Chapter 3: A Warped Reality
"Sterling? What's wrong?" Abby asked. They were standing on a dune bank, the camp behind them. "I'm just confused, Abby." Sterling replied. "I've played several Fire Emblem games, but I've never heard of a scenario like this. All of the nations of the continent, at peace except a small revolution happening in Lichoil, with a sudden raiding party from the military strength of an empire?" he sighed. "Plus, each game has an object of power, a 'Fire Emblem', which the game takes its name from. In one of them, it was a medallion, in another, a jewel. Yet Mickey's family knows nothing about it . . ."
Abby looked at Sterling. "Sterling, don't worry. We'll find the answer. I promise we will. We'll get back home." They stood there for a moment, just looking at the full moon.
"Sterling! Abby!" called a voice behind them. Sydney was running up the hill. "We found some ruins!" she called. "And . . . you might want to see this."
Soon enough, the team was walking up to the ruins. "Okay, they're ruins. What's so different about them?" Kaylee asked. "Kaylee, it might not matter to you, but it might to me, Sterling, Abby, Hunter, and Lauren." Sydney shot back. She was becoming much tougher under Iris' regime of training. "Guys, look at them. Don't they look . . . familiar?" The people from earth looked carefully around them . . . until it suddenly made sense. "They're . . . houses." Hunter said. "They look just like houses from earth!"
A chill raced over Sterling as he saw what looked like part of a street sign. "No!" he whispered, and then took off across the ruins. "Sterling! Where are you going?!" Lauren yelled after him. The others ran after Sterling until he stopped in front of one of the ruined houses. He just stood there, his hands at his sides. "Sterling? What's wrong?" Abby asked, though she thought she knew the answer.
"This . . . this is my home." Sterling said, his voice suddenly filled with despair. "This is where I lived for the past fifteen years. Why is it here?" he walked through what would have been the doorway, long since crumbled. He walked through what was the living room, the kitchen, the room he did his homework in, and, finally, his bedroom. Tears started to fall from his eyes. He walked right to where his bed had been, crying.
Suddenly, the earth beneath him started to glow. For the second time since he saw the aqua-colored cube, he heard a faint humming. This humming sounded muffled, though. He started to dig at the earth, then got an idea. He pulled out the quad-weapon and chose the axe. He started digging, though the axe blade kept the others from coming closer. Abby, though, used wind magic to sweep away layers of the sand. Suddenly, he felt his axe hit something. Abby used Wind one more time, and then sterling and hunter pulled out a small box. From this one, though, a changing orange light was glowing. It can't be . . . he thought.
All of a sudden, an arrow whistled past his head. "Get down!" he yelled, everyone hitting the sand just as a volley of arrows flew right where they had been. "Where are they?!" Iris yelled. She thrust her lance desperately into the shadows, but to no effect. Then, startlingly, the lights remaining in the houses came on. The team could now see the enemy soldiers. They wore white armor, but no symbol of nation. They had a line of archers, dazed by the sudden lights. Immediately, Mickey drew his own bow bow, striking down several of the archers, knowing that as soon as they recovered their sight, they would shoot them all. Sterling, getting the idea, dropped the box and changed his axe to a bow, which supplied itself with arrows somehow. Abby and Lauren used light and fire to blind the enemy while harming them. Hunter grabbed his wind edge out of the scabbard and wiped out the remaining archers with a horizontal slash. By this time, the enemy had recovered their sight, and more enemies stepped out of the shadows, although there were no more archers to worry about. Sterling changed his bow into a sword just in time to block a blow from a lance wielder atop a horse. The lance did, however, graze his shoulder, making a shallow cut. Kaylee ran over, dodging enemies, and reached sterling after he killed the rider with a clean stroke. Just as she was about to heal him, however, she was distracted by a blue bag glittering in the sand. She picked up the bag, which Sterling recognized instantly. He grabbed it from her and pulled out a small vial filled with blue liquid, which he drank. His wound vanished. "It's an elixir." He explained to Kaylee. "Take it to the others if they're hurt!" she nodded and ran off.
The enemies kept coming, showing no sign of stopping. Meanwhile, Lauren had found a book in the sand, which, when she read, caused a bolt of lightning to strike the fighter about to take her head off. Suddenly, on an inspiration, she twirled her cloak and then flourished toward the closest enemy, reading the words of the spell. With this, three bolts lanced down and obliterated the soldier. She grinned, and started taking down enemies with the Thunder tome.
Iris and Sydney were having a tougher time, fairing against a half-dozen fighters. Iris' lance had just broken, and she was relying on her javelin to keep the enemy occupied, but it put her at a major disadvantage. She then noticed a curved stick poking out of the ground next to them, and pulled it out. It was a spear, identical to Sydney's, but the opposite color. Sydney's was blue, while this one was orange. She swept the lance at the enemy, and blocked an incoming axe with ease. She followed up with a stab, killing the holder of the axe with ease.
It's no use! Sterling thought frantically. Unless we get help, we'll be routed! Suddenly, the box at his feet glowed brighter, and with a flash of light, two figures stood in front of him. One was a boy with raven hair and a cloak, holding a long sword, and the other was a blonde girl, her hair tied in a ponytail, wearing flexible red armor, and also holding a sword, abet a little slimmer. "Vaughn? Where the heck are we?" she asked, then screeched as an axe came right at her. She somehow got out of the way just in time, and swept her blade in a counterattack, killing the enemy. "Oh . . . my . . . god." She said, and then grinned. "I don't care where we are, this is awesome! She then noticed Mickey, a soldier backing him up into a corner. She dashed over and blocked the lance, engaging in a furious duel with the white armored troop.
"This looks just like . . ." the boy started. "Fire Emblem? Yeah, it is. Now, if you're not too busy admiring the scenery, do you thing you could stop Kaylee from being killed?" after gaping for half a second, Vaughn turned to see the Cleric backed up into a wall, several soldiers preparing to deal a killing blow. In a blur of motion, he somehow got between the soldiers and Kaylee, and dealt numerous blows that took them out in a matter of seconds. "A critical?" he asked himself. Then he grinned almost identically to the girl. "Not bad."
The number of enemies were finally starting to thin when the sound of clanking armor was heard. An armored lance walked into visibility, and charged through gaps in the lines to meet Sterling head on. He smashed into the boy, who fell to the ground, right next to the box. "Give me that box, boy!" he growled. "No!" Sterling yelled, knowing that he wouldn't have time to get to his tool, which had fallen from his grip in the collision. He braced himself for the lance.
It never came. Just as the lance was about to jab into him, a sound like a gunshot was heard. What looked like an arrow of light sliced through the heavily armored soldier like it was paper? The man stood frozen for a second, then toppled down, barely missing Sterling. A figure detached itself from the shadows as the other soldiers, who noticed their commander was dead, fled, morale now gone. He had blonde hair and held two swords, which, at the moment, were held in one hand, the arm of which had a mechanism like a crossbow.
"Ion? Is that you?" Sterling asked, surprised. "None other." The boy replied. He helped Sterling up. "Come on, get up. I have a lot to tell you . . . and you're not going to like it."
(Longest . . . chapter . . . ever! Remember, if you want to add an OC to this, there are only three slots left for this part, the third will be in a base conversation. Credit to Vaughn, his sister (name will be added, once again, during base conversations) and the third character goes to Yoshino! Ion belongs to one of my friends, and the name is pronounced like Ian. (I'm going to be dividing this story into parts, so if you miss your chance to add a character this story, just wait until I start the next section under a new story.) please, R&R!)