Chapter 4: Creepsville, USA
JANUARY 12, 0000 XD
Whatever the four were expecting, this wasn't it.
They were on a wooden platform, like you would find at a train station. The entire square area was fenced off except for one door. There were three pillars of shining light, one of them which they had emerged from. "Those must be like Gates," Lucca observed.
Marle looked through the fence and gasped. "What is it?" Crono asked as he ran over, then stopped and stared. There was nothing out there! The platform was floating in a black, hazy void. "Where... are we?" He murmured.
Robo beeped. "Internal chronometer malfuctioning."
"In layman's terms, that means he can't tell where we are either." Lucca translated. Crono shrugged.
"Well, we won't find anything just standing here. Let's try that door."
Inside was a similar wooden platform. There was another door on the left wall, with a bucket next to it that had another pillar of light coming from it. Across from them was what appeared to be a dock, but there was nothing there. To the right was a basket that glowed slightly. And at the center of the room was a lamppost, with a single old man sleeping against it.
They exchanged several glances, and Crono shook the old man. "Ahh... Janus, get yer goddamn cat offa me..." Crono sook him again, rougher this time. "Easy, Belthasar, easy... it's just a poker game..." Crono slammed the man's head against the lamppost, ignoring Marle's protests and Lucca's laughter. Robo simply muttered something about long-term damage to biologicals.
Finally, the man woke up. "Eh? What the..." With one quick move, he flung Crono across the room and into the fence. "Don't do that to me, boy. Next time I won't be so gentle."
Marle looked at Lucca and mouthed THAT was gentle? Lucca just shook her head and helped Crono up. The teen looked at the old man, his expression blank.
"Guess I deserved that. So, where are we, anyway?" The old man looked at him grumpily.
"The End Of Time. Duh. Where are ya from?" Crono couldn't see any harm in answering.
"Me and the girls are from the Guardia area, 1000 AD. Robo there is from 2300 AD." The old man snorted.
"Huh. Figures. Both of the pillars to Guardia in 1000 AD are down. When I find whoever's been screwing with those time streams..." The man angrily slammed his hand against the lamppost, then turned back. "Well, I'm guessing you either came here from either Medina in 1000 AD or from Proto 2300 AD. Which one?"
"Er... 2300."
"Ah. Knew it had to be one of those because the only one that's up besides them goes to 65000000 BC, and I kinda doubted you came from there."
Crono was thoroughly confused. Who was this old man, anyways? He was about to ask, but the geezer interrupted him. "I assume you've gate-hopped before. Well, here's the deal: You can't travel through gates in groups greater then three. Otherwise, the gate..." He proceeded to launch into a long lecture about the physics of gates, boring Crono & Marle. "...And you end up here. The End Of Time." He looked at them shrewdly. "Normally, I'd just have you take the closest Gate back to your own time, but I sense something different... Come here, my boy."
Hesitantly, Crono slowly walked over to the old man, who smiled and placed his hand on Crono's forehead. A minute passed, with nobody moving, until finally the man removed his hand. For some reason, he seemed exhausted, but he was smiling. "Finally... it's finally here..." He looked up again. "Well, kids, here's the deal. You can only travel in groups of three, so one of ya is gonna have to stay here for now."
"WHAT?!" They all screamed. Marle looked around.
"Stay... here?" The old man nodded.
"Yup. But don't worry..." Here, he rummaged in his coat until he found something, then tossed it to Crono. It was a white sphere. "Any time you want, you can use that to switch people."
Lucca looked around. "I'd actually like to examine this place a little more, so I'll stay for now." The old man nodded.
"All right. But first, there's somebody all of you should meet. He's behind that door."
***
It was a Kilwala. A fuzzy, white-furred monster about the size of a labrador.
"Uh... I think we're in the wrong room..." Lucca commented. The Kilwala turned to her.
"No, you're NOT in the wrong room. Where did you think you were going, Disneyland?" This was met with blank looks. Robo finally ventured a question.
"Er... what would 'Disneyland' be? My memory banks hold no record of it." The creature sighed.
"Nevermind. Point is, you are NOT in the wrong room. I'm Spekkio, Master of War. Pleased to meetcha." He snapped his fingers, and a tankard appeared in his paw. "Thirsty?" Everybody shook their heads. "Suit yerself." He snapped his fingers again, and beer began pouring into the tankard out of thin air. After it was full, Spekkio took a swig, then looked at them critically. "I assume the geezer sent ya in here?"
Crono responded. "Er... yes. What are we here for?"
At this, Spekkio grinned widely. "Oh, boy! Lecture time!" With another snap, a pointer appeared in his paw. Another snap, and a white screen appeared on one wall. Another, and a dunce cap appeared on his head. Spekkio looked at it grumpily. "Beh." Another snap, and the cap changed into a professor's hat. "That's better." Another snap, and an image appeared on the screen.
It was a diagram with four icons: A fireball, a bubble with an ice crystal in it, and a lightning bolt surrounding a globe of shadow. Spekkio looked at them. "Okay, here's the deal. You've come to learn magic..."
"Magic?!" Crono interrupted. Spekkio glared at him.
"Kid, interrupt me again and you'll get a detention. And that's REALLY unpleasant around here." Spekkio cleared his throat and went back to the speech. "As I was saying. Magic. There are four main types: Lightning, Water, Fire, and Shadow, which is the sum total of the other three and the most powerful." He looked at Crono. "You, with the punk hairdo, yer 'Lightning'. Next slide." The screen changed to a picture of Crono, surrounded by stormclouds. "You'll be able to hit bad guys with electric powers, as well as applying it to your physical attacking." He looked to Marle. "Blondie, yer 'Water'. Next slide, please." The slide changed to a pic of Marle standing on an iceberg. "Now, water is different. You can still attack with the blue magic, yes. But that's secondary. Your primary function is to heal." He looked at Lucca. "Glasses-girl, you're 'Fire'. Next slide, please." It changed-to a line graph labeled "Krispy Kreme Donuts Sales-1998". Everybody sweatdropped, while Spekkio facepalmed. He yelled upward, "TRY AGAIN, LUNKHEAD!" The slide changed to Lucca surrounded by flames. Spekkio cleared his throat again. "Right. Now, fire is completely magically destructive. No healing, no physical boosting. You just blow stuff up. However, the thing about Fire is it can be used to magically charge weapons. Try it sometime." Finally, he looked at Robo. "Tin-can-man, you're not biological. Therefore, you can't use true magic. However, you can channel magic through your weapons to produce an effect. Your 'Laser Spin' uses Shadow Energy. Later on, you'll be able to use 'Fire' and 'Lightning' too. No 'Water', though. Don't want ya to rust." With that, Spekkio took off his cap. "We could get into the differences between Zealian and Mysticism magic, but not now." He snapped his fingers a few times, and all the things disappeared except the tankard. He took another chug.
"So, here's the deal. Run around the room three times clockwise, starting from the door. GO!" They did. "Very good!" Lucca looked at Spekkio and raised an eyebrow. "May I ask what that did?" Spekkio looked her in the eye, very serious.
"The function of that exercise... is nothing. I just wanted to see if you'd do it." Collective faceplant. "Now, for the REAL stuff! Ipso, Facto, Meeni, Mo, MAGICO!"
As soon as he said those words, Crono felt something burst inside him. Rising into the air, he held his arms up and yelled, "LIGHTNING!" Yellow energy flew out of him into the sky, and Spekkio was struck by a bolt.
"Hey!"
Marle's eyes were closed, and her hands were clasped as if in prayer. "ICE!" Her eyes opened, and she extnded her arms, palms outward. A trail of glittering blue sparkles left her and formed a frozen mass around Spekkio.
"Again, Hey!"
Lucca had a wide grin on her face as she pointed at the Master of War. "FIRE!" Flames circled her once, then flew at her target.
"All right, that's enough!" He grumbled. "Get outta here, you clowns! And if ya recruit anybody else, bring them to meet me!"
The old man was waiting for them. "Do ya like your magic?" Crono grinned.
"Yeah. That guy's wierd." The old man blew a raspberry.
"Duh! He's the Master of War! Now, you all need to get to Medina Village, 1000 AD. Northwest warp. Hurry up!"
Crono, Marle & Robo quickly ran in, while Lucca pulled out a device and started doing scans.
***
JANUARY 12, 1000 AD
Irvin was ticked. The boss was being a real bastard today, and his wife was complaining about being the only Mud Imp in the town again. To top it all off, those fanatics were having another party at the town square today, and the noise was incredible. The LAST thing Irvin needed was for more strangers to fall out of his cupboard. And, of course, that was exactly what happened. Irvin mentally reminded himself to have the witch doctor examine that cupboard before greeting them in the usual way. "Not again! Get outta my house!"
Crono blinked. "Yup... we're in Medina, alright."
Unlike most towns, Medina village was populated entirely by Mystics. Humans were completely unwelcome, but there were no overt wars. That had ended back in Frog's time.
As the crew started to leave, the blue imp spoke up. "Hold it." They turned. "You'd best be careful. Most of the guys out there are human haters. Don't stay at the inn, and don't try and go in the shops." Marle blinked.
"Hey, thanks! But why are you helping us? I thought Mystics didn't get along well with humans!" The other imp, one of the very rare Mud Imps, spoke up here. "As a general rule, us Imps stopped caring long ago. We basically say live and let live." She thought for a moment. "They'll insist that you see the leader, Ozzie VIII. Treat him with respect, and don't lose your temper if he insults you. Irvin's brother is the butler, so he'll help you out."
As soon as the three stepped out, a Diablos lounging on his front lawn spotted them and yelled, "Humans!"
Instantly, they were surrounded by a mob. The apparent leader, a Hench, walked up. Somehow, he seemed oddly familar. "Mind telling us what yer doing here?"
A Diablos in the back piped up. "Why ask? Kill 'em now!" The Hench glared back.
"Shaddup, Beldo. That's your answer to everything. One of these days, I'm gonna bash your face in." The Diablos faded back, muttering. Crono chose his words carefully.
"If you want the truth, we're here due to an accident, and we want to leave ASAP." The hench thought it over, then grunted.
"Sounds okay. We'll have to take you to the chief, though."
The mob covered them on all sides as they walked to the chief's house. At the door, they were greeted by a green imp. "Greetings. I am Norain, the butler."
Marle looked at him carefully before asking, "Are you Irvin's brother?" The imp nodded.
"Yes. He has already informed me of you. When you speak to Ozzie VIII, address him as 'sir' and keep your eyes down. It's demeaning, I know, but it's your best chance to survive."
The next thing they knew, they were facing the chief. Ozzie VIII glared at them for a long moment before speaking. "Humans. Stupid, filthy vermin. Tell me, why should we not kill you now?"
Crono almost exploded and chopped the fat bastard's head off. First, he had had to deal with the Chancellor's crap, and now this! The thing that brought him back to reality was Marle's hand pressing against his arm, and her whisper of "Steady, Crono. Don't let it get to you." Crono momentarily wondered why this brought him back, but then decided he had to concentrate on the task at hand.
Crono thought for a moment before responding. He knew it would take some fast talking to get out of this one. "Well, sir, for one, our blood would stain this rug. For two, we'd fight, and several of your people would die too. For three, we plan to get out of here anyways, so it would be a waste of time and effort. For four..."
"All right! All right!" Ozzie VIII interrupted, irritated. "You've made your point. You can take the cave to the south to your continent. The gatekeeper, Heckran, will make sure you get where you're going." As the three walked away, they could hear Ozzie VIII cursing and muttering, "Oh great Magus, why did you not exterminate the humans all those years ago?"
At the door, Norain stopped them. "You handled that well, but he'll probably still send a press gang after you. Be on your guard." He smiled. "Outside the cave is a single old man. The villagers tolerate him because he makes excellent weapons. You should meet him." Robo looked at him.
"That would be very beneficiary. We shall take you up on it."
***
Sure enough, there was a small but elegantly built house to the south. The three looked at it for a while, then knocked on the door. After a muffled call of "Just a minute!", the door opened, revealing an old man in strange, foreign blue clothing. Crono grinned.
"Melchior! So this is where you live!" The old swordsmith from the Millenial fair smiled as he saw who it was.
"Crono! Come in, lad!"
Melchior's house was somehow much bigger on the inside then it looked from the outside. As they sat down, Melchior looked shrewdly at Robo. "This fellow's not from around here, I can see already." Marle answered.
"Well, yes. He's from... far away." Melchior fixed that same penetrating gaze on her.
"Yes. So I gathered..." Marle shivered. The old man was starting to creep her out. He suddenly turned to Crono, the discussion forgotten. "So, Crono! I'm guessing you'll be wanting to go through Heckran Cave?" Crono nodded.
"Yeah. We wanna get back home." Melchior shook his head sadly.
"I'm afraid it's not that easy, m'boy. The guardian, Heckran, despises humans. He only lets me through because I made some tools that he used to enlarge the cave. He'll never let you through alive." Crono put his hand on the hilt of his sword meaningfully.
"Then we'll just have to force our way through." Melchior shook his head again.
"Heckran is a fearsome beast, Crono. His hide repels all physical attacks. The only thing that could beat him would be..."
"Magic?" Crono interrupted. Melchior looked up quickly.
"Why, yes. But how..." Crono grinned and singed the top of Melchior's hat with a small bolt. Or at least he tried to. What really happened was the hat exploded. Melchior, however, was more interested in Crono than the hat.
"Incredible... could it possibly be...?" He reached over and pressed his hand against Crono's forehead, much like the old man at the End Of Time had done. "Yes... this is it." He stepped back. Crono looked at him.
"We met another old man who did that. What do you mean?" Melchior's eyes flashed.
"I'm afraid I can't tell you that, m'boy. All I can do is give you these." With that, he held out two weapons. The first was a samurai sword that was the deep red of ruby. The other was a crossbow, made of oak with green feathers adorning it. Marle took the second and examined it carefully before looking up. "This is the finest worksmanship I've ever seen. Who ARE you?" Melchior smiled as Crono took his weapon as well, a smile that seemed to hold the wisdom of eons.
"That is another thing I cannot tell you now. Perhaps later. But right now, you must go to the Heckran Cave!" Robo stood forward and bowed deeply. "We all thank you, both for the weapons and for the advice. Good luck."
***
As soon as they entered the cave, Crono grabbed his two friends and jumped behind a rock. Sure enough, two Henches walked into the cave shortly afterwards.
"Duh. Where do ya think they went, Flap?" One asked. The other responded dully. "Duh, I dunno, Guido. Maybe Heckran ate them already." Guido glared dimly. "Heckran don't live up here, dumbass. He lives down at the other end." Flap glared back. "Well, maybe he... moved! Yeah!" Guido whacked him on the head. "Yeah, well, then where's all the blood and gore?" Flap kicked Guido in the leg. "Maybe he mopped up! Or the Tempurites took care of it! Now who's the dumbass?" Guido belted Flap in the gut. "Yeah, right. You are, dumbass!" "Dumbass!" "Dumbass!" "Dumbass!"
Robo easily snuck up behind Flap and knocked him ut. Lucca attempted to do the saem to Guido using her gun handle, but he didn't even notice and just kept kicking Flap. Robo shrugged and belted him out too, then looked around. "I detect that other creatures in this cave are weak to magic as well. It would be best to switch me for Lucca." Crono nodded and took out the white orb the old man had gave him. As he looked in, Lucca looked back out.
"Hey, Crono! Need to switch?" Crono nodded and handed the sphere to Robo. The moment he did, there was a flash of light, and Lucca was standing there instead. Crono thought. "Hey wait a minute. If you just change when you hold it, how come I didn't switch?" Lucca had an answer.
"Because you is fearless leader!" She spoke in a strange foreign accent. Crono raised an eyebrow. "What was THAT about?" She smiled. "Spekkio showed me something called 'TV'. You've gotta see it. It's amazing." Marle rolled her eyes. "Later."
The main chamber of the cave was huge. Stone walkways were over a shallow pool of beautiful-looking water, pouring in from an indoor waterfall. Marle just stared for several minutes, while Crono & Lucca explored. Finally, Crono grunted, "Nothing." As he looked over to Marle, he saw something moving in the ground beneath her-several somethings. "Marle, look out!" She didn't move. She was too captivated by the waterfall.
Swearing sulfurously, Crono moved in. "Lightning!" The first one out screamed and died, but more kept coming. They were giant insects with elongated, pointy noses, obviously designed for digging. Right now, though, they were going for Marle instead. Lucca fried another one with a well-aimed Fire, but that still left two going for Marle. As they reached her, she turned and smiled, showing that she had been aware of the situation the whole time.
"Ice!" The blue particles burst from her hand and froze one solid. As the last one moved in, Crono fragged it with another Lightning. Marle grinned.
"I heard 'em moving around down there, so I figured we might as well squash them now. They always fall for the helpless-princess act." Crono grunted again.
"Let's just get through this place."
Further in, they met with some unfriendly Cave Bats and Rolypolys, but these were taken out with no trouble. In one long hall, they saw a box with the same emblem as the doors in 2300 AD. "You know what?" Crono said as they looked at it. "I saw one of those in the Truce Inn once." Marle pondered.
"And I think there's one in the castle storehouse too." Finally, it was Lucca's turn to think.
"I've seen two. They were both in the Mayor's house at Porre." Near the box was a strange brown bottle. None of them was willing to check it. That appeared to be a good move, since it started cursing at them as they left.
Finally, they came out on a small staircase that led to the shallow water they had seen before. "Ugh. Time to get wet, I guess." Lucca groaned. As they walked through, Crono smiled suddenly.
"Heh. Good thing Robo isn't here. He'd rust." Lucca whacked him with her gun.
At the end, the path went onto dry land again, and into another chamber. Inside, they all screamed at what lumbered toward them. It was like a throwback to prehistoric times. A massive, blue-skinned reptile with horns, spikes, claws and fangs everywhere you look. When they stopped screaming, it snarled at them, "Humans! You dare come in here!"
Crono managed to stammer out, "We... we were told by the Chief of Medina to come here. We... we were told about you by Melchior..." The beast roared fearsomely.
"Ozzie VIII has no power over me! And the fact that you know Melchior means nothing! Death to the Mystics' enemies!"
"Spread out!" Crono yelled. "Remember, magic only! Lightning!" Heckran was surprised.
"Argh! Humans with magic? Impossible! But I can do that too, 'friends'! Water!" A large bubble formed from his claws and burst on Crono. Lucca took advantage of his distraction.
"Fire!" He turned to her just in time to take the flames in the gut. "More then you expected?" she taunted. He grinned.
"Yes, indeed!" With those two words, he charged, pummeling her repeatedly. Marle screamed.
"Lucca!! Ice!" Heckran's head was frozen momentarily before he broke free and turned to her.
"Another water user, huh? Cyclone!" Somehow, a whirlpool appeared beneath her feet and whacked her around. When she got free, she used an Aura on Lucca while Crono sent more lightning to Heckran.
This isn't good, Heckran thought. He could only attack one at once, and that left him open to the other two. If he kept it up, he'd be worn down. Time for the big guns... Heckran crouched in a defensive stance. "Go ahead! Try and attack!"
Crono eagerly took up the challenge. "Gladly. Lightning!" Heckran took the bolt, but was grinning wisely.
"Water 2!" A huge tidal wave came crushing down, and all three were enveloped. "Yes! Die, die, die!"
"Fire!"
"Ice!"
"HOW COULD-" Heckran never got the chance to finish. The two streams of energy, cast at the exact same time, went straight into his face. Tiny red and blue lights started flashing under his skin, and he stood up straight, his eyes burning with hatred. "If only the great Magus had succeeded in summoning Lavos all those years ago!"
Crono jumped at this. "MAGUS summond Lavos?!"
Heckran laughed, a hard, bitter laugh. "Yes. If only he had succeeded... the world... would have belonged... to us... Mystics! ROOOOOAAAAAR!!!!" With one final roar, he charged. Before he even got close, he exploded in the streams of fire and ice, splattering lizard goo everywhere.
***
"Yuck." Marle wiped Heckran goo off her face. Crono was thinking about other things.
"Heckran thought that Magus had failed when he tried to summon Lavos. But he didn't! It was just a delayed result!" Lucca brightened up.
"I get it! We can go back to 600 AD and take out Magus before he does it!"
Marle smiled. "We'll use he Gate at the fairgrounds. Let's get outta here!" At the back of the cave was a pool of water, leading to a tunnel. Crono could see poweful suction to the tunnel. Marle whispered, "Is it safe?" Crono grinned fearlessly.
"Hey, if Melchior can do it, so can we. At the least, it'll clean off that Heckran goop. CANNONBALL!!!"
The next thing Crono knew, he was flying through the air towards Lucca's house at high speed.
Lara was in a sour mood. Neither Taban or Lucca were around enough to help her around, and she couldn't walk by herself. And now Lucca had gone missing! Her musings were interrupted as Taban came up the stairs. "Here's what we earned today."
"You're so kind." She responded sarcastically. The incipient feud was cut off by the sickening crunch as Crono's head met the side of the house. "What was that?"
Lucca and Marle has much softer landing, probably since they had just waded in. After Crono recovered, they went in to Lucca's house. Taban was waiting. "I thought it would be you!" Marle was confused at this.
"Huh?" Taban grinned.
"Anytime there's a loud noise around here, it's Lucca and/or Crono."
"Oh."
The three gladly accepted the invitation to spend the night. In the morning, Taban gave Lucca a new armored vest specially designed for her before they went off.
Once they reached town, their first stop was Crono's house. His mother was sitting on the couch, looking very worried when they came in. "Crono!" She ran over and gave him a big hug and kiss.
"Ack! Mommmmm!" She paid no attention.
"I heard you were to be executed! Is this true?" He smiled sheepishly.
"Well... kinda. Lucca, Marle, Taban & Mr. Bekkler broke me out."
THUMP! Crono's Mom fainted.
After they revived her, she demanded the whole story. They told it to her, saying they had been hiding in the forest after escaping the castle. She sighed. "Crono, Crono, Crono. Well, I'm guessing you'll have to go again now. Thanks for stopping by, anyways! I was worried!"
The second stop was the local shop, where Fritz was running the counter. "Crono! Lucca! Thanks, guys! You really helped me out of a jam!" He looked around for his dad carefully, then reached behind the counter and pressed 10 Mid Ethers into their hands. "Here!"
Crono & Co. were flabbergasted. "What? Do you know how expensive these things are?!"
"Shhh! Quiet! I don't want my dad to hear!" Fritz hissed. "Yes, I know! Now, hurry out before he comes up here!" Crono looked at the girls, and they all shrugged. "Oh, well. Thanks, Fritz."
At the fairground, the Gate was still there. They jumped in, and soon, they came out...
JANUARY 13, 0000 XD
...At the End of Time. There were now five light pillars. The old man was sleeping again, and so was Robo. This time, Crono wisely chose to wake the old man from a distance. "Huh..? Wuzzat?" He looked up. "Oh, you're back. What's up?"
Crono told him about the new Gates, and the old man checked. "The one you want is the north center. In you go!"