Relics of Death (Invite Only)

[mugenginga]

She'd pulled the rope up and walked over to Robo. She was about to say something to Robo, her mouth was even open, when a whip shot past her head with maybe a centimeter to spare. She would have jumped, but right now she was having trouble getting her body to move. She finally managed to move just as Alex was offering the bird to her. The poor thing looked terrified. She carefully took the bird into her hands, trying to get its fluff to settle down with light petting as Alex turned to Robo and gave his repsonse.

Lucca jerked her head up, "Wait, that's the result of a disease!? I've never heard of anything like that! Do you know what strain it is? Is it a mutation of the common flu? Uh...," she reached up and touched her cut cheek, "It's not contagious, is it? Although I'm not seeing much in the way of disadvantages... is it terminal?"

She'd gotten a bit distracted by the science. Robo took a careful step foward (these halls weren't designed for robots) and bent over. He picked up Lucca's helmet as she was talking and held it out to her even before she was done. She stopped talking when she saw the helmet and turned to look at Robo.

"It seems in the best health of all parties if we vacate these premises."

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Ellie sweatdropped. "Uh... both, I guess. Hey, we can at least rub it in his face that we actually did kick a ghost's ass. Which reminds me..."

Ion was still silently observing the situation when Ellie suddenly yelled something at him. "Hey, Ion! Make sure you grab your staff again! We might need that!"

"O-oh, right! Thank you!" Ion called back, and looked around the room for his staff, finally spotting it on a bit of non-collapsed ground. He clenched it tightly before going back over to Robo, Alex, and Lucca.

Canary gave a couple satisfied chirps as Lucca petted him. Yay birds.

When Robo suggested that they leave, Ellie yelled a "hear, hear!" from the other room. She wasn't leaving until the others made it up there too. Leave no party member behind unless it was plot related, after all.

[Sweet_Chef (Ani)]

((I got permission~!))

Alex's eye twitched beneath the mask his Armor created, annoyed by Lucca's rant about his "infected" comment. Not trusting the stability of the platform they stood upon, he decided to answer as quickly and bluntly as possible. "Blacklight virus. Top secret. Nothing related to flu. Contagious, but not with me. No, but it disfigures and deteriorates the brain," he snapped out. Alex grunted in agreement with Robo's words, glancing from Lucca to Ion and back again.

"Greeeaaat, give him something else to rag on ME about. Getting possessed...." Tara muttered beside Ellie, dropping onto her back with a heavy groan of exasperation. As powerful as Magus was and as much safety as he granted, she wasn't looking forward to meeting up with him again. He treated them all so badly for various reasons, and who knows if he and Alex had even met yet. Tara was still a bit puzzled by the fact he hadn't absorbed them yet, but she guessed he had a good reason and wasn't about to complain.

Back down below, said mutant seemed to make up his mind with a nod, stepping over so that he was in-between the two humanoids. Without warning or hesitation, Alex's hands snapped out to grasp both Lucca and Ion by their clothing, momentarily tugging them backwards before chucking them up the collapsed staircase the same way he'd thrown Tara and Ellie. He then turned to Robo, staring at him as if to say, "I can throw you too, but it won't be pretty."

[mugenginga]

Lucca listened intently to Alex as he gave the explanation. He sounded a bit like a soldier might. She nodded about halfway through just to let him know she was listening. She loosened her grip on Canary a bit, but it was still secure. She was opening her mouth to ask him more questions when he nodded to himself and stepped forward. Her eyes widened in a bit of worry just in time for her to be grasped by the front of her shirt and quite literally thrown to the top of the stair case.

Robo's first reaction was worry, and he took a step forward to check on Lucca. The next thing to happen was the ground all of his weight had just been on to crumble a bit and for him to stop suddenly with a good 90% of his weight on his forward foot. He didn't shift any weight as the top of his head actually spun to the side to look at Alex. He understood the body language of the man and shook his head. Again, just the top half to avoid weight distribution.

"I am quite capable of returning up the stairs of my own power. However, I will need more space and would request you ascend the stairs before me."

There had been one reason that the teenager hadn't faceplanted. Her hands had drawn closer to her body and Canary had given some pretty crazy chirping. Her eyes widened and she managed to twist around. There was a bit of a unhealthy sounding crunch as she slammed into the floor on her side, but Canary managed to be fully protected. It had sounded like something had broken, but by some cosmic luck her helmet had actually slipped out of her hands and crunched beneath her arm. It was going to need some work to repair, that was for sure. She winced as she just sort of lay there, trying to assess herself and make sure nothign actually was broken.

....Man, she wished Marle were here right now.

(OOC: Okay, if I'm unclear. Her arm is at most sprained. Good thing we've got a seventh fonist? Although he's probably not feeling so strong. XD Her helmet is pretty well smashed. The moves that use it aren't usable for a while. XD)

[Firebreath Fishslap]

"Oh shut up, at least you're alive," Ellie said. "You should thank your lucky stars that I still remember that kinda stuff from church. And that Ion had that pendant, too. Not sure why, but that thing screwed with those ghost guys pretty bad. Maybe something about how it vibrates, like, caused the particles that made them up to separate."

At that moment, Alex grabbed Ion and Lucca and tossed them up the stairs. Ellie yelped and dodged out of the way in time for Ion and Lucca to hit the ground next to her. He hadn't had much of a chance to brace himself before the landing, but it didn't seem anything was broken for him.

"...Speaking of which. Hai Ion," Ellie said. She looked over toward Lucca, who had braced her self around Canary. "...Hey, can I have Canary back, Lucca?"

The bird sounded pretty freaked out once again.

[Sweet_Chef (Ani)]

"Good point, good point. Times like these I kinda regret never going. But then, I doubt any church would tolerate MY family for very long. Especially Mary, yeesh...." Tara replied, the latter half to herself as if she were thinking aloud. Sighing, she swung herself into a sitting position again just as Ion and Lucca flew up the crumbled staircase, making her shriek in surprise and roll out of the way. "Holy shit! I thought you guys were more ghosts! Damn!!" she muttered. Grunting softly, Tara pushed herself up onto her hands and knees and crawled over to the two, noticing that Lucca seemed to be in pain. "Hey, you okay? Did you land wrong?" she asked worriedly.

Meanwhile, Alex stared at Robo for a few moments longer before nodding, still coated in his Armor to protect his now vulnerable muscles and veins. He would really need to find something to absorb, though he was considering the four humans he had just aided. After all, one of them had caused the damage in the first place, so his infected mind reasoned it would only be fair.... no. Alex shook his head as he lowered his body a bit, cursing inwardly as he remembered the Armor hindered his jumping, running, and overall acrobatic flexibility immensely. As he carefully made his way up the slippery slope with timed and precise jumps, he ruled out absorbing any of the people he had met.

He still had some humanity left in him, actually given to him by the sophisticated portion of the virus seeing as his human self had been rather horrible- not that he could remember that anymore. Those four were innocents, all girls around the same age as his sister, whom Alex barely remembered now. Though one of them had injured him a decent amount, they seemed to be rather weak and vulnerable. They would especially be in trouble if they ran into that creature he had fought with earlier, though he doubted it would let anyone else bother him. Alex decided he would stick around until he managed to regain his biomass, and then make a decision on where to go from there.

He landed at last in the midst of the girls, shaking the ground a bit even with his short hop and making Tara shriek again. He straightened, giving them all a once over, allowing his gaze to linger a bit longer on the two whom had claimed to know him. Alex decided he would ask them about it later; maybe they could fill-in some of his memory gaps for him. "The robot is coming. Everyone all right?" he asked gruffly. Inquiring about the well-being of others obviously was not something he did often.

[mugenginga]

Most people would have lost track about two seconds into Lucca's little assessment, as the girl was mentally thinking about just about every part in her body. After the adventures through time, she'd promised herself to study robotics more. She'd gotten even more into it after Crono started spending all his time with Marle. In any case, she was about halfway done as Alex was just heading up the stairs. By the time Alex made his castle shaking final landing, she was done and about to respond to Tara. Of course, the shake surprised her quite a bit, but she managed to not shriek. She just had very wide eyes.

"Are you sure!? Robo, are you okay down there?" Lucca was still holding Canary close with one hand, but had cupped her mouth with her other. She heard a crunching noise from the shift and blinked and looked down, noticing her helmet. She looked rather crestfallen, "Oh man, this'll take at least a full night to repair..."

Robo actually winced (given his construct, it was more of a jerk) as he saw Alex crashing up the stairs. The man upset things enough that Robo had to drive his hand into the wall to avoid being knocked off balance. Once he was sure that the man was done, hailed by the solid thump, he began making his way up the stairs. He used his own sensors to find the most suitable footing, but it was slow going. Well, he did weigh quite a bit.

Lucca looked very concerned, but the bird in her arms was raising holy hell. She blinked and looked down at Canary, and then turned towards Ellie. She looked a bit embarassed and held out the bird to the girl.

"Sorry! I think he's alright, just a little rattled," Lucca turned back towards the doorway, "Robo, can you hear me!?"

Robo finally became visible, and with a sound something like a small explosion, he creatively used on of his abilities to get to the top of the stairs. He looked like he was going to fall for a moment, but just recovered.

"I am quite alright, Lucca," he said with a bow, "Is everyone functional? I am able to heal minor injuries."

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Ellie took another large scoot back as Alex joined the others at the top of the stairs. She blinked and sweatdropped at him as he asked if they were alright. "Y-Yeah, I'm just fine." To be entirely honest, Alex bothered her. A lot. He might decide to absorb any one of them at any moment, after all.

"I'm okay, too," Ion said, and carefully got to his feet. Ellie looked over at Lucca as she held out Canary, and gratefully took the bird back, perching him back on her head.

"Who's a good birdy?" Ellie cooed. Once Robo made it to the top of the stairs, she nodded. "Alright, I guess we should find Magus, then. He's hanging around this castle somewhere."

Ion gave a nod. He was regarding Alex more carefully than he had been Magus. The man seemed dangerous. Very dangerous.

[Sweet_Chef (Ani)]

"Y-yeah, I'm good," Tara stated in answer to those who had inquired about their overall health. She stood, grimacing as her sore back smarted a bit, and dusted herself off. She groaned softly at Ellie's statement about finding Magus, but she supposed the girl had a point. However, Alex's eyes narrowed behind his Armor helmet, wondering how he could have missed anyone. "You have another ally here?" he asked, obviously surprised.

Tara laughed sheepishly, unable to decipher Alex's mood and feelings since his voice was basic deadpan and his face was currently hidden from view. "Uh, yeah. Sorta. He's more like an acquaintance, in my opinion. He's this really big, pale guy with bluish-white hair and a huuuge scythe. I really think he's trying to compensate for something but- eeep!! Don't kill me! Whatever I said to piss you off, I'm sorry!!" Her explanation was interrupted by a terrified squeak as Alex suddenly lifted her off the ground by the front of her hoody, the sound followed by apologies and pleas for mercy.

Luckily, the infected man sounded more shocked than angered, simply showing it in the wrong way. But that was to be expected seeing as he had absolutely no social skills to speak of. "Wait, you're allied with that creature? The one I battled earlier? He seemed like someone who would kill people like you," Alex growled, still holding Tara up with a hand but seeming to have forgotten he was doing so. "U-uh, yeeeaaah.... could you let me down now? Please?" she asked in a tiny voice. She was promptly dropped back on her butt with a yelp and a hiss, rubbing the already sore area tenderly. "Ooowww...."

"How is it you came to be allies with someone so powerful?" he growled, confused.

[mugenginga]

Lucca rotated her wrist as Robo asked his question, and seemed to consider it. The others looked in similar condition to her and a Cure Beam would not have been a bad idea, but she worried about how Alex would react. So she looked up and shook her head, putting a finger in front of her mouth. The chances of others knowing that Robo had been about to speak were pretty slim. Even among those she'd travelled through time with, let alone the group that had never truly met Robo.

And then Ellie mentioned Magus. Lucca's eyes widened and she jerked her head towards the girl. Wait, Janus was here!? And... he was actually travelling with these people? Magus was fairly antisocial, and she couldn't see him travelling with Tara and Ellie. She might have even asked about it if Tara hadn't at that point been roughly taken off the ground. Lucca scrambled to her feet and pressed a hand against the side of her head from habit. She paused when she hit her head and jerked her gaze towards the ground. She couldn't use HypnoWave with her helmet all smashed up! Robo had taken a better reaction than before and looked ready to fight if it came to that. However, Alex let Tara go and Lucca was noticably relieved, if a little shaky on her feet.

"I've been allied with Magus before. He both respects power and tends to align himself with those he can think will help him further his goals. If I had to guess, I would say that he sees some value in travelling with these three," Lucca glanced at Tara, Ellie, and Ion with a smile to indicate she meant no insult by calling them as such, "My name is Lucca Ashtear and my friend over there is Robo. You say you fought Magus...?"

Lucca still hadn't figured out how Ellie knew her name. The only possible explanation she could come up with was that she had somehow met her in the future. No reactions towards her apparent age meant the near future. However, that did nothing for explaining Robo. Was it possible she had built Robo. Lucca hid her confusion with a further smile towards Alex. No, she had to deal with what could be quantified at the moment. If Janus, or Magus as he apparently still called himself, was here, she'd deal with that first. Maybe he had an idea what was going on, or why the Gates seemed to be drawing them all to the same era... whenever it was.

(OOC: If you want Ellie to snark, FF. Ashtear is revealed as Lucca's surname in Cross only. XD And we know how we feel about Cross as a true sequel to Trigger...)