"So, what's the plan for tomorrow?" asked Diddy.
"We don't have one yet," replied Crono.
"We need one." Crono shrugged.
"Maybe we should sleep on it."
"Are you kidding? Sleep? Ha! Who needs sleep?!" They all laughed.
"You guys, let's get serious now. Donkey, what did you notice when you saw the, um. . .the. . ."
"The castle? It had a front door, with two hallways behind it. One must lead to K. Rool's chamber, the other, we can't guess."
"Well, then, I suggest we divide up into two groups. One group takes one hallway, the other group the other one. If what you find is an enemy, fight it. If it's the missing bananas, grab them and get out." They all agreed heartily.
"Good plan."
"Hear hear!"
"Come on now, it's late. Let's get some shuteye." They all went to sleep, but Tiger remained awake, pondering what her friend on the phone had told her. In for something nasty? She shuddered at the thought. What was in store for her? She sat there for a while, feeling the cool breezes of the night blow around her. Finally, despite her worrying, she fell asleep.
The next morning was fairly clear. The sun beat down its warm rays on the sleeping girl. She woke up, and looked around. The others were still sleeping. Tiger decided to rest and wait for them to wake up.
BRRRIIIING!
"Well, you don't have to wake up the whole neighborhood," she grumbled as she answered it. "Hello?" A boy's voice replied.
"Tiger? It's me."
"Oh, hi! How have you been?"
"I'm fine, but I've been a bit worried about you."
"Oh, come on, don't worry about me."
"Just the same. . .do you think they'll be ready today?"
"Who knows. But you'll be ready, right?"
"Anytime. That is, except in the middle of the night." She chuckled.
"Of course!"
"Well, just be careful, okay?"
"Like I said, don't worry, I'll be fine. I can take care of myself." There was a pause. Then, "Okay then, bye."
"Bye." Click. Tiger decided it was time for the gang to wake up. She went over and shook Crono. "Psst! Wake up!" He didn't even stir. Shaking him harder, she said a little louder, "Hey, you! Wakey wakey!" He still didn't move. She growled and shoved him with a foot. This time he moved, but only a little bit. "Come on, lazy!" She started to punch him.
"Ouch! Hey, quit it!"
"Then get up!" She punched him even harder.
"Ow!. . .Ow! Okay, I'm awake!" He sat up and rubbed his eyes. When he saw who had punched him, he punched her back. Tiger punched him again. Soon they were punching right and left at each other. Finally, Tiger clambered up a tree.
"Okay, okay, I've had enough now," she said. She leaped out of the tree as he was about to grab her. "Ha ha! Is that the best you can do?"
"All right, I give up." He climbed down. As he neared her, he suddenly gave her a punch in the arm. She lifted him and threw him backwards over her head. He scrambled up and charged at her. Just as he leaped, she ducked and he went sailing over. He landed on Diddy, who was still asleep.
"Ahh! Hey, I'm not a Kremling, you idiot!" The yelling woke everyone else up. The two pretended they were asleep as they tried to muffle their giggles. Lucca saw them and went over.
"All right, you two. Enough playing already!" They tried to look innocent.
"Who, us? Playing?"
"Sorry, wrong number!" Lucca rolled her eyes.
"Good grief. Now I've seen everything!"
"Sorry, guys," said Crono. "Let's have some breakfast."
"And then," put in Tiger, "you should all have a warm-up."
"We already had one!. . .ouch!"
After breakfast, they all went to where Tiger was waiting for them.
"So, what's the warm-up?"
Kat, Crono said silently.
Hmm?
I don't want to fight you.
Why not?
I don't mind a few punches back and forth, but serious fighting, well, it really wouldn't feel right.
All right. You can stay out, then.
"Okay!" she said out loud. "Time for a warm-up." Four figures hidden in shadow like she was, except to Crono, suddenly appeared.
"All of you guys against us five. How about it?" They all nodded.
"And I'll stand aside and watch," grinned Crono. The figures formed a square around Tiger.
"Okay, go!" The battle began. Crono's side soon discovered that Tiger deflected every kind of magic. They also discovered, though much later, that one figure couldn't use magic. The other three with her kept on healing her whenever she needed it, so the other side decided to get rid of those first. One deflected every magic except Shadow, one every kind except Water, one every kind except Fire, and one every kind except Lightning. But the six found that out a little too late. Soon every one was down except for Lucca and Marle, and they hadn't defeated any on Tiger's side yet. Lucca accidentally did Fire against Tiger, and it was deflected. Marle had a shield on and avoided it; Lucca fell. Marle cast Life2 on Lucca. Tiger's side attacked them again and they both went down. Crono's side had lost!
"Whew! Nice fight," remarked Tiger. The four figures disappeared.
"Wow! Kat, you and your friends are strong!" exclaimed Crono. She laughed.
"We're not that strong! We just had some luck on our side." She concentrated hard on the felled group. Suddenly, she was illuminated with golden light. It poured out and shined on them. They started to groan and get up, rubbing aching limbs. Crono went over to Marle and helped her up.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
"Ouch! A warm-up, did she say? More like a torture to me! They're harder than five Spekkios!" she groaned. Diddy, Dixie, and Donkey came out.
"So, are you all ready?" asked Dixie.
"Ready as we'll ever be."
"The castle is at least a half days' walk from here, so we're bringing lunch."
"Good idea."
"Okay, everyone! When we get there, we'll have two different groups, so divide yourselves!"
"Are you coming along?" whispered Crono to Tiger.
"Why not? It'll be fun. Sure I'll come."
"All right," said Crono to the others, "my group will be taking the right passage, and Donkey's the left." They divided up. Crono got Marle, Magus, Lucca, and Dixie. The rest were with Donkey.
"Let's go!"
At noon they stopped for lunch, after battling a whole bunch of Kremlings (though not all at the same time). Crono noticed Tiger went away separately, whereupon the four figures appeared again. He could hear her murmuring to them, but he only caught, ". . .little softer, but not much, because they have more experience now, and they know your weaknesses. . ." Finally they disappeared, and Tiger came back over.
"You're going to give us another warm-up or something?" Crono asked.
"Not exactly a warm-up," she replied. "More of a work-out, to prepare for K. Rool. And plus, it's fun!" She grinned at him. He gave her a look.
"I doubt they'd want to do another one, though." She shrugged.
"Maybe, maybe not. Who knows?"
Meanwhile, the others were discussing matters too.
"I say we should challenge them again!" Lucca proposed.
"Are you nuts?!"
"We do know their weaknesses now. Besides, we have more experience from battling those Kremlings."
"It's worth a try. What do you guys think? Let's take a vote." Four out of six wanted to challenge Tiger again.
"Fine, it's settled."
"I think your friends want to challenge us again."
"Well, that's fine with me." The figures appeared again, and Tiger went to where the other group was talking.
"Okay everybody! Time for a work-out!" There were a couple of groans. "Come on, it will be the last one for a while." Marle stood up.
"We're ready!"
"All right!" The figures got in the same places they were in last time.
"Ready? Go!" Marle and Ayla started with their Cube Toss on the Water-weak person, and Robo did his Uzzi Punch on it too. Lucca fired her Wonder Shot at it, and it disappeared.
"Whoa! Hey, we got one already!"
"Don't get overconfident!" Crono noticed as they were saying this that Tiger was mumbling something to the remaining three figures. Then she and the Fire-weak one started a double technique. It did a strange kind of magic, and at the same time Tiger began to charge around with a magical burst of speed. She was charged up with the magic, and sped around among Crono's group, causing mass damage. Frog and Marle immediately did their Double Cure. Lucca did Fire against the Fire-weak foe, and Magus did his Dark Bomb on the Shadow-weak one. Marle accidentally cast Ice on Tiger. To her surprise, Tiger didn't deflect it, but took damage.
"Hey guys, I have a hunch that when we defeat one of these characters, what they were weak against will be her weakness too!"
"Whoa, with that in mind. . ." Lucca and Robo did Fire Tackle against the Fire-weak one, and it too disappeared.
"All right! We're doing good!" Magus did another Dark Bomb on the Shadow-weak one. It countered by doing a strange technique. It sent out a bunch of star-like objects that fell on everyone on Crono's side but didn't cause too much damage. Tiger followed up with turning into an elephant and trampling Magus. He went down. Robo Uzzi Punched the Lightning-weak one. It used a weird device that did Lock on Lucca. Marle revived Magus with Life2, and Frog and Ayla did Slurp-Kiss. Everyone was healed, and Lucca was immediately un-Locked. She started Napalm on both of the shadow-covered figures, and the Shadow-weak one disappeared. Tiger drained all of Ayla's Magic Points just as she was about to do her Triple Kick. She had to use a Full Ether instead. Robo did Uzzi Punch, and Magus took the risk of casting Lightning2. The Lightning-weak one disappeared, but Tiger deflected the Lightning at the same time. Magus took a lot of damage.
"All four are down! Now let's hit her with all we've got!" Marle and Ayla again did Cube Toss. Frog was reluctant to Cure2 Magus, but he did it anyway. Robo did Fire Tackle with Lucca, and Tiger countered with a savage attack. Robo went down.
"Be careful, she's countering now!" Ayla attempted another Triple Kick. Tiger countered again, then quickly healed herself. Magus swung his scythe at her, but she ducked and kicked him hard. Marle revived Robo with Life2. Ayla did her Dino Tail. Tiger leaped at her, but she dodged and Tiger crashed to the ground. She scrambled up, somewhat dazed. Robo and Marle, quickly taking advantage of this, did an Ice Tackle, and it worked effectively. Tiger fell back down onto her knees and gasped out, "You win." They gave a cheer.
"Whoo-hoo! I feel like I gained a million experience points!"
"I feel like I got one-hundred million!"
"Me too!"
"More like a billion to me!"
"A zillion!" Amid the shouts and laughter, Lucca went over to Tiger, who had revealed herself to everyone else. Crono went over too and helped her up.
"Well, looks like she finally revealed herself," Lucca murmured to Crono. "I knew it all along." He gave her a look.
"Sure you did."
"No, really!" Just then, everyone else came over.
"So, who is she?"
"We don't know her!"
"Come on, tell us!" Crono, Lucca, and Tiger explained the story.
"So, should we call you Kat now?"
"Nah, you don't need to, I prefer Tiger. Come on, it's way past noon now, let's continue to the castle."
"Yes, let's go!"