The Blade in the Basement!

[FIRST of all, NEVER let a chimera into your house; they're not house broken, they'll tear the whole place apart, oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention… they'll try and eat you.]

Ryan had reached the door and started fishing his pockets for his keys when 'Fluffy' charged at him, but as it cross over onto their property, glowing green characters materialized in the airs around the house property, weaving together in a pattern that formed a dome of energy around the house. Once Fluffy crashed into the dome, it was repelled and shot back with a yelp.

Mrs. Newman cursed, "A sixth-order bounded field? This isn't your standard territory. I knew she was good, but damn."

She turned her head and faced her husband, "Roscoe, can you breach it?"

Roscoe spoke in that strange language again, pulling out a cane with a glowing jewel.

"Good, I'll get the golem ready."

Ryan didn't know what the golem was and he didn't want to find out. He opened the door went inside and slammed it. He locked the door –for all the good that would do— and sat at its foot wondering what he was going to do. He was completely at a loss, but then he heard a hissing, like a silent voice in the back of his mind, directing him to the basement door.

Ryan was unwilling to go, but the roaring outside served as motivation to put as much distance as he could between himself and what was outside. Ryan stopped in front to the door and tried the door, partially expecting it to be locked, but it clicked open.

But this door is always locked! Ryan thought to himself as he went inside, going down the stairs. He couldn't even remember the times he'd tried that door as a kid only to find it locked. At the bottom of the steps he finds himself unsure of what he is looking at, the basement was practically bare, with nothing that gave the impression that it was used as a home office, there was a worktable and desk with old books and sheets of paper on them, a shelf on the far wall was filled with all the odd looking devices that Ryan wasn't familiar with, plastered on the walls were all kinds of weird and occult-looking diagrams and charts.

"Ohmigod," he gawked, "my aunt's in a cult."

The oddest thing in the basement was the wooden arch that had been built in the center of the room. It didn't seem to be anything other than a normal arch made of normal wood, but when he touched it, it was unnaturally warm and he could feel it buzzing… almost like it was breathing. As he was trying to make sense of what was happening, his eyes settled on the worktable, where he saw a weird black sword floating a few inches off the tabletop. Ryan noticed that the hissing in his head seemed to be coming from the sword, so he inspected it; the whole thing was about four feet long, it had a straight box-cutter blade and a foot long leather-bound hilt, with a length of black chain at the bottom. The sword was covered in a thin black haze.

He was so lost in studying the oddly-shaped sword, he didn't even realize he had already picked it up until he felt his grip tighten around the hilt. This close he noticed that along the back of the blade strange characters were etched into the metal, and Ryan wasn't sure if he had seen those characters on the blade before he picked it up. As he looked at the characters, a word formed in the back of his mind, 'Draxonn'. As he thought about this word, he could feel the sword tingle with power in response. So, that was it's name then? 

He didn't know how, but he felt like the blade was meant for him.

Outside, he heard a loud mechanical groan and a weird high-pitched whining noise, followed by what sounded like breaking glass, he felt the house shudder as dust rained down, he looked up and ran up the stairs. Once he was out of the basement, he looked out a nearby window and saw glowing pieces of the dome breaking off and saw a large humanoid thing standing in front of the house, it seemed to be made of metal and had an ominous red glow emanating from gaps in its configuration, he guessed that was the golem. Beside it were the Newmans with Mr. Newman holding up his cane, which was glowing brightly and shooting a beam at the protective dome. After a bit, the dome shattered in its entirety, with pieces of it falling to the ground and fading away, as the Newmans began walking towards his house.

Ryan then heard the sound of something crashing against the door and he remembered Fluffy. He ducked as the door splintered, and Fluffy jumped through.

As Fluffy stalked Ryan, he was paralyzed in fear. How was supposed to take on a monster like this? He was a normal-adjacent teen, he had no idea how to fight such a creature. As the creature tried to pounce on him, his instincts took over and his body moved on autopilot, evading the attack and swinging the sword in a wide arc, forcing the beast back and creating some distance. He then charged, thrusting his blade at the beast, but the chimera was too fast and jumped out of the way. In the course of missing, Ryan was thrown off-balance and with an opening. He locked his eyes with Fluffy's yellow demon eyes. It launched at him, but he ducked in time as its reptilian forelegs swooped over his head and it crashed into the dining room table. Ryan got up and walked towards the living room, then Fluffy burst up, this time, looking completely different; all black fur, a blood red mane, bull and rhino horns and a long tail with a spiked wrecking ball at the end.

Fluffy lunged again, but Ryan rolled out of the way and it crashed into the sofa. Its head popped up and when it opened its mouth, unhinging its jaw, a red ball of energy materialized between its maws and shot out at him. Ryan ran as ball after ball was shot at him. He took shelter behind a fallen cupboard. After the barrage stopped, Ryan got up, locking eyes with Fluffy, he hoped that whatever warrior gene he had in him would not abandon him now. Fluffy charged him, then, from the basement he heard Stephanie's voice, "Ryan? What's that noise?"

He was sure that there wasn't anyone in the basement earlier, so where did Stephanie come from?

Stephanie walked into the living room just as Fluffy leapt through the air, lunging at Ryan, who instinctively dodged slicing the beast in two. As both of its parts crashed onto the ground, blood oozed from the slain beast, and then it exploded into green flames, burning to cinders.

Stephanie looked at Ryan, with shock in her eyes,

"Chimeras," Ryan quipped, trying to lighten the mood, "They're just not house broken."

Stephanie ran to Ryan's side, "Are you hurt?" she asked

"Physically, I'm great." Ryan said, "Psychologically… not so much."

Stephanie put her hand to her ear and spoke, "Emergency! Requesting immediate assistance. Situation, critical." She walked to the shattered door and then looked back at Ryan. "Cleanup required."

"Stephanie, look out!" Ryan yelled too late as a ball of fiery green energy engulfed and incinerated her. As her body crumbled, Mrs. Newman stood by the derelict door frame.

"What a letdown." Mrs. Newman sighed as she entered, stomping on Stephanie's ashes "I can't believe she got taken out so easily. From all the talk about her, I thought she was supposed to be some kind of big shot?" she then turned to Ryan, "You killed my husband's favorite pet, so you do have potential. I can practically taste the power radiating from you, you're special." she sighed, "It's a pity that I have to turn you over to my employer, they get to keep you for themselves." She clapped her hands together, then she held one hand out, "Ryan dear, I'm going to need you to come with me."

"You killed my aunt!" Ryan yelled, then raised his sword, "I'm not going anywhere with a psycho bitch like you."

She looked offended, "How rude. Brats today have no sense of respect." she pulled out a long stick-like device, "fine, if you don't want to come willingly, I'm more than happy to use force."

At that moment, Ryan lost control of all body; it felt like something else was driving him. He tried to struggle, but to no avail.

He took an uncontrolled step towards the Newmans, then another. Ryan dreaded that he was powerless against her now. That's was when a man and a woman suddenly appeared, breaking through a wall. They were both wearing ash gray cowls over their clothes and had thick utility belts around their waists.

"Freeze!" said the man as he pulled another stick-device from his belt, then a whip of green energy shot out from it.

"Crows" Mrs. Newman cursed, she conjured a large fireball and shot it at them, the man slashed at the flames with his whip, snuffing it out.

The woman pulled out a similar device, but this one resembled a cane made of a silvery metal with a two prongs at the top, the struck the top of the staff against the wall then pointed it towards Mrs. Newman. The prongs acted like a tuning fork, emanating a sonic hum, but this one was amplified and directed. It hit Mrs. Newman in the chest sending her flying backwards and Ryan could control his body again.

"Get out of here, kid," the man growled at Ryan, "leave this to the professionals."

Mr. Newman attacked the man with the energy whip while the woman with the tuning-cane kept Mrs. Newman busy. Not requiring any more motivation, Ryan ran from the scene.

"No!" Mrs. Newman shouted, "Stop him!"

As Ryan ran deeper into the house, Mr. Newman barked something in his strange language and snapped his fingers, then the large golem burst through the wall and charged after Ryan.

"Come on!" Ryan grumbled as he dodged an attack sending the robot into the wall, Ryan expected it to pull itself out, but its body just shifted and contorts until its back was now its front, "Damn,"

Ryan ran to the kitchen with the guardian following, its large and bulky body was messing up the narrow passageway to the kitchen, but Ryan found that good, it was slowing the guardian down. Ryan made it to the kitchen and then turned and continued up the stairs.

Once he was up the stairs, he cursed his panicked decision as he was now trapped upstairs.

"Don't panic, that big clunky robot is still stuck downstairs," Ryan said trying to calm himself down. that was when the golem, that had overcome the narrow space, burst through and started making its way up the stairs rapidly.

"Ryan, you have got to stop jinxing yourself." Ryan swore under his breath

Getting to the top of the stairs, the golem chased him down the hall to his room, where it charged right through the shut door and through the room. Ryan ducked out of its path as it burst through the exterior wall, sending it toppling out of the room along with his desk and bed. The golem ploughed face-first into the ground and then started to shifting and contorting its body again, that was when Ryan noticed that around the torso area was a glowing orb that could be its main power core. Impulsively, he took the opportunity and jumped down after the golem, landing above the golem, he brought his sword down, jammed his blade right into the glowing orb. Sparks of energy flew from the golem's body, knocking Ryan off it as the automaton tried to stand, but its body started to jerk in awkward positions, then pieces of gears and other components that made up its innards started to fly off. Smoke billowed from its body as it made horrid screeching and groaning noises that indicated something was seriously wrong, then, as Ryan ducked for cover at the obvious signs of an explosion, there was a loud hollow bang, followed by the laud crash as the golem collapsed on the ground in a smoking heap.

With all the commotion that had been going on in his house Ryan wandered how no one else had noticed. Ryan came back into what was left of the living room brushing off some dust and wood splinters off his shirt, he found the Newmans on the ground with the other two standing above them victorious. The man used his stick device to bind the Newmans in ribbons of light.

Seeing that things were winding down, Ryan let go of the adrenalin that was pumping through his veins and rested against the overturned couch.

"Check on the kid." The man said to the woman

"Sure," The woman affirmed as she went over to Ryan, "You alright?"

"I somehow blew up my school, my crazy neighbors destroyed my house and killed my aunt, I fought off a freaking robot and I think I have superpowers…" Ryan listed, letting out a long exasperated sigh, "I am so ready for today to be over."

She chuckled, "No one ever is ready for their first taste of action, even with years of training." she said leaning beside him, "I still get butterflies in my stomach every time I have to sortie for a big mission,"

"Who are you people?" Ryan asks looking over at the man who was addressing the Newmans.

"Melinda and Roscoe Newman, you two are under arrest for multiple violations to the Treaty of High V'hax, and are charged with; disturbing the peace, harboring a wild ravager, the murder of mundane civilians, destruction of Argus property, resisting arrest, obstruction of justice, attempted murder of officers of the law, and several other outstanding warrants for several previous infractions across three planes. You will be detained at base until you can be tried."

The Newmans glared up at the man, with Mr. Newman uttering a long line of what Ryan assumed to be curses from the way he looked at them, then bother he and Mrs. Newman keeled over, convulsing as their mouths began to foam and their veins started to glow. An angry red symbol appeared on their foreheads.

"Damn you, crows!" Mrs. Newman screamed, frothing at the mouth.

"TAKE COVER!" the man yelled as the woman grabbed Ryan and fell behind the couch, just as the bodies of the Newmans exploded in a flash of light.

... )]≥( ...

Ryan awoke and found himself on a bed, above him was a ceiling he didn't recognize. He was in a large room from the faint sound of activity all around him, and the air was filled with the faint scent of antiseptic and… citrus? He suspected he was in some sort of hospital, which was appropriate considering how much his body ached. Forcing himself to sit up, instantly regretting it as a killer headache raged in his skull. looking down at himself, he was covered in bandages with lines of strange characters written on the gauze that gave off a faint glow. He was dressed in light green hospital pajamas, and floating above his bed was a weird orb that was connected to him, apparently monitoring his vitals.

His last memories played in his mind, the woman from his house tackling him to protect him from an explosion, then everything went black.

His sudden increase in activity attracted the attention of what he assumed was a nurse that was a few beds down, the nurse wore white scrubs with yellow designs, and had long blue and green hair split down the middle. Her eyes were a deep lavender and she had a warm smile as she got to his side.

"You're finally awake. How are you feeling?" she asked, checking his vitals and looking at the monitoring machine.

"I'm fine… where am I?" Ryan asked

She smiled warmly, "You're in the east wing of the clinic. You were pulled out of the rubble along with this young lady." She looked at the bed next to him, where he saw the woman from his house. She was in worse condition than him; half her face was bandaged up and her right arm was gone. She was asleep, her chest rising and falling every once in a while, while the machine above her monitoring her vitals.

"She's in a coma," the nurse sighed, "she was lucky, her partner not so much."

"My god," Ryan gasped, she had sacrificed herself to save him and he didn't even know her name, "Wh-what's her name, please?"

"Melody, I believe," the nurse said, "And I'm Aida,"

"How long have I… have we, been here?" Ryan asked

"About a few days. When you first arrived you were taken into intensive care, but after your risk went down, we moved you both here."

Ryan looked at his bandages, "How am I fine? That explosion was almost pointblank, but barely a scratch on me."

"Well the first factor is Melody, she shielded you and took the brunt of the blast, but you were still pretty touch and go for a while in intensive care," Aida said, then she smiled, happy to further explain, "But we healers pride ourselves in our medical abilities and techniques, such as the glyphs on the gauze that accelerate recovery. But your rate of recovery is exceptional, your natural healing factor must be pretty strong."

Ryan stared in disbelief, I have a healing factor? Like wolverine? 

"Your body is in pretty good condition also, although your energy output is unusually high, you almost electrocuted one healer during treatment." Aida added,

"Yeah, that had just started happening," Ryan said

"Well, you'll need to see a specialist for that," Aida said, "but for now you should be fine,"

A few hours later, he was cleared to be discharged, as his clothes had been ruined, he was still dressed in the clinic pajamas. As he was on his way to the exit, he was stopped once more by healer Aida, who was holding his single strap black backpack. "You almost left this."

Ryan looked confused, "How did that make it here?"

"It was brought in with you, we were on special orders to save it for you." Ryan rummaged through the bag and found the sword, Draxonn, inside, however, it was only the hilt.

"Under orders? From who?" Ryan asked

"Someone who wanted you to keep it," she said cryptically, "cool byrd, you don't see many like those anymore."

"Uh, thanks," Ryan said, slinging the bag over his shoulder. He had no idea what a byrd was, but he figured he would find out later, "How do I get out of here?"

She pointed, "Just down the hall there, that door will take you out."

"Thanks", Ryan said then he walked to the door.

Stepping out of the clinic, Ryan found himself in front of a simple municipal building, it was two stories tall, with white walls and gray stone pillars. On a wall was a caduceus symbol inside a yellow circle.

Ryan was in a large compound located in a wide valley, with rolling hills ringing the perimeter and a gentle slope inwards to the basin. Behind the healing center he could see a high security wall that probably surrounded the entire valley. The entire compound was fenced all the way to a beach where there was a pier with a large boathouse by a bay that fed into the open sea. A small forest that covered the eastern side of the compound, but clusters of buildings of different sizes were scattered around the compound, it reminded him of a college campus. Watchtowers lined the walls around the compound, and the main gates into the compound was a structure of brick and mortar, with large open gates. Suspended from the top of the gatehouse was a white banner with an odd emblem.

 The different clusters of buildings were scattered around the valley and were connected by a network of roads and pathways, each cluster was around a plaza with a fountain or brazier in the middle. From the main gates was a road that wen straight to what appeared to be the central plaza, from where paved pathways led to the rest of the compound, a dozen buildings surrounded this central plaza, that bustled with activity.

Next to the central plaza was another cluster of tall buildings that Ryan guessed might be the dormitories, from how many people he saw moving around. Standing proudly in the main plaza was a large municipal building, with a clock tower. Each clock face was engraved with a similar emblem as the one from the banner

Ryan walked towards the central plaza and marveled at the whole arrangement, everyone walked with purpose from one building to the next, or walked towards another section of the compound.

As Ryan walked about, someone whacked him on the back of the head, hard. He then heard a girl reprimand him from behind, "¡Idiota!"

When Ryan turned around, he saw the girl's dark caramel skin which contrasted well with her long strands of alabaster white hair packed into a messy ponytail with a bandanna, and bright eyes the color of gold that glared down at him. She wore a white tank top with black jeans shorts and hiking shoes, and had a thick belt around her waist and a satchel was slung across her shoulder.

"J-Jasmine?" Ryan said recognizing her, "You're alive!"

"Yes, I'm alive. No thanks to you." She scowled, "Dropping a damn school on my head and leaving me there to rot. I was lucky enough to deploy a protection circle to shield myself from the blast with and debris."

Ryan was confused from what she said, "I'm sorry. I didn't really have any control of that," he said, "What is this place?"

Jasmine sighed, "This is Argus Sanctum 45. It's a safe place for people like us."

"Like us?" Ryan asked

"Yeah genius, haven't you looked around; everyone here is a magus too."

"Magus, that's what Ms. Daedly called me, what does that mean?"

"Holy hell, you really don't know, do you?" Jasmine asked, Ryan just shook his head, "Well, basically, the world is a lot bigger than you were probably led to believe. And humans aren't the only sapient species on the planet, there's also the necreans, the non-humans. Within both species there are special individuals like us, known as magi."

"Yeah, because I knew all that when I woke up this morning," Ryan said sarcastically,

Jasmine rolled her eyes, "Okay, our world is a lot more complex than you think, there are several other planes that intersect with ours, existing in other dimensions where the rules are different. These different planes can coexist thanks to excess of Naexis energy that hold it all together. I'm assuming you already know what the Naexis is?" 

"Pretend I don't." Ryan retorted

"Amateurs," Jasmine shook her head, "The Naexis is pure cosmic energy, a primordial force of creation and destruction that basically permeates our reality. The Naexis interacts with all things, but living beings like humans and necreans that are exposed to raw Naexis power tend to get all weird because of it. Magi like us are born with an innate tolerance for it, we evolved to perceive and even manipulate this energy, which is what we call magik."

"Magic?"

"No! Magik," she said, sounding it out, "With a K!"

"What's the difference?"

"Well magic is that sparkly stuff they use in fairy-tales. Magik is the real thing; involving complex understanding of causality and all the variables at work that keep our world spinning, then harnessing and channeling that power through formulas and calculations,"

"Urgh, sounds like AP math."

"It should, many advanced calculus theorems were devised from an understanding of magik." Jasmine said, "How'd you think Einstein formed the theory of relativity?"

"Einstein was one too?"

"Yeah."

"So, that means I'm a magus?"

"Of course, idiota, you wouldn't be here if you weren't." Jasmine said

"But does that mean I'm not human?" Ryan said.

"Of course not." Jasmine explained, "being a magus doesn't mean that you aren't human, it just means that you're human plus. It's kind of like a condition that is present in both human and necrean."

"Like a mutation?" Ryan asked

"Yeah, sure, go with that if it helps," Jasmine shrugged, "We develop in stages, from birth till adolescence you're completely normal, then the changes start to happen around your teens, during puberty. The changes are marked by your ability to wield magik and come with some physical upgrades; like a longer lifespan and slower aging, plus an improved healing factor, your senses get better and your physical capabilities are enhanced. The change usually lasts until your early twenties, by then you're a fully-fledged magus."

"Wait… if magik exists, how come no one knows about it?" Ryan asked

"Well, most humans are mundanes, so they can't even sense the Naexis."

"Mundanes?"

She sighed, "Think of the Naexis like an onion, with many different layers of reality, each stacked against another, mundanes sort of exist at the shallowest layers, meaning they don't interact much with the Naexis in their day-to-day lives. When mundanes witness magik, their can't really understand it, so their perception what they're perceiving, so their intolerance for it warps their perception of the world to something they can comprehend. There are some humans who can perceive magik without being like us, but they're rare, and even they can't see the really weird stuff. We generally call this phenomenon 'the veil' and everything is under its influence, even us, we're just able to see through it better."

"Wow, that's a lot to wrap my head around." Ryan commented

"You all caught up? Good," Jasmine started walking away, but Ryan stopped her again, "What now?"

"I wanted to know about this place."

"This is an Argus sanctum, our central hub for this zone."

"And what is Argus?" 

"You ask a lot of questions don't you? Well, our organization has had a lot of names over the millennia, and for the last couple of centuries, we've gone by the 'Order of Argus', or just 'Argus'." Jasmine said, she could sense what Ryan was about to ask next, "You see, according to para-history, a few dozen millennia ago there was this huge cataclysm known as the Great Chaos War, and it got so bad that it cracked reality itself, exposing the world stuff we weren't meant to see, in the deep Naexis. Eventually the war came to an end, but the damage was already done, reality was broken, creating these crazy pocket dimensions called 'realms'. The veil had formed from the wound in the Naexis, like metaphysical scar tissue, and in order to prevent further damage, a peace was brokered by magi between all sides and the Treaty of High V'hax was forged, setting in place laws and guidelines on maintaining the peace and mend the damage done to the Naexis, and to prevent another events like a Chaos War from ever taking place again. The Argus was established as a collective authority to maintain and enforce the treaty and also protect our world from all threats to it."

Ryan nodded, "I think get it."

"You're pretty calm to all of this?" Jasmine said, "Normally, it takes newbies quite some time to wrap their heads around it. They usually need to watch the orientation video half a dozen times before they're cool with it."

Ryan shrugged, "Sometimes you just gotta accept the hand fate dealt you, I guess."

Then, there was a rumbling that shook the ground, followed by the sound of an explosion and an alarm wailed, "ALERT! ALERT! RAMPAGING GOLEM LOOSE IN PLAZA ONE! ALL RANGERS CONVERGE ON PLAZA ONE!"

"What are these Rangers?" Ryan asked as people around them started to vacate the area

"The rangers are basically the Argus' main law enforcers, one of the three main divisions."

"So where's the nearest ranger to this plaza?"

Jasmine smiled, "You're speaking to her!"

Ryan looked at her as she pointed to the mark on her left forearm, a symbol branded onto her skin like a tattoo, it looked like an odd superman symbol.

Then, a golem burst into the plaza, it was made of bronze with the head of a bull and had red aura all around it, with a start Ryan recognized it as the golem the Newmans used. It was quickly followed by two other golems, with steel armor and blue aura with Corinthian helmets for heads, that had the same emblem engraved in their pauldrons. Behind the golems, a dozen people appearing around the plaza, clearing civilians away from the area of engagement and surrounding the golems. they all wore ash gray cowls, like those two that saved Ryan, and on the back of the cowls were the ranger emblem.

As the last of the civilians cleared the area, the steel security golems engaged the rouge bronze one. The rouge golem grabbed one security golems head then kneed it in the face repeatedly, while the other one tried to grab it. Twisting the head violently, the rouge golem ripped the first security golem's head off its body, sending sparks flying from its severed neck, before smashing the head in the face of the second security golem and repeatedly bashing the second's head until it caved in under the rouge's massive fists. The discarded golem head skipped across the pavement until it came to a rest near where Ryan and Jasmine were hiding behind, but then a loose spark traveled from the head to Ryan. The rouge golem fixed its red eyes on Ryan, who now had sparks of electricity coiling around him,

"Not again." he complained as he tried to shake them off.

"We have bigger problems," Jasmine snapped, pointing at the rouge golem who shorted steam from its bull nostrils.

"Oh, c'mon!" Ryan whined to no one in particular as it reared its legs to charge at them.

"Move, idiota!" Jasmine barked as she grabbed Ryan by the arm and threw him further back with surprising ease, her strength was not to be doubted.

Before the golem could charge, the several rangers acted first, binding it with cables that shot out from gauntlets. They tried to force it down, but the golem struggled violently, tossing a few of them aside before breaking the bindings and charging after at Ryan.

Jasmine was off duty, as she did not have her belt, but she pulled her crossbow from her satchel. Thankfully, she had taken it for re-calibrations before this whole fiasco, she fired a few bolts at the golem, distracting it from Ryan. A few rangers had recovered enough to engage the distracted golem once again, wrapping its arms and holding it still enough for Jasmine to get a clear shot at its core. Sensing their intention, the golem spun its torso around, throwing the rangers aside, one of the flung rangers even crashed into Jasmine.

Now unimpeded, the golem approached Ryan, determined to carry out its last order. Concluding that he had to get involved, Ryan reached into his backpack and pulled out Draxonn, as if sensing his need, the sword fully materialized from the hilt; blade, pommel chain, and all. He wasn't sure where the sudden confidence came from, but he ran towards the golem that charged at him, then at the last minute, dropped to the low, slashing at the side of the robot as it passed over him. The blade had sliced through the golem's armor with ease and there was now a large gash in the golem, leaking red sparks.

Jasmine got to her feet, blinking the stars out of her eyes and sees Ryan charge at the golem and execute his attack. She had to admit she was impressed, that wasn't a move she'd expect from a rank amateur like Ryan, but then she notices his sword, his black sword.

"That freaking moron!" Jasmine growled

Ryan took on the golem single-handed, slashing at it with his sword while dodging its attacks, his blade hummed through the air and cut through its armor like butter. After a successful attack combo, the golem was left with slashes across its body, and one of its horns had been severed, but that was the most excessive damage suffered. A volley of glowing bolts strikes at its weakened armor, one bolt taking out an eye, they all deliver a volley of magik attacks that brings the automaton to its knee. 

"Finish this already." Jasmine barked at Ryan

The golem is on its last leg, most of its joints have been disabled thanks to Jasmine's well placed bolts, with one powerful slash, Ryan cut through is neck cables, sending its head flying. The head of the golem clatters onto the ground, the red lights fading in its eyes, while its body falls apart in a heap on the ground.

... )]≥( ...

As the remains of the guardian are carted off to who-knows-where, several witnesses to the events at the plaza all stared at Ryan, murmuring,

"A black blade?" one said

"Is that Night Iron?" said another

"That's a dark element." another said, "Where did he get that?"

"Did you see the way he moved?"

Jasmine pushed through the crowd and she glared at him, then at his blade, then back at him, "Where the hell did you get that sword?"

Ryan looked at the sword like it was no big deal, "I found it in my house. Why? Doesn't everyone have a sword like this?"

"No, that's Night Iron, a dark element. Very rare, very powerful, and very dangerous."

A few rangers then surrounded him, they were all dressed differently, but they all wore dark body armor with red designs and the gray utility belts with large pouch-pockets around their waists. They all brandished their weird staves at him, and a few of the others shot their cables at him, binding him like they had the golem.

"Hey, what's the big idea?" Ryan demanded as he was restrained.

"Stand down." the first ranger ordered as Ryan dropped Draxonn.

Of course, that was the time when sparks of electricity started to coil around him once again, conducting through the cables and shocking a few of the rangers.

"Sorry." Ryan said, "that's been happening a lot lately,"

Before the rangers could retaliate, someone from the crowd yelled, "The Keeper is coming!"

The crowd dispersed hastily, making way for three people who approached the commotion, two of them were rangers, wearing the same dark body armor. One of them had pale skin with bright red hair packed into a ponytail. The other was Caucasian with dark green hair and green eyes. The person in the middle was dressed differently; she had a white coat with a fur lapel draped over her shoulders, with a different Argus crest on the back. 

She wore a black business skirt with a white blouse. Her face was smooth with a tanned olive complexion that added an exotic feel to her cool gray eyes that scrutinized everything she saw. Her full mane of lush dark hair fell from her shoulders in soft curls, framing her face and partly covering the faded scar above her right eye. She smiled playfully as she stood before Ryan, who stared at her incredulously.

"Hey Ryan, nice to see you up and about." She said, her voice warm and familiar, "and you've gotten yourself into trouble already? Typical."

Ryan failed to believe his eyes, especially because he had seen her incinerated before his very eyes days ago.

He managed to find his voice again, "Stephanie? You're alive?"