Wild ARMs: Off on a Tangent
By: Chibi-chan
Part Four: “Those Darn
Guardians!”
*
Milama, the land of water. Is it because of the Guardian Shrine nearby that blesses them with this abundance while other locales suffer from lack of water? Or is it because the people of Milama have MAD IRRIGATION SKILLZ? Who knows? Who really cares? Who’s on first?
Anyway, it was long since dark by
the time Laine got to town. The
Mountain Pass that she just went through was, to put it bluntly, a royal pain
in the ass to get through. All she
wanted now was a place to sleep and to not think about the day’s events. Little did she know what else she was about
to get into in the morning…
*
Same Bat-Time, same Bat Channel… Wait, lemme try that again.
At the same time, the survivors of
the attack on Adlehyde had finally been relocated to Surf Village. The villagers weren’t exactly thrilled
to have their little town filled with this many strangers so soon after the
zombie incident, but since His Royal Highness, King Adlehyde had pretty much
ordered them to take in the refugees, they had about as much choice in the
matter as Laine did when they kicked her out a few days past.
*
Inside the mayor’s house, the king, the prince, and a rabbi… No, wait, that’s a bad joke set-up. Anyway, it was inside the mayor’s house where the king and his son were having a little talk.
“Son, I’m proud of you. Thanks to you, the townspeople were saved and
the Tear Drop stayed out of the hands of the demons. For a while there, I thought you were going to escape the castle
and give them the Tear Drop to protect the people!” the king said.
Cecil looked down. How could he tell his father that the reason
why he didn’t give up the Tear Drop was because Laine stole it? More importantly, how can he tell the king
without the king arresting Laine before Cecil could find her and get an
explanation first? Laine, what were
you talking about you “being created”?
And what does it have to do with this “duty” you claim to have?
Cecil thought.
“Is there something wrong, son?” the
king inquired, curious as to his son’s strange behavior.
Cecil froze for a second, then
mumbled, “Nothing. Absolutely
nothing.” Cecil didn’t even look in the
king’s direction.
The king looked at his son
oddly. “Cecil, have you been doing
drugs? You know, drugs are bad…”
Cecil reflexively rolled his
eyes. “No, dad, I haven’t been doing
drugs…”
The king paused for a moment,
shrugged, and then said, “Well, it’s been a long day. Perhaps you should retire-“
“Aren’t I too young to do that yet?”
Cecil quipped rather snidely.
The king shook his head. “You’ve certainly inherited your mother’s
quick wit.” Cecil moved his head up
slightly so he could sneak in a glare at his father. The king paid no mind to it, however. “I meant that you should go to bed shortly.”
“Oh, right, I knew that,” Cecil said
nonchalantly.
*
It was really quite late when
Stoldark’s rune began to glow. A soft
voice that only Cecil could hear began to speak. Innocent One, wake up… Er, Innocent One? Cecil turned away from the rune in his
sleep and muttered something about Cameron Diaz and chocolate sauce. HEY, STUPID! I’m talking to YOU! Stoldark screeched. Cecil then murmured something about getting
rid of Fran Drescher. The once-mighty
Guardian of Water sighed in exasperation.
How did I get stuck with the duty of guiding him? Dan Dairam has much more patience with these
matters than me… Guess I’ll just have
to go into his dream like last time…
*
Cecil’s dream was a particularly odd
one. There were duplicates of the Tear
Drop of various sizes floating all over the place. Elmina was dressed as Little Bo-Peep for a reason not even the
Guardians-know-why, and Cameron Diaz was singing William Shatner’s greatest
hits with Fran Drescher. Cecil was
sitting dejectedly next to a pile of Laine dolls when Stoldark entered the
dream. Innocent One, didn’t you
hear me calling for you?! the Guardian said.
Cecil looked over one of the
Laine dolls, made a dissatisfied expression, then tossed it aside. “I have to find the real Laine! I have to get an answer! I have to…” he cried.
I know, Stoldark said, That is why I
was trying to contact you. I felt the
Tear Drop’s presence heading toward the Milama area. She should be there with the Tear Drop. Go, find her and reclaim the Tear Drop! Then you can get your answers from her! I must admit, I am also quite curious about her motives…
“Milama, you say? Well, what am I waiting for?! Let’s go!” Cecil said in a “Champion of
Justice” tone.
*
Cecil awoke suddenly. He sat up and looked at the Water Rune
sitting on the nightstand nearby.
“Milama, is it?” he murmured. He
remembered something, then turned his gaze into a glare. “You just HAD to ruin my Cameron Diaz
dream, didn’t you?!”
An unheard chuckle emanated from the
Water Rune…
*
In the morning…
“Milama? You sure about that, princey?” Elmina said, a bit skeptical about Cecil and his “vision”.
Cecil, now dressed in more informal
attire, nodded. “That’s where Stoldark
said he felt the Tear Drop’s presence,” he said, unsure of himself as
well.
Elmina shrugged. “Well, it’s the only lead we got, so it’s at
least worth checking out…” she said.
The two of them (well, three if you count Zed) headed toward the town’s
gate. However, a figure was there to
intercept them…
“Son! Just where do you think you’re going?” the king asked.
“Oh, just to Milama…” Cecil said,
trying to be as vague about the details as possible.
The king looked criticizingly at his
son. “Aren’t you forgetting something?”
The prince blinked in
confusion. Suddenly a little flash of
inspiration struck him. “Oh, right!” he
exclaimed. He then reached back and
pulled his hair over one shoulder. “If
I’m gonna be traveling through the hot wastelands, long hair isn’t very
practical. Elmina, can I see your sword
for a minute?”
The king’s jaw dropped faster then ticket sales for
a Kevin Costner-produced movie as Elmina kindly obliged the prince and handed
him her sword. “Er, son, that’s not-“
he began as Cecil gave himself a little haircut.
“Thanks, ‘Mina,” Cecil said as he returned the sword
to its owner. “Well, ‘bye dad!” she
quickly said as he practically dragged Elmina past the dumb-founded monarch
before the king could recover.
The king could only gawk as the two figures were
quickly rushing out of sight…
*
Back in Milama, Laine was trying to
figure out what to do next. She
wandered around town until she ended up wandering into the pub. Two people were chatting particularly loudly
nearby.
“Do you, like, really think that
dude’s dad was totally a Guardian priest or some junk?” one of the two ladies
at a nearby table asked of her friend.
“Oh, like totally not! I, like, think the bartender made that up
for some totally lame pick-up line!
Just because there’s this totally trashed Guardian Shrine northwest of
here doesn’t mean crap!” the other proclaimed loudly.
Laine blinked twice. She thought, Well, I guess heading to
that shrine place wouldn’t hurt. It’s
not like I have anywhere better to go…
Maybe I should ask the bartender for a little more information first
tho’…
*
Meanwhile, he was wanderin’ through
the desert on a horse with no name…
Wait, that can’t be right.
Anyway, after hours and hours of
hiking through the wastelands and the Mountain Pass (Elmina’s Tool “Lighter”
and a <Fast Draw> hint was acquired there. Other than that, it was no big deal.), the woman warrior and His
Royal Ecchiness made it into Milama.
When they got there, however, they were too late to catch Laine. When they made it to the bar, the bartender
(who I shall dub “Steve”) had told them that the blue-haired gender-bender they
were looking for had long since left town.
Elmina sighed. “Well, princey, off to that Guardian Shrine
now?”
Cecil, who wasn’t in the best of
moods since he traveled all this way for almost nothing, snapped, “No, I was
thinking of stopping by Saint Centaur for a cup of tea.”
Zed looked at him oddly. “You sure this is the right time for that?”
Cecil slapped a hand to his
forehead. “Zed, you moron… Of course we’re going to the Guardian
Shrine next!” he said, desperately trying to cling to any sense of calm he had
left. He headed towards the door, but
Elmina stopped him.
“Princey, don’t you think we should
get some directions first?” she asked.
“Directions? We don’t need no steeking directions!” Cecil
proclaimed in his best “Champion of Justice” voice. “Just leave it to the ‘Innocent One’!”
*
Laine took out the small medal the bartender gave her. It was difficult to light the fires in the basement that would allow the door to be unlocked with a lighter or even some matches, but she had done it and was feeling pretty proud of her ingenuity. She put the medal in the indentation on the locked door and surely enough, the door opened. As she stepped in, she didn’t realize that Tear Drop was faintly glowing. Maybe that was because it was tucked in that little travel pouch thing that magically seems to stay put when she moves, but still…
*
Laine was puzzled. This seemed to me the last room in the shrine, yet there was no trace of the Guardians anywhere in any of the other rooms. All that was there was a mirror. Laine couldn’t put her finger on it, but she knew there was something strange about it. “Maybe… Maybe they’ve become extinct?” she thought out loud.
It was then she started noticing that something was
glowing in the little travel pouch thing (It’s times like this I wish I had a
better term for it…) . “What? Could it be…?” She opened the travel pouch thing and took out the Tear
Drop. She didn’t notice something
slipped out of the pack when she was getting the crystal. As you probably have figured out, the Tear
Drop was the glowing thing. If you
haven’t, are you even paying attention?
Anywho, a sparkle of light about the size of a person’s head appeared
before Laine. The sparkle then went
through the mirror. Am I… supposed
to follow that? she thought. With a shrug, she
went through the looking glass…
*
It was another couple of hours before Elmina and the eternal lost prince made it to the Guardian Shrine. “’Leave it to the ‘Innocent One’,’ eh, Princey? ‘We don’t need no steeking directions, hmm?” Elmina said snidely.
“So I messed up. We got here anyway, right?” Cecil said. He was quite tired and hungry and not in a
mood to deal with an equally tired, hungry, and fed-up Elmina.
Zed, who was still feeling fresh as
a daisy since he didn’t have to do any of the walking, cheerfully chimed,
“Well, we came here to find Laine, right?
Well, let’s GO!” The little Wind
Mouse smiled.
As we all know, anyone cheerful to
someone who’s worn out is annoying by default.
Therefore, the annoyed Elmina flicked the mouse off her shoulder. Zed fell to the ground with a soft
“thud!”. “Zed, shaddap,” Elmina
said. With that, she went into the
ruined shrine, followed closely by Cecil and everyone’s favorite hyperactive
Wind Mouse.
*
There was a vision appearing
before Laine. Tony, the little boy from
Surf, was being attacked by a monster.
Laine rushed in to fend the monster off. With one strike of her sword, the monster vanished. She went to see if the boy was okay, but he
backed away. “Ack! Get away!
You’re just as scary as the monsters!” the illusory Tony cried.
It was then when other villagers
from Surf and some other NPC figures from her past appeared. “What the hell is wrong with you?! A girl shouldn’t have that kind of power!” a
random figure said.
“But…” Laine began trying to voice a
protest, but was cut off by another voice.
“You possess the forbidden ARM! Those things could have belonged to the
demons in the first place! You’re just
like the demons!”
“I’m not! I’m nothing like the demons! I-“ Again, Laine was cut off from
her defense.
“Heh, it’s Laine the Tomboy
Monster! Everyone, run away!” a figure
of a child exclaimed. It, with a few
other children figures, ran away and vanished.
The other figures vanished without
saying a word. Only the illusory Tony
remained. Laine looked at the boy,
looking for consolation of some sort.
All she got was him saying, “Do you even belong in this world?”
*
Cecil and Elmina were in the mirror room of the shrine. “Dead end,” Elmina muttered to no one in particular.
Cecil scratched in head. “Now what do we do? There’s no doors or anything, but if this
were the end, wouldn’t we have seen Laine backtracking somewhere along the
line?” he asked.
Zed noticed something odd by the back mirror. He zipped off Elmina’s shoulder and down to the floor to get a better look at the odd thing he saw. A photograph? I though that technology was long lost… Wait a second! Isn’t that… Zed’s attention turned to the little girl in the picture. The picture was black-and-white and severely faded, but there was little doubt in the Wind Mouse’s mind who the little girl was. “Hey, guys! Laine was here!”
“Hmm? Wha’dya find, mousie?” Elmina asked. She crouched down near the mouse, picked him up, and looked at the picture. “You think she dropped this?”
Zed shrugged. “That’s my guess.” He struck an arrogant pose. “Heh, the ‘Little Grand Master of MAD SKILLZ’ isn’t useless after all, now am I?” he boasted.
Meanwhile, Cecil held out the Water Rune in plain sight, hoping that Stoldark would point to where they should go from there. The big sparkle made another appearance and went through the mirror. “There,” he pointed at the mirror, “She went through there, Elmina.” He put the rune up and went through the mirror.
Elmina stood up. She muttered to Zed, “If there’s any disappearing cats or tolking caterpillars there, I’m leaving.” She then went through the mirror…
*
Cecil’s
vision was much different than Laine’s.
What appeared to the throne room (no, not that kind of “throne”)
materialized around the prince. His
father was seated in the throne.
“Father? What… what is this? Is this some sort of test?” Cecil wondered
aloud.
“Son,
you shouldn’t leave all of a sudden.
The people need you here!” the illusory king said calmly.
“The
people need me? I needed you after mom
died, but you sent me away just because I resemble her too much and you felt my
mere presence was painful! Why the hell
should I listen to anything you say?
Hypocrite,” Cecil said, venom in his voice.
“Who’s
calling who a hypocrite? You say you
dislike me for neglecting you, but you neglect the people,” the king
replied. “What’s the difference between
you and me?”
“The
people don’t rely on me, so it’s no big deal if I’m not there, but I needed to
rely on you and you betrayed me! I…
I…” Something inside Cecil wouldn’t
allow him to finish the sentence.
“You
hate me? Loathe me? Would like to spit on the ground I walk on?
Well…” The king turned into Cecil. “Am I not you? You couldn’t bring yourself to care about anyone after that, just
the same as me.”
Cecil,
for once, was speechless…
*
The sword
of the Absolute Power? Is that it? Elmina
thought when she saw the sword. A
strange power seemed to emanate from the sword; one she had never felt
before. She went to the sword that was
a few feet before her and picked it up.
The sword seemed to flare to life.
Elmina, startled, dropped it.
The sword vanished. In its place
appeared a blonde man who appeared to be in his early twenties. There was an air of extreme confidence,
bordering on arrogance, around him.
“Hey, Elmina, what’re ya doin’?” the man asked.
Elmina
looked like she had seen a ghost.
“G-Garrett? But how…?!”
“’How’s
not important. What are you trying to
do?” the man, now known as “Garrett”, replied.
Elmina
looked at him, puzzled. “What do you
mean, ‘What am I trying to do?’ I can’t
just leave things as they are! I have
to…”
“Looking
for revenge? Now, now, you know
better. You’re the one who told me that
was a sign of a ‘coward’,” Garrett said, waving a finger at her.
“I’m
not… At least, I don’t think I am. I… just want you back…” she said haltingly.
“Then
don’t forget that for a minute!
Elmina…” The man began to fade
away.
Elmina tried to rush to his side but it was too late. He had already vanished. “Garrett…”
*
One by one, each of those who entered the shrine appeared on a platform that seemingly had no way off of it. All three of them looked incredibly depressed. Laine was still crying over what had happened in her particular vision.
These are the ones Stoldark chose? Is that turtle out of it’s ever-loving mind?! a voice on Cecil heard spoke.
“… a Guardian?” Cecil, still half-dazed by his vision, mumbled.
I agree. The only one that managed to get through the test mostly unscathed was that warrior woman, and even still… another voice only Cecil could hear spoke.
“… Guardians, where are you? Please show yourself…” Cecil said it a slightly louder tone than before.
And this Innocent One’s not exactly top of the heap either. How the hell could he let a little girl steal the Tear Drop?! yet another voice spoke.
Cecil then got rather pissed off. “HEY! If you’re gonna insult me, do it to my face!” he shouted.
Very well, the first voice said. A rather bizarre-looking blue draconic-like creature appeared. I am Gurdijeff, Guardian of Earth. This time, everyone could hear the voice.
A firebird appeared to Gurdijeff’s left. I am Moa Gault, Guardian of Fire. Do you really think you can stop the demons?
Laine
stopped crying. She looked to the
Guardians and thought, Even if I can’t, it doesn’t mean I’m not going to
try! I have to…
A large white saber-toothed tiger appear to Gurdijeff’s right. I am Fengalon, Guardian of Wind. We need your help.
Elmina was just gawking at the sight. “Dude, they really exist!” she said louder than she had wanted to.
Yes, we exist, Moa Gault snapped at her.
This is not the time or place to be arguing, birdbrain! We have to tell them something important! Fengalon said to Moa Gault.
“Can we please just get on with this?” Cecil inquired irritatedly.
Please
ignore their rudeness, Gurdijeff said.
Now, as you may have seen already, the Metal Demons of old have
started to set their new plan in motion.
Their plan, as we see it, is the revival of their queen, “Mother”. They have already reclaimed what remains of
her physical body from the Arctica region and have made an attempt at getting
the “Tear Drop”. If they can get ahold
of the crystal and break the three seals on the demon queen’s heart, all is
lost. The war will start again, and
this time, not only are we not strong enough to be of much help, but the Naga
have left.
I thought that was a good thing. Their laughter was incredibly annoying, Moa Gault interrupted.
Shut it, birdbrain! I’m trying to talk to these people! Gurdijeff chided the firebird. Anyway, they’re going to be after the crystal as well as the three seals. We need you to guard the statues the pieces of the demon queen’s heart are sealed in, as well as protect the “Tear Drop”. We will use what remains of our powers to send you to the place of the first seal and send the bearer of the crystal somewhere safe.
“Bearer of the crystal?!” Cecil asked. He was a bit confused before he finally saw that Laine was on the platform as well.
Elmina turned to the prince. “You just now noticed she was here too? How freaking dense are you?”
Cecil retorted with the tried-but-true phrase that is “Bite me.” At least, he was going to do that, but before the words came out, a ridiculously bright light filled the room and in a short flash, the trio was separated yet again…
*
The “Tear Drop” is a source of life. It must not be used for destruction…
*
End Part Four
Chibi’s notes:
OK, nothing to see here. Just move along…
Rudy: Why didn’t you say that at the beginning? *WHAM!*
Jerk.