As Frank closed the door I began to step away from it. My mind was swimming with confusion and fear. Why was this happening. Tellka looked more annoyed then anything, and it seemed Frank was too.

"Where... where did..." I began to ask, but Frank answered me before I got the question fully out.

"Guess..."

"This Redwing person is really starting to get on my nerves!" I heard Tellka hiss.

Frank shook his head. "Why?! Why me?! When I woke up this morning, I was just a normal high school student!!!"

I looked at Frank in surprise. I had caught me off gaurd, and the angry tone of his voice startled me.

"Frank, calm do-" Tellka tried to quiet him, but a glare from his direction made her snap her mouth shut.

"You don't understand..." He continued. "I've lost my friends, I'm away from my family..."

"He'd better calm down.."

Tellka?

"If he keeps going on like this I'm going to have to try to literally knock some sense into him.."

Tellka, don't.. That's really not going to help.. "Frank, please calm down..." I started to say. I wasn't even sure what happened. He just... snapped. I don't know what got into him, but whatever it was, it startled and scared me. He whirled around to glare at me, but after a moment he seemed to calm down a bit.

"I'm... I'm sorry..." he explained. "It's just that... so much has happened to me today." Frank said as he looked at the ground.

"We understand..." Tellka began as she moved infront of him. I could see Frank raise his head to look at her. "None of us were expecting anything like this to happen today. How were you to know that these things would happen?"

"I.. I didn't.." Frank answered.

"Maybe.." Tellka thought for a moment. "Maybe it's just fate, Frank. Maybe your friends were sent to wherever and you were sent here because of fate."

Frank seemed to think about that for a moment. His gaze shifted from Tellka to me, and back to Tellka. I felt like I should say something. I thought for a moment what Tellka had said.

"Frank," My voice startled me. I didn't realize I had gotten so quite. "Frank, if you weren't here, I would have..."

"been hit by that needle..." Frank finished to sentence for me and I saw his gaze glance between me and Tellka again. "You're right. Maybe it was fate that I was sent here. All I know is that I won't let anything hurt my friends!!!" That made me smile a bit. I glanced over at Tellka who had a large grin on her face.

"That's the spirit!" She slapped him playfully on the shoulder. "Now that that crisis is solved, we have another to deal with."

"How are we going to get out of here?" I looked up at Tellka. Suddenly I remembered. Oh no, "Carrie... She's probably worried about me." Aw geez Tellka, I didn't even tell her where I was.. I mean.. if we don't get out of here.. I don't want her to worry..

"Kate, it's okay, we'll get out of this.."

"Who?" I heard Frank ask. I looked over at him.

"Carrie Harlow... she took me in when..." I didn't bother finishing the sentence, I couldn't. I glanced down. I heard Frank walk over to me and felt him put his hand on my shoulder.

"It's okay, Kate. You don't have to talk if you don't want to."

I glanced up at him, but I didn't say anything. He glanced between me and Tellka again.

"Kate's right. How can we get out of here?" Tellka asked thoughtfully.

Frank thought for a moment and his face went serious. "You're not gonna like this, but it's the only option that we have..." I glanced over at Tellka. "We're gonna have to fight our way out."

"WHAT???" I was afraid of that. More fighting? Oh no.. No no nonono... Tellka... I can't do this..

"Kate, will you stop whining for a moment?"

I'm sorry...

Frank grinned. "I knew that you wouldn't like it." Tellka glanced at him in annoyance. Frank continued. "It's the only option we have. Otherwise, we'll never get out of here."

"Why don't we just wait? Can't the Rangers get us out?" I did my best to make up excuses.

"Rangers?" Frank asked.

"They're like the police that you described to us earlier." Tellka answered him.

"Ah... Well, if we wait, we'd become easy targets for anything that may get in here, if anything gets in here."

"He's right, Kate." I looked over at Tellka as she began talking to me. "We'd never last that long in here. It's also a small place to fight if we do have to."

I thought about that for a moment. We would have a better chance out there I suppose, and.. it would be better not to be stuck in here. I nodded slowly.

Frank spoke up. "Tellka, is there a weapons room here?"

Tellka gave him the oddest look in the world. "Of course there is! This is a colliseum, after all!" I couldn't help but laugh a little.

"Well, that's where we should head first. We're armed, but Kate's not." Frank replied.

I glanced up. What? Me armed? Oh no...

"We were there yestersay. Kate didn't want a weapon. She wanted to fight with her hands." Tellka remembered yesterday and that unfortunate accident with the ball and chain, or atleast, what was ALMOST an accident.

"What about gloves, or claws? Or maybe some brass knuckles. Those would help her fighting style." Frank said.

Tellka thought for a moment. "I... didn't think of that..."

I glanced over at Tellka.

"You all right?" I heard Frank ask me. I must have looked rather uncomftorable because that's just how I felt. I hated it when people talked about me like I wasn't there, and esspecially on a subject like this one.

"I.. I don't want to use a weapon.. I don't-" I would have continued but Frank stopped me.

"Kate, don't worry. We're only getting you a weapon so that you can protect yourself. You wouldn't last long against a demon if you're unarmed. I mean, I had to fight demons in the hospital earlier with nothing but a mop." Tellka snickered at that last comment. Frank turned and glared at her. "But you know what, I'm still alive. I'm still here now. Fighting isn't for bullying people around, it's for self defense. That's the first thing that I learned in the Fencing club."

I studied Frank's expression for a while and turned to Tellka. She was nodding. I looked back at Frank and with a sigh I gave up. "Okay... If you say so.."

"Tellka, can you lead us to the armory? From there, I'll lead on to Redwing's room." Frank said grimly.

Tellka glanced over at me. "Yeah, I can do that."

"All right. Kate... here." Frank took his rapier off his belt and gave it to me. I looked at it for a moment. "Kate, use this when you have to. Other than that, be careful."

"What about you?" I looked up at him.

"I'll use my fists and shotgun until we get to the armory. When we get there, We'll give you a proper weapon and I want my rapier back."

I nodded.

"Are we ready?" Tellka asked. I could tell she wanted to go.

"Wait.." Frank said. "We might need some extra help." He then raised an arm into the air."Persona change..." He started. "Dragon!" Frank yelled. The same thing that happened earlier happened again when he changed his Persona.

I stared at Frank.

"Get used to that. I'll probably be doing that a lot." He responded.

e-mail author, talonr@hotmail.com