Interrupted, not once, but twice

Celes was nearing the end of her watch when she noticed an odd noise. The night had been still and quiet, but now there was an odd clicking noise. Several in fact. She peered into the darkness and saw several odd creatures, walking on all fours. They were thin and had powerful looking claws, almost scissor like in nature. One gave a shrill call and they charged her. Celes gave a cry of alarm and drew her blade. She defended against the first attack and barely managed to dodge the second, but the third monster was almost upon her. Before it could strike, a burst of fire came through the door of Eiko's house and sent the beast flying into a wall. The other girls were coming, in various stages of dress from having been sleeping.

"That was a basic fire spell," Lulu said as she panted for breath. She knew she shouldn't be so winded from just one casting. Something was wrong.

"I'll take it from here," Eiko called and began a chant. She felt her magic gather to summon Madeen, but then she couldn't finish. The draw on her power was too much, and she couldn't finish the summoning. "No way," she muttered in shock. How could she be unable to summon her most faithful friend?

"Watch out!" Lightning was suddenly between Eiko and one of the monsters, slashing through it with one try and then flipping the blade into gun mode to firing into the crowd of monsters.

"What are these things," asked Rosa as she batted one away with a chair from the house. The wooden chair broke and she looked at the fragments in her hands.

"Their called Machea," Lulu called as she worked up the power to cast Ice on one of the attacking monsters. They had killed several of them, mostly thanks to Celes and Lightning, but the monsters were still coming out of the darkness. If something didn't change, they would be overrun within minutes.

"Forward! Don't let them fall!"

The monsters screatched more figures came out of the darkness from another direction. Unlike the Machea, these were human. Most of them looked to be in their late teens, all dressed in some kind of uniform. Leading them was a figure that Celes knew well.

"General Leo? What are you doing here?"

"No time, just stand back and let the Balamb students handle this."

She started to protest that they could help, but it really didn't seem necessary. The students were equip with all manner of weaponry and were able to push the monsters back with ease. They moved in formation, as if they had trained together for years. Soon, the monsters that were still alive were fleeing from the battle, leaving the girls and about fifteen students and General Leo standing in the carnage. Rosa and Eiko helped heal the wounded, but the students had done well enough that there was little more than scrapes and bruises. Lulu, Lightning, and Celes met with Leo to discuss where they had come from.

"The building you saw in the distance is called Balamb Garden. Its's where I met up with these kids. Their base was supposed to be able to move, but it was damaged when chaos sent us here. We saw what we thought was a comet crashing in this area and came to investigate."

"That was us," Celes said sheepishly. Leo nodded and asked how they arrived like that, and Lulu told him about their mission and Cosmos.

"Fighting Chaos and restoring the worlds... You'll need help. How about you come back to Balamb with us and we'll come up with a battle plan."