’t have known any different if you lousy snitches didn’t tell her.”
Ronnie dashed between them and leaped across the intersection, a blue-armor, blue-haired blur through the sky. He landed lightly on the roof of the shorter building across the street and started walking down the peak after he waved at them.
“Cheeky.” Stan followed him.
Even Karl made the jump without much trouble. In battle gear, he could jump farther than he could in full armor. Shiren was too bulky to jump great distances.
Ryan made the jump as well.
Shirotaro? Well, he apparently decided to find his own way, since he’d more or less vanished again. But that’s what Shirotaro was known for.
They moved quickly, all in a line, from roof to roof until they reached an ornate brick building with a flat rooftop. It might have been part of a larger hotel complex, Ryan wasn’t sure. But it was directly across from the underground entrance to Dupont Circle Metro Station.
It was, of course, crawling with police officers and rescue workers.
“Great.” Ronnie grumbled. “How we gonna get down there without being spotted?”
Stan lifted his arm to point down the street where Shirotrao sauntered into view as though he owned the entire city. The giant white tiger took position in the middle of the street and released a roar that shook the windows.
The emergency workers and city employees in the street all panicked at once. Ryan heard multiple shouts about calling animal control and worrying that the zoo had been the target of another attack.
Shirotaro galloped away gleefully with a whole posse of police officers chasing him.
Ryan couldn’t remember the last time the tiger looked so happy.
Note to self: Shiro likes pranks.
That was both valuable information and terrifying at the same time.
“Come on.” Ryan moved forward once all the police had vacated.
He leaped off the roof and hit the sidewalk outside the gaping tunnel entrance with two black escalators like tongues. Ryan slid down the center panel of one until he reached the bottom.
“What are the chances we can outrun the cameras?” Ryan glanced over his shoulder at Ronnie.
“One step ahead of you, boss.” Ronnie surged past him, holding two large cups of coffee. He chucked them across the lobby at the cameras in the corners.
Instantly, both cameras shorted out.
“Dude.” Karl laughed coming up behind them. “Where‘d you get the coffee?”
“Police car.” Ronnie smirked. “They were too busy chasing Shiro.”
Ryan shook his head.
Second note to self: Send coffee gift card to DC police.
“This way!” Stan bolted ahead, sliding down the next set of escalators to the lower level.
Ryan and Ronnie followed on Karl’s heels. He was still shouting about tacos, until Ronnie pointed out that technically Stan beat them all to the underground.
Stan jumped off the main platform and landed between the rails. “Karl broke a hole in the wall down here.”
Ryan followed him. About a half a mile down the rails, they came to the gaping wound in the tunnel wall.
“All right, boys.” Ryan cracked his neck. “Here we go.”
He crawled through the hole in the wall and scanned the darkness on the other side. Eerie lights flickered overhead, and the whole area smelled of burning wires and old dust. The intermittent light cast ghostly shadows on the walls, fragments of rebar turned to grasping fingers of darkness at every corner.
“Well this is creepy,” Ronnie muttered.
“You’re telling me,” Stan whimpered. “Imagine being stuck down here with soldiers for the whole day.”
“At least there’s a food court.” Karl stretched his arms over his head and laced his fingers at the base of his neck.
“A food court?” Ryan looked back at him.
“Yeah. It’s like the food court that time forgot.” Karl grinned. “It was so old there wasn’t even any food in it, which was sad. But that make it extra creepy, so it was cool.”
“Your brain is a weird place, Karl,” Ronnie scoffed.
Stan froze mid-step, gasping and clutching his chest. Instantly, Karl stopped and grabbed his arm.
“Stan?”
“Don’t you feel it?” the boy squeezed his eyes shut.
Ryan turned back and set his hand on Stan’s shoulder. “Feel what?”
“He did this before,” Karl said softly. “There are so many soldiers down here.” He shook his head. “I don’t really feel them. Not like he does. And—I don’t really feel them right now.”
A loud crash sounded in the far distance.
Ronnie took point, tanto ready.
“What do you think?” Ryan asked.
“Whatever’s down there I ain’t walking into without my arrows,” Ronnie spat.
Ryan unhooked his tanto from his leg sheath. “Agreed. Boys?”
“We’re with you.” Karl pounded his fist into his hand.
Ryan spun the tanto in his hand. “Reishosan Kazan, Inochi no Senshi. Sakemoto-yoroi. Shinsetsu.”
The tanto erupted in a firestorm of red energy that blossomed over his arm and up his shoulder. It swept over his body in a radiant flood of power that left behind shimmering red firebird armor in its wake.
The tanto expanded to the size of a wakizashi, which Ryan slid into his belt. Kazan’s helmet formed in his hand, and he slipped it over his head, the face shield retracting automatically.
The underground tunnel felt different in the full Kazan armor. Not as threatening, maybe?
The clank of armor beside him drew his gaze where the others had followed his lead and suited up. Karl’s Shiren armor looked particularly menacing in the flickering lights, something about the spikes all over his arms and legs and back.
“Everybody ready?” Ryan held out his hand and waited as a red flash of power appeared and left a fiery red katana in his grip.
The crashing sounds from further down the tunnel got louder. Ryan pushed forward through the darkness, eyes alert for anything that might jump out at them.
He made it a few yards before he hit a wall of emotion. So heavy it felt tangible. His stomach clenched. The sensation of it shot down his spine and tingled in his arms.
Stan gasped behind him. “Sam!”
Ryan gulped for air.
Stan was right. It was Sam. Ryan could feel him through his armor. Or maybe Kazan could feel Hinode. Ryan had never felt Sam’s presence before.
He was a frantic ball of pain and panic and rage.
Did Sam always feel like that? No wonder he was so upset all the time.
“Stay alert, boys.” Ryan gripped his sword and charged forward.
Sam, we’re coming. We’re here.
Just barely visible through the darkness ahead, a large iron door had been inlaid in the cement wall of the tunnel. It had been cracked open.
“All of us in at once,” Ryan shouted back as he darted through the doorway into the chaos on the other side.
Jinsoku was there. Large and terrifying and sporting a bloodied chest plate and a dented shoulder plate. And Sam, Hinode armor flaring like the sun, was locked in combat with him, wielding the most gigantic sword Ryan had ever seen.
“Dude!” Karl exclaimed from somewhere behind him.
Jinsoku and Sam spun to look at them.
So much for our element of surprise.
Ronnie drew an arrow and released it. It zinged over Ryan’s shoulder, and Jinsoku broke away from Sam to deflect the silver projectile. The instant Jinsoku backed away, Sam lost his balance. He collapsed in a heap. Stan was already running to him.
“Ryan!” Ronnie gasped.
He released another arrow at the other end of the tunnel, and Ryan spun in time to see the soldier that had been holding Mia captive fall.
“Mia!” Ryan shouted.
Ronnie pivoted and let loose another barrage of arrows at Jinsoku across the tunnel. Ryan wasn’t paying much attention. All his focus was on Mia’s crumpled form.
He reached her and scooped her into his arms, panic and fear clawing at his mind. She gasped and coughed, clutching the bruises already forming around her neck.
“Ryan.” She wrapped her arms around him. “Sam. Sam and Gideon and the soldiers.”
“Shh.” He held her close. “Shh, you’re okay.” He trembled as he held her. How did this always happen? Would Mia always be a target? How could they keep the world safe and protect her at the same time? Was it even possible?
“Ryan.” She croaked and smacked the side of his helmet.
He pulled back and looked down at her.
Her eyes were bloodshot. One of them had turned red from a burst capillary. “Help Sam and Gideon.”
“But you—”
She pulled him down by the edge of his neck guard and kissed him. He grunted in surprise and let her until she stopped.
“I’m fine,” she said, steel behind her shaking voice. “Sam needs you. And all of you need to stop Jinsoku.”
“Uh, Ryan?”
That was Stan. Ryan rolled his eyes and turned. Stan was helping Sam stand up, but he was pointing to the opposite side of the tunnel. The flickering overhead lights were just bright enough to reveal line after line after line of soldiers. Thousands of them. Maybe thousands of thousands.
“Holy crap,” Ryan muttered.
The tunnel shook violently as Karl got in a good hit and sent Jinosku flying into the wall.
“How many soldiers are there?” Ryan whispered.
“Too many,” Mia gasped. “There’s a control panel.” She pointed to a table at the center of the room. “Maybe Ronnie can stop them before they wake up.”
Ryan shifted. “Stan! Help Karl with Jinsoku!”
Stan raced away from Sam and barreled into the battle between Karl and Jinsoku.
“Ronnie!” Ryan pointed to the table. “Control panel!” He turned to Mia. “Can you find your way out of here?”
“Not without Gideon.”
Ryan glanced around the room. “There’s no one else here, Mia.”
She pointed to the far end of the tunnel. “The soldier took him that way.”
Ryan glanced to where Sam was trying to stay upright. Across the tunnel, they held each other’s gaze. Ryan gestured toward where Mia had indicated.
Sam flashed him a bloody smirk.