Samurai

[Dragonrider1227]

This is such a great story I love how much you were able to come up with with only images to work with. Also, I agree with Shiyonasan. I'd love to see this animated. Or at least as a manga.

Astro looked into Sapphire's face and he was smitten by her beauty. “I don't know how I got here in this strange land, or why everyone I know seems to have lost their memory except for me, but I am at your service,” he said bowing and taking her hand in his.

Does Astro have a little crush on Sapphire? That is SO CUTE! ^_^

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

The four travelers had an uneasy night after their fight with the forces of darkness. Astro took it upon himself to keep guard during the night, as he patrolled the hallway by rooms where Pinoko, Kurō, and Sapphire slept. He kept his eye searchlights glowing brightly to keep the demons away as he now believed in their existence and the danger that they presented. Finally the first glow of the morning sun appeared in the horizon, as the pitch black of the sky gave way to a lighter violet.

Even before the first bits of the sun's orb rose above the edge of the world, the monks had risen from their night's slumber to prepare for the new day. They mediated in prayer for an hour before marching single file into the dining room for their breakfast. The sound of their sandaled feet upon the rough hewn lumber floor woke the three humans from their troubled sleep, and the smell of of the freshly baked brown bread completed the task. Pinoko was the first to exit her bed to find the way to the long table of the dining room, and she was quickly joined by Kurō and Sapphire.

They found empty places near the head of the table for themselves as the old priest with the large nose greeted them in silence. Well worn cups of strong black tea were set in front of them, along with bowls of a thick barley and rice porridge, and thin slices of brown bread. Pinoko saw Kurō and moved her seat closer to his. “Sensei!” she smiled.

“I think I know you,” Kurō replied. “We were separated weren't we?”

“Yes, we were traveling together,” the young girl agreed.

The assembled group ate their meal in silence, and then the monks shuffled out of the dining hall, again in single file, to make their way to the temple's sanctuary for their mornings prayers. Pinoko followed them, and then stood in the back of the sanctuary looking around.

The monks sat on their prayer rugs in a prone position facing the front of the room. There upon a raised platform sat a large golden figure of the Buddha. Siddharthā Gautama Shakyamuni's figure rested upon a locked stone chest. The golden deity had an almost blank expression on his face that seemed to offer neither guidance nor criticism upon his disciples. One either side of the rotund figure were smaller golden statues depicting some of the gods of the Hindu faith.

Kurō, Sapphire, and Astro found their way to the sanctuary and looked around. The old priest came up to them and nodded, “You are welcome to come in and pray with us if you like,” he said.

Pinoko stared at the golden image of the Buddha, her eyes wide open in amazement.

“That statue of the Buddha has been in our possession for many generations,” he explained. “It is said that Siddharthā himself posed for the original artist that created our statue, that it is an original likeness of the actual Buddha himself and not a rendition of someone's interpretation of his appearance.”

“That would make it quite valuable,” Kurō said.

“To an outsider, perhaps.” The priest replied. “It is valuable to us in a spiritual sense, but not as a material object. We pray to the Buddha in our hearts, not to a golden idol in his image. The statue simply helps us focus on him, though the image does comfort us.”

“I think I understand,” Sapphire replied.

“Still, there are those that would desire to take our simple possessions from us,” the priest sighed. “Kiriko has been raiding monasteries all over the countryside, stealing every religious symbol and prayer book that he can lay his hands on.”

“What an evil man!” Pinoko cried, “Why would he do such a thing?”

“Kiriko believes that the source of his power lies in his worship of the demons and devils,” The priest replied. “He wants to destroy all worship of the gods of light so he may gain favor from the lord of darkness. That is why he is on a quest to destroy sanctuaries such as ours.”

Sapphire's right hand fondled the hilt of her Katana, “I will pledge my life and honor to protect this temple from Kiriko's evil,” she said, “I will live to see his death!”

Kurō bowed to the priest, “I will also pledge my sacred honor to your protection!” he replied.

Astro unsheathed his sword and held the blade upwards “I too will protect the sacred Buddha from the forces of darkness!”

Sapphire drew her sword and held it high, as Kurō also drew both of his Katana from their scabbards. The four blades were brought together, and as their tips momentarily touched, the four highly polished steel weapons glowed with an eerie blue glare.

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

The old priest bowed in respect to his four self declared protectors. “Sapphire-San,” he said, “Kiriko was recently here searching for you, do you consider it wise to stand up against him?”

“I am no longer alone!” she replied, smiling at the others.

“If Kiriko wants to hurt Sapphire, he will have to go through ME!” Astro replied, placing his arm around Sapphire's waist.

“Very well,” the priest replied. “So far Kiriko and his demon horde of Samurai have not stormed this temple, perhaps because he was more obsessed with recapturing Sapphire-San,” the priest suggested. “But he will be back, I've received word from a monastery to the east of us that his men were there a few days ago. They killed several of the monks and stole many of their relics. We may very well be next.”

Kurō reflected on the matter and replied, “We need to make this temple more defensible. We should ring the buildings with pits in which we can hide ourselves, the element of surprise may be our best hope of defense.”



The Demon Temple looked almost tame in the bright sunlight of the morning after the previous night's rain had abated. The heavy equipment had arrived and the roadway had been cleared of the debris left by the storm. A tow truck had arrived and it now had the broken down bus attached, ready to haul it back to the city. The driver was still being questioned by the police who didn't quite believe his story about the disappearance of his passengers. While he argued with the local law enforcement officers a small automobile carrying two passengers came around the bend in the road and stopped behind the bus which was now ready to be towed back to the garage for repairs.

A young woman in her late twenties got out of the drivers seat, followed by a boy in his late teens. A robotic ostrich jumped out of the rear seat of the vehicle and followed its master as the woman approached the bus driver who was glad to see her.

“You must be Yuko-San,” he said.

“Yes, I am,” she replied.

“You'll excuse me,” the driver told the two policemen, “I have other business to attend to and it seems that I've already told you everything that you care to know!”

The two cops shrugged their shoulders, put away their computer tablets, and marched back to their squad car. The bus driver waited until they police car was out of sight down the road before he continued.

“I found this on the bus, so I thought I should call the Ministry right away,” he said, handing Yuko a man's wallet.

“This must have fallen out of Dr. O'Shay's pocket somehow,” Reno said.

“Yes, well we now know that he and Astro were on this bus during the night,” she agreed.

“We broke down during the storm last night,” the bus driver explained. “I had to stop quickly when a tree was struck by lightning and fell in our path. The passengers were jolted out of their seats by the sudden stop, perhaps that's when your friend lost his wallet. We took refuge from the storm in the temple just a hundred meters or so up this path.”

The driver pointed to a trail leading uphill from the roadway. He led the way, with Yuko, Reno, and Momo following. They entered the demon chamber and the driver held out his arms to block the way. He shined a bright electric torch into the room to reveal the evil looking stone idols.

“You can see the footprints of the six passengers in the heavy dust on the floor,” the bus driver explained. “While they were out exploring, I was searching for food and drink. I heard a scream and I came running into this chamber, but I found no one here. The footprints lead in, but none lead out. Look at the patterns on the floor in the dust!”

“Yes, I see it,” Yuko replied. “You can see where six bodies were lying on the ground. We must examine the area if we are to know what happened to them.”

Yuko motioned to Reno and Momo. The robot bird that looked like a cross between an Ostrich and a Flamingo followed her with Reno close behind. They stopped in front of the impressions in the dust and Yuko opened a panel on Momo's back. The robot bird contained numerous sensors which activated, the bird's head scanned the ground, its eyes glowing. Reno reached into his back pocket and extracted a small computer device which he flipped open. The multipurpose instrument resembled a Star-Trek Tricorder. While Momo scanned the dust on the floor, Reno took readings from around the room.

“What are you looking for?” the bus driver asked.

“Answers.” Yuko simply said.

“I'm picking up traces of kronotron particles.” Reno said.

“Momo is also reading traces of them in the dust,” Yuko agreed.

“What does that mean?” the bus driver asked.

“I'm not sure yet,” Reno replied. “But it does seem as if something in this chamber, perhaps as a result of the lightning storm last night, has opened up a temporal portal through which your passengers were sucked into.”

“Can you explain that in layman's terms?” the driver asked.

“Time travel.” Yuko replied.

[Dragonrider1227]

Two more great chapters

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

Samurai

five

Reno paced back and forth in the great laboratory of the Ministry of Science. It was in this huge expanse that some of the greatest advances in science had been made, this was the laboratory with almost every piece of equipment imaginable. Huge overhead cranes could quickly move the heaviest machinery about. The main plumbing from the Metro City power plant was piped into the lab, millions of volts at millions of amperes were available to power the largest equipment that could be built. It was in this very room that Astro had been first powered up by Dr. Tenma and it was here where Uran had been assembled by Dr. O'Shay.

All of the readings that Reno and Yuko had been able to make inside of the temple had been fed into the memory banks of the Ministry's most power computer, and the giant electronic brain was now analyzing the data. Reno knew that before he would be able to figure out a way of retrieving Dr. O'Shay and Astro, along with the other four passengers on the bus, from the past, he'd first have to figure out exactly where and when they had been transported to.

The computer was now comparing the orientation of the kronotron particles that had been discovered in the dust on the temple floor. Their magnetic alignment, plus the readings of the temporal field that his Tricorder like device had picked up might hold the key to figuring out where the time portal had opened to.

Sitting on a workbench attached to one of the computers was Dr. Tempo's original time gun. The mad scientist had once used that device to send Dr. O'Shay and Astro back to the middle ages. Fortunately, the wacky scientist had transported not only the doctor and his buddy back in time, but the contents of most of the laboratory as well. Dr. O'Shay had been able to construct his own time gun to return back to the 21st century. With the data on the device's construction in the computer's memory banks, Reno hoped he'd be able to find his missing friends. The computation was however taking seemingly forever to complete.


Kiriko stood behind the parapet looking down from the top of his fortification at the the mounted horsemen assembled below. His army consisted of the best swordsmen in all of Japan, yet he still didn't feel powerful enough. His second in command grunted to get his attention, Kiriko turned towards the general and studied him for a moment.

“Have your spies found her yet?” he asked

“Indeed they have,” the dark skinned Mongol said with a smile that revealed his yellow teeth. “As you suspected she was hiding out in the monastery.”

“I was going to deal with the priest at that temple eventuality,” Kiriko laughed, “now it will be our next target.”

“My spies report that there are several Samurai guarding the grounds of the temple,” the general replied.

“Several Samurai will not pose a threat to my army,” Kiriko guffawed.

“What are your plans for the princess, my lord.” the Mongol asked.

“I've lost interest in her,” Kiriko said. “If you find her amusing you may do as you wish with her.”

“Arigatō.” the general smiled, “I will enjoy that very much!”

“Very well then, dismiss your troops and have them prepare for battle,” Kiriko said, “We will attack tonight after the moon rises.”

“Attack at night?” the General questioned, “Is that wise?”

“It will give us he element of surprise, plus we will have the demon army at our side,” Kiriko said.



Astro, Kurō, and Sapphire took turns at watch, patrolling the grounds of the monastery on lookout for any sign of an approaching army. Several of the monks stood watch as well, they communicated among each other by imitating bird calls. The old priest brought drink and bread to each of the four visitors while they were on duty.

“I don't think they will attack us until after the moon rises,” the priest told Astro. “Word from the other monasteries is that Kiriko has joined forces with a horde of Demons which will only come out after dark.”

“That would give them the advantage of surprise,” Astro agreed.

“Perhaps you should rest until dark then,” the old man suggested, “it may be a long night.”

“I don't need sleep,” Astro replied, “I'm a robot.”

“I do not know what that is,” the priest said, “but I can sense that you are different from the others.”

The old man patted Astro on the back, and walked back towards the temple. When he was alone Astro lifted his armor and opened his chest panel to check on how his energy supply was doing. “I'm about half full,” he sighed.



Yuko entered the laboratory followed by her robot bird Momo. “Were you able to find them?” she asked.

“The computer wasn't able to pin point the exact location in time where they were transported,” Reno sighed. “I was able to modify Tempo's time gun so that it can return everyone from the past to the present. The only problem is that the gun will have to be fired in the past.”

“Meaning that the time gun must be sent backwards in time.” Yuko replied.

“Exactly.” Reno answered. “It will be necessary to return to the demon temple and re-create the conditions that opened the portal in time in the first place. There is one major problem however,”

“What is that?” Yuko asked.

“My analysis of the kronotron particles suggests that the transport vector will only work on self aware matter.” Reno replied. “I can't send the time gun back by itself. It would have to be in the possession of a sentient being to be transported back in time.”

“So a human or a robot must take it there,” Yuko said. “You could use Momo.”

“No, that wouldn't work. Momo doesn't possess Kokoro.” Reno replied. “There are only three or four choices available to us.”

“Who are they?” Yuko asked.

“Cobalt, Uran, Atlas, or myself.” Reno replied.

“I could do it,” Yuko added.

“Yes you could,” Reno replied, “but I'm the best qualified for the job.”

“It might be dangerous.” Yuko said. “The contents of the demon temple suggest that they were sent back to Japan's feudal period.”

“I know that.” Reno said. “It's a good thing I have my Ironman suit!”

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

The full moon rose blood red above the horizon as the Earth's shadow fell across its face. The monks lay prostate on the floor of the temple in prayer, as the priest recited verse after verse from his prayer scroll. Astro could see the fear in his eyes, and on the faces of the monks.

“Why are you all in the temple hiding?” Astro asked, “we should all be on our guard, waiting for Kiriko's army.”

“It is no use,” The priest cried out in fear, “His army of demon's has cast an omen of great power, just as the face of the moon has been bloodied, so will our blood be spilled!”

Astro pointed at the Lunar orb, now fully risen above the rim of the Earth. “That is not an omen!” he yelled. “It is only an eclipse of the moon! It is not blood you see, only the shadow of the Earth falling on its natural satellite!”

“It is not the work of the devil?” the priest asked.

“Not at all!” Astro reassured him, “It is a natural phenomenon which is visible somewhere on the Earth at least twice every year, though a really dark red total eclipse like this one might only be seen once every score of years.”


Kiriko smiled as he saw the blood moon rise. “Satan has given us his blessings for our attack!” he told his general. “Tell your men to sharpen their swords, our demon allies will not forsake us tonight!”

The Mongol leader looked up at the sky and shivered. “You may consider the red mood a good omen, but it will raise fear in my men. The blood moon is a sign of death and destruction,” he said.

“That is true,” Kiriko laughed, “But tonight it will not be our blood that is spilled! I will destroy the monastery and capture the sacred relics for my own purposes. After that, nothing will stand in my way of becoming Shogun of this entire island!”



Dusk was fast approaching as Reno inspected the roof of the demon temple. The boy realized that the ancient building had been build with much lost knowledge. Yuko called up to him from the path below, “have you discovered anything?”

“Yes!” Reno yelled down. “The roof is ringed with metal spikes set into glass tiles,” he said pointing to one of the dark green spears that pointed towards the sky. “They are made of pure copper, and they are all connected to a heavy braided metal rope that leads into the demon chamber.”

Reno climbed down the ladder they had brought with them and entered the building. Yuko followed him into the demon room where the stone idols lined the walls. He pointed to a heavy green rope that came though a hole in the ceiling. “This rope is made from many strands of pure copper woven together,” he said. "It connects with all of the metal spears on the roof.”

“Lightning rods?” Yuko asked.

“Exactly!” the boy nodded, pointing to the stranded copper cable and following its path towards a bronze statue holding a large 'Y' shaped crystal in one of its hands. “See how this demon idol is holding hands with the one next to it. All of the statues with gems in their faces are connected together, and they all connect to this one that is wired up to the lightning rods.”

“Interesting!” Yuko agreed, “But how were Astro, Hakase, and the others transported back in time?”

“I think the gems in each of the demon's faces act as amplifier crystals and focus the temporal field generated in the crystal like device in the bronze statue's hand,” Reno explained. “That device in its hand is the key to this machine, I'm sure that it's actually a flux capacitor!”

“Then it would take a direct hit by a bolt of lightning to power it,” Yuko said, “And the forecast calls for clear skies for the next few nights.”

“That's why I brought the equipment in that large truck along with us,” Reno explained. “With those four huge Van de Graaff generators, and the giant Tesla coil, we will produce our own lighting!”

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

Kiriko mounted his horse and drew his Katana from its sheath. He held the blade high over his head, and it caught the blood red light of the moon. “We march!” he yelled. A mist rose up from the nearby rise fields and drifted over towards the small army on horseback. Slowly the damp clouds took form as another army, this one of demonic figures marched side by side with Kiriko's Samurai.

“We shall be invincible!” Kiriko laughed out loud as he took the point and led his armies toward the monastery.


Several dozen monks armed with wooden staffs stood inside the stone walls that ringed the grounds of the monastery. The Priest recited several prayers, and blessed the swords that his defenders carried. Kurō, and Sapphire sat upon their steeds, their own swords hanging at the ready in their scabbards. Astro patrolled the grounds on foot. He once again tried to take to the air but found that his jets would still not function. He used his eye's searchlights to cut though the dark mist that started to roll in over the ground, the dark blood red light of the eclipsed moon providing little illumination.

The demon horde approached the temple grounds first. Astro's powerful long distance vision altered him as the leading edge of the vanguard crept towards the defenders, and he sounded the warning. Sapphire and Kurō charged towards the demons with their swords drawn. The stallions they rode on were swift, and they quickly broke up the initial attack by charging in and out of the ranks of the underworld creatures, cutting many of them down with their swords. While he couldn't fly, Astro was faster on his feet than the horses, and he could leap high above the invading demons swinging his Katana to chop them up as he landed.

The defenders regrouped and kept their vigil. They still didn't know from where Kiriko's Samurai army would attack them from, it was quite possible that he'd ordered his men to surround the temple and advance from several sides.



Reno placed the helmet of his Ironman suit on his head and with a twist locked it in place. He nodded to Yuko who stood near the Frankenstein like electrical apparatus.

“Are you quite sure about this?” she asked.

“There isn't any other way,” Reno replied, as he inspected the contents of the backpack one last time and slipped it over his shoulder. He slowly walked into the old temple and made his way into the demon chamber. Reno stood in the middle of the dusty impressions left in the floor by the six passengers of the bus. He looked around at the evil grins on the faces of the demon statues and shivered for a moment. “OK Yuko, I'm in position now,” he radioed.

Yuko activated the main power switch, and the Van de Graaff generators started spinning. She could hear the static electric charge being built up, and could feel the hairs on her body becoming electrified by the ionized air the machines began to produce. When the meters read a potential of one million volts she activated the Tesla coil and a steady electrical discharge flashed between the two spun metal balls attached to the device.

“It's running now,” Yuko radioed back.

“OK,” Reno replied, “Do it!”

Yuko reached for the final switch. The connection between the Tesla coil's secondary winding and the cable running up to the roof of the temple was completed. The condensers of the Leydon jars released their accumulated coulombs into the cable.
Reno looked up at the bronze statue holding the 'Y' shaped crystal. It started to glow brighter and brighter. The air within the temple resonated with an increasingly louder and louder high pitched squeal as the gemstones in the eyes of the statues began to glow brighter and brighter. Suddenly the room was ablaze with light that began to overpower the darkened face shield of his helmet.

A feeling of vertigo began to overcome Reno as he felt himself falling as if the ground had opened up beneath his feet. He was in a tunnel, sliding downward faster and faster. “I'm in some sort of wormhole,” he radioed back to Yuko, not knowing if she was still able to hear him. Then the bottom of the tunnel opened up and he was in free fall with the ground coming up quickly. The repulsers of his suit came on and slowed his descent. He landed with a soft thud as the swirling light around him vanished.

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

Samurai

six

Kiriko led the charge as his Samurai army charged towards the temple. The monks formed a group to block the horsemen, wielding their wooden clubs as deftly as if they were Katana. Swift on their feet, the hooded holy men managed to knock a few of the Samurai off of their horses and then club them senseless with their staffs. Kurō and Sapphire repelled part of the attacking force, while Astro was busy cutting down those Samurai on foot before they could do likewise to any of the monks.

Before the defenders could catch their breath the army had regrouped and made a second charge. This time the small band was outflanked and they found themselves encircled by the invading army. As the Samurai drew the circle tighter, Kiriko marched forward towards the group. He gave Sapphire an evil smile and laughed. “Who is the leader here?” he demanded.

In a mass Kurō, Sapphire and Astro took a step towards the warlord as the Priest pushed his way into the middle of the circle.

“I am the leader here,” he replied.

“You are a fool, old man!” Kiriko laughed. “Perhaps I shall cut you down first as an example before I make dog food out of the monks and these thorns in my side!”, he added pointing towards the three defenders.

Kiriko raised his Katana and charged at the priest. Suddenly there was a blinding flash of light and a whirlpool of wind, as the warlord was blasted out of his saddle. He rolled like a bowling ball into ten of his Samurai army, knocking them over like tenpins. Standing where Kiriko and his steed had just been a second ago, a figure in reflective red and yellow armor stood. His face was hidden behind a mask, his eyes invisible behind a dark visor. The stranger held out his right hand and his palm emitted a blazing blast of light which struck the Samurai army and blew them many tens of yards backwards.

“Leave this place!” the strange warrior yelled.

Kiriko's Samurai got up and trembled in fear at the sight of the glowing armor of the phantom that had suddenly apparated onto the battlefield from out of nowhere. They began to retreat, and Kiriko started to follow when the armored figure bellowed out, “NOT YOU! You shall remain here!”

Kiriko ignored the command, and was struck with another blast from the figure's palm.
“Into the temple!”, ordered the red and yellow knight. Sapphire pricked the warlord in the back of his neck with the tip of her sword, “GO!” she ordered.

Kiriko crawled to his feet and trodded towards the monastery with Sapphire's Katana pressed against the back of his neck for encouragement.


Kiriko sat in one of the pews of the temple sanctuary. He was flanked on one side by Sapphire, and on the other side by Astro. Sitting next to the boy robot were Black Jack and Pinoko. The armored figure stood in front of the six of them, and slowly removed his helmet.

Astro's face lit up when he saw the face of the metal Samurai that had appeared in the middle of the battle. “Reno!” he cried, tears welling up in his eyes.

“Yes it's me,” Astro's buddy smiled.

Reno walked towards the old priest and asked, “Dr. O'Shay, you do know who I am, don't you?”

“I'm afraid not son,” he replied, “Should I? And why do you call me by that name?”

“I think I'm the only one of us who didn't lose his memory,” Astro told Reno. “I thought that was because I'm a robot, but you seem to have come here with your memory intact.”

“Perhaps that's because when I'm wearing this Ironman suit, I am like a robot.” Reno replied.

“But now you're stuck back here in the past with all of us,” Astro sighed.

“Maybe not.” Reno said, as he extracted a strange looking rifle from his backpack. “I brought this with me.”

“What is that?” Astro asked.

“I thought you might have remembered this,” Reno told him, “It's Dr. Tempo's time gun.”

“Yes, I do remember that!” Astro replied.

“I've realigned it to return us back to the 21st century,” Reno said, “I hope that it will also restore everyone's memories as well.”

“But who will use it on you?” Astro asked.

“I think I can do a selfie with this,” Reno said, “At least I know I can hold the gun correctly for that, I've already tried it.”


A group of the monks entered the temple and approached the old priest. The old man had been staring at Reno and Astro, and he seemed to recall something. “I think I'm going to be leaving you,” he told the hooded holy men. “You will need to elect a new priest from among your ranks.”

The monks nodded and left the sanctuary in a single file. “I think maybe I should be first,” the priest told Reno.

The boy nodded and switched the time gun on. He pointed it at the Priest and pulled the trigger. Dr. O'Shay felt himself whirling about as he fell though an opening in the space-time continuum He was falling though some kind of a tunnel trapped between two planes of existence.


Yuko shut off the equipment and grabbed a powerful flashlight. She entered the temple and made her way towards the demon room. She could see Reno's footprints in the dust, and recognized the distinctive outline left by the boots of the Ironman suit.

Suddenly a ball of light appeared in the middle of the room, not far from where Reno had been when he fell though the wormhole opened by the statue's crystals. Yuko shielded her eyes from the glare which grew brighter, and then slowly faded. Sitting on the floor in the dust, Dr. O'Shay looked up and set eyes on the young woman.

“Yuko,” he managed to get out of his mouth, “Am I back?”

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

Reno next pointed the time gun at Kurō and Pinoko. “I'm going to send the two of you back next,” he said. The beam from the rifle enveloped the doctor and his young assistant and they slowly vanished from sight. Kiriko's eyes widened as a panic fell over the warlord. “What is this trickery?” he demanded. “You are a sorcerer!”

Reno tried to calm the white haired individual. “Once I send you back to where you belong you should remember who you really are, Kiriko” the boy said. “I know you don't understand right now, but you are really a kind and compassionate physician.”
Kiriko pushed at Reno and tried to run away, but the beam of the time gun hit him and he froze in mid stride and then disappeared down the wormhole that the gun had opened up.


Once again a glowing ball of light filled the middle of the demon room. Yuko and Dr. O'Shay stood next to each other as three individuals materialized out of the glow. First to become solid were Dr. Black Jack and Pinoko.

“Sensei! Where are we?” Pinoko asked.

“I think we are in the temple with all of those demonic statues,” the doctor told his young companion.

Kiriko's form stopped glowing and he looked around him.

“Kiriko?” Black Jack asked, “Do you remember anything?”

“Not very much,” the death doctor said. “However it seems that we have brought some souvenirs of our trip back with us,” he said pointing to the scabbard of the Katana that he still wore around his waist, and the two that were hanging on Kurō's.

Before anyone could say another thing the darkness of the temple was once again assaulted by two glowing figures. Astro and Sapphire stood together, holding hands. Each of them still wore the armor that they had worn for the past few days, including the the ancient swords hanging from their waists.

“Thank you for your chivalry Astro,” Sapphire said as she bent down to face the boy robot. Their lips met in a tender embrace for a few moments, and after Sapphire stood back up Astro's face had turned as red as a beet.

For a final time the room glowed brightly as Reno emerged from the glow. He was still holding the time gun with the barrel aimed at his midsection, and the index finger of his right hand on the trigger.

“I guess it worked!” He smiled.


Suddenly the eyes of the demon statues began to glow and the air withing them temple became itchy with electricity. From outside they could hear the sound of thunder.

“Let's get out of here!” Pinoko yelled.

Eight figures ran quickly from the temple and found themselves being pelted by a light rain laced with hail. “It wasn't forecast to rain today, that's why we brought the generating equipment,” Yuko cried out, “What is going on here?”

“I think we may have made the demon gods mad!”, Dr. O'Shay answered, “They don't seem happy about our finding our way back from their past!”

Bolts of lighting flew from the sky and out of the building striking the ground all about the fleeing group. Reno and Yuko climbed into the cab of the truck while Kurō opened the back of the vehicle and waved for the others to quickly climb in. He pulled the rear door down as Yuko threw the transmission into gear and floored the accelerator. Reno watched in the rear view mirror as a lightning bolt hit the roof of the temple which started to glow an eerie green color. As the light surrounding the temple faded, the building disappeared leaving just an empty place between a stand of trees.



It had been nearly a year and a half since they had taken that unscheduled short cut though the dark forest on the bus. They'd been back to where the temple had once stood, but found no sign of it None of the local population would admit to knowing anything about the demon temple, even the bus driver who'd been with them could not remember anything since that day. Reno had tried to recover proof of their journey by analyzing the time gun, but the device held no trace imprints in its circuitry of where they had been. Even the data collection memory of his Ironman suit held no clue, the storage had been wiped clean upon his return. All he could say for sure was that he and the others had been transported trough space-time, but exactly where or when was a vague mystery.


Dr. O'Shay removed his pith helmet just long enough to wipe the sweat from the top of his balding head. Ahead of him, Astro and Reno were busy working the excavation. Archeology was a hobby of the professor, though he rarely got the time to work at a dig, nor was he as fit as he used to be. He was certainly glad to have Reno and Astro's help.


The site had been discovered while the Tokugawa construction company had been clearing the grounds to lay the foundation for a new office tower in the middle of Tokyo. With Japan's long and ancient history going back almost a hundred centuries, it wasn't uncommon for the ruins of something historically significant to be found whenever ground was dug up in a place that hadn't been disturbed for nearly a century.

Reno carefully dusted the ground away using a short handled broom to reveal the outline of a large stone chest. Engraved in the marble lid of the vessel was some writing in an ancient variety of Kanji that the boy was unable to decipher. Astro quickly scanned the writing and his electronic brain searched his vast linguistic database, but even he came up mostly empty.

“The writing seems to indicate that this place may have been a sanctuary to honor heroes who saved a village from an invading army,” Astro guessed.

“There are probably more clues inside of this stone chest,” Reno said, “But it's going to take me all day to get it dug out.”

“Let me take care of that,” Astro said, motioning for Reno and the professor to stand back.

Astro folded his hands back into his arms to expose the exhaust nozzles of his arm jets, which he used to rapidly blow away the tons of dirt surrounding the buried chest. Once the marble vault was freed from the surrounding earth, he shut down his arm jets and lifted the heavy object out of the hole that he'd just dug out, and placed it on the ground between Reno and Dr. O'Shay.

Astro slowly lifted the lid and placed it next to the now open stone box. Reno reached inside and slowly removed a large wooden plaque. The large dark hardwood tablet had been engraved with carvings which were then covered with gold leaf. Embossed in the surface of the plaque was an image depicting a battle between a group of monks defending their monastery from an invading horde of Samurai.

“Look Hakase!” Astro cried out in awe, pointing towards the image on the monument. Standing next to the temple, dressed in the robes of a Buddhist Priest, was an old gentleman with a large nose, and a balding head.

Standing on an outcropping of rock was a small Warrior dressed in the armor of a Samurai. He was holding a long Katana in his right hand, while standing his ground. His red cape billowed in the wind behind him. The most distinctive feature of the determined young hero was the outline of his two pointed cowlicks at the back of his head.

In the background of the bas relief sculpture was another defender looking like some sort of demonic creature. His eyes were hidden behind a dark shield set inside of a metal helmet, his full body armor emitted lightning bolts from his palms that cut down the advancing horde of horsemen.

“So it wasn't a dream,” Dr. O'Shay muttered.

“What are we going to do with this find, Hakase?” Reno asked.

“I think this plaque will be hidden in the vault of the Ministry's vault for some time,” the professor sighed. “No one would believe the story anyway, and they would accuse me of fakery if I were to announce this find. No, it will remain our little secret, though perhaps we will show it to a few others,” he smiled as he pointed to yet another detail on the mural.

Off to the side, a female warrior was dueling sword to sword with a warlord. He had a patch over one eye, and his long hair was pure white. Behind him another armored Samurai had quickly dispatched a half dozen of his enemy by throwing a fist full of small razor shape knives. This hero had a long scar on his face, and his hair was both dark and white in color. A small child with four bows in her hair waited for him just a few yards away.

The End

[Dragonrider1227]

I really liked this story. Liked the plot, liked the action, and I liked the interaction between Astro and Sapphire