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"There he is..." A blonde woman said, peering over the edge of the cliff.
Directly below her was a boy with dark blue hair hidden underneath a reddish scarf, and cerulean eyes. He was running through Lizard Rock with a red headed girl that looked the same age.
"Yeah, that's the guy. He's the new Chrono Trigger. I think it's about time he and I met." A man said, coming up to stand next to the woman. He pushed his unruly red hair out of his eyes, "Let's go."
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"Come on, Leena! Speed up!" Serge yelled out as he chased after the small Komodo dragon.
Serge was eighteen years old. He had been for a few weeks now, actually. Although he was a fairly quiet individual, he was still a teenager. And even the quietest teens had their loud moments. It just so happened that Serge had most of his 'moments' right before or during a battle.
He was dressed in his usual clothing style-Blue shorts (the ever-so-stylish El Nido Blues at that!) woven from a fine silk, a black t-shirt that was mostly covered up by his iron chain mail, and steel-toe boots. His strange, wild blue hair was tied down by his red bandana with its golden designs- something that was as famous in Arni as his colorful hair!
"Serge, wait up! I'll kill you if you don't slow down!" Leena yelled as she tried to keep up with him.
Leena's shoulder-length, fiery red hair was wild as she sprinted after Serge, desperately trying not to trip up because of her blue dress and red jacket. The fact that she was wearing sandals instead of boots didn't help her situation.
However, it seems her screams were heard, for suddenly the distance between her and her blue-haired friend was cut considerably. They had cornered the creature.
Serge unsheathed his Sea Swallow, a jagged pole with two fin-like blades at the ends, and Leena bringing forth her black frying pan. The dragon summed up its antagonists and then let out a fierce cry, and, a few seconds later, two larger blue creatures, Beach Bums, came quickly to its aid.
"Oh look! They want to fight." Leena smiled slyly.
Serge smirked. After that incident, years before, even before his adventure through the dimensions, involving a Beach Bum, a thunderstorm, and a pair of dirty underwear, he had never had any problem with slaying a few Bums.
With a rush of speed, he leapt forward, swinging the swallow in an arc, bringing the blade down upon one of the Beach Bum's shoulder, cutting deep into it. It fell back with a loud cry of pain and scrambled away. Its comrade joined him seconds later, leaving the Komodo dragon alone once again.
Leena rushed forward and slammed her frying pan on the dragon's head, rendering it unconscious. Carefully, she bended down and tore free a single scale, gazing happily at it.
"It's about time, Serge! It only took us four hours to find that thing!" Leena said with exasperation. Serge simply sighed heavily and ignored her. Something felt weird about Lizard Rock at the moment. It was almost like someone was watching them.
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"Mon Serge.... Why are you wit zat girl, and not ze dog? And certainly not wit moi?" Harle whispered quietly, frowning as she looked down on Serge from her perch in high tree. She stood at the very top, balancing on one experienced foot.
She sighed, "Hmm... To choose... Serge, or my brothers, ze dragons...?" Jumping off the tree, she landed gently-gracefully-on the hot sands of Opassa beach. "Amore.? Or ze world?"
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"All right! That should be enough scales for the necklace." Leena said stringing the brightly colored scales along the small, thin string, "Now lets go back and see what Radius wanted us to meet him for." "He said it was important, so it's probably just some lecture on the proper use of elements again," Serge sighed as the thought of the countless lectures Radius had given him and the other villagers over the years. It wasn't easy being a teenager at Arni Village.
The two teens arrived at the village and were shocked to see that everyone was running around, seemingly preparing something. Serge quickly spotted the old Radius in front of a small pile of supplies, looking carefully over them.
"Radius, what's going on... what is everyone doing?" Serge inquired. "They're preparing." Radius explained, not bothering to turn and face him as he continued to look over the equipment.
"For what?" Leena asked.
"My journey to Termina." Radius replied, as he continued on with his checklist.
"Termina? Who's all going with you?" Serge questioned.
"Oh, just me... and you two." He responded picking up two small backpacks with their things in them, "We'll be gone about a week, so I had your parents pack anything you might possibly need." Radius explained.
"You mean we're actually going to Termina!?" Leena shrieked excitedly.
"Yes, and we leave in about an hour. Be ready." Radius smiled, "Say goodbye to everyone, and get anything you need that we may have forgot." He then walked away to attend to other business.
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"So... they're going to Termina." A voice quietly whispered to itself. The voice belonged to a man with long, light bluish-gray hair, hiding in the shadows near the unsuspecting Serge and Leena now stood, "Hmm, I should go tell the others."
The figure vanished, and within a few moments, had reappeared on top of a small Cliffside where two others were waiting.
The red haired man stood, "Well?"
"Termina." The other man replied.
"All right then. You two go on ahead, and I'll stay here. See if I can stall them and give you a bit more time to prepare." The woman said, smiling at her two teammates.
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"Termina." Harle wondered to herself as she flew as fast as possible towards the city mentioned, "Mon Serge, you are returning to ze place where ze journey began.... iz it what I fear? Is zere a reason zat you are returning?"
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"Goodbye, Serge! Leena, Radius! Have a good time!" Marge, Serge's mother, called out as the three walked out of the small village. They started walking towards Fossil Canyon, not bothering with any small talk.
"So Radius... Why are we going to Termina anyway?" Serge asked as he kicked a small pebble with his foot.
"Someone from the town sent a letter to the village asking that the village leader and the two oldest children from the village, come to Termina." The old man explained, "Said it was important and that it would be some kind of learning experience for you two."
"So we're going just because of an anonymous letter? What if it's dangerous?" Leena asked, the tiniest bit of fear leaking into her voice.
"I needed to go to Termina anyway. I must speak to General Viper about the strange sounds coming from the marshes. I'm sure those sound are Hydra, and if that's so, we may be in danger." Leena accepted that and continued on.
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After a long while of walking they finally stopped at the canyon's entrance. Radius sighed as he heard the sounds of various animal growls, "Prepare yourselves." He warned as he continued walking.
Serge drew his swallow and Leena took out her frying pan, following the old man closely. It was darker inside the canyon, but the sounds of the growls let them know that there were creatures nearby. The soft sound of paws slowly came to their ears, and several wolves appeared.
Two of the wolves jumped forward towards Radius, and he ducked low to avoid them. When one of them was above him he shoved his cane into its ribs. An audible crack was heard and the creature yelped in pain. It stumbled off without any breath. The second stopped its jump and stared viciously at the old man.
Radius smirked as he held up a small marble-shaped Element. He closed his eyes and concentrated on his target. Immediately, powerful green sound waves exploded from his clenched fist, crashing into the wolf. The wolf was sent flying straight into a cliff wall. It didn't move again.
Meanwhile, Leena was busy fighting off her own attacker. She ran quickly towards it and slammed the pan into the side of its head. The wolf was not deterred as it raised its paw and brought it back down, opening a sharp gash across her arm. She fell back, quickly casting a Heal Element. She then sent a Fireball its way in retaliation. With a yelp of pain, the wolf scurried off.
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Serge had been lured away from his two companions, and four very vicious looking wolves had forced him back into a large cavern. He fiercely swung his swallow once, killing one of the wolves. Then he used the other blade to kill another.
The other wolves backed off some, out of Serge's range. The teenager smirked. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a white Element. It was a present that Radius had given to him on his eighteenth birthday-a Photon Beam!
He carefully aimed up to the ceiling of the cave, and a thick white beam of energy blasted from his hand, trailing a line across the rock. There was a slight rumbling sound, and then part of the ceiling collapsed on the two wolves, trapping them underneath.
"That was easy enough..." Serge said to himself as he began to climb over the rubble. He stopped dead in his tracks as he suddenly heard the sound of a girl's laughter.
"Huh?" Serge spun and peered through the dark cavern. His curiosity at its peak, he walked towards the source of the laughter. However, when he arrived there he saw nothing, but heard the laughter once again. Once again he turned around, this time catching the slight glance of blondish hair, "Who's there?" Serge demanded.
"Catch me if you can!" Came the voice again, he ran towards the sound, and paused when she spoke again.
"Too slow." She stated.
He could hear her footsteps as she dashed about the domed cavern, and back towards the exit he caught sight of a silhouette in the light that was coming from the narrow opening.
"Got'cha!" Serge exclaimed, as he ran towards the girl. Suddenly the hard rock below his feet became slippery. He looked down just as he skidded against the rocks that had somehow found a way to turn to ice. He continued to slide uncontrollably forward, and then fell, slamming his head hard against the icy floor.
The last thing he recalled hearing was the small sound of laughter coming from the girl he had been chasing. And then everything faded to black.
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Harle appeared in the area in front of the Divine Dragon Falls. In front of her stood six gigantic dragons.
One was bright silver with four huge wings. Its body was slim and extremely muscular. This was the Sky Dragon.
Another was a deep blue. It had two orange horns and its body was fat. It had no wings, but it flew by 'swimming' through the air.
There was an ugly green one with two fat wings, a medium-sized reddish- orange one, an enormous yellow one, and finally, possibly the most dangerous of them all, a black one that was about the same size of the Sky Dragon.
"At last, Harlequin, you have returned..." The voice of the Sky Dragon boomed as Harle kneeled with her head bowed.
"Yes, and you were correct, mon Serge iz returning to ze city." Harle reported, standing back up.
"Good. Then it is time that we prepared." The dragon said as he spread his wings. Those that had wings did the same. The blue one simply stayed still. Then, one by one, the dragons took flight, flying in the directions of their respective islands.
"No... Ze dragons cannot do zis to mon Serge. Zis must be prevented..." The small jester whispered to herself before she did a back flip, fading out of sight.
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"Serge!" The blue haired teen was aware of a voice calling out his name and was roughly roused from his sleep.
"Serge! Serge, get up!!!" Leena yelled at the unconscious body of her fallen comrade. It had been about an hour since he had been knocked out. "Mmm..." Serge moaned as his eyes slowly fluttered open. He quickly sat up, rubbing his head where a nice cut had opened up. He winced as the warm crimson blood stuck to his fingers. "Wha? Where am I?" "Your still in the canyon, boy." Radius responded kneeling to use a quick healing element. The cut vanished slowly, leaving not even the slightest scar.
"What happened?" Serge asked, standing up slowly and brushing the dirt off himself.
"Well, apparently you slipped on the ice and hit your head..." Leena replied, looking down at the ice that still hadn't melted. That's right... Serge thought to himself. But what had happened to that girl?
"Well, I'm fine now... so I guess we should get moving..." After a few more worried glances, his comrades were sure he was fine, and the trio started their hike up the canyon once again heading towards Termina.
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"Not bad... Not bad at all." The voice of a young girl said as she looked over her gun, "You managed to stall them for an hour... more than enough time to prepare."
"Verily, thou hast given us much time to prepare. I thank thee, lass." Someone said, his strong voice noble.
"Affirmative. This has been ample time to get ready." A very robotic voice filled the air.
"Yes... We ready. New adventure now." A woman said, jumping up and down.
"Soon you two will be reunited." The man with the long hair stated, turning to a young blond that was standing next to him. She nodded. "You better believe it! Soon I'll be seeing ya, mate!" Came another female's voice, "But I hope he doesn't mind the changes I've had since we last me." She said in a much softer tone.
She sighed and thought to herself, He may have loved Kidd... but will he feel the same about Schala? Or even worse, will he hate me for what she-we- did?
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"Finally!" Leena sighed as they peered over the cliff. It was almost completely dark, and clouds blocked out the stars and moon, but the lights of the large city of Termina still shone brightly in the distance, "Almost there!"
"Well then enough stalling!" Radius smiled, "Lets go then."
Serge nodded as he and his two companions followed the trail down, and soon left the canyon. It was only a short matter of time before they finally reached the gates of the city.
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"Alright, if everyone's ready, let's get moving!" The red haired youth, Crono, said to his team. He started to walk from the gates of the city to a secluded location that they had prepared several hundred years before. The rest of the group tagged behind. That's what he thought, at least. Several hundred yards away he turned to see the group was missing a member. "Hold up everybody."
"Dost though have a problem?" The noble frogman asked.
"Just take a look around, Frog. What's normally the problem we have?" Came the only half-sarcastic response from a woman with her blonde hair tied into a tight ponytail. This fiery one was known as Marle or Nadia, depending on whom she spoke to.
"Mayhaps he hath finally taken his leave of us. I say to thee good riddance." The frogman said in reply.
"I'll go check on him." Their red haired leader sighed. "Just wait for me back at base."
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"Show yourself!" The dark wizard yelled into the empty air. There was no response save the slight breeze that blew through his hair. "There is no use hiding. I can sense you," he growled. "Come out now!"
"Vous really need to work on your temper, magician." Said the harlequin, as she seemed to appear from nowhere.
"So I've been told," He said as he drew his scythe. "Now you're going to tell me why you're so interested in the boy."
The floating harlequin chuckled. "Do you truly think that you can frighten moi?"
"Leave the boy alone, clown."
"Or ze big bad magician is going to threaten moi again?" She laughed again this time disappearing and reappearing behind him. "But we haven't had ze proper introductions yet!"
The caped man quickly turned to his painted faced adversary but she only vanished again. "Zey call me Harle and vous are...?" She asked reappearing behind him once again.
"Your doom!" He suddenly yelled, spinning around while swinging his scythe in a wide arc. This time she didn't disappear but instead cart wheeled backwards away from him tauntingly. Her hands never actually touched the ground though.
The anger of the dark magician began to flow of him in waves of crackling black energy. She wasn't even taking him seriously enough to fight!
"Vous silly, silly man. Vous can't harm moi! Vous are much to slow to even..." Her words were cut off when a blast of dark magic crashed against her throwing her to the ground.
He slowly walked towards her, his cape and hair billowing in the breeze. Harle was still quite weak and disoriented from the unexpected spell. When he reached her, he grabbed onto her hat and used it to pull her up. "They call me Magus," He said slamming her head quickly to the ground. Everything went black for her.
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"What are you doing" Crono yelled as he saw his companion standing over the fallen female jester. "Have you gone insane?" "She had her eyes on the new Chrono Trigger and she reeks of dark energy." Magus said casually as he lifted her up from the ground and tossed her across his back.
"You mean, kinda like you?" Crono asked with a smirk.
Magus simply ignored him. "We need to find somewhere to restrain her properly. I feel that she's much more powerful than I gave her credit for at first."
"You're kidding right? I mean, look at her!" Crono pointed towards the unconscious girl. "Does that look powerful to you?"
"Does a frog with a sword, a young girl with glasses, and a rusty robot seem like the type that could save the world? What exactly does seem powerful to you?" Magus said solemnly as he began to walk away.
"Hold up," Crono dashed to him. "You're being serious right? She's really that powerful?" Magus didn't say a word but merely sneered. The sneer itself spoke volumes. "Okay fine. I trust you. But it's just that... never mind." Crono threw up his hands in frustration.
Arguing with the light-haired sorcerer was the equivalent of telling the rain not to fall. It did was it was doing regardless and all you ever got out of it was wasting your breath. "Okay, but we still don't have a place that we can hold her. I guess we could send her to the end of time and wait but..." Crono's voice trailed off. He still didn't know what to do with the whole situation. Magus tossed her to the ground, "Find something to do with her."
"I know someone in Termina. They owe me more than you could ever imagine." His dark companion said before walking off. "Great, now what am I supposed to do with the jester..." Crono trailed of as he looked down to see that she was already gone. ________________________________
Back at their temporary hideout in Termina that Crono's team had established, a thickly spectacled girl was viciously hammering at some contraption that even she wasn't sure what would do. For once she had the urge to smash something instead of building it. That's what the hammer was for.
In truth she wasn't even sure if she was building something or not. She had been so ready to go show off her latest creation to the team. They had left it to accumulate energy one hundred and twenty three years ago. Tonight was supposed to be the night it was to be brought into operation. She had been talking about it for the last several days and finally the night had come to start it up.
Then Magus just had to disappear, and Crono went off to look for him! The ingrates! Didn't they understand how important this was?
Sparks flew into her face and she looked back down at the contraptions she had been half-heartedly working on. It had been completely smashed and ruined nearly beyond repair.
"Now look what you made me do!" Lucca shouted despite the fact that no one was in the room with her. "Well now I'm going to have to fix this stupid thing. Although it looks too far damaged. Oh well, that makes it even more of a challenge!"
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"Finally." Leena sighed as they entered the city of Termina. "I thought we'd never get here."
"The inn's just a bit from here. The letter said we'd have reservations waiting for us," Radius told his fellow travelers.
"Yeah, it's a pretty good place too." Serge said energetically. "Plus I'd really ...like... to...what are you two looking at me like that for?"
"When have you been to Termina? Much less overnight where you'd have to stay at the inn? What are you hiding, Serge?" Leena had placed her hands firmly on her hips and scolded him.
Meanwhile, Radius stood back out of view from either of them and watched. It had been a very long time since his youth and he found the energy and enthusiasm, as well as the budding emotions, quite enjoyable. In certain ways, Leena reminded him of a girl he used to date when he was Serge's age.
"No. What I mean was I'd heard it was a great place. A traveler that came through town a while back told me about it. Really. He was interested in knowing a little bit about our town so I exchanged stories with the guy. You know I wouldn't just go and disappear on you, Leena." Serge knew the excuse was a bad one at the very most but the expression on Leena's face told him that she believed what he said. It hadn't been that long since Serge's battle against FATE, but when the two worlds combined into one, everyone but him had lost their memories of the events. Somehow Serge had retained some of his but he never could explain nor could he find anyone else that had remembered. Sometimes he forgot what had happened in this new world and what hadn't. To be honest, he wasn't even sure if it had happened, or if it was a dream.
"Let's go get our rooms." Serge chuckled nervously hoping that neither of them picked up on his strange behavior.
"There he is..." A blonde woman said, peering over the edge of the cliff.
Directly below her was a boy with dark blue hair hidden underneath a reddish scarf, and cerulean eyes. He was running through Lizard Rock with a red headed girl that looked the same age.
"Yeah, that's the guy. He's the new Chrono Trigger. I think it's about time he and I met." A man said, coming up to stand next to the woman. He pushed his unruly red hair out of his eyes, "Let's go."
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"Come on, Leena! Speed up!" Serge yelled out as he chased after the small Komodo dragon.
Serge was eighteen years old. He had been for a few weeks now, actually. Although he was a fairly quiet individual, he was still a teenager. And even the quietest teens had their loud moments. It just so happened that Serge had most of his 'moments' right before or during a battle.
He was dressed in his usual clothing style-Blue shorts (the ever-so-stylish El Nido Blues at that!) woven from a fine silk, a black t-shirt that was mostly covered up by his iron chain mail, and steel-toe boots. His strange, wild blue hair was tied down by his red bandana with its golden designs- something that was as famous in Arni as his colorful hair!
"Serge, wait up! I'll kill you if you don't slow down!" Leena yelled as she tried to keep up with him.
Leena's shoulder-length, fiery red hair was wild as she sprinted after Serge, desperately trying not to trip up because of her blue dress and red jacket. The fact that she was wearing sandals instead of boots didn't help her situation.
However, it seems her screams were heard, for suddenly the distance between her and her blue-haired friend was cut considerably. They had cornered the creature.
Serge unsheathed his Sea Swallow, a jagged pole with two fin-like blades at the ends, and Leena bringing forth her black frying pan. The dragon summed up its antagonists and then let out a fierce cry, and, a few seconds later, two larger blue creatures, Beach Bums, came quickly to its aid.
"Oh look! They want to fight." Leena smiled slyly.
Serge smirked. After that incident, years before, even before his adventure through the dimensions, involving a Beach Bum, a thunderstorm, and a pair of dirty underwear, he had never had any problem with slaying a few Bums.
With a rush of speed, he leapt forward, swinging the swallow in an arc, bringing the blade down upon one of the Beach Bum's shoulder, cutting deep into it. It fell back with a loud cry of pain and scrambled away. Its comrade joined him seconds later, leaving the Komodo dragon alone once again.
Leena rushed forward and slammed her frying pan on the dragon's head, rendering it unconscious. Carefully, she bended down and tore free a single scale, gazing happily at it.
"It's about time, Serge! It only took us four hours to find that thing!" Leena said with exasperation. Serge simply sighed heavily and ignored her. Something felt weird about Lizard Rock at the moment. It was almost like someone was watching them.
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"Mon Serge.... Why are you wit zat girl, and not ze dog? And certainly not wit moi?" Harle whispered quietly, frowning as she looked down on Serge from her perch in high tree. She stood at the very top, balancing on one experienced foot.
She sighed, "Hmm... To choose... Serge, or my brothers, ze dragons...?" Jumping off the tree, she landed gently-gracefully-on the hot sands of Opassa beach. "Amore.? Or ze world?"
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"All right! That should be enough scales for the necklace." Leena said stringing the brightly colored scales along the small, thin string, "Now lets go back and see what Radius wanted us to meet him for." "He said it was important, so it's probably just some lecture on the proper use of elements again," Serge sighed as the thought of the countless lectures Radius had given him and the other villagers over the years. It wasn't easy being a teenager at Arni Village.
The two teens arrived at the village and were shocked to see that everyone was running around, seemingly preparing something. Serge quickly spotted the old Radius in front of a small pile of supplies, looking carefully over them.
"Radius, what's going on... what is everyone doing?" Serge inquired. "They're preparing." Radius explained, not bothering to turn and face him as he continued to look over the equipment.
"For what?" Leena asked.
"My journey to Termina." Radius replied, as he continued on with his checklist.
"Termina? Who's all going with you?" Serge questioned.
"Oh, just me... and you two." He responded picking up two small backpacks with their things in them, "We'll be gone about a week, so I had your parents pack anything you might possibly need." Radius explained.
"You mean we're actually going to Termina!?" Leena shrieked excitedly.
"Yes, and we leave in about an hour. Be ready." Radius smiled, "Say goodbye to everyone, and get anything you need that we may have forgot." He then walked away to attend to other business.
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"So... they're going to Termina." A voice quietly whispered to itself. The voice belonged to a man with long, light bluish-gray hair, hiding in the shadows near the unsuspecting Serge and Leena now stood, "Hmm, I should go tell the others."
The figure vanished, and within a few moments, had reappeared on top of a small Cliffside where two others were waiting.
The red haired man stood, "Well?"
"Termina." The other man replied.
"All right then. You two go on ahead, and I'll stay here. See if I can stall them and give you a bit more time to prepare." The woman said, smiling at her two teammates.
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"Termina." Harle wondered to herself as she flew as fast as possible towards the city mentioned, "Mon Serge, you are returning to ze place where ze journey began.... iz it what I fear? Is zere a reason zat you are returning?"
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"Goodbye, Serge! Leena, Radius! Have a good time!" Marge, Serge's mother, called out as the three walked out of the small village. They started walking towards Fossil Canyon, not bothering with any small talk.
"So Radius... Why are we going to Termina anyway?" Serge asked as he kicked a small pebble with his foot.
"Someone from the town sent a letter to the village asking that the village leader and the two oldest children from the village, come to Termina." The old man explained, "Said it was important and that it would be some kind of learning experience for you two."
"So we're going just because of an anonymous letter? What if it's dangerous?" Leena asked, the tiniest bit of fear leaking into her voice.
"I needed to go to Termina anyway. I must speak to General Viper about the strange sounds coming from the marshes. I'm sure those sound are Hydra, and if that's so, we may be in danger." Leena accepted that and continued on.
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After a long while of walking they finally stopped at the canyon's entrance. Radius sighed as he heard the sounds of various animal growls, "Prepare yourselves." He warned as he continued walking.
Serge drew his swallow and Leena took out her frying pan, following the old man closely. It was darker inside the canyon, but the sounds of the growls let them know that there were creatures nearby. The soft sound of paws slowly came to their ears, and several wolves appeared.
Two of the wolves jumped forward towards Radius, and he ducked low to avoid them. When one of them was above him he shoved his cane into its ribs. An audible crack was heard and the creature yelped in pain. It stumbled off without any breath. The second stopped its jump and stared viciously at the old man.
Radius smirked as he held up a small marble-shaped Element. He closed his eyes and concentrated on his target. Immediately, powerful green sound waves exploded from his clenched fist, crashing into the wolf. The wolf was sent flying straight into a cliff wall. It didn't move again.
Meanwhile, Leena was busy fighting off her own attacker. She ran quickly towards it and slammed the pan into the side of its head. The wolf was not deterred as it raised its paw and brought it back down, opening a sharp gash across her arm. She fell back, quickly casting a Heal Element. She then sent a Fireball its way in retaliation. With a yelp of pain, the wolf scurried off.
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Serge had been lured away from his two companions, and four very vicious looking wolves had forced him back into a large cavern. He fiercely swung his swallow once, killing one of the wolves. Then he used the other blade to kill another.
The other wolves backed off some, out of Serge's range. The teenager smirked. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a white Element. It was a present that Radius had given to him on his eighteenth birthday-a Photon Beam!
He carefully aimed up to the ceiling of the cave, and a thick white beam of energy blasted from his hand, trailing a line across the rock. There was a slight rumbling sound, and then part of the ceiling collapsed on the two wolves, trapping them underneath.
"That was easy enough..." Serge said to himself as he began to climb over the rubble. He stopped dead in his tracks as he suddenly heard the sound of a girl's laughter.
"Huh?" Serge spun and peered through the dark cavern. His curiosity at its peak, he walked towards the source of the laughter. However, when he arrived there he saw nothing, but heard the laughter once again. Once again he turned around, this time catching the slight glance of blondish hair, "Who's there?" Serge demanded.
"Catch me if you can!" Came the voice again, he ran towards the sound, and paused when she spoke again.
"Too slow." She stated.
He could hear her footsteps as she dashed about the domed cavern, and back towards the exit he caught sight of a silhouette in the light that was coming from the narrow opening.
"Got'cha!" Serge exclaimed, as he ran towards the girl. Suddenly the hard rock below his feet became slippery. He looked down just as he skidded against the rocks that had somehow found a way to turn to ice. He continued to slide uncontrollably forward, and then fell, slamming his head hard against the icy floor.
The last thing he recalled hearing was the small sound of laughter coming from the girl he had been chasing. And then everything faded to black.
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Harle appeared in the area in front of the Divine Dragon Falls. In front of her stood six gigantic dragons.
One was bright silver with four huge wings. Its body was slim and extremely muscular. This was the Sky Dragon.
Another was a deep blue. It had two orange horns and its body was fat. It had no wings, but it flew by 'swimming' through the air.
There was an ugly green one with two fat wings, a medium-sized reddish- orange one, an enormous yellow one, and finally, possibly the most dangerous of them all, a black one that was about the same size of the Sky Dragon.
"At last, Harlequin, you have returned..." The voice of the Sky Dragon boomed as Harle kneeled with her head bowed.
"Yes, and you were correct, mon Serge iz returning to ze city." Harle reported, standing back up.
"Good. Then it is time that we prepared." The dragon said as he spread his wings. Those that had wings did the same. The blue one simply stayed still. Then, one by one, the dragons took flight, flying in the directions of their respective islands.
"No... Ze dragons cannot do zis to mon Serge. Zis must be prevented..." The small jester whispered to herself before she did a back flip, fading out of sight.
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"Serge!" The blue haired teen was aware of a voice calling out his name and was roughly roused from his sleep.
"Serge! Serge, get up!!!" Leena yelled at the unconscious body of her fallen comrade. It had been about an hour since he had been knocked out. "Mmm..." Serge moaned as his eyes slowly fluttered open. He quickly sat up, rubbing his head where a nice cut had opened up. He winced as the warm crimson blood stuck to his fingers. "Wha? Where am I?" "Your still in the canyon, boy." Radius responded kneeling to use a quick healing element. The cut vanished slowly, leaving not even the slightest scar.
"What happened?" Serge asked, standing up slowly and brushing the dirt off himself.
"Well, apparently you slipped on the ice and hit your head..." Leena replied, looking down at the ice that still hadn't melted. That's right... Serge thought to himself. But what had happened to that girl?
"Well, I'm fine now... so I guess we should get moving..." After a few more worried glances, his comrades were sure he was fine, and the trio started their hike up the canyon once again heading towards Termina.
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"Not bad... Not bad at all." The voice of a young girl said as she looked over her gun, "You managed to stall them for an hour... more than enough time to prepare."
"Verily, thou hast given us much time to prepare. I thank thee, lass." Someone said, his strong voice noble.
"Affirmative. This has been ample time to get ready." A very robotic voice filled the air.
"Yes... We ready. New adventure now." A woman said, jumping up and down.
"Soon you two will be reunited." The man with the long hair stated, turning to a young blond that was standing next to him. She nodded. "You better believe it! Soon I'll be seeing ya, mate!" Came another female's voice, "But I hope he doesn't mind the changes I've had since we last me." She said in a much softer tone.
She sighed and thought to herself, He may have loved Kidd... but will he feel the same about Schala? Or even worse, will he hate me for what she-we- did?
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"Finally!" Leena sighed as they peered over the cliff. It was almost completely dark, and clouds blocked out the stars and moon, but the lights of the large city of Termina still shone brightly in the distance, "Almost there!"
"Well then enough stalling!" Radius smiled, "Lets go then."
Serge nodded as he and his two companions followed the trail down, and soon left the canyon. It was only a short matter of time before they finally reached the gates of the city.
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"Alright, if everyone's ready, let's get moving!" The red haired youth, Crono, said to his team. He started to walk from the gates of the city to a secluded location that they had prepared several hundred years before. The rest of the group tagged behind. That's what he thought, at least. Several hundred yards away he turned to see the group was missing a member. "Hold up everybody."
"Dost though have a problem?" The noble frogman asked.
"Just take a look around, Frog. What's normally the problem we have?" Came the only half-sarcastic response from a woman with her blonde hair tied into a tight ponytail. This fiery one was known as Marle or Nadia, depending on whom she spoke to.
"Mayhaps he hath finally taken his leave of us. I say to thee good riddance." The frogman said in reply.
"I'll go check on him." Their red haired leader sighed. "Just wait for me back at base."
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"Show yourself!" The dark wizard yelled into the empty air. There was no response save the slight breeze that blew through his hair. "There is no use hiding. I can sense you," he growled. "Come out now!"
"Vous really need to work on your temper, magician." Said the harlequin, as she seemed to appear from nowhere.
"So I've been told," He said as he drew his scythe. "Now you're going to tell me why you're so interested in the boy."
The floating harlequin chuckled. "Do you truly think that you can frighten moi?"
"Leave the boy alone, clown."
"Or ze big bad magician is going to threaten moi again?" She laughed again this time disappearing and reappearing behind him. "But we haven't had ze proper introductions yet!"
The caped man quickly turned to his painted faced adversary but she only vanished again. "Zey call me Harle and vous are...?" She asked reappearing behind him once again.
"Your doom!" He suddenly yelled, spinning around while swinging his scythe in a wide arc. This time she didn't disappear but instead cart wheeled backwards away from him tauntingly. Her hands never actually touched the ground though.
The anger of the dark magician began to flow of him in waves of crackling black energy. She wasn't even taking him seriously enough to fight!
"Vous silly, silly man. Vous can't harm moi! Vous are much to slow to even..." Her words were cut off when a blast of dark magic crashed against her throwing her to the ground.
He slowly walked towards her, his cape and hair billowing in the breeze. Harle was still quite weak and disoriented from the unexpected spell. When he reached her, he grabbed onto her hat and used it to pull her up. "They call me Magus," He said slamming her head quickly to the ground. Everything went black for her.
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"What are you doing" Crono yelled as he saw his companion standing over the fallen female jester. "Have you gone insane?" "She had her eyes on the new Chrono Trigger and she reeks of dark energy." Magus said casually as he lifted her up from the ground and tossed her across his back.
"You mean, kinda like you?" Crono asked with a smirk.
Magus simply ignored him. "We need to find somewhere to restrain her properly. I feel that she's much more powerful than I gave her credit for at first."
"You're kidding right? I mean, look at her!" Crono pointed towards the unconscious girl. "Does that look powerful to you?"
"Does a frog with a sword, a young girl with glasses, and a rusty robot seem like the type that could save the world? What exactly does seem powerful to you?" Magus said solemnly as he began to walk away.
"Hold up," Crono dashed to him. "You're being serious right? She's really that powerful?" Magus didn't say a word but merely sneered. The sneer itself spoke volumes. "Okay fine. I trust you. But it's just that... never mind." Crono threw up his hands in frustration.
Arguing with the light-haired sorcerer was the equivalent of telling the rain not to fall. It did was it was doing regardless and all you ever got out of it was wasting your breath. "Okay, but we still don't have a place that we can hold her. I guess we could send her to the end of time and wait but..." Crono's voice trailed off. He still didn't know what to do with the whole situation. Magus tossed her to the ground, "Find something to do with her."
"I know someone in Termina. They owe me more than you could ever imagine." His dark companion said before walking off. "Great, now what am I supposed to do with the jester..." Crono trailed of as he looked down to see that she was already gone. ________________________________
Back at their temporary hideout in Termina that Crono's team had established, a thickly spectacled girl was viciously hammering at some contraption that even she wasn't sure what would do. For once she had the urge to smash something instead of building it. That's what the hammer was for.
In truth she wasn't even sure if she was building something or not. She had been so ready to go show off her latest creation to the team. They had left it to accumulate energy one hundred and twenty three years ago. Tonight was supposed to be the night it was to be brought into operation. She had been talking about it for the last several days and finally the night had come to start it up.
Then Magus just had to disappear, and Crono went off to look for him! The ingrates! Didn't they understand how important this was?
Sparks flew into her face and she looked back down at the contraptions she had been half-heartedly working on. It had been completely smashed and ruined nearly beyond repair.
"Now look what you made me do!" Lucca shouted despite the fact that no one was in the room with her. "Well now I'm going to have to fix this stupid thing. Although it looks too far damaged. Oh well, that makes it even more of a challenge!"
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"Finally." Leena sighed as they entered the city of Termina. "I thought we'd never get here."
"The inn's just a bit from here. The letter said we'd have reservations waiting for us," Radius told his fellow travelers.
"Yeah, it's a pretty good place too." Serge said energetically. "Plus I'd really ...like... to...what are you two looking at me like that for?"
"When have you been to Termina? Much less overnight where you'd have to stay at the inn? What are you hiding, Serge?" Leena had placed her hands firmly on her hips and scolded him.
Meanwhile, Radius stood back out of view from either of them and watched. It had been a very long time since his youth and he found the energy and enthusiasm, as well as the budding emotions, quite enjoyable. In certain ways, Leena reminded him of a girl he used to date when he was Serge's age.
"No. What I mean was I'd heard it was a great place. A traveler that came through town a while back told me about it. Really. He was interested in knowing a little bit about our town so I exchanged stories with the guy. You know I wouldn't just go and disappear on you, Leena." Serge knew the excuse was a bad one at the very most but the expression on Leena's face told him that she believed what he said. It hadn't been that long since Serge's battle against FATE, but when the two worlds combined into one, everyone but him had lost their memories of the events. Somehow Serge had retained some of his but he never could explain nor could he find anyone else that had remembered. Sometimes he forgot what had happened in this new world and what hadn't. To be honest, he wasn't even sure if it had happened, or if it was a dream.
"Let's go get our rooms." Serge chuckled nervously hoping that neither of them picked up on his strange behavior.
