Chapter 1: Bug Trouble
Once the Epoch had cooled down enough to be safe, the three had gotten their equipment out of it and taken stock. They had their weapons, some food and water, bedrolls, packs, cloaks and various portable gadgets that Lucca used. Since it was late in the day and they were much shaken up by their ordeal, they decided to set up camp in the lee of the rock against which their ship was leaning. Crono and Marle gathered firewood, while Lucca checked out the Epoch.
"What's the verdict?" Crono asked her when she finished. He could tell by the look on her face that it wasn't good.
"We're out of gas," Lucca responded. "I don't think Belthasar anticipated that we would be using it after our mission was over."
"Out of gas?" Marle sputtered.
Lucca grimaced. "Looks that way. The computer system's working but it can't fly or jump. I tried to figure out where and when we are from the sensor readouts but it keeps coming up 'inconclusive.'"
"What does Epoch use for fuel, anyway?" Crono queried. "Plutonium or something?"
"No, nothing like that. Something more like jet fuel. I got a sample of it from the tank, so I know what its components are. Since we're in the future, not the past, we can probably find some in a city or something. In the meantime, we'd better make sure that nobody takes the ship." Lucca got into the cockpit again and pressed a switch. The lights and displays on the control panels faded out. She then opened one of the panels, revealing the circuitry beneath, and pulled out a palm-sized computer chip. "Should be this one," she muttered, and pressed the power switch again. Nothing happened. Satisfied, Lucca put the chip in a pouch on her belt and got out of the cockpit. Then she pulled the canopy closed – it had a manual release lever and no lock, so they would have no problem getting it open again later. Lucca jumped off the ship and came to join Crono and Marle in setting up camp.
Marle was trying to rub two sticks together to light the fire, and not having any luck. "Lucca, could you please?…" she said, pointing to the tent of wood.
"Step back," Lucca said. Crono and Marle moved away from it. Lucca pointed her finger at the kindling. Nothing happened. Behind her glasses, Lucca's eyes went wide in consternation.
"I can't find the magic," she said numbly. "It's not there."
Crono felt a twinge of panic and searched with his mind, trying to tap into the electrical pulse that ran beneath the skin of reality. There was nothing there. A ball of ice grew in his stomach.
Marle's eyes were practically popping out of her head. She was trembling a little. "No magic…"
"No magic, no Epoch, and no clue," Crono said. "We just have to hope that we won't need it, I guess. Let me try something else." He looked around and found a small, sharp stone. He drew his sword and held it near to the wood. The girls watched him curiously.
Crono began striking the stone against the metal, and sparks came up at each contact. Finally, some of them caught on the dry leaves that they were using as kindling, and a small flame began. Crono nursed it carefully until it became a fire.
"All right Crono!" Marle cheered. Crono smiled at her. Lucca started rummaging around in her pack for some food.
"Well, now we have a fire, and we know we can get fuel. We'll just have to find it. We've been in worse situations before. We'll get through this one just fine." Marle grinned, her usual brightness returning. "At least nobody's trying to kill us."
That statement was discredited within the next few seconds, as a number of things happened. Some kind of craft flew low overhead – something black and unpleasant to the eye, that barely made a whisper in passing – and dropped several large spheres of black metal around the area. Another craft followed, dropping more of the things, and then two more followed. One of the spheres landed right in the fire, and the three friends jumped back so as not to get hit with flaming pieces of wood. Sensing danger, they got their weapons ready. There was a rasp as Crono drew his sword, a soft whine as Lucca's gun powered up, a crackling as a bolt materialized in Marle's crossbow.
As one, the spheres began to unroll, becoming large insects with multi-faceted eyes of blue crystal. They had curved blades on the ends of their forelegs. The closer ones rose up onto their hindlegs and raised the blades threateningly.
"What was that about nobody trying to kill us?" Crono commented as the three gathered back to back to back. Then the first robot beetles leaped at them.
Lucca took out one of them with a well-aimed shot, and Marle did the same for another. Crono, his Rainbow sword flashing, sheared the head off one that tried to take a swipe at him.
"How many are there?" Lucca shouted as she snapped off a couple of quick shots.
"Too many!" Crono responded, impaling a bot that got too close. One of the beetles jumped into the air, and the three had to scatter in order to avoid being crushed.
The beetles moved in quickly, cutting them off from each other, pushing them farther apart. Crono's blade was whirling as he fended off the clustering adversaries. Lucca and Marle had to shoot like mad just to stay alive.
But there were too many of them, coming too fast. A swipe of the scythe cut Lucca's hand and knocked her gun from it. Marle had shot the scythe off one of the beetles, so she was knocked down instead of impaled when it took a swing at her. Her bow bounced over the rocks. "Crono! Help!" she cried.
Crono was having his own problems – his blade was able to shear through the bodies of the robots, but the scythes were of a material to match his sword. He was straining to keep a blade from coming down on him. Lucca had managed to get to him and was fending off the robots as best she could with a metal pipe she had taken out of the Epoch's trunk. If only they had their magic!
Crono watched in horror as the bot standing over Marle raised its remaining scythe, getting ready to impale her on the point. He heard her scream…
And he heard another noise too, a bellowing battlecry, and saw a white blur appear out of nowhere. It landed almost right on top of the robot threatening Marle, and with a flash of silver that robot was halved and oil was spurting from it. Marle rolled and grabbed her crossbow, started firing with a vengeance as the robots swarmed around her again. The white blur was already moving, toward Crono and Lucca. It dispatched two of the robots that were menacing Lucca, then with a backswing it decapitated the robot that Crono had been struggling with. That silver flash was a sword, but the wielder did not stay still long enough for Crono to make out who, or what, it was. But it was certainly making short work of the robots.
"Lucca!" Marle called, and tossed her friend's gun back to her. Lucca caught it in midair and fired at a beetle that was trying to pounce on her. It exploded in midair, but by that time she was already firing again. Crono slashed at another beetle, cutting it diagonally across its body. Another one leaped over it as it fell, and that one he cut in half.
The white blur landed in his line of sight, and for a moment it stayed still. In the fading light, Crono was able to make out that their rescuer was a man, who looked to be only a little taller than Crono himself. He wore a white robe and wooden sandals, and his black hair was bound up in a topknot. There was no time to make out anything more of the man, though, because he started moving again almost instantly in order to slash another attacking robot. After that, Crono's attention was occupied with more of the same, and he only saw glimpses of the man as he whirled and jumped from one place to another. He was good. No, he was amazing.
Marle transfixed a bot with a bolt from her crossbow, and looked around. The ground was littered with pieces of metal and circuitry, and the rocks were slick with oil.
"I think that's all of them," Lucca concluded. She seemed to be right, so Crono sheathed his sword. The girls lowered their weapons.
Everyone turned to the stranger. He sheathed his sword with majestic finality, then looked at each of them in turn. Though it was dark and Crono could not see the man's face very well, he was still struck by the intensity of his gaze.
"Thank you, sir," Lucca said. "We thought we were goners for sure. My name's Lucca. These are my friends, Marle and Crono." She cocked her head to the side inquisitively. "What's your name?"
He placed the palms of his hands together and bowed to them. "I am called Jack."