Yo. My el brilliante excuse for the delay this time is that I went to Washington D.C. That, and pre-calculus. Whoever thought up partial fraction decomposition needs to be dug out of the ground, shot, decapitated, have their head stuck on a pole, pole paraded around the country while their body is dumped in a trash pit and urinated upon. Several times. In succession. And then all pre-calculus books burned, Fahrenheit 451 style.
Anyway, please enjoy chapter two of Violence is Golden!
Chapter 2: Crono: Kamikaze-man
"This is bad," Marle said, paling as she stared at the burning village.
"No kidding!" Crono said in horror. "That sword was just stolen from the weaponry! Where are the guards in this town?"
"CRONO!" Lucca yelled. "TOWN! BURNING!"
"Oh yeah."
Marle cast Ice all over to help put out the flames, but the town was now burning at an increasingly quick rate. "Help me!" she cried.
Lucca flung her arms. "How? I'm a fire user, remember? And Crono'll just end up blowing the place up or something!"
An old man hobbled up next to them. "Queen Leene sent you, correct?" he asked desperately.
"Yep," Crono said grumpily.
The old man tthrusta key into Crono's hand. "Listen carefully. You need to go to the dam nearby, and use the key to release a steady stream of water. Not too much, or you'll flood the whole town, but enough to douse the flames. Quick! Before the flames wipe us out!" He hobbled off before Crono could protest.
Crono turned to Lucca and Marle. "Is it just me, or do people think I have 'kamikaze' written all over my face?"
Lucca was already running toward the dam. "Not now!"
Reluctantly, Crono followed her. Marle called out after them. "I'll stay here and keep the flames from going haywire! Hurry!"
The two sprinted toward the dam, and Crono shoved the door to the dam building open.
"Where do we put the key?" he demanded, staring around.
Lucca frowned. "Wait a second..."
Crono groaned. "Don't tell me."
"What, that this key is a fake, the dam is crank operated from the outside of the building, and we've just fallen into a very elaborate trap?" Lucca said dryly.
"Something like that, yeah."
The door slammed shut, and they could hear laughter outside. "What dolts! How could they not have realized that the key was fake and that the dam is crank operated? From the outside of the building? Hahahah! They totally just fell into our elaborate trap!" Two other men joined in the laughter.
"They're key-operated four hundred years from now," Lucca muttered.
They heard the men leaving, and tried to push the door open.
It didn't budge.
"CCrap-fuck" Crono muttered.
Lucca gave him a weird look. "You worry me sometimes."
"Yeah, well, I'm allowed to be resentful, thank you."
Lucca plopped on the ground. "I wonder how Marle's doing..."
Crono sat next to her. "I'm sure she's fine. She's definitely a feisty one, I'll give her that."
Lucca sighed. "I hope they don't get her, too... We need to get out of here."
"Really? No, I thought that spending the rest of my life here was ideal." He then went into a spontaneous rant about Marle.
Lucca ignored him, as usual, and glanced around the tiny room. She knew that burning their way out wouldn't help, the room seemed to have magic-deflecting walls...
"They definitely planned this out well..." she mused.
"I wanted to ask her out on a date," Crono went on, not noticing that Lucca wasn't paying even the slightest bit of attention to him. "You know? A romantic moonlight walk on the beach... after a nice dinner..."
"Hold that thought," Lucca said suddenly. "Crono, you up for a suicide mission?"
"And I really wanted-" Crono stopped. "I'm sorry? Did you just say suicide?"
Lucca grabbed his arm and dragged him toward a rug in the middle of the room.
"If my theory is correct, there will be a trap door under this rug," Lucca said. "We should, assuming there IS a passage, figure out where it leads. However, since this is a rather primitive community, we could just be walking into an even larger bout of suicide."
"Suicide?"
"Yes, Crono. Suicide. Come on."
Holding her breath, Lucca ripped the rug bag, revealing a small trap door in the ground.
"Ha. Bingo." She turned to look at Crono. "You first."
"WHAT? Why?"
Lucca grinned. "Well, your new superhero name is Kamikaze-man. Kamikaze-man's job is to protect the ladies. Now, if you walk into a screaming metal deathtrap, I'll find my own way out, and you'll be remembered as the greatest kamikaze-performing man ever, who saved Lucca the Great from a gruesomely painful death."
Crono whimpered. "I hate you so very much..."
He opened the trap door and peered down. "Can't see the bottom... Oh well, might as well." He got himself ready to jump. "If I don't survive... tell Marle... that... I love her."
He jumped.
-xXx-
Marle, meanwhile, had found herself in a bit of a situation. Three men had begun chasing her, the town had mysteriously stopped burning, and Lucca and Crono had been gone for more than half an hour. She had finally found a hiding spot, but it wouldn't last long.
The three men had suddenly multiplied to fifteen.
Come on, Marle... she thought desperately. You've gotta find out just what the hell is going on here... Who are these people? Why do they want you? Where are Crono and Lucca?
Are they still alive?
"No sign of the girl, sir," a nearby voice grunted.
"She's here somewhere," another voice snapped. "And you better hurry the hell up, the dam's set to blow in twenty minutes."
Oh no.
"Are the other two still there?"
"I'll check, sir."
"Good, because if you screw this one up, you're finished."
"Yes sir."
Marle waited until the footsteps had subsided before moving.
I've got to get to the dam...
-xXx-
Crono's eyes opened slowly. All he could see was darkness.
Night...
Sleep...
Crono's eyes started to close again.
Crono...
Not now. Not ever. The sleep... ah, yes. It felt nice.
Crono!
The voice... where was it coming from? Was that a choked voice? Angry?
"No. I'm sleeping..." Crono grunted, his eyes closed.
Goddammit, Crono! CRONO!
Crono's eyes opened again. "...Lucca?"
"CRONO! WHY THE HELL AREN'T YOU ANSWERING?"
"Lucca..." Crono said, louder this time.
"Crono? You're alive?"
"Um... maybe... is this a dream?"
Lucca's voice laughed weakly. "I don't think so. Hey, I'm going to light up the tunnel from up here. Tell me if you can see the rope I'm going to lower, okay?"
"How are you going to light it up without burning the rope?
"I thought I heard you hit something on the way down. I think it was a torch bracket. I'm going to try to light it up, then I'll lower the rope. Stand back."
True to her hypothesis, there was a bracket about ten feet over Crono's head, and it lit up immediately. Peering up, Crono could see the dim outline of Lucca. "It's about a thirty feet drop. I don't think the rope is quite that long."
"That's fine. Think you can catch me when I run out of rope?"
Crono rubbed his aching head. "If you have a tonic, I'll do it."
"Coming down, then."
-xXx-
Thud, thud.
Marle ducked down.
Thud thud.
The men were right behind her...
Thud, thud. Thud th-
The thudding stopped.
"...Where is she?"
Marle huddled behind a bush. If there's any hope for Lucca and Crono... I have to get to that lodge...
She had reached the dam, but there were ten armed men guarding the small lodge. Clearly, they didn't want anyone in...
Or out.
"We lost her, sir."
There was a slight pause before the leader started screaming.
"AGAIN? We had orders to destroy the ambassadors from Guardia castle! Two are ready, but in five minutes, this dam is finished! We can't let any of them survive!"
What? Who the hell are these people? Why do they want us dead?
"Sir, she looked remarkably like the queen."
The leader turned. "What?"
"The queen, sir. We think she's the queen."
A smile played around the leader's mouth. "Really, now. Hmm... Heh." He chuckled. "Alright. Blow the dam. We should keep the queen alive... She'll be useful."
Marle froze. No...
There was a resounding explosion, and the dam blew up...
-xxxTo be continuedxxx-
Well, there you have it! Chapter two! A little less humorous than I'm used to writing, but nonetheless, I thought it wasn't bad.
I am evil. Mwahahaha.
Drop a review, or else!