Crossover Chronicles (6) - (Locked; see final post for details)

"We sure are!" Cookie agreed, accepting Pit's high-five with overwhelming enthusiasm. However, she quickly took notice of the concerned gathering around Robin. Her cheeriness backed off. "Oh no..."

"W-well, I don't have any serious ph-physical injuries, but... I-I'm afraid I'm not exactly 'OK'," he explained weakly. "I th-think that last monster's weapon was coated with s-some kind of poison..."

Pit's grin quickly dropped, turning into a frown. "Wha??" Unsettled, he turned to see where Cookie was looking. "What's-... ... Oh," he gasped, noticing the scene for himself. "Oh man. He looks kinda rough..."

"You've been poisoned..." Lucina repeated in a troubled murmur. Lifting her head, she looked around quickly. "Do we have any antidote on hand?" she questioned urgently to no one in particular, casting frequent, worried glances back at Robin.

Cookie quickly zipped around, checking everywhere for any bottle or flask that could contain some kind of antidote. "I... I don't think we do," she called back sadly. "What do we do now?" she questioned worriedly, coming to join Lucina at Robin's side.

"I-it appears that the only thing TO do would be--" Robin was interrupted by a little cough "--f-find the nearest village. We should be able to find help there..."

"Yes... I suppose that is our only option after all," Lucina noted, glancing towards the path ahead. "... Let's hope we can find one soon..." she added lowly, her heart sinking with worry.

Pit, who had been listening to the discussion, dashed over to join Cookie with the others. Taking another look at the ever-weakening Robin, he gasped. "Yeaaah, we'd better get looking for something NOW," he agreed uneasily. "We've found plenty of villages before, right? Well, the next one can't be too far away! C'mon!" he urged with some words of encouragement, hopping in place with anticipation.

(And we're timeskippin a bit here)

Some time later, the group was walking through a small forest on their search for a village.

Cookie was walking by Robin's side, allowing him to lean on her as he trudged along--as much as possible, at least, considering their noticeable difference in height. The more time passed, the more the poison took its toll on Robin. His steps were becoming slower and heavier, his feet now dragging along the ground as he moved forward. His breathing had become a bit rough, and he had broken into a cold sweat. Despite all of this, however, he was trying his best not to draw attention to his condition, instead just continuing to press on as best as he could.

Lucina walked at Robin's other side, holding onto his arm to give him some extra support. The entire time--when she wasn't observing Robin to see how he was holding up--she kept on the lookout for signs of a village.

Mandy trailed a little ways behind Robin, Cookie, and Lucina, watching the three of them with a concerned expression.

Meanwhile, just across some bushes that the group was passing by, a young boy also happened to be wandering through the forest. Hearing the sound of the other individuals moving along, he perked up; he had been wandering for several days since waking up in this world, but had come across others just once before, in a small village now quite a distance away.

First, he cautiously peeked over the bushes to make sure it wasn't actually the sound of monsters shuffling about. He had encountered a decent number of those, after all. However, much to the boy's relief, it did appear to be a group of travelers after all. Deciding it was probably safe, he walked--still with caution, just in case--through the bushes and approached them. "Uhm... hi," he greeted shyly, feeling kind of awkward about this sudden appearance. "... Are you... from here?"

Cookie (and Robin) stopped when they heard an unfamiliar voice speaking to them. Turning her head, Cookie spotted the boy coming through the bushes. He seemed shy and friendly enough, so she wasn't at all hesitant to talk to him. "Hey there...!" she greeted, briefly getting a more cheerful tone before gradually returning to the seriousness of the moment. "Actually, none of us are from here. We're from... all over, actually," she explained. "We, uhm, can't really stay and talk, though..." She looked worriedly back at Robin. "Our friend's poisoned... We're trying to find help for him."

When he heard that these people weren't from around here either, the boy probably would have inquired further on that topic, but his attention was instantly brought to Robin's urgent situation. "Oh... He doesn't look well at all..." he noted more softly with concern. "... A-actually, though, wait!" he added quickly, moving to Robin's side. "I know how to cure things like poison..." Then, without wasting another moment, the boy closed his eyes and began to focus deeply. As he did so, he held his palms out in front of Robin and sent a wave of PSI Healing towards him.

"Really?" Cookie proceeded to watch with great curiosity and astonishment as the boy got to work healing Robin with some sort of strange power.

As the healing energy surrounded and entered his body, Robin could feel the pain and overall feeling of malaise miraculously fading away. In just a moment or two, he was feeling as good as new. "Healing powers..." he murmured to himself in amazement. "Thank you. You very well may have just saved my life!" he told the boy gratefully with a warm smile.

Opening his eyes again, the boy was relieved to see Robin looking much better--the healing had been a great success. "Ohh, it's no problem; I'm glad I could help," he responded with a bashful, genuine little smile. Now that everything seemed to be alright, his curiosity about the group came flooding back. "Sooo, um... You guys said you weren't from around here, right? Are you... on a journey together?" he asked with a slight tilt of his head.

"We are!" Cookie spoke up in response to the question. "We were actually going to find something really weird that someone told us about. We got attacked on the way there, though. That's how Robin got poisoned," she explained, sheepishly scratching the back of her neck and glancing back at Robin briefly.

"Huh...!" the boy sounded interested when Cookie told him about their quest, though he briefly went quiet when she brought up the battle and the situation with Robin. "This place can be pretty dangerous, can't it?" he commented, recalling some previous battles with monsters of his own. "I don't have... anywhere to go, myself... ... Would you guys mind if I tagged along with you, maybe...?"

When the boy spoke of not having anywhere to go, Robin felt a pang of concern for him. Nowhere to go? Has he been orphaned? he wondered. "Not at all," he responded in a warm manner. "Of course, there is the inevitability that we'll run into danger again. However, I have a feeling that you're more prepared for such a situation than one might assume..." He looked down at the boy with a glimmer of thoughtfulness in his eye. "The way you cured my poisoning earlier, without any sort of tool to channel magic... You're no ordinary child, are you?"

The boy turned his head up to return Robin's look, pausing for a moment before giving a small shake of his head. "Not... really, no," he admitted, sounding somewhat shy saying this. "I mean, I'm nothing special, but I've got psychic powers... Er, pretty strong ones, actually," he told him. "And I've been on a journey of my own, so I think I could help you guys...!" he agreed with Robin's speculation, a determined expression crossing his face.

Robin was rather fascinated as the newcomer spoke of his strong powers. This was not something he himself was used to, and he would love to ask more about it in the future. As he didn't want to immediately overwhelm the shy boy with questions, however, he moved on for now. "I'm certain of that, as well!" he remarked with a little smile. "Well, I guess it's time for introductions. As Cookie has already mentioned,"--he motioned to Cookie as he spoke her name--"my name is Robin." He then proceeded to introduce the new boy to each of the other group members, one by one.

The boy listened as Robin went on to introduce the rest of the group by name. "Nice to meet you all," he responded gently once he had heard each one, letting his gaze sweep across the small crowd of individuals as he waved at them. "My name's Lucas," he continued, returning the introduction with a small one of his own. This group seemed perfectly warm and welcoming, he thought to himself--he was extremely grateful to have run into them, and even more so that they were allowing him to stick around.

"Nice to meetcha, Lucas!" Cookie practically bounced in place with enthusiasm. "So, ready to get going? I think we should keep looking for that thing we were supposed to investigate!"

"Seeing as the poison situation has been dealt with, I couldn't agree more," Robin chimed in.

"Sure, let's go...!" Lucas agreed with the others, trying to give himself an extra push of motivation. Though he couldn't fully shake his feeling of unease, he was undeniably curious about this supposed 'thing' that the others were searching for.

(ANOTHER TIMESKIP)

In taking a brief detour, the group had apparently gone far enough to become a little lost. Now they were just wandering around, trying to regain their bearings and find their path again.

"Wow... We actually don't have any idea where we're going, do we?" Marie remarked with a deep, troubled sigh.

Pit shook his head, starting to looking a little on the exhausted side. "I'm thinkin'... we don't," he sighed.

All of a sudden, Lucas spotted something noticeably odd sitting a short distance away. "Hey... Is that a giant tooth??" he piped up, sounding baffled as he pointed towards the bizarre-looking object.

"That's the thing!" Cookie piped up without even a split-second delay after Lucas finished speaking. "Come on, let's check it out!" She proceeded to run eagerly towards the tooth, without any hesitation whatsoever.

Just as always, Cookie's apparent lack of caution caused Robin considerable stress. "Cookie! Wait! We haven't the slightest clue what we're--..." He trailed off and sighed. Knowing that just calling to her would likely accomplish nothing, he then chose to run after her instead, in case she ran into danger and needed protection.

Pit immediately perked back up when they found their goal. "Yes! Yesss!" he cried out just as Robin was trying to warn Cookie, running after her with renewed energy.

Lucas watched with wide eyes as everyone started running towards the tooth. "... That thing?" he questioned softly in confusion. Well, it was extremely weird to see a giant tooth just sitting in the middle of the wilderness, he noted; who wouldn't feel the need to investigate such a thing? Not wanting to get left behind, he quickly dashed after the rest.

Now at the boulder-sized, molar-like tooth, Cookie took a moment to just gaze at it in wonder. "Whoa..." She carefully stepped forward and put a hand upon its surface, stroking it softly. Where did you come from? she wondered to herself, treating the tooth with a gentle respect. They had been warned that the tooth may have some connection to the appearance of a horrible monster, but she was unable to help her wandering imagination. What if, somehow, the tooth didn't have anything to do with that?

Pit began to walk all around the tooth, examining it from every side with an intrigued glimmer in his eyes. "How'd a thing like this even get here?" he wondered aloud, giving it a light poke. "It's huge...!"

Lucas walked up beside Cookie and Pit, his gaze also locking onto the tooth. "It looks so... human," he breathed quietly in disbelief.

As Robin approached the tooth, he took a good look at it, carefully taking in every detail. He took note of the moss near the base, as well as what looked like thin, black vines of some sort creeping up the tooth's surface. "Hm... It's been here long enough that the forest is already trying to reclaim it," he noted aloud. He stepped closer and crouched down, getting a closer look at the vines--or roots. He wasn't entirely sure what they were, actually. Whatever they were, they had a vaguely unsettling appearance, almost resembling dark veins. "These... things creeping up the side of it strike me as unusual..."

"Huh?" Cookie quickly came to join Robin in examining the creeping things on the tooth's surface. "Oh, wow... That's actually... really creepy-looking," she commented quietly. She carefully circled around the tooth a little more... and then discovered the edge of the opening they had been told about. "Oh...!" She turned to the others. "Guys, I found the hole! ... Remember what we heard...?" She suddenly seemed a little nervous, recalling what has said to be inside of the tooth. She hadn't yet peered into the hole herself, however, so she didn't yet know exactly what they were going to see.