Be Careful What You Wish For
Chapter 11: A New Threat
They all arrived outside of Crono's house.
"Well, you can all go now," he told them.
"What about Tiger?" asked Marle.
"Don't worry, I'll take care of her," he replied with more confidence than he felt.
"Well, okay, bye." Just then it began to rain.
"Good thing Mom's away for the weekend," he mumbled as he ducked through the rain into his house. It was pouring down hard, with thunder and lightning. He went up to his bedroom and put Tiger on the floor. He sighed.
"I guess she was right after all, it was his downfall." He looked at her sores and bruises, and winced. "Well, I don't know if they'll work, but here goes. . ." He started using his Revives, with absolutely no effect. When he was on his last three, he was beginning to despair. Finally, he used up his last one. "Oh, dear. . .well, I'll have to try Life instead." He tried his Life magic over and over again. It just had the same effect as the Revives had: nothing. Exhausted, unhappy, and drained of all magic power, Crono slumped against the wall to think. He sadly remembered what she had said to him before: "And you're always there for us." Not this time. Would nothing revive her? He thought about calling her friends to help him, but that was not possible. His phone had been crushed in a battle. "Wait a minute, there may be a spare in the basement. . ." Crono rushed into the basement and started digging around. "Found it!" he cried, triumphantly holding up the precious object. But then he realized he didn't know their phone numbers. "Dang it. . .what am I going to do now?" He went upstairs and sat down on his bed to think. There must be some way to revive her, he thought. He lay back and rested his head on the pillow, suddenly feeling very tired from the days' activities. I'll just close my eyes and rest for a minute, then I'll be able to think more clearly.
Knocking awoke Crono. Getting up to answer it, he looked out the window at the position of the sun. Goodness, I must have been asleep longer than I thought. Just then, Ness, Paula, Jeff, and Poo came in. They didn't seem to notice him, but went right over and inspected Tiger, talking amongst themselves.
"This will take no ordinary psychic power," mused Poo out loud.
"We will be able to revive her, won't we?" asked Paula anxiously.
"Of course!" replied Ness. "But Poo's right. We'll need to combine every healing skill we know of. Jeff, you'd better stay back." As Jeff stepped back, the other three put their hands on Tiger. They concentrated, and golden light started pouring out. Suddenly they stopped, and all started talking at once.
"It's not working!"
"It's just not strong enough."
"We may need someone else."
"Who else is there, though?"
"What are we going to do?"
"This will never work!"
"Calm down, you guys! Let's try again," Ness said. They tried again. The light was a bit brighter, but it still had no effect.
"Argh! This is getting us nowhere!"
"I know! It's so frustrating!"
"We truly need someone else!"
"I can't do any psychic powers, so who else is there?"
"There is no one else!"
"We just need to concentrate harder!"
"Yeah! Besides, third time's a charm!" They did it again. As it was being performed, Crono went over. They still didn't seem to see him. He looked down at Tiger, and sighed. Poor thing, he thought. There must be something I can do. . . Then it struck him: there was something he could do. Kneeling down, he put his own hands on Tiger and concentrated with the others. Suddenly, the light was much brighter, and was growing brighter every second. Soon it was so bright that he had to shut his eyes. . .
When Crono opened his eyes, the others were gone, and he noticed the rain had stopped. He was happy for a moment, thinking they had done the job. But Tiger was still lying on the floor. He sighed unhappily.
Oh, no. . .it didn't work. . . he thought. Suddenly, he heard Tiger's voice silently answering him.
Oh yes it did! She opened her eyes. Crono's sad face quickly broke into a big smile.
"My my! Someone sure needs some more training!" he said to her.
"Gee, now, where have I heard that before?"
"I don't know. Someone very close said it once."
"Oh, you're so silly!" Tiger got up onto her knees. "What happened to Kruel?" Crono grinned.
"I took care of him for you."
"Let me guess. . .did you cleave him in half with your sword?"
"I wish! He fell into the lava."
"Oh! I should have known. Served him right!" She looked out the window, and stared.
"What is it?"
"It's a rainbow! Cool! Come and see." They both looked.
"Probably to celebrate the occasion!" She gave him a look.
"Yeah, right." She punched him.
"Ow! Hey, don't start that again!"
"I just can't help myself."
"I'll help yourself, all right!" He jumped on her. She easily tossed him onto the bed.
"Still haven't lost my touch," she smirked. There was no reply. "Hey, what's the matter?" Crono tried to hide his laughter.
"Oh no, I think you've knocked me out! Better call your friends."
"Get off of there, silly!" As she tried to pull him down, he grabbed her and rolled her onto the floor. He pinned her shoulders.
"Now who's the winner?" he grinned. She growled.
"Okay, champ, get your big lug off of me!"
"All right, all right, I'll stop now." They got up and sat on the bed.
"What would I ever do without you, Crono?"
"What would I do without you? We'd both be lying on the floor with everyone mourning over us." She smiled, and they hugged each other. Just then, they heard a loud KNOCK-KNOCK-KNOCK coming from downstairs. Crono went down and opened the door. He was nearly knocked over as his six friends rushed in, all breathless.
"Whoa! What are you guys doing back here?"
"Well," started Lucca, gasping out each word, "we were heading towards the Gate, when out of nowhere the biggest Lavos spawn you've ever seen attacked! It was lengthy, the battle I mean, and we need to hide. It's tougher than any enemy we've ever encountered!"
"Sit down, calm down, it won't find us," reassured Crono.
"By the way, how's Tiger?"
"Oh, fine. She just woke up a few minutes ago." He went back upstairs. Tiger was still sitting on the bed, relaxing. There was another knock at the door downstairs. Then they heard a crash and a scream.
"What on earth is going on down there?" Tiger asked in horror. They were about to get up when the door opened and the Spawn came crashing through! It seized Crono with a net and tried to bag Tiger also, but she ripped the net apart. As she raced to catch up to it, it slammed the door shut and she crashed into it. Recovering, she opened the door and raced downstairs. Everyone was trapped in a net except for Ayla, who had ripped hers. She ripped Crono's and freed him. "Quick, we've got to free the others!" Tiger exclaimed. The nets on the girls seemed to be less tough than those on the guys. Soon all the girls were free. A net was shot in Crono's direction, but Tiger quickly leaped in front of him and tossed the net aside. The Spawn seemed to laugh. It shot a fireball at Tiger, and it collided hard with her, the force throwing her across the room. The Spawn shot three more fireballs at the other girls, sending them unconscious. It netted Crono, and grabbed up the four nets. It went out, with Tiger chasing it. She threw a number of magic attacks at it, but it didn't stop it any. It threw something at her before disappearing into a Gate.
Turning around and trying to outrun the homing object, Tiger dashed back into Crono's house, trapping herself. It collided with her and exploded. Too late she realized what it was: not a fireball, but a sleep-ball. She was usually resistant to most status attacks, but this was a different, stronger type, and she had been hit twice. Shaking her head hard to keep awake, she stumbled over to the others and tried to revive them. But it didn't work. Tiger fought off the urge to sleep as she tried again, but she just couldn't concentrate enough and keep awake at the same time. She knew she couldn't resist much longer. Sinking into a chair, utterly defeated, she murmured as she lost consciousness, "I'm sorry, Crono. . ."
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