Chapter 2: After meeting with 3 new kind, (and weird) comrades. Robin joins them in their chasing against those blasted brigands out of town. But on top of that, after showing a… great? Performance. Robin is enrolled with Shepherds. Where it goes from there? Hey, don't ask me!

"Gwa ha ha! Get to it, lads! Grab anything shiny! We've gots an example to set for these Ylissean types! Ain't that right, lass?" The bandit bellowed grabbed a young maiden's arm, "Oh, hello. How may I help you?" She greeted him with a kind smile.

"Give us your gold! Or you'll meet face-to-face with my axe, Precious!" He raised his axe to her face.

Chrom and Lissa were hiding behind a busted apple stall, as they were listening in on the bandit raising… Precious, to the young maiden's face, who… didn't sound the least bit terrified...

Chrom peaked from behind the stall, when he heard a snicker come from behind him, "He named his axe… Precious? Pffffttt!" Lissa began to snicker, kicking her feet up and down, as she munched on her apple she found.

"Lissa! Be quiet! Do you want us to get caught!?" Chrom peeked out again, until he turned back, and noticed the apple in Lissa's palm, "Where did you… Where did you get that apple?" Chrom asked as they were still hiding behind the apple stall, that was broken, and had apples spilled everywhere around them.

"Chrom!" called a familiar voice as the white-haired pigtail girl ran up to them, but not before tripping, and slamming face-first onto the concrete, "Ouch… Now that's gotta hurt." Lissa munched on her apple once more.

Robin pushed herself up, and crouched down next to Lissa, and Chrom, but before she wanted to say anything, she looked at Frederick, who was now mounted on a horse, "Where did you get that horse?"

"Oh, so the SPY is back…" Frederick pointed the blade of his lance at her.

Chrom face palmed at this.

"Dude, chill!" Robin pushed the lance away from her.

"Anyway, Robin… You followed us, why?" Chrom asked her with a tone of confusion in his voice, "I… I'm not certain of myself, but I'm armed! And I know my way around a fight… If you'll have me." She looked at him, trying to convince him that not only does she have amnesia… But a bronze sword, and a Thunder tome.

"Of course. Strength in numbers-Just stay close." He warned her. "But milord-"Frederick chimed in, "FREDERICK!" Chrom yelled, causing the bandits to direct their attention to the apple stall.

"Hey… Did that apple stall just talk?" One of the bandits asked, carrying a chest-ful of goods that probably aren't worth diddly squat.

The other one faced-palmed, "No you, nitwit! It's those Ylissean types!" he said out loud as he drew his sword.

"How can you even tell?" He replied, still holding the goods.

"Look at their fashion-sense…"

After taking another thorough look at the Ylissean types, "… Ack! Captain! Ylissean types!" He dropped the goods, as they slammed on the other bandit's foot, "OUCH! WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH YOU?!" He started bouncing around on his right foot as he held his left one in pain.

When Chrom heard that his positions were given away, "Blast! We've been spotted! Get ready everyone! Lissa, stand ba-" Lissa was already taking care of the bandits one, beating them with her healing staff. "… Never mind..."

Chrom drew his sword, and headed toward the action.

"All right, spy. Let me demonstrate to you how a true Knight takes down brigands." Frederick lifted his lance high and, twirled it around his fingers, his horse was picking up speed, heading towards a bandit, who was preoccupied with carrying goods, just as the horse was getting closer…

"Doo-doo-doo~" He hummed.

The horse was getting closer.

"Duh-dee-dum-dee-doo-dum~" He set the goods down for a second to catch his breath.

Frederick readied his lance behind him…

"Hmm-dum-dee-dum~…" He checked the supplies to make sure he didn't drop anything.

"Pick a god and pray, you scoundrel!" Frederick twirled the lance, but before he could strike, the horse who was carrying Frederick through this dramatic scene, tripped her foot against a pebble, and caused Frederick to fly off of his horse, through the air, and landed overboard into the river…

SPLASH!

Wow… Now THAT was cliché…

"Take this!" Lissa beat him with her staff, and slapped him down the river with Frederick, "You okay, Frederick?" Lissa looked overboard.

"… Just fine, milady…"

"Pffft, nice one, Frederick!" Robin called, who was still standing at the apple stall, but before having her head taken off by a bandit's axe, Robin ducked in time, and conducted electricity at her finger tips, "Whoa!" She charged her hand back, "Take that!" She thrust her hand forward at the brigand causing lightning to explode in his face.

"Fiend! How dare you come upon this town, and wreck everything, and steal all of this town's goods!" Chrom held his sword.

The leader of the bandits stood across the bridge from him with his axe in his hand, and began to snicker, "THAT was your best shot at a one-liner? What, did your knight in the river over there stay up all night writing that for you?"

"..." Chrom reached his hand into a pocket, and pulled out what appeared to be a notepad and threw it into the river.

"Yes, it was actually!" Lissa stormed in with her staff, and struck the leader of the brigands as hard as she could, and knocked him around, and delivering the final blow on him.

Robin approached Chrom, and Lissa, "Well, that's the end of that." She ducked her tome away inside of her dark cloak.

"Lucky for the town, we were close by." Lissa chimed in, "But holy wow, Robin! You were incredible! Swords, sorcery, AND tactics! Is there anything you can't do?"

"You're certainly no helpless victim. That much is for sure." Chrom added.

"… Why? What did I even do? All I did was watch Frederick plummet into the river over there, and I took down one guy." Robin cocked an eyebrow.

Frederick joined the scene, completely drenched, and held his broken lance. "Excuse me for that, but spy, perhaps you might be capable of an explanation for how you came here?"

"Oh for the love of…" Robin slapped her forehead, "I understand your title as 'Frederick the Wuss-' I mean 'Wary!' 'Frederick the Wary'. But I don't know how in the world to explain that only my name came back to me, but I can promise you that I've shared all I know!"

"You fought to save Ylissean lives." Chrom added on, "My heart says that's enough."

"And your mind, milord? Will you not heed its counsel as well?" Frederick looked at Chrom.

"Frederick, the Shepherds could use someone with Robin's talents. We've brigands and unruly neighbors, all looking to bloody our soil. Would you really have us lose such an able tactician? Besides, I believe her story. Odd as it might be." Chrom crossed his arms, trying to convince Frederick that nothing will change his mind.

"Th-Thank you, Chrom." Robin smiled. "So how about it? Will you join us, Robin?" Chrom returned the smile, "… Sure, why the heck not?"

"Did you notice, milord? The brigands spoke with a Plegian accent." Frederick announced, "Plegian? What's that?" Robin looked at Frederick, closing the space between her eyebrow and her cheek.

"Plegia is Ylisse's westerly ne-"Before Chrom could continue any further, "You should know… You SPY!" Frederick pivoted, with his back now facing the rest of his comrades.

"Oh, come ON, Frederick! Is that any way to greet our new comrade?" Chrom looked at Frederick frustrated, "ANYWAY, Plegia is Ylisse's westerly neighbor and they send small groups of brigands into towns, hoping to instigate a war."

"And it's the poor townsfolk who suffer! Totally innocent and totally helpless…" Lissa pouted as she looked down, "They do have us, milady… Shepherds to protect the sheep." Frederick, all of a sudden, now calm, told Lissa.

"Wait, that reminds me… You guys tend sheep? In full armor? Because honestly, Lissa's the only one here who's dressed like an actual Shepherd…" Robin pointed her thumb at Lissa.

There was an awkward pause.

"Oh shoot… She actually does!" Chrom took a closer look at his sister's attire.

"At any rate… Shall we get going back to Ylisse?" Frederick was mounted on top of his horse that randomly came from off screen.

Later on, the four Shepherds were heading east back to Ylisse, they were in the middle of a forest, all of them came to a stop, and faced each other.

"Hey, Frederick, where'd your horse go?" Robin asked.

There was an awkward pause.

"I told you-It's getting dark already! Ech! And now the bugs are out! Noisy, disgusting bugs, that crawl all over and bite you when-"Suddenly Lissa came to an abrupt stop in her small small rampage about bugs.

"Ack! Won goph in mah mouph!" She cupped her hands over her mouth.

"Sorry. What was that last part, Lissa?" Chrom held his ear forward. " 'Ere's a phug in mah mouph!" Lissa called again.

"What?" Chrom said once again. "Oh for crying out loud! There's a bug in her mouth!" Robin face palmed.

"Blech! Ptooey! ...I think I swallowed it..." Lissa rubbed her throat.

"Ooooohhhh…" Chrom hollered, "Thanks! I could have choked!" Lissa swatted Chrom's head, and Robin snickered at this.

Oh come on… Right in front of her?! Thanks, Lissa…

"Anyway, I don't know about you guys, but I say we gather food. I'm starved." Robin looked around.

"I hate to say it, but I agree with the-"Frederick cleared his throat, "I agree with… Robin." He glared at the distance, "Good." Chrom smiled. "But yes, I think a little hunting and gathering is in order."

"Man, this meat is good!" Robin munched on her portion of meat. "You could say that again… What's wrong, Lissa? Dig in." Chrom faced his sister.

"…" Lissa sniffed the meat before asking, "What kind of meat is this?" Chrom looked at Robin, who looked back, and then both of them looked back at her,

"It's chicken…" "It's duck…" Chrom and Robin answered in unison.

"Hmm…" Lissa gnawed on the meat, not noticing there's a dead gutted bear in the background.

"Hey, this isn't bad!" Lissa continued to eat it. Robin and Chrom looked at each other, smiles stifling laughter on their faces; Chrom looked back at his sister, "Lissa?" "Mm?" Lissa answered still munching on the meat. "That's actually bear."

"PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFTTTT!" Lissa began scrubbing the after-taste off of her tongue, "What the heck is wrong with you?!" She yelled in outrage, Robin burst in laughter and slammed the ground with her fists, "Okay… Now THAT was funny!"

Chrom joined her in laughter. Frederick couldn't help but actually join them… in laughter.

Robin took note of his pleased look "Hey, look at that, Frederick!" She looked at the blue knight, "You actually smiled for once!" Robin added on, and continued laughing.

Chrom still laughing with her, and suddenly Lissa joined in on the laughs.

Everybody was fast asleep, except for Chrom, who stayed up a bit, and for some reason, found a bit of a hard time taking his eyes off of the sleeping Robin.

Heh… I don't think anyone's ever made me laugh like that before… I'm glad she's here; she actually managed to shut Frederick up. And I can't even do that! … Huh…? What is this strange presence I'm feeling?

Chrom stood up, but not without waking his younger sister first, "… Chrom? What are you still doing up?" Lissa rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, "Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you. But something is amiss…" He looked down at Lissa.

"… If by something, you mean Frederick is actually sleeping, and not working on something completely and utterly pointless?" She looked at Frederick.

"...Okay, that too… But that's not the essential reason… I'm going to have a look around." Chrom faced the trees, "Not alone you won't! Somebody's gotta make sure you don't get yourself killed somehow in some stupid way!"

"… Thanks, Lissa?" Chrom walked ahead, and now that he thought about Lissa's comment, Wow, that actually hurt, Lissa… He frowned at his sister's harsh comment.

After a bit of walking, Chrom and Lissa came to a stop, and looked around, "It sure is dark and quiet… Where did the birds go?" Lissa looked up.

"Something is wrong here…" Chrom spoke aloud as he pondered in his thoughts.

"ECHO!" Lissa cupped her hands over her mouth, and called at the trees.

Chrom nearly jumped out of his skin, "What in blazes!" Chrom looked over at the trees, "Did the trees just… talk?!" He looked back at Lissa, who completely ignored Chrom's comment just now.

"Hah! That's awesome!" Lissa jumped up and down in excitement, as the sound waves of Lissa's voice carried through the trees.

Echo… Echo… Echo… Echo…

"Try it, Chrom! It's fun!" Lissa told him. Chrom looked at her dumbfound.

Suddenly the ground beneath their feet began to shake, nearly throwing them both off balance.

"Aaaah! Chrom!" Lissa shouted. "Gods, what- Ack! What madness is this?! Lissa, stay close!" Chrom told her as gripped Lissa's shoulders, so they can both get a hold of something.

Suddenly the trees off in the distance began to tumble down one after another, getting closer to the two.

"Lissa. Run." Chrom told her. "Huh?" Lissa looked up at him confused. "I mean it. Go!" Chrom let go of her shoulders, and sent her off to run away from the unknown disaster. Seconds after they left their spot, the ground began to cave in and soared into the sky like a rocket ready for takeoff, and under the ground, erupted lava, and sent chunks of hot meteors flying, and ignite a forest fire.

Lissa was still running through the trees, and had no idea where she was going; Chrom caught up to her, and called to her, "Hey! This way!" He motioned his arm for her to follow him. Navigating themselves in a different direction, they jumped off at another part of the ground that caved upward.

After getting far enough from the disaster, Lissa rested her hands on her knees and tried to catch her breath, and looked up, until she noticed something odd, "Chrom. What IS that?" She pointed to the peculiar spectacle in the sky shaped like a type of a clock, with an eye in the middle.

The eye opened up and revealed a blue portal, suddenly the portal pooped out two odd creatures that weren't of this world. Suddenly their eyes lit up into a scary shade of pink, and were aimed at Chrom and Lissa.

"Lissa, you'd better stand back." Chrom told her as he drew his sword in front of him.

One of the creatures limped forward, he roared and a type of black vapor oozed from his eyes and mouth, as he charged forward at Chrom and jumped to strike him down with his axe. At the same time, Chrom slashed him with his sword, but the creature didn't fall apart.

"…?" Chrom turned around, and the creature struck once more with his axe, Chrom blocked in time, wrestling his sword against the creature's axe.

Waiting for the right moment, Chrom threw the creature off balance and hit his back with his elbow pushing him forward; he leaped high into the air, and struck down his sword in the creature' back, delivering the finishing blow, as the creature dissipated into a violet vapor.

"Aaaaah!" A cry called from Chrom's right, "Lissa!" Chrom faced his sister, who was cornered into a tree by the other creature, he raised his axe at her, when suddenly, something else appeared from the portal. It wasn't another creature.

It was a human being, with short, navy blue hair, that matched his attire, but hiding his mysterious identity was a mask in the shape of a butterfly, with three small visors.

This mystery being reached his hand through the portal, and suddenly leaped through it and landed like a dramatic hero and ran for Lissa.

The hideous creature was moments away from striking down the poor innocent cleric, but before he could strike her, the masked being in blue stepped in the path of his strike, blocking his shot with his sword, and his back facing the creature as well. Chrom came to an abrupt stop, Who the crap…?

Lissa heard two blades clash, still frightened, she slowly raised her head and slowly raised one of her eyelids, and the other one after. "!?" She gasped, the masked being in blue still struggling, about to give up his hold against the creature, he called to Chrom, "Help!"

Chrom lingered a moment to quickly observe before he responded, "Right!" He charged forward, shouting a battle cry with his sword in hand, the hideous creature let go of his clash against the sword, and looked at Chrom.

This was his chance! The blue being pushed him off with his sword, but when he turned around, the hideous creature was gone from plain sight. Both the masked being in blue, and Chrom were confused.

They both looked around, only to find that Lissa was taking care of the hideous creature, because the goons over there with blue hair were taking too long to kill it, "Take this! And that! And this!" She continued to beat him with her healing staff.

Both Chrom and the masked being felt embarrassed, Chrom cleared his throat, "Quite an entrance. What's your name?"

Little did they know that Robin and Frederick were watching from afar in the nearby trees, and Robin was munching on the remaining bear jerky that she saved, she snickered, "Man, Lissa's a better fighter than both you morons' combined!" She continued eating, and offered some to Frederick. "No… Thank you, Spy." Suddenly Frederick felt inadequate.

"Eh, suit yourself!" She continued to munch on it. "Come then." Suddenly Frederick was mounted on his horse. Robin looked up at the Great Knight, awestruck "Okay, seriously. You have GOT to tell me where that horse keeps coming from!" Frederick rode forward towards Chrom. Robin followed in behind.

Suddenly a white horse crashed into a nearby tree.

CRASH!

"Ooooohhh… My horse just had an accident…" A woman, with short red hair, and red armor murmured, who seemed a little… off.

"Oooo… Look at the night sky! So full of pretty rocks!"

Yep… She's drunk.

"Hold milady!" A noble lad ran forward with turquoise hair, and a bow equipped in hand. "Eh?" The red head looked at him, "Heeeeeyyy…" She fell off of her horse, "Are you alright, milady?" The gentlemen leaned over and offered his hand to help her.

She looked at his hand for a moment and high-fived it, "Up top!" She sprung herself back up, "Whoa… How did I end up here…?" She nearly collapsed, until the gentlemen caught her. "Goodness, milady! Are you intoxicated unto oblivion?!"

She got back onto her horse, "I'm doing fine… Lissa." The red head ruffled the gentlemen's hair and hiccuped, "… 'Lissa'? Who the heck…?"

He cleared his throat, Remember, classy-talk, Virion.

"Excuse me, milady, but… You seem to have confused me for someone else, my name, my good lady is Vir-" "OOOOHH!" The red head blurted for no reason, her face examining her horse's mane very carefully, "Frederick, you look different… New hair color or what?" She continued to stare at the horse's mane.

"… Virion." Virion face-palmed, "And might I ask what your name is my good lady?" Finally actually able to process the question, the lady hiccupped, "I'm Sully! Say, have you seen the bar around here?" "Milady, we were just there." Virion responded.

"Anyhow, what I wanted to ask say was, milady." He took her hand, "Your beauty inspires me like no other, you are like sunshine that rules over rain clouds, the moon that pierces the night sky with beauty, the sunflowers and trees that adore this beautiful forest."

Suddenly a giant meteorite crashed into a group of trees off in the distance.

"Will you marry me, my dearest Sully?" He French-kissed her hand up until the point it was kind of awkward. Not that Sully would be able to process that anyway.

There was a pause.

"HAH! HAR HAR HAR!" Sully began to laugh, "Aw, man…" She wiped a tear from her eye, "You're a funny guy-"She hiccupped, "Ruffles... I'll tell ya that much!" She slapped his back so hard that he actually fell over.

"Milady that was no jest." Virion dusted himself off.

Sully looked at him funny, suddenly an axe's blade caught itself in the bark of tree, which startled Sully's horse, it neighed wildly, "G-Goodness!" Virion backed away, but not a good move for him, because Sully's horse picked up his back legs, and kicked Virion into a nearby tree that broke his fall.

Sully turned around, and saw that he was dead-unconscious, "Shhhhhh… He's asleep." She turned back to her horse and whispered.

"It seems all the creatures have been vanquished, this young man took care of the others." Frederick reported back to Chrom.

"Um, I never got to thank you… from before. So, thank you… You were very brave." Lissa took a small bow, "Uhhh, Lissa? You were the one who smashed that creature to death." Chrom looked at Lissa.

"Anyway, my name is Chrom. Might I ask yours?" Chrom looked at the masked being in blue.

The masked being thought for a moment before responding, "You may call me Marth."

"Marth? After the heroic king of old? You certainly fight like a hero. Where did you learn your way with the sword?" Chrom asked.

"Oh I learned it from-..." Marth cleared his throat, "Um, I'm not here to talk about me. This world teeters at the brink of a horrible calamity. What you saw tonight was but a prelude. You have been warned." Marth walked off screen.

"Huh? What's teetering where now? Hey, wait!" Lissa nearly jumped out of her skin.

"Not much for conversation is he?" Robin chimed in.

"It appears his skills lie elsewhere. I wager we'll hear his name again… Or is he somehow connected to YOU, spy!"

Chrom, Lissa, and Robin, all face-palmed.