Chrono Continuum Chapter 22

Tough Beyond Her Years

By Cain

64,999,998 BC

She fell out of the bright circle rather abruptly. Brushing the dust off her outfit, she stood, taking in the surroundings. It was the right era. But was it exactly right? If not, she'd just have to survive for a few million years to get to the Kingdom. Then she slapped her head. Duh! She wouldn't have to do that. If she was in the wrong place, she'd just use her Seeker Orb. She looked down at it. It hung off her necklace. She'd decorated it colorfully. It was much better than that dull silver color it had. The portal closed behind her. No matter. She'd find the "princess" easily. She wouldn't even break a nail, hopefully. She jumped at a quick movement to her left, and spun to face it. It was a man. She frowned. A very dirty man. And his stare was quite disconcerting.

He took a step forward, paying attention more to her body than anything else. She couldn't blame him. She pointed a finger at him. Smiled. He smiled back, misinterpreting. His smile faded at the bright orange glow that enveloped her hand. And he was lucky enough to jump out of the way before the fireball incinerated him. He ran off through the bushes. Terala cursed loudly. She decided not to pursue, however. She had more important things to do. And the Almighty One would reward success. She thought of Drissom and Clairdena. She had no doubt that they weren't enjoying themselves right now. They were back home. In Hell. She shuddered. She'd do anything to avoid that punishment. Anything.

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Same Time

Corea jumped to the side as the green reptite lunged at her. She turned as it slammed into the wall, and brought her stick into the back of its neck. A sharp crack told her that said neck had snapped. Paying no more attention to the body, she turned and brought both sticks full into the face of an oncoming purple reptite. They connected, and the reptite was thrown to the ground, unconscious. One of the small dinosaurs began to tear into it. Corea let it. She turned her head to search for any more enemies. Except for that one dinosaur happily gorging, there were only humans here. She saw that two men and a woman had fallen. One of those men was still breathing. Alive. Corea didn't know which of them were hunters, and which tagged along. It didn't matter. They were human lives, in the end, and their loss was inexcusable. Later, she'd cry, and mourn, and wonder what she'd been thinking, but there was no time for that now. She was on a mission.

Pointing at the dinosaur, she shot it in the head with a small thunderbolt. It died. Corea couldn't let it eat the unconscious one. She turned to look at the men and women individually, checking to see if they could all still follow and fight. One woman was bleeding, but stood. That was good enough for Corea. She turned on her heel, and started walking down the hallway. The others soon followed. And most of them, if they were thinking, were thinking about how much harder this girl was than their chief. Some of them were glad. Others, afraid.

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Same Time

She walked up to what used to be a doorway housing huge double doors. It now held but one. The other was shattered into small bits. Looking carefully with the aid of her magic, she saw traces of magic on the fragments. Lightning magic. What astonished her was the sheer amount of it. And the concentration. This girl could probably summon a lightning bolt from the sky to destroy this complex, if she had the training. But she wouldn't have time to get the training. She would die long beforehand. Terala would make sure of that.

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Same Time

"Can you see this, my dear," the voice whispered. It's speech was far too advanced for this time period. To Ayla, it sounded utterly inhuman. She couldn't even tell what it was. It always hid itself. Ayla didn't nod. She wouldn't give the voice the... whatever word Lucca used. She almost sighed. She missed her friends. It had been two summers, and they hadn't visited. Maybe they didn't like her anymore. Or maybe they were afraid to come back. Bad things happened to them when they went back or ahead. She had been pleasantly surprised when Crono's daughter had come, but had not been able to go to her. She was here. With the voice.

Many, many days ago she had been hunting. She was looking for the Nu. She heard a sound in the bushes, and jumped in to see what it was. There was nothing there. Then she heard a sound behind her. The next thing she knew, she was in this room with the thing that Robo the Rawboot used to call a "teevee". Whoever the voice belonged to brought in the food when she slept. Sometimes Ayla would pretend to sleep, but the voice's owner was never tricked. The teevee was on all the time, except when Ayla slept. It was showing what was happening to her village, and more specifically, Corea. She must have gotten the thunder power from Crono. Ayla had stopped her exercise as Corea entered the Tyrano Lair, and had been watching since. Ayla hoped that Corea would find her. Ayla hoped that she was in the Tyrano Lair.

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Same Time

This was the fifth and final floor, and they had yet to find Ayla or her captor. Everyone had been quite sure that the reptites had done it, including her. They burst into the final room. One lone reptite stood in the room, relieving itself into a shaft that went straight down through the floors. Corea had seen the exact same thing on every floor. One woman rushed forward and clubbed its head in before the reptite could turn. Corea looked aorund, and then left the room. The Tyrano Lair was clear. No humans here, and no reptites that hadn't run off or been out already. She sighed. I guess this was a dead end. She turned to her men... people.

"Well, Ayla... not here. We leave. Go back to Ioka." One man spoke up, "But, Chief. Where Ayla if not here? We ever find her?" Corea looked down.

"I don't know."

"Well, I do!" Everyone turned to the new voice. It belonged to a woman. She wasn't especially tall, but had her blonde hair styled so it would increase her overall height. She wore a tight outfit made of what looked like white wolf fur. She wore a surprising amount of makeup, something used only by royalty in Corea's day, but it was applied well. Corea could see a palpable aura of magic surrounding the woman. She finished her statement.

"Well, I know that you aren't going to find her, because you'll die by my hand!" Corea stepped forward, as did several others.

"Is that a fact?" The woman nodded confidently. Corea motioned for the others to step back, and they obeyed. She continued, "Well, let's just see about that."

The woman started off by throwing a large ball of fire at Corea. It was dodged easily, but almost hit some of the hunters. Corea silently reminded herself not to put them in danger. A one-on-one fight just wasn't worth it. Corea jumped forward, with one stick swinging upward towards her chin. It connected, but the woman recovered by spinning and pulling out a gauntlet. She quckly put it on. Large blades somehow extended from the wrist, and then began to burn. They would destroy her sticks on contact, and they both knew it. The woman lunged at Corea, blades first, and Corea leaned to the opposite side. Her arm flew out and struck her in the thigh, ribs, and neck, in succession. The woman yelled and jumped back. Corea jumped back as well, but nearly fell. She looked down to see a small wound on one leg. The flame had cauterized it instantly.

"Damn!" She knew that while she'd survive it, it would slow her down. Oh, well. Deal with it. Taking her own advice, she moved her attention back to her attacker. The woman was standing there with a smug expression on her face. Corea took her chance. She pointed at the woman, but her lightning bolt attack was dodged. While Corea was recovering from the strain of using magic, the woman dashed forward. Corea ducked into a split, and the fiery blades burned off some of her hair. She popped back up, and then jumped up into the air. A strong kick slammed into the well-dressed woman's neck, and she slammed into a wall. She spun back around and screamed in anger. There was a flash, and the woman's entire body was consumed in fire. The furs burned brightly for a moment, and were gone. Her body's definition was lost in the flames, but Corea could see that the sphere on her necklace, now dull brown, was unharmed by the flames. She had no time to ponder that, however, because the woman threw out both fiery arms, and twin fireballs raced towards Corea.

Instinctively, Corea swung both sticks to bat them away. Both sticks hit on target. And stayed there. Her sticks glowed a faint blue, and seemed to be barriers to balls of fire. She couldn't see it, but Corea had no doubt that the woman's face had an expression of surprise underneath the flames. Corea's teeth gritted, and the sticks' glow intensified. Corea drew her sticks back, and pushed each fireball upward and to one side. They slammed into the ceiling an equal distance away from her, exploding on contact. Drawing her sticks back to her, she smiled. The flame woman raised her arms up to fire again. Bad move, Corea thought as she flew forward, underneath the fiery arms. It was easy since the flames made the woman four feet taller.

Corea came in, swinging her blue glowing sticks at the body underneath the arms. They connected, and the sound of an object against flesh sang out. Before the woman had time to scream in pain, Corea was hitting her again and again, and again, and again. The woman was up against the wall, her flames dying down. Cracks began to form around her in the wall, some reaching al the way to the window five feet away. Corea noticed this, and smiled. She brought the sticks back, crossed them. The woman, whose flames had died off to reveal an ordinary naked woman, raised her arms in defense. It didn't help.

Corea pushed her sticks outwards, and the electric surge slammed into the woman, pushing her further into the wall, until it exploded outwards, sending dust into Corea's vision. She stepped back. Waiting. The dust cleared, to reveal the form of a woman, standing silhouetted against a large hole in the wall. She was hanging on to the edges of the hole with her hands and legs to keep from falling out. Corea was amazed and impressed that not only was the woman alive, she was still holding on. The woman coughed.

"Well done, girl. You've defeated the mighty Terala."

"Terala? I'll remember that name when I see you in Hell." Terala laughed.

"You just might, girl. You just might." And she let go of the edges. As she fell out of view, there was a flash. No scream. Nothing. Corea stepped forward to see if she had hit the ground. There was no sign of the woman. Corea looked a while longer, and turned back to the others in the hallway. They were all staring in obvious awe at such a battle. She smiled.

"Well, let's go. The sooner we get back to Ioka, the sooner we have a feast!"

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"You sure you ready leave nest? Not too big yet."

-Ayla

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