Slayer Emblem: Prologue

Lina awoke in some ruins somewhere. That was the most accurate description she could think of, there was nothing else remarkable about where she was. That was- until a skeleton appeared out of nowhere, Lina stood up immediately and readied a fireball. "Kill... wench..." muttered the monster.

"Hey! Who are you- wait, they talk now?"

On closer examination, the creature had quite a bit of skin, it was just lacking it on its facial area. The zombie, which it presumably was, began to charge at her and without a second thought she blasted it to pieces. "Well this is interesting, I wake up somewhere completely random with some zombies that are assholes. Certainly can't say I expected that when I got up this morning. Welp, better wander aimlessly 'til I find someone."

"Seems like a sound option."

"What the-" Lina turned to see a young man in a dark robe with bleach-white hair standing near the remains of the monster she'd killed. He certainly hadn't been there before but she hadn't heard him.

"Who are you?"

"My name's Henry," Answered the man, "I like playing with crows and practising dark magic!" He had an unsettlingly innocent grin. "What's your name?"

"Uh... Lina, Lina Inverse."

"You look like a wizard too, what kind of magic can you do?"

"I do a bit of both."

"OoOooh..."

"I was talking about magic you moron."

"Alright, well I'll be seein' ya!"

"Wait!"

"Yeah?"

"Just, uh... tell me where we are?"

"Ylisse."

"Where's that?"

"North of Plegia."

"Where is it!?"

"West of Valm."

Fuming, Lina stalked over to Henry and grabbed him by the collar. "Listen you piece of crap, gimme a straight answer before I torch you!" His grin was really beginning to disturb her now and she wanted to stop talking to this person as soon as possible. Suddenly, dark purple mist began to appear from the man's fingers, it drifted up her body and trails of it began circling her head. "What're you doing?"

"Hee hee hee hee hee hee hee." His laugh was even worse than his smile.

"I'm not in the habit of accepting creepy laughs as answers." The mist was now taking shape, forming star shapes that continued flying round her, they were starting to make her feel dizzy.

"Oh don't mind me, I'm just knocking you out."

"And that's where we hit no territory, FLARE ARROW!" They both sprung into action, he tried to block the arrow with a wall of shadows but it pierced through and hit him, knocking him back. "Ouchie!" he said playfully, "My turn!" He swung his arms and a wave of shadows billowed out in an arc of destruction towards her, she nimbly leapt out of the way. "You're pretty good!" He said with another giggle.

"I'm a lot better than good, MEGA BRAND!" A huge, concentrated stream of energy burst out of the ground beneath him and sent him flying upwards into the air. It was about ten seconds before he hit the ground. She walked over to him, he was unconscious, but that damned grin was still there, what the hell was wrong with this guy? She picked him up and shook him awake, she was glad she hadn't put too much power into that spell or he would probably have died. His eyes jerked open and he grinned even wider. "Hey, if it isn't my old pal Lina Inverse!"

"Oh gods I'm regretting letting you live already, will you please just give me directions to the nearest village or something?"

"Well you just knocked me unconscious with an unbelievably powerful spell so... sure! Go north and then left at the forest, watch out for zombies on the way though!"

"Gods I wish Gourry were here." Lina began walking north.

"Hey Tharja?" Said Henry.

"Yeah?" Said the black haired woman beside him.

"Do you think we should tell her about the hex we put on her?"

"I think she'll find out herself pretty soon."

As if on cue, Lina collapsed.

"Hey Noire, we found this girl out cold in some ruins somewhere, you mind looking after her while we go and tell Chrom?"

"This is a random woman that you decided to test a hex on, isn't it?"

"Yep!"

Noire sighed, this happened every couple of days, it looked like the woman had gotten off easy though, she might wake up in a few hours with goose bumps and a headache but nothing like what the others ended up with.

"Oh father what if she dies and then we get into trouble again? I don't want the Shepards to come and arrest us."

"Well that's why you make sure she doesn't, isn't it?" Replied Tharja.

"Why is it always me who has to do this? I get so worried about them."

"Because Henry's too absent minded to look after anyone and I'm busy, speaking of which, Henry, go get Chrom to show him the results of the new hex. Noire, if you need anything so important that you need to disturb my work then I'll be in my room."

Tharja and Henry went their separate ways, leaving Noire alone with the unconscious sorceress. "Well, I guess I'd better-" She was interrupted by Henry crashing through the door to the house, a young man with long, blonde hair holding a sword strode in. "What have you done with Lina damnit?"

"I told you I'm not allowed to say, silly! It would be telling!"

Without a second thought Noire through a blanket over Lina before the man noticed her and then grabbed her bow and sighed, preparing for the inevitable.

"Whoa, careful where you point that thing kid, you could have someone's eye out!"

"BLOOD AND THUNDER MORTAL, DO YOU KNOW WHOM YOU FACE? I AM CONQUERER OF A THOUSAND FOES, EACH ONE YOUR SUPERIOR!"

"Hee hee hee hee hee hee." Giggled Henry, "You're really in for a treat now Blondie!"

"Whoa!" Shouted the man, narrowly avoiding a hail of arrows.

Noire put notched another arrow, it began to burn with dark, purple fire. "NOW DIE!" She screamed as she fired it.

"Eek!" The man tripped over as he tried to avoid it and it sailed over him and hit the wall where it exploded. Tharja staggered out of what had been her room, coughing loudly.

"What the hell is going on? Noire, what did you do!?"

"Oh gods! I'm sorry! I was just... I don't know what came over me!"

"Gods and who is this guy? Are you the one causing all this?"

"My name's Gourry Gabriev." Said the man, "I'm here to save my friend!"

"Very noble of you kid, but we're using her. You can have her back once we're done, it's not like Chrom would let us do any actual experiments on her."

"Kidnapping someone isn't good whatever reason it's for, it's not justice!" A woman in white with dark hair strode in behind Gourry.

"Oh hey Amelia, what are you doing here?"

"I'm always around to fight on the side of justice!"

"Will you two just shut up and die already?" Said Tharja, whipping shadows towards them.

"Light come forth!" Shouted Gourry, as a beam of energy replaced the blade of his sword. He swung it and cut through the shadows that were about to hit them. As soon as they were gone Amelia leapt towards Tharja and kicked her in the face. She swung a punch at Henry but he teleported away at the last second to behind Gourry.

"Have some death!" He cried as Gourry was thrown forward by a huge beam of shadows. He flew into Amelia and they fell into a heap on top of Tharja.

"Thanks Henry." Complained Tharja.

"Any time!"

"Why can't these do-gooders just leave us to our experiments? If we don't find a good hex for Chrom there's no way he'll let us keep using random travellers as guinea pigs!"

"Oh come on Tharja it's not that bad. We beat them right?"

"I'm buried underneath two unconscious heroes, there's a huge bruise on my face from being kicked and all my research just got blown the hell up, I'm not sure that counts as a victory. Where did Noire get to anyway?"

"She ran away to get Chrom."

"Are you serious!? If he arrives and sees this mess he'll shut us down on the spot!"

"That he will, do I even need to ask what happened?" Chrom strode in, his dark blue hair blowing in the wind, Noire nervously walked in after him.

"Oh... Chrom... hey... we can explain everything!"

"Yeah, we definitely didn't knock out a random woman to test a new spell that we were going to sell to you to earn your trust so you would let us experiment on live humans!"

"Uh, yeah. That's pretty much exactly what they were doing to me." Said Lina, sitting up.

"What the- that curse was meant to keep you out cold for hours!" Said Tharja, shocked.

"Oh that curse? I dispelled it ages ago, I was just having a nap!"

"Are you serious Lina? We had to fight two sorcerers for you!" Said Gourry.

"You're on top of me." Said Tharja, angrily.

"Uh... yeah, sorry about that." Said Amelia, sheepishly. A large hand made of shadows picked up Gourry and Amelia and set them down on the other side of the room. Tharja stood up and dusted herself off.

"Anyway, you two are coming to Yllistol to answer for your crimes, you should know by now not to take random people and experiment on them." Asked Chrom, sternly.

"Aw don't worry about it, no harm done!" Said Lina.

"No harm done!?" Shrieked Gourry and Amelia simultaneously.

"You're sure?" Asked Chrom.

"Oh yeah, I understand the feeling of when you make a new spell and wanna test it out on someone. The experiment part was a bit strange though I must say."