SFU's Fan Fic Archive
The same nightmares...
Running. From what? He didn�t know, but he knew that facing it would be like taking on Hell itself.
Again.
The world around him seemed to be swallowed in immense darkness, he couldn�t see his hand if he put it in front of face. Still, though, he charged on unable to see his destination, but found it a better fate to trip or fall down a bottomless pit than to be caught by what was behind him.
"Murderer!"
"Traitor!"
The screaming voices of the invisible horde at his rear were growing louder and louder no matter how hard his tired legs pressed on. And a disturbing rumbling of the earth beneath his feet became ominously stronger as the seconds past.
"Think you can run from us forever?!" another shouted, but the young man refused to give up. So badly he wanted to escape, but running in the dark hadn�t been much help to him
Suddenly, a light from above exploded onto the scene. So bright was the instantaneous flash, he desperately covered his eyes with his right hand until they could adjust. Refocused, the "spectacled" pair spied a luminous pearl sun in the congested sky above, but his new surroundings weren�t of his expectations. The world was detailed in a sharp pallet of blacks, whites, and grays. The latter, the color of the angering sky.
"Now we see you, turncoat!" he heard another pursuer shout, "why don�t you face us?!"
Adrenaline raced throughout his entire body with the blood his heart frantically pumped. As far as his "bifocaled" eyes could see before him, nothing but grassy plains laid from his racing feet to the horizon.
No buildings.
No forests.
No lakes.
No houses.
Nowhere to hide in sight. The voices were right, he couldn�t run forever.
But he sure as hell would die trying...
The constant "tremoring" of the ground was reaching to a destructive level, turning up the sod around him. As the sun began to shift positions, orbiting around to his rear (at a abnormal speed), a tremendous shadow began to cast over him and extend for many yards ahead. It was "dome-ish" in shape and almost the size of a small mountain or a large hill, with fin-like shaped protrusions rising out of it, much like an overgrown porcupine.
�Oh my God...�, he gasped, although in thought, �it...it can�t be-� a high decibel outcry of the giant moving mass behind him cut him off, turning his blood ice-cold. The sound was horrific, incredibly loud, and devastating; as the young man covered his ears, the ground he was advancing ripped open into a chasm as wide and long as the Grand Canyon, almost forming at his feet. He skidded to a stop, the tips of his boots hung over the edge of the newly-formed cliff. Peering down the chasm, he couldn�t see an end to it�s decline, even with his glasses. Nothing but a dark void filled the depths of it. Maybe spiraling down a bottomless wasn�t quite as appealing as he thought moments ago. Either way, he was trapped and with nowhere else to run.
"Well, how the mighty have fallen..." one pursuer had made an observance as the party and tremors came to a sudden stop, "or do I speak too soon," like the others who had spoken before, he had all too well recognized their voices. But the one currently speaking held more significance than the others, at least to the fellow trapped.
"WinterSnake?" he asked, "Is that you?"
"Damn right, Ramnarine," the man answered, "think I would miss out on the execution of the bastard that betrayed us?"
"But I didn�t!!" he shouted, trying to get through to them, although refusing to face his pursuers.
"Do you expect us to believe that?!" "WinterSnake" snapped, "You won�t even face us! Look us in the eye and tell us!"
"I�I can�t."
"Why the hell not?!"
"Because!�Because you�re�you�re all dead�" the "boy" hung his head in shame and grief, "I should have died with you, but somehow I survived."
"That�s because the beast spared you! The whole time, you, �it�, and Jade were working together and against us. You set us up, Nightrunner!"
"No!"
"Yes! But your plans backfired on you didn�t they?" "WinterSnake" continued, "Instead of getting �her� back, you lost her to the void where the rest of us, the "beast", and that "witch" had been vacuumed into. You lost everything on a bet that you knew you couldn�t cash in."
"You�re lying!"
"Am I? Only you know for sure. Maybe you not only did it for �Xia�, but to get revenge at me for �Equinox�."
"What? Are you cracked, WinterSnake?!"
"
He began to turn around, wanting to see her, tears streaming from his eyes, "I tried to save...oh no..." the group of enraged phantoms he expected to find was nowhere to be seen. But there was something in there place.
Something monstrous.
Something demonic...
The very beast WinterSnake had referred to was "beak" to face with the human responsible with it�s destruction.
"Now it�s your turn to die, Nightrunner..." he heard the voice of WinterSnake, although he was nowhere to be found.
"This can�t be real!!" he shouted as the mouth of the "Beast" opened and something within it glowed with an unholy power. Before he could back away and over the cliff into the "embracing hands"/"death grip" of gravity, he was hit dead-on with a beam of white radiation swallowing his entire body. He felt his body begin to tear apart as the stream of energy fluctuated around him.
It was all over.
At least the nightmare was. An odd light faded and he found himself sitting up in bed again, in a cold sweat and breathing erratically. It took only seconds for his composure to return, slightly shaking his head as he pushed himself to the side of the bed, hoping to remove some of the sleep from his eyes and mind. With every second that passed, he became more and more aware, stepping out of bed and stretching, no more affected by the dream than by the wind blowing into the room from the open balcony doors.
There it was again. This time he had noticed the strange "illuminare" of light emanating from the balcony. Soon he realized that it wasn�t the balcony the light was coming from, but from a distance farther than anywhere around his home or the many acres it had laid upon. Yet his eyes scanned the room anyway; he felt the close presence of another, and wasn�t in the mood for an ambush.
Out of reflex, those eyes closed when the bedroom was suddenly flooded with a brilliant white light, it�s source unknown to him.
The young man opened them - he had to. Barely able to spot anything recognizable of his room around him, he stepped towards to where he thought the exit to be. His advance was cut short when he felt something; a hand gripping his shoulder.
Again, out of reflex, he was about to toss who ever it was, over his shoulder when a shadowy figure appeared before him. Because of the sea of "luminare", he couldn�t make out a face, any color, or the exact clothes the intruder wore, but from the slender yet shapely silhouette the figure had, he could definitely tell the person was female.
He was surely surprised when another identical figure appeared to the right of the original, then the gentle grip on the man�s shoulder was released as a third materialized on the first�s left.
"Greetings, Maximillian Ramnarine," he heard the center one - the "leader", in a sense - speak, or he assumed she said it. After all, he couldn�t see any of their lips moving.
"What the hell?" were the first things from his lips, "Who are you people? What are you doin� here? How the hell do you know me?"
"After all your years of existence, you�d think you might have learned some manners," another said, speaking with the same youthful voice as the first. The man�s hearing was keen enough to tell it was coming from his right; the woman on the leader�s left.
"Excuse me for not being courteous to intruders," Ramnarine remarked, "now, what do you want?"
"We wish for you to perform for us a task; a favor of sorts," the third allegedly spoke.
"You three have some audacity, don�t you?" he suppressed a sarcastic laugh, "Breaking into my house and askin� for favors. Sorry, but you won�t get a damn thing from me. Now, please leave the way you came."
"You are a rude one," remarked the second.
"Am I? When I was young, I learned that rudeness begets itself. You three crossed the borderline, not I. I don�t know how you got here, but I ask you again to remove yourselves.
"Don�t make me force you."
"Is that a threat?" the center asked, "I do believe the �young� man needs a lesson in etiquette. Don�t you sisters?"
"Indeed," the others chorused.
Despite the light, Maximillian Ramnarine�s eyes went wide as the silhouettes of the second and third women levitated into their leader. Suddenly, the sleeveless T-shirt and boxer shorts he slept in, transformed into the clothes he had fought so many battles in. The merged trio realized he donned the same uniform their "mistress" wore, only several of the colors were the inverse.
It was a two piece onyx jumpsuit with a release flap folding over the right side of the front of his tunic, running down to his waist. The decorative overlap was edged with a thin ivory rimming, which also ran across the upper front of his suit, slightly below the shoulder line, and "chevron-ing" a little before running in the same height and linear direction across his back. His dress slacks were also jet black, matching with the wet black dress boots he wore upon his lower legs and feet and the dark blue "gauntlet"/"guards" that were over his fists.
Maximillian Ramnarine happened to be a handsome young man, appearing to be in his late teens or early 20�s. He stood at 6� even and wore a pair of gold-framed glasses over his weary brown eyes, making him seem ever the more "devonaire". The dark-pigmented Nubian�s most noticeable feature, though, was his mop of thin, ebony braids, the longest almost reaching past his waist. His bodily frame was lean and muscular, yet nowhere close to the body-builder type. Due to countless years of physical training, he had put himself through the most strenuous exercises to become an expert at most of the near impossible martial-arts in existence. Whatever the women had in store for him, he was sure he could take it.
He was relieved somewhat when the bright light faded, but when it did, he realized he was no longer inside his room, but now outside his estate at the center of it�s magnificent courtyard.
He finally caught a healthy glimpse of his adversaries - or adversary. "She"/"they" were/was beautiful - in a monstrous sense. It wasn�t the moonlight that made her skin and odd shade of blue, it was "naturally" that way. He scantily clad jumpsuit was outfitted for six arms, three each on both respectful sides. Moving upward, he stared at her would-be alluring face as his two eyes locked onto her three - the extra at the lower center of her forehead, right above the bridge of her nose. Her hair long, flowing, and dark green, started in a small "Widow�s" peak atop her head. The metamorphosis of the women had barely intimidated him, but Ramnarine had been against worse.
Much worse...
"Ladies� first," he offered, almost sounding sincere but the sarcastic grin on his chocolate brown face betrayed his "authenticity" of his gesture.
"It�s you�re move, Ramnarine," the beast woman spoke, her voice nearly sounding the same if it wasn�t for the demonic tone attached to it.
"If you insist-" he leapt back two feet, balling his "gauntlet-ed" fists and bring his fists back, "Soundwave!!" he shouted, his voice echoed as he brought his fists forward, clapping them together with straight arms. Bringing them forward with lightning speed and harnessing the sound of his voice, an arc of light and "chi"-energy launched towards his opponent. But before the projectile came in contact, she disappeared, the "soundwave" colliding into the sparkling water fountain she once stood in front of.
"Damn it!" he cursed as the top of the three layer fountain shattered. Ramnarine snapped his fingers and suddenly the broken parts of the structure were surrounded in a strange blue aura. They levitated and reshaped themselves back into their whole form, returning to it�s position atop the spring.
"You are quite powerful," she spoke. This time, her voice was disembodied and omnipresent, "prepare yourself!" all of the sudden, Ramnarine heard the battle cry above him. Quickly flipping out of the way, the woman impacted with the concrete path he had once stood upon, standing upside down and gripping a long, thick "katana", which appeared to be crafted out of a diamond. The sword was halfway lodged into the ground.
"The �Rainbow�?" Max asked, recognizing the weapon. In the meanwhile, she flipped a 180-degrees and was on her feet again, pulling the sword out on her way up, "What the hell is this?!" he snapped - not only his fingers, but at her. The pavement that was damaged appeared to heal within the blue aura around it. The glow again vanished once the area was repaired, "I thought you came here to fight, not wreck the place! And that sword; you stole that from my armory, right?"
"We only wish to borrow your weapon, it will be returned once our use for it is complete," "she" explained. When she spoke this time, it sounded as if there were three people speaking in unison. Ramnarine had wondered if this was a sign that their "bond" was weakening, but he couldn�t be sure, "we admit, your mastery of time is amazing," "she" commended him again.
"Are you gonna� fight me or applaud me?" he was getting tired of the conversation - quick.
"You still haven�t learned. Well then�" and with that, she released an unnatural battle cry, charging towards him with sword in the hands of her uppermost arms. The young man only smiled as she treaded ever closer into his trap.
At two feet away, she raised the sword, about to split him in two when he began to move at light speed. Crouching low, his right fist began to pump into her firm stomach; his arm moving like greased-lightning, hitting her with ten close jabs in two seconds. All the while, his left fist covered itself in a in flaming blue chi-aura, and when the low punches stopped, he finished with a genuine "Flaming Dragon Punch"; a mystic Shotokan technique he learned centuries before in post-atomic Japan.
His "ignited" rising uppercut connected with her jaw with breakneck speed and the two took to the air. As Ramnarine continued to ascend at least 4 meters upward, the "Cyclops" flew backwards about 3, her body enflamed in a blue chi-aura almost like a second skin. As soon as her body plunged onto the rather unforgiving walkway (landing backwards), the "aura of pain" vanished. Less than five seconds, Max had returned to ground zero, and to his surprise, his opponent was rising to her feet.
�That�s impossible!� Max thought, shocked, �How could she recover so quickly?�
"You are very strong, Maximillian Ramnarine," she accredited him once more, continuing to speak in "tri-vocal" as "she" held her weapon before her again. She had never lost her grip on it once, "but this game must now come to an end."
"Whatever you say," to the left side of him, he brought his hands back; as he cupped them and spread his fingers, sparking bolts of his infamous chi-energy began to gather and bounce within the space made. Only moments passed before a sphere of the very same "energy" formed in between his hands, becoming a "fireball" as it was popularly called. The six-armed woman did not budge. He announced the attack, "Ha-Do-Ken!!" and launched the "fireball" at her.
The spiritual projectile splashed into the sword and it alone. He was stunned to witness the attack�s absorption by his pilfered blade, glowing with it�s violent power.
"Thank you," she said before she aimed a more reduced version of the attack, almost like a laser beam. It nearly hit him as he dove out of the way. Touching down on one hand, knee, and foot, he glared in the direction of his adversary. There was one problem, though�
She was no longer there.
"Wha-" as he stood, Ramnarine was hit square in the back with another beam of his own chi. He landed flat on his face, but didn�t stay there for too long. Instantly, rising on his hands and knees, he flipped forward, upright again and turning his waist and head to look behind him.
She was no longer there.
"Checkmate!!" he heard the three voices yell, and as he was whipping around, the "Cyclops" thrusted her saber into his chest, traveling straight through his heart and out his back. Without hesitation, she removed the sword and the "young man" slumped to he ground on his back.
Dead.
"Sleep well, �Nightrunner��" the beast woman said as the lethal, radiant Rainbow katana disappeared. With her many arms, she had no trouble lifting him up, blood still trailing from his fatal wound. Cradled in her arms, "she" carried him into his immense home.
"Chrono Trigger" and its Original Elements (c) 1995, 1997 Akira Toriyama/SquareSoft/Bird-Sueisha
"Chrono Trigger Omega", "Nightrunner", "Maximillian Ramnarine", Fan Fiction and its Original Elements (c) 1996, 1997 A. Maximillian Russell
"Street Fighter", "Ha-Do-Ken", "Sho-Ryu-Ken", and its Original Elements (c) 1987, 1991, 1996, 1997 Capcom Co.