The Thing of Whatever Saga ~ Chapter 0: Beginning

After just a moment, Cookie came running back, carrying a stick that she had found beneath a large tree. Well, actually, it wasn't so much a stick as it was a small log. The object's size didn't stop her from effortlessly wielding it single-handed, however. "How's this one look?" she asked the others, holding the very large stick up for all to see.

When Cookie's voice came into earshot once again, Lucas turned his head back in her direction. "Hm? ...!" Just as he was about to respond, it fully occurred to him that the object in his new friend's hand was, in fact, not a stick; though small, it appeared to be more of a... log?! "Whoa," Watching in disbelief as Cookie held the impressive chunk of wood up, he noted that it was much larger than any stick he had ever wielded; actually, it more closely resembled something his father might use in combat instead. "I-it's... It's big...!" he uttered in awe.

"Haaah--... How're you--...??" the girl gasped, tripping over her tongue a little in her moment of bafflement. "... That thing's gotta have some POWER!" she remarked with wide eyes and a slightly gaping mouth.

"Yes, I would say that's... quite a club you've got there," Robin chimed in, looking just as surprised as the others. He definitely hadn't expected Cookie to return with something quite like this.

"All right! Perfect!" Cookie hopped in place. "Now let's go save that village!"

"Of course! But remember to be careful. The terrain is hazardous, and we appear to be greatly outnumbered," Robin warned. He then turned to look at each of the others present. "That goes for everyone. I don't want anyone recklessly running out into the fray alone. We need to fight harmoniously, as a team." He stood up tall, looking ready for battle. "Understood?"

"Mhm... Got it," Lucas responded affirmatively, pausing briefly to take one more careful look at the village.

"Yep!" the girl chimed in, straightening her posture with a confident look. In truth, this was partially an effort to give herself some extra motivation, as she had awakened in this world without the one thing she normally used for fighting. "... I'll try helping you all out the best I can," she assured the group, trying not to let her lingering nerves show. "Maybe I'll be able to put up a fight against some of those smaller baddies, at least!"

"Yessir!" Cookie stood as tall as she could manage and gave Robin an enthusiastic salute. "Oh, hey, you should get a stick to fight with, too!" she went on to suggest to the newcomer. "It's better than nothing!"

"Hm... Actually, Cookie has a point," Robin remarked with an amused smile. "I'm sure there are plenty more to go around where she found hers, too." He then turned to Lucas. "Lucas, would you mind accompanying our new friend while she goes to find a stick of her own? Seeing as she's unarmed, going alone could be dangerous."

"Not at all," Lucas agreed to Robin's request with an understanding look, then glanced towards the newcomer and waited for his cue.

"Right, right...! Welp; this should only take a bit!" the girl responded, enthusiastically turning and heading to the edge of the woods alongside Lucas.

Not very long after, both of them returned, and the girl was now carrying a rather large (though still much smaller than Cookie's log) stick. "OK, now I'm READY!" she announced as she leapt forwards, giving her stick a wide practice swing through the air a safe distance away from the others.

"NICE ONE!" Cookie commented, cheerily giving the other girl a thumbs-up.

Robin glanced around at the others, happy to see that their morale was in such good shape. "Alright, looks like we're all ready to go," he commented. At that moment, however, something hit him. "Oh! Before we head into battle, though"--he turned to the newcomer--"I don't think we ever introduced ourselves. I don't think we'd be able to work in harmony very well if we're all strangers, now, would we?" he chuckled softly. "My name's Robin."

"And I'm Cookie!" Cookie chimed in.

"Oh yeah..." Lucas gave a soft and slightly awkward chuckle, then went on to introduce himself as well. "I'm Lucas."

"Ah! Well, hiya! I'm Mechanica," the girl responded, giving a bouncy bob of her head in greeting. "Looking forward to workin' with you guys!"

"It's nice to meet you, Mechanica; I look forward to fighting alongside each other as well," Robin responded with a subtle, friendly smile. "And speaking of that, it's about time we got going. Stay alert, everybody!" Motioning for the others to follow, he started running towards the burning village.

"Right! Let's go!" Cookie dashed towards the village with Robin, quickly ending up in front of him.

Lucas was quick to follow after Robin as well, more or less matching the pace of the tactician.

"Onward!" Mechanica cried out with enthusiasm, rushing forwards with the rest of the group and soon making her way past Robin and Lucas as well.

Once she had arrived in the village, Cookie kicked things off by smacking aside a tiny bat-like shadow monster that had swooped at her. "Hah! We have ARRIVED!" She announced triumphantly, trying to get into the heroic spirit.

"Don't let your guard down, now!" Robin called as he arrived on the scene. "We don't know what else could be lurking amongst the flames...!"

Arriving alongside Cookie, Mechanica began chasing after a rather small shadow monster that resembled a wasp, wildly swinging her stick in front of her as she attempted to strike it. When it was finally defeated, she paused briefly and turned to look at Robin. "Gotcha! Don't worry, I'll try not to get too reckless!" she assured him before scanning the surrounding area once more.

Lucas entered the scene just behind Robin, taking a moment to look around. When he spotted a villager being chased by a long, speedy, snake-like shadow monster not too far off, he breathed a quick gasp and dashed to their aid. As fast as he could, he unleashed his signature PK Love on the monster, which thankfully seemed to weaken it a significant amount. Bracing himself, he watched as it changed directions to begin slithering rapidly towards him instead, and when it made its way close enough, he finished it off with a carefully-timed swing of his stick.

Spotting another villager under attack by a shadow-monster resembling a giant moth, Robin rushed over to help out. He spotted a large, covered wooden wagon by the side of the cobblestone road, and slipped in behind it: a perfect spot from which to launch an attack.

After taking a moment to charge and build up energy, Robin jumped out from behind the wagon again. He fired off a rather potent ball of lightning from his right palm. It crackled and whizzed through the air, on a direct path to the shadow-moth. Just before the beast could grab its target, its wing was struck and partially shattered, causing black wisps to disperse into the air.

Meanwhile, Cookie was standing at the center of an intersection, locked into combat with a shadow-creature that resembled a large, bipedal rabbit with very long claws. Whenever she would take a swing at it, it would leap out of the way. Then, it would lunge at her, only for her to dash out of the way. So far, nobody seemed to be getting any sort of advantage.

Not long after his encounter with the shadow-snake, Lucas spotted two more villagers hunkered down by a partially-destroyed wall. There didn't seem to be any monsters currently threatening them, but upon closer inspection he noticed that they appeared to be injured. Eyes widening with alarm, he quickly made his way over and kneeled next to them, gathering focus and then releasing a wave of healing PSI directed at them. After the two villagers--seemingly quite surprised--thanked him for healing their injuries, he gave them a soft smile and a gracious nod of his head before once again heading off.

Mechanica, meanwhile, had stayed relatively close to Cookie, managing to fight off a few more small shadow monsters on her own. Then, when she saw her new friend locked in combat with a shadowy rabbit creature, she quickly noticed that the battle didn't seem to be tipping in either side's favor. A determined little grin forming on her face, she ran towards the scene--attempting to keep her approach relatively quiet--and approached Cookie's attacker from behind. Once she was within range, she then lunged and swung her stick with as much power as she could manage. "YAAAH!!"

The rabbitlike monster was taken by complete surprise when Mechanica suddenly attacked. It didn't even have a chance to defend itself, and ended up being swiftly knocked to the ground.

"Whoa, awesome move, Mechanica!" Cookie complimented her new friend, pumping a fist skyward in celebration. "Now it's my turn!"

While the creature was down, Cookie darted forward. Just as it was about to get back to its feet, she whacked it with an overhead swing from her own stick. After sustaining such damage, the monster burst into a dark cloud and dispersed like mist.

The moth-like monster that Robin had been fighting turned a vengeful eye to its attacker. It galloped unsteadily towards him on its insectoid legs. As the monster approached, Robin was already reaching for his sword. By the time it got close enough and lunged at him, he simply responded by quickly slashing at it. Like the other defeated shadow-monsters, it was reduced to a formless cloud of dark mist, quickly vanishing.

Elsewhere in the village, a block or two away from Robin, Lucas, Cookie, and Mechanica, someone else was doing battle with the monsters. The figure--who was currently taking on two of the fiends at once--appeared to be lashing at them with something like a long chain.

Just as Cookie was about to celebrate her and Mechanica's teamwork, she spotted the stranger fighting in the distance. "... Whoa..." Momentarily, she was distracted as she gazed curiously at what was unfolding.

Lucas, dividing his efforts between fighting monsters and healing any more weakened villagers he encountered, ran across a large, shadowy bat-like creature next. This creature attempted to swoop down at him as soon as it detected his presence, but he just managed to knock it off course with a wave of PSI.

When Cookie finished the rabbit-like monster off, Mechanica gave her an enthusiastic thumbs-up. However, before she had time to say anything, she noticed the other girl's distraction. "Eh? What's--..." she began, trailing off when she caught a glimpse of the distant figure. "... Ohhh... Whoaaa..."

Another, medium-sized monster--this one resembling a hawk--noticed the moment of distraction and flew rapidly towards Cookie, its shadowy talons outstretched.

Cookie, having been distracted while staring into the distance, was struck in the back by the hawk-like monster. Emitting a shocked yelp, she was knocked forward, falling stomach-first on the cobblestones. "Urf! H-help!" she squeaked, clenching her eyes shut in response to the stinging scratches on her back.

"Gyah!" Her attention snapping back to the situation at hand, Mechanica whirled around to face in Cookie's direction. "Cookie, what happened?!" she questioned with a wide-eyed look of concern, but soon saw the hawk-like monster that was now pulling away a short distance. "... Aw, no! No ya don't!!" she hollered at the airborne beast, waving her stick at it with one hand while she reached her other one out to Cookie. "C'mon, while it's distracted...!"

The shadow-like hawk attempted to dodge Mechanica's wild stick waving as much as possible, though the edges of its wings were struck several times in the chaos. Letting out a screech, it temporarily retreated higher into the air.

Cookie took Mechanica's hand without hesitation, scrambling back to her feet. "Phew... Thanks again," she sighed in relief. She then turned to face the hawk-like monster, furrowing her brow. "C'mon, I dare you to come at us while we're NOT distracted!" she shouted up at it, holding her oversized stick at the ready.

"Not a problem," Mechanica responded with a dip of her head. Then, she joined Cookie and turned her gaze skyward as well. "Yeah! You'd better watch it, 'cause we're REALLY ready now!" she chimed in rather squawkily.

Meanwhile, Lucas was still in battle with the same bat-like monster as before--except by now, it had several, smaller reinforcements by its side as well. He managed to defeat a small number of them with PSI, then decided to save some energy for now and instead pursue the larger one with his stick. However, as he began dashing towards it, one of his feet hit the ground somewhat awkwardly and he lost his balance, landing stomach-first on the path much like Cookie had done elsewhere. "Umph...!" he puffed, feeling the force of his fall.

The shadowy bat monsters took this opportunity and began drawing closer and closer to Lucas as he wriggled around, frantically attempting to get back up.

Unfortunately, Robin was too distracted with fighting a shadow-monster that resembled a very large bipedal mountain goat to notice Lucas.

Cookie was similarly unaware of Lucas' predicament, being much too far away, as well as focused on her current foe.

However, at that moment, a shout could be heard coming from somewhere behind Lucas. Strangely enough, the voice sounded very similar to Robin's, but it was, in fact, not him.

A moment later, two more sounds could be heard coming from the same direction as the shout: feet hammering hard against the cobblestones, and what sounded like the jingling of a heavy chain.

The footsteps and jingling only continued to grow louder and louder with every half-second. It was clear that somebody was approaching, and at a furious pace.

(Just going to give Lucas a moment to react here >:3)

When he caught the sound of the shout, Lucas lifted his head for a moment in surprise. "... R-Robin...??" he uttered hopefully, rolling over and attempting to push himself up in order to get a better look around. He only managed to get to a sitting position, however, before one of the bat-like creatures swooped down and bit him right on top of the head, flying back into the air immediately afterwards. "Yow!" Flinching, he put a hand to the location of the bite and rubbed it, briefly clenching his eyes shut. "... Robin, are you there...??" he called out, opening an eye once again and quickly scanning for his friend.

Of course, the shadow bats immediately noticed this opening as well, once again beginning to circle overhead.

All of a sudden, a heavily-muscled man clad in blue came leaping boldly into the scene--the very same man that Cookie and Mechanica had noticed just before. Hollering powerfully, he soared through the air, firmly gripping the handle of his fearsome-looking chain-whip. With a spirited roar of "BACK!" he whirled around mid-flight, delivering a wide, sweeping attack to the hostile swarm of shadow-bats. The hefty-looking chain--tipped with an equally hefty spiked metal ball--sliced the air at such a speed that it gave forth a deep "whoosh!"; paired with the links' continued metallic jingling, the sound was no less than awe-inspiring.

The shadow-bats, including the somewhat weakened largest one of the swarm, were no match for the man's impressive chain whip; each monster burst into a wisp of fading darkness as it was struck.

Hearing such a holler instantly caused Lucas' eyes to fly wide open, followed by him quickly jolting upright. At this moment, he was met with the sight of a mighty--and completely unfamiliar--man making short work of the swarm that had been tormenting him just a few seconds before. All he could do was observe in complete awe as the man dispatched each and every one of the monsters with just one powerful swing of his whip. "... Wh-whoa...!" he managed to murmur under his breath as he watched.

Just as the dark wisps were dispersing, the man landed firmly on his feet--several feet ahead of Lucas--with a heavy "thump". He stood somewhat mountainously, especially compared to the small boy. Naturally, a man of such proportions had an incredibly powerful, even intimidating presence.

After straightening his posture, now standing at his full height, the man drew a deep breath and sighed. He then turned around to face the child he had just rescued. The expression he wore upon his face was not the permanently-hardened scowl of your stereotypical musclebound hero. No, he sported a genuine look of concern, with perhaps even an almost childlike quality of sorts detectable in his eyes. "Are you alright?" he asked Lucas, with not even a trace of gruffness in his tone at that moment. Despite his imposing size, he didn't actually seem at all like a scary person at heart--unless, of course, you were a monster.

Before the man could get a response, however, a sudden scream in the distance brought his attention elsewhere. With a gasp, he whirled around to look in the sound's direction. He spotted a villager and her child under attack by a huge shadow-beast, which resembled a bison crossed with a gorilla. The cruel sight only fed the fire in his belly further, causing him to reflexively grit his teeth and emit a growl from his throat. He definitely couldn't wait to give that fiend a good thrashing.

The man was just about to leave, but before he went, he paused and turned his head to look at Lucas again. "Er, looks like I can't stay," he told him hastily, sounding slightly apologetic. "Just get to safety, alright?" Managing a rather friendly smile despite the tension, he saluted Lucas with a v-sign in parting, then rushed off towards the villagers that desperately needed his help.