A Step Onto Chronos Chapter Three
Save Crono!!!
Shadic the Hedgehog
Disclaimer: If I owned CT, Chrono Cross would've been better. Epecially the battle system.
Surprisingly enough, we all arrived at Leene's Square, rather than the End of Time. I tried to figured out why, but my only theories were that the Conservation of Time Theorem no longer existed, or the number of people allowed was increased.
"Yay! We're home!" crien Marle.
"Yep. Hey, Crono, be a gentleman and take Marle home," said Lucca.
"Why don't you all come over for supper?" suggested Marle.
"Well, there's something that I'd like to do. Hugh, will you accompany me?"
"Sure," I replied.
"Okay, then! You'll be missing out!" said Marle, as she and Crono left for the castle as I wondered what Lucca was up to.
"So," she started, "You were going to show me how you knew everything that was going to happen when we got back, remember?"
"Oh. Right. We'll need to go to Gato's area for me to show you, and I hope the Gate Key will work onthe type ofGate I came through."
We headed off to Gato's area and got there quickly. I saw the little floating sphere where the Gate had closed, and a little puddle of water of what was probably left over snow from when I came over.
"Okay, why are we here?" asked Lucca.
"Can't you see the closed Gate over there?" I asked back.
"No."
"Then hand me the Gate Key and I'll open the Gate, since I can see it."
She handed over the Gate Key and I pointed it at the closed Gate and pushed the button. The head began to spin and a small beam of light flew out and touched the center of the Gate. It opened like a Time Gate and Lucca stared wide-eyed.
"What kind of a Gate is this?"
"A Universe Gate. It leads to my world. There, this place is but a game. One which I have beaten many times, and therefore know the story. Would you like to visit my place for a while? I'd like to get a few things anyway."
"Yes! Yes! Of course!"
We stepped into the Gateway which promptly closed behind us. I traveled through the swirl of blue, purple, and black with Lucca by my side. We came out of the Gate in my driveway, where pretty much nothing had changed. It was still night, too.
"This is where you live?" asked Lucca, looking slightly nauseous.
"Yep. That's my house. I'd like to show you something inside," I answered back.
We entered the house and I showed her the computer, told her how it works, and what to do to play Chrono Trigger (I have the Emulator and ROM). Then I went into our upstair library (once my room, and my sisters' before that) and picked up a few books I liked: The Lord of the Rings Series, including the Hobbit and Silmarillion; The Great Book of Amber; The Visual Guide to Castle Amber; the Dawn of Amber Series; Firebird; and Burning Brightly (quite a pile of books, huh?). I also picked up my CD player and car plug. I got a few CDs to listen to as well, mostly soundtracks.
I walked out to see Lucca handling the computer like an expert. She was already in the castle in AD 600 after beating Yakra (She used the Turbo button as well as all the cheats).
"After you get to the point where left I would like you to shut it down and join me outside. I'd like to show you my car."
"Okay."
I checked my pocket for the key to my car, which I had named the Aeon (one of my names for the Epoch in CT) and put the books in the back seat. A couple minutes later, Lucca came outside and asked me what I was doing.
"Getting ready to go."
"But what are you in?"
"My car, the Aeon. We use cars here to get from place to place quickly. I plan to open the Gate and then drive through it. Then afterwards we can fix it up so thatit can open Gates itself."
"Alrighty then, let's get going. Why did you want me to stop where we split up?"
"Didn't want you to see the future, could change it in unpredictable ways. I'm just going to reveal it in small bits throughout our adventure."
"Ah." There was an odd tone to Lucca's voice, but I decided to ignore it.
We got into the Aeon and I turned the key. Lucca opened the Gate and we headed in. It was an odd sensation going through the Gate in a car. I felt like I wasn't being affected by the Gate travel when I knew I was. Kinda like when you're wearing rubber gloves in water: it feels like your hand's getting wet, but you know it isn't.
We emerged in Leene's Square at sunset, just when people were heading home. I looked back to see the Gate close and, amazingly, vanish completely. Everyone we passed turned and stared as we drove by.
"Um so how is it going to be fixed up?" Lucca asked when we got about halfway to her house.
"Integrate the technology that you used for the Gate Key and put in a button so that we can activate it without having getting out," I answered. "Oh, and we have a three day time limit to get this done."
"Why is there a time limit?"
"Bit of the future, well I guess it's the present really, coming up: Crono has been arrested for, and I quote, 'Premeditated Abduction of Royalty.' He was most likely proclaimed Not Guilty and going to be confined for three days, but the Chancellor lied and told the prison executive that he was to be executed in three days. We need to get there before he's executed. I just hope he doesn't decide to break out in the meantime."
"I see. So we'll need to hurry."
"Yes. We'll probably need to hook up a rather elaborate system for this to work, but I think it will work."
During the remaining days we worked on fixing the car up. Well, Lucca did most of the work, while I fetched tools and learned a few things about my car. Taban came out every once in a while with food and we ate it while working. At around five in the morning in the last day, we pulled out and stormed Guardia Forest. I was ripping through the leaves and screeched to a halt just out of sight of the castle doors.
"Let's go! Got your Zonker-38 ready?"
"And set!"
"But keep it holstered until we get into the jail, or we'll probably never be let in."
"Okay."
We walked up to the castle and amazingly they didn't even search us or take my sword when we entered (Baka," I muttered (A/N: Baka is Japanese for idiot)). We walked into the jail area, knocked out the executive, and started towards the execution room, knocking out anyone we met who wasn't in a cell. Lucca knocked people out with her tranquilizer darts and I used my sword, sheathed, hitting them on the side of the head or in the neck. I made sure to collect all the mid-tonics before we continued.
"I can't quite remember the right passages to take to get to Crono," I said.
"That's all right, I know the way," replied Lucca. I found this puzzling because the jail hadn't existed in her original timeline.
We were getting to the execution room just as the soldier asked Crono, "Any last words?"
We never heard a reply. That's because we burst into the room and I shouted, "jail break!" I proceeded to strike the executioner and caught the rope he was holding, which was attached to the guillotine's blade. Lucca was hitting everyone else with darts.
"I'm glad you got the executioner," said Lucca, checking her gun. "I just ran out of darts!"
"Well, could you free Crono? It's just that my arm's getting tired and I might drop the blade," I groaned.
She knelt down and blasted off the lock with her normal gun, Crono jumped out and I let my hand relax. We ran out of that room and I stopped for a moment to free Fritz, by chopping the lock off. He said thanks and asked how to get out. I told him to just follow us then find a way after that. We raced back through the dungeon until we got back to the executive's office.
"Okay guys," I started, "here's the plan: Fritz, you hang back until I shout 'come on!' Crono and Lucca, you and I will go up the stairs and destroy the newest guard, known as the Dragon Tank. Lucca, it's a machine so your Hypno Wave won't work on it, neither will Fire Whirl, nor Flame Toss until we destroy the head. We can only just attack fast and destroy it before it can destroy us."
We executed the plan quickly. The Dragon Tank was big, but we had become strogng from our sojourn to the past. We all started attacking the head. Crono and I used Slash-Cut, in which he threw his Slash attack and I jumped on it pointing my sword directly at the head. I stabbed it and back-flipped away with Uppercut just before Slash got to it. Lucca fired off a powerful shot to the same spot and it exploded into infinitesimal (A/N: lots and lots of really tiny) pieces. We then started using Fire attacks on it, so the swords could slice through heat-softened skin. I went after the wheels, while Crono and Lucca attacked all of it. Crono and I then hopped onto its back and stabbed it up to the hilts. We executed a terrific slash as we pulled out the swords and jumped off.
"Come on, Fritz!" I shouted. The Dragon Tank started to shiver and bolts of electricity struck everything they could, which made me glad I was wearing rubber-soled boots. Fritz ran out just before Yakra XIII (Who else could this lying Chancellor be?) and a couple of soldiers ran out to fix the tank. Unfortunately for them, there was a small explosion underneath the tank and a hole appeared in the bridge. Yakra XIII and the soldiers grabbed hold of the bridge and each other to keep from falling.
"You won't get away with this!" screamed Yakra XIII as we waalked on him. I made sure to stomp on his hands especially hard. As I reached the other side of the people-bridge, I said to Yakra, "We already did, false one. Let go and meet your ancestor."
"What are you talking about?" whispered the man I was talking to, wide-eyed. Suddenly, there was a large explosion under the bridge as the Dragon Tank finished blowing up and a giant shockwave rocked the castle.
"They'll know we're coming now. So start running!" yelled Lucca.
We got to the bottom of the stairs down and all the soldiers were yelling, "the prisoners are escaping!" as we were trying to get away. We reached the entrance and I shoved Fritz out the door just before we became surrounded.
"Stop this at aonce!" yelled Marle from the top of the stairs.
"Not so fast, Princess! Let's hear what the King has to say about this!" yelled the Chancellor running into the room. I began wondering how he could have gotten to the throne room so quickly, and why his hands didn't have footprints on them. The King began to walk into the room, nut I spoke before he could.
"Your Majesty, there has been no crime committed by Crono. In fact, he SAVED the Princess from harm! ...Sir."
"Then explain why you were gone for four days!" countered the King. "And why we were going to execute him if he wasn't guilty!"
"Theat's not true, Your Majesty. Crono was proclaimed 'Not Guilty' by the jury AND judge, plus when he got to the jail the executive was unaware that an execution was to take place. It was the Chancellor that said, and I qoute, 'This man is a traitor to the crown. He has been found guilty and you must carry out his sentence.'"
"You Majesty! The boy coudn't know about such things. The only people who would know what was said in that room would have been a couple of guards, the executive, the criminal, and myself. Therefore he is obviously a liar!" The Chancellor had me there.
"This is true. I order that the execution sentence be lifted, but you will all have to be put in solitary confinement for seven days for jail break and assistance, and be fined a million Gold for destroying a valuable piece of equipment. And this does add on to what you already had to serve, boy." the King directed this last comment to Crono.
"But Daaad, these are my friends we're talking about here," pleaded Marle.
"The throne comes before your personal wishes, Nadia, and I see you've picked up strange ideas venturing outside."
"I didn't 'pick up' anything! It's called Common Sense! I despise you, I'm leaving!" She tore off the dress she had on to reveal the jumpsuit she had worn to the fair. She then ran down to meet us and we all ran out the door.
"Quickly! To the Aeon!" I yelled as I heard the Chancellor scream at the guards to chase us.
"The what?" asked Crono.
"It's an amazing invention from where Hugh is from," explained Lucca. "We modified it, too, so now it can open Gates." It was as we reached the car that I realized that I was now trapped here, and should probably tell everyone my story before they get way too suspicious of me. I got in the car and everyone else followed suit. I turned the key...and nothing happened.
"Frell (A/N: This is a word from Farscape I use to replace most swear words), this isn't good!" I frantically searched for the problem only to discover I had left it in drive. I pushed the brake, put it in park and started the Aeon. It roared to life and we ripped down the path to the dead end.
"What's going on?!" cried Marle.
"We're getting away, that's what!"
We got close to the dead end and I pushed the Gate button. It opened up and we drove straight in. I imagined the chancellor's reaction to the car as we traveled to the future.
"Free that which was never caged"
-flavor text of the AEther Spellbomb