Gate Keepers [CURRENTLY BEING EDITED]

Hikaru

"Good job, everyone." Hikaru said as he picked up the last of the crystals. "I believe that's everything now. We should return to the je--"

The earth beside Hikaru exploded fiercely, knocking the Gate Keeper to the ground and interrupting what he was going to say. He jumped to his feet and quickly located the source of the blast. An Invader, unlike anything the children had seen before, was balanced on a nearby tree branch.

Its face looked surprisingly human, though the visible wires beneath the skin of his face that extended up into its brain showed that the creature definitely wasn't human. Hikaru traced the wires from the left side of his face into the beast's left shoulder, all the way to the Invader's left arm...or where it should be. A large and beastly looking cannon was attached where the limb should be. What visible skin the creature had was deeply pale, almost gray like--further attracting away from its otherwise human appearance.

Aside from its unusal skin tone and its lack of a left arm, the Invader actually did look human. If Hikaru could guess, the Invader had the appearance of an Asian male in his late twenties, wearing a torn and ancient looking kimono, along with a broken sword strapped to its side. Hikaru had to admit, the Invaders were getting much better with their human appearances these days. Take away the out of date clothing and physical deformities, and the Invader could have passed for a human.

"Hello, Gate Keepers!" the Invader boomed with a demonic voice, laughing wildly as it took aim at Lauren, this time. "And goodbye!"

With one last laugh, it fired at the female Gate Keeper.

Lauren

"Oh hell," Lauren said as the Invader fired at her. She had been struck with stupidity up to that point and hadn't moved, and now she threw herself to the ground, and luckily managed not to get hit full force by it. Unfortunately, the force of impact managed to strike her, and sent her flying several yards, and she crashed to the ground, crying out in agony.

"Jesus Christ!" Shiv cried, for once not having a smart comment for the situation. Quickly, he formed a machine gun and began firing, sweat evident on his face as he opened up his already-over-used Gate.

Charlie moved to Laurn's side to make sure the girl would be ok.

"Where were you hit," she asked. She wished someone with a healing gate was here, but she knew their was one back at base. Hopefully Laurn wasn't severely hurt.

Lauren

Through ragged breaths Lauren managed to say, "my arm, and legs." With another breath she winced and said, "I think my ribs might be broken. It hurts to breathe."

Hikaru, Invader

"Lauren!" Hikaru moved to help his student, but another blast from the Invader stopped him. This came came very close to destroying his legs. Hikaru glanced at the monster and scowled at it. The Invader was still atop his tree branch, apparently unharmed by Shiv's machine gun. Bullet holes riddled the Invader's body, but no blood (or whatever Invaders had in place of blood) poured from the wounds. Instead, the holes left by the machine gun fire slowly started to close up and heal. The Invader gave a chuckle and aimed its cannon at the Gate Keepers.

"Nice try, boy, but it'll take a lot more than that to take me down! But forgive me, where are my manners? I am Shinnosuke, your humble host! But if you can't remember that name, simply call me Shino. I bet you lot--with the exception of Superman over there--haven't seen an Invader like me before, neh? Well, I'm no typical Invader. The ones you've been fighting these past few months could be considered 'grunts'. The footsoldiers of the Invader movement. I suppose you could call me a 'boss' of a sort."

The Invader paused for a moment before going on. "And with that lengthy introduction out of the way, onto the fight! I shall enjoy killing you all!"

Shino leapt from the tree and landed on the ground. It swung its mighty cannon around and fired off a blast at Shiv.

Marcus laid still on the floor appalled by the monster that had just appeared. After getting out of the trance he stood up and forgot about fear.

“Open the gate!” As he said these words he felt a sudden rush of adrenaline that made him feel powerful.

Another wall won’t even handle one of his blasts so I should go on the offensive right now.

Taking a deep breath Marcus raised a few hundreds of rocks besides him and threw a shower of small, but hard projectiles at the Invader’s location. And right after the shower he sent some sort of rock made spear with a sharp end with the hopes to be camouflaged by the shower of rocks and hit his target.

Charlie looked at Hikaru, frowning.

"We have to get Lauren out of here," she said, though she doubted that was possible. Charlie sighed and handed her a cell phone. "Just use the shield gate for now."

Pierre was really scared. But he knew he had to help the others.

"Open the gate," he called, as lightning bolts rained down.

Shiv's eyes widened as he felt exhaustion overtake him even as he dodged to the side to avoid the blast made from the cannon. Part of his arm got hit, however, leaving a burn. He glared at the Invader.

"This isn't fun anymore," he muttered. He raised his machine gun and began to fire again.

Invader

Shino dodged most of the lightning bolts, machine gun fire, and rock shards sent his way. The rock shards, spear, and bullets that hit the Invader seemed to have no effect, though the lightning seemed to almost knock him over. Shino growled and aimed his cannon at Pierre. He fired, but the blast went off course as Hikaru slammed into the monster with great force. They both tumbled to the ground, but the Japanese Gate Keeper was the first on his feet. He quickly got on top of Shino and proceeded to pummel the Invader's face with his fists. His enhanced strength seemed to be doing some damage to him, but Shino was still able to fight.

He flung Hikaru off of him with his available hand and got to his feet. A black fluid was dripping from the Invader's mouth and nose. It growled at Hikaru and fired again. The blast destroyed another chunk of earth, but Hikaru managed to dodge it in time. Shino snarled at Hikaru and began firing rapidly, ignoring the presence of the other Gate Keepers for the moment.

Connor/Lauren

Lauren took the shield phone but didn't seem to need it as their leader took on the Invader. Connor ran over and bent closer to Lauren, looking at her injuries, and then addressed Charlie. "Let's get her to the jet, unless you would rather join the fight," he said.

Shiv grimaced s he stopped firing his gun and allowed it to dissipate. This wasn't working. Quickly, he ran behind the Invader as he dialed the code on one of his phones, releasing a stream of fire at the boss.

"No I'll help," Charlie told Conner.
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Pierre saw that his lightning was doing well and he decided to keep it up. But he didn't want to hit Hikaru and so he stood there, wondering what to do.

Hikaru, Shino

The Invader let out a scream as fire engulfed him. The creature stopped firing at Hikaru and swung its cannon to hit Shiv. Once the Gate Keeper was on the ground a portal opened up below Shino and swallowed him up. It gave one last glare at Shiv and Hikaru before it disappeared altogether.

Hikaru fell to the ground once the Invader was gone, and gave a sigh of relief. He quickly caught his breath and turned to his students.

"Everyone, get in the jet now. We're leaving."

Lauren/Connor

Connor helped Lauren up by letting her lean on him, but it was hard for him. He wasn't too strong and Lauren was heavy, at least now, after using up a lot of energy with his gate power. "Help me, please," he told Charlie, straining not to drop Lauren.

Shiv grimaced and nodded at Hikaru as he ran into the jet. He didn't need to be told twice. He just hoped the Invader didn't hold a grudge against him when they faced it later. He shivered. He had never met one that could talk before. The thought was an intelligent Invader scared him slightly and he was the one that treated this like a video game!

Marcus obeyed the order that was given without hesitation. Seeing what that thing could do was certainly intimidating.

That one could attack and was certainly much stronger than the others we've encountered before.

"Hey Hikaru, how much of that kind of Invaders are there out there?" Marcus was just too curious to know how many more of creature of those with that kind of power were out there.

Charlie nodded at Conner and stood at Lauren's other side. She glanced back and frowned.

"That Invader was powerful. That shows we are not even close to being ready for real combat."

Connor/Lauren

"Yeah, no kidding," Lauren managed to say as the two teens got her to the jet. "Those other invaders were just a distraction, so we'd waste energy fighting them. Then that Invader boss would wipe us out with little problem. They're becoming smarter," Connor said.

"So I guess that means no more playing around. Pity," Shiv noted as he scratched his chin, "Still... I think it'd be pretty cool to fight that one Invader again."

Hikaru

"I was hoping I'd have more time to prepare you all before any Invader bosses returned to New York." Hikaru explained as he started the jet. "Ms Feng and I had done our best to wipe out the previous NYC Invader Bosses. We thought we'd have more time before some more came to take their place. Apparently we were wrong. That means we'll have to step up your training."

The jet then took off, and Hikaru activated the cloaking device. "And in an answer to your question, Marcus...there are over fifty known Invader bosses all over the world, possibly more that are unknown."

"What about Ms. Whitwall," Pierre started to ask. Then he realized that because of her powers she probably wouldn't fight that much. She would be standing on the sidelines waiting to help those fighting. "Never mind."

"Speaking of her are you going to take Lauren to her? It would be safer than going to a hospital and them asking us how she got hurt and then involving her parents."

Lauren

"I can't go to a hospital, that'll make me miss the next soccer game, maybe more," Lauren said, concerned more with her ability to play than well-being. She was breathing quickly, as if bigger breaths hurt her, which wasn't too far off the mark.

"You are badly injured and you're afraid to go to a hospital because of the fact that you might miss your next soccer game? Wow, you are messed up." Marcus said before taking his gaze away from Lauren.

Hikaru

"Yes, we'll be taking Lauren to the Healer. We should be arriving...right now." Hikaru replied. He slowed down the jet as they entered the hidden entrance, and deactivated the cloaking device. Hikaru exited the cockpit and approached Lauren.

"Do you mind if I carry you, Lauren? I can easily lift you up, and take you over to Ms. Whitwall." Hikaru asked.