The FF7 Experience: (Chapter 6: Whacky Pillar Hijinx)
Author stuff: Thank Frankto for working on this chapter. By the way, I should point out that if hadn’t been working on these, I would have missed a number of contradictions which in the end, would have caused the fic to implode. So be damn greatful he helps!
We had just reached the train station in the sector 7 slums. I have to say, I’m glad. The train ride was annoyingly silent. I guess that sounds mean of me? But then, I know Cloud is fine, so I can not worry.
Speaking of which, I think my not worrying may be upsetting Tifa. She knows Barret is only pretending to be not worried. But she also knows that I am seriously not too concerned. She gives me this look every now and then. Like “how can you be so calm” kind of thing.
As we start walking back to the bar, I feel I should initiate some conversation. Maybe explain to Tifa that I’m positive Cloud is fine. However, just as I go to say something, Barret lifts his hand in a gesture that says “shut up for a second”.
Tifa and I follow Barret’s line of site and see him eyeing a rather suspicious looking man. He’s dressed in a dull grey trench coat and he keeps looking around like he knows he’s being watched. He has a hat and shades too.
After another few seconds of just staring, Barret starts to move. He walks slow and casual at first but it doesn’t take long until he’s speed walking. The other guy starts moving deeper into the sector seven slums and Barret in turn, picks up his pace. Finally, he just starts running until he grabs the man by the neck and throws him up against a wall.
“Thas a shiny watch you got there. You’re pretty well dressed for someone livin in da slums, aren’t ya?” Barret states, accusation clear in his voice.
Tifa and I catch up top Barret and just stand back as he continues his interrogation.
“Who the hell are you?” trench coat says in outrage.
“Who the hell are YOU?” Barret replies, “you with da Shinra?”
The man tries to break free from Barret’s grip but quickly realizes that he is completely overpowered.
“I’m a friend of the Don’s.” he answers. His tone seems to hold a certain confidence to it. My guess is he thinks the mere mention of this name and he’s ‘safe’.
“Don? As in Don Cornero?” Tifa asks curiously.
“Yeah, that’s right! So you’d better let me go!” the man shouts.
We seem to be attracting quite a bit of attention now. But most, if not all of this sector, are friendly to AVALANCHE, so it really doesn’t matter. As I look around, I can already see people going about their business or pretending they can’t see or hear anything.
Barret hesitates for a moment before throwing the man to the side. He hits the ground and lets out a grunt before scrambling back to his feet and taking off towards the sectors exit.
Barret sighs and turns to face us.
“Just a nobody.” He says, almost as though he were disappointed.
Tifa places her hand to her chin and ‘hmms’. “But Don Cornero…why would he have someone in our sector?”
Barret waves the question off dismissively and begins walking towards the 7th heaven. “What’s it matter. Just leave the lech alone.”
“Hey.” I cut in. “That guy might not work for Shinra, but is it possible that Cornero does?”
Tifa smiles slightly, seemingly pleased that someone agrees with her on Cornero. She ran up in front of Barret, making him stop.
“He’s right. We should do something about this.”
“Like what? We have another operation comin’ up.”
“Barret, please.” Tifa urges. “Something feels very wrong here.”
The large black man stares at her pleading eyes, feeling himself give way. With a sigh of defeat, he nods. “Awright. Go do what you gotta do.”
I choose now to raise my hand. “Hey.” I say. Everyone looks at me. “While Tifa is doing that, I’d like to look for Cloud. I’m sure he’s alive. I’ll check around the sector 5 slums. That okay?”
Tifa seems to brighten up. This is good. Now she won’t think I’m a cold ass for not being worried. To be truthful, I’m not actually going to try and find Cloud. I’m going to train and fight monsters. Also, I want to check out the sector 4 slums. What’s that? You’ve never seen them in the game? Neither have I, which is exactly why I’m going there.
“Alright you guys, I’m going to try and get more information on Don Cornero. I’ll see you later.” She bows. “And Grant, good luck with finding Cloud.” She smiles. Now I feel like even more of an ass.
“S-sure.” I stutter.
Barret heads towards the 7th heaven and Tifa is about to leave too when I realize something very important.
“Wait!” I exclaim, grabbing her wrist.
“Hm? What is it, Grant?”
“If you do meet Don Cornero, I should tell you something. I heard that in his room, he has some kind of trap that sends people into the sewers. He may have a monster as a pet too.” I explain.
You see, I don’t want the slums of sector 7 to be destroyed. I like these people. I actually feel the need to protect them. If they die, it won’t just be “Oh well”, I’ll actually feel bad. If Tifa and the others don’t have to go through the sewers, it’ll save them a hell of a lot of time getting here. Also, since I killed Aps, it’s possible he has a new and stronger monster. He might even have Raps (a monster that comes around later in the game) already.
Tifa nods. “I’ll keep that in mind. Thank you.”
As we go our separate ways, I reach the park before the gate before the broken up construction site that connects sector seven, six, and five. Lo and behold, I see a familiar face. Walter is swinging himself back and forth on the swing set.
I shake my head and approach him. He turns his head to me and smiles, then leaps off the swing, landing a fair distance away. After straightening himself up, he gives me the thumbs up. He seems proud of how far away he landed.
“Walter?” I say, because of a lack of anything else entering my mind.
“Hey. How do you like your experience so far?” he asks, sliding his hands into his pockets.
The question brings up so many different thoughts and memories. Some good, others terrible. No one answer comes to my mind. I’m still up in the air on this one, I think. While I do like the experience, being able to change things, and knowing the FF7 characters, I dislike getting my ass handed to me all the time. There’s also a lot of pressure. The kind that generally comes from knowing you could die. I’ve often wondered, “If I die here, how will I die?”. Some scenarios included being stepped on by a dragon, being kicked like a mile away by a giant, or being nuked by a giant mecha.
“It’s something.” I said. A good neutral response.
“Heh. Figured you’d say that. A good neutral response.”
“Are you reading my mind or something?” because really, what are the chances that he would say exactly what I thought.
“No. You’re just really transparent. That’s all.” He answers.
“Oh, that’s all it is. I feel better now.” I say, shaking my head.
I sit down on the park bench and lean back, taking a minute to relax.
“This has been hard on you, hasn’t it? You’ve been working very hard.” Walter says as he sits down next to me.
I snicker. “Yep. This reminds me, I’ve noticed that I level up A LOT faster now.”
He nods. “Yeah. You probably didn’t know this, but the monsters you fought outside of Kalm were a bit weaker then normal Kalm fangs. As you got better, I made them more difficult until they were eventually the same as normal fangs. But I made the level ups slower for you during the year so you wouldn’t be like level 20 by the time you came to Midgar. The point of the year was to give you experience, both in combat and in the ways of this world.”
The explanation satisfies me. I thought there was something off there with my level up speed during the year.
“I’m on my way to sector 4. You wanna come?” I ask. I figured I’d try. I get up from the bench and stretch.
“Nah. I’m the PS2. I could kill anything here.” He answers. “So, you’re going to try and save this sector, right?”
I nod. “Yeah. That’s the plan.”
“Then all you have to do is stop Reno from placing the bomb.”
“Yeah, that’s what I figured. I’ve planned for this already.”
“Good stuff. Well, I’ll be off now. I’ll pop by some other time.” Walter says, waving.
A second later, his form becomes more and more transparent until he’s just not there.
I resume walking and pull out my scythe, expecting a monster to pop up any minute now. I was right too. Nothing to heavy, just a few little worms. It takes a whole of 2 minutes to kill them and I’m on my way again.
As I enter sector 5 slums, I spot a certain pair right away. A man with spiky blond hair and a woman in a pink dress. Their pretty far away and haven’t spotted me yet, so I quickly dive into a pile of trash and remain hidden. It was a terrible idea, I know. But in my defense, it seemed like a good idea at the time.
I watch them walk, rather quickly if I might add, until they pass by. Once their gone, I spring out of the trash and nearly puke my guts out. I clean myself as best I can and go on my way. Sadly, there was another thing I didn’t take into account.
I turn and glance down the same path Cloud and Aeris came fro and fine Reno walking with a group of Shinra soldiers by his side. They stop right near me, though they don’t pay me any notice, and glance between the two potential paths.
“Where do you think they went?” one soldier asked.
Reno shrugged non caringly. “It’s pointless to follow. They’re probably long gone, and we have no way of knowing where they went or even if they came this way.”
“Do you think they went to sector 4!” another soldier asks.
Reno glares. “Did I not just say it was pointless to follow?”
The soldier gulps and waves his hands apologetically. “Sorry!”
Now, the Turk seems to notice my presence. He eyes me from head to toe, clearly noting my now ratty appearance.
“You look like crap.” He says bluntly. I think he remembers me.
Trying to remain level headed, I answer. “I fell into some garbage.” I’m sure I sound quite lame.
He laughs and shakes his head. Feeling rather embarrassed, I opt for a change of subject.
“One thing before I get going…uh…can you tell me how to get to the sector 4 slums?” I say uncertainly. I’m hoping Reno was in a ‘helpful’ kind of mood.
He smirks and emits a small chuckle. “You’re goin the wrong way for that, kid.”
I tilt my head in confusion. That made like no sense what so ever. If I started in the sector 7 slums and worked my way to number 5, then logically, if I kept moving in the same general direction, 4 would come next? Right..? Right!
“Wha?” I say dumbly.
“Just as I said: You’re goin’ the wrong way. The gateway to the sector 4 slums is blocked off. A bunch of rubble and shit is in the way. So if you want to get to the sector 4 slums, you either have to catch a train or go all the way around Midgar and enter from the sector 3 slums.” He explains.
That, in my opinion, was a load of horse shit. Here I was looking forward to a new area never before seen in the game, and Walter makes a convenient plot device to prevent me from getting there. I have to wonder why he didn’t mention this to me earlier. I don’t have anywhere near enough time to go around and to catch the train, I’d need my ID which I left back at Tifa’s bar. If I go back there and ask for my ID, Barret is going to wonder just what in the hell I’m thinking.
I sigh. “Well, this was a wasted trip. Thanks anyways, for the help.”
He grunts in response and turns to leave, signaling for the others to follow. Where he is going exactly is beyond me. Given his direction, he’s either leaving Midgar or going back to the church. I really don’t care.
I glance around for a suitable place to sit and spot some hunks of metal that could resemble a bench if looked at from the right angle, so I decide that is a fine place. As I sit on the rusted metal, I begin racking my brain, trying to find out just why I am here. Either Walter is an ass and thought it would be funny for me to waste time like this or there is something for me to do. So, it’s probably best to go over what is in the area.
The church has flowers. That’s really the only thing I can think of. There are the sector 5 slums and Aeris’s house. If I went there, I’d end up meeting Cloud and Aeris. This is what I want to avoid. Other then preventing the sector 7 slums from being crushed, I don’t want to change anything else before the Shinra building. If Aeris isn’t kidnapped, we don’t go after her. If we don’t go after her, we don’t meet Red or meet Rufus or learn about Sephiroth, etc. So, that’s out. Wall Market? Maybe.
I sighed and stood up, brushing rusty metal dust stuff off of my ass. I might as well check.
As I walked by the intersection and prepare to go back into the monster infested construction area that leads to Sector 7 and the Wall Market, there is an obscenely loud moan. I tilt my head towards the Sector 5 slums and shrug to myself, deciding to check it out.
One particularly large pipe sticks out in my mind. It sticks out of the wall near the entrance a bit. From what I remember, a sick dude lived inside. And what do you know, I hear another moan. It sounds like he’s in a lot of pain.
I had to hesitate for a moment. Did I want to go in and say ‘Hi’ or something? Maybe I should just leave him be? These two separate lines of thought fought against one another for a good minute before I decided to just go in, just for a little.
I peer into the pipe and spot a sick looking middle aged man lying on a bed. He’s wearing a blue bandana and his hair is dark. His shirt is torn and white with a raggedy pair of jeans. I watch as he rolls around on his bed, moaning over and over.
I slowly step in and offer a greeting. “Uh…hey man? You…okay?”
He still shakes slightly, but his eyes trace over to my position and open just a little wider. Then he moans again. Is he capable of speech?
I step in further until I’m standing next to his bed and look down at him.
“Is their anything that you want? Medicine or maybe some food or drink? I can try and get it for you…since I’m around this area and all.” I offer.
He says nothing, but his head moves to the left a bit. I follow his line of sight and spot a little mini fridge, like the one you’d find in a hotel. I look back at him and nod. When I opened the little fridge, there was a can of beer, a can of soda, a bottle of water, and a bag of milk. Yes, a bag of milk. I’ve always heard there was such a thing but had never seen it before.
“Which one?” I say to him uncertainly.
When he gives no response, I emit a small sigh and decide on the water. I close the fridge and notice a conveniently placed package of colored straws. I pick a pink one just because I’m an ass and small things amuse me, and put the straw in the drink for him. I hold it out for him to grab, although I have a feeling he isn’t going to sit up and take it.
What do you know, I was right. So, being the helpful guy I am, I hold the drink right by him and slide the straw into his mouth. To my mild surprise, the guy actually started drinking from it. He drank quickly, nearly consuming the entire 1 L bottle. He must have been thirsty. If he’s always like this, he probably can’t get his own water. But does that mean he has someone else to take care of him?
My new suspicion was confirmed when I turned around towards the door and found a man standing there with his arms crossed, a pleased smile present on his face. He wore a brown sleeveless vest and had a green body suit on. Unusual attire, in my opinion, but I won’t judge. He also has short black hair and a little goatee.
“Uh, hey.” I stutter awkwardly. “My name is Grant. I just heard him moaning and thought he could use some help.”
“You don’t need to explain yourself. That’s nice, what you’re doin’ for him, kid.” The man replies.
I turn back towards the man on the bed. He stopped drinking, so I placed the bottle on a small little stand next to his table.
I stand up and turn to the man at the doorway now. “You take care of him, right?”
He nods. “This man here is my best friend.” He looked downward as he continued. “Went away one summer. Came back, and he was like this. I called a doctor, and he had no idea what the problem was.”
I know what the problem is, on account of my knowledge of the game and all. He was an experiment. The tattoo on his arm was an indication. He would probably continue to thrash about like this until he either dies or becomes one of those men in black.
“That’s sad. I’m sorry to hear that.” I say to him. I feel guilty knowing what the man will be facing in the future.
“I remain hopeful that there is a cure out there somewhere. But if things get worse, I don’t know how much longer my friend will hold out…” the man sighed. He looked back up at me and put a fake smile up for show. “Sorry, didn’t mean to bother you with my problems. At any rate, thank you again.” He stuck his hand out, intending for me to shake it. I smile and take it. “People round here just call me “The General”.”
The General. I’ve heard that somewhere before. I mean, something like “The General” you could hear a lot of places. But I swear, it had some relevance to this game or something.
“The General?” I say in a confused tone. I’m hoping he’ll elaborate or provide some sort of clue.
He chuckles faintly. “Yeah. U used to be a general back when Midgar had a real army. Of course, now we just rely on the Shinra for that kind of thing.” He said.
While I had more information, I still wasn’t getting anything. Oh well, I’ll probably remember sooner or later.
“Well, I should be going now.” I said to him as politely, “It was nice meeting you.”
“You too. If you ever need something, come and see me. I have connections.”
“Thanks.”
As I leave the pipe house, I’ve come to the conclusion that this was probably what I was supposed to do. I may as well spend the rest of the day training before turning in at Tifa’s bar for the night. The attack on the pillar wouldn’t be until sometime tomorrow during the day anyways.
As I traveled back to the sector 7 slums, dispatching common monsters as they came, the name ‘General’ kept bothering me. I honestly can’t remember ever having seen it in this game before, but I know it has some importance. Of course, when I reached level 9, I quickly became distracted.
I’d like it if I could make 10 before the pillar is attacked, but it’s a matter of time. I’m not entirely sure I’m strong enough to fight long enough to get that kind of experience. Although, if I fought until I couldn’t anymore, then tomorrow when we’re attacked, I might reach level 10 and acquire a new technique during the attack itself. The idea would be to have it before Reno shows up. What technique would I want though? After screwing up with ‘Shadow Imitation’, a technique that is only useful in a small small number of situations, I knew I’d need to think carefully about this.
There is one thing that I have decided. When I came here, I remember that Walter said I could train power, magic, speed, or a combination of them. I’ve realized that my physical combat abilities, while good for my age, can never match up to Tifa and Cloud. I’m faster then Barret, that’s true, but that’s because he’s a giant. When I came to this conclusion at first, I thought that perhaps I should focus on magic instead. But, I’ve also realized that it is this physical weakness that keeps forcing people to save my ass. I’m either not strong enough or fast enough and get put in danger as a result. My techniques are what have been keeping me alive. That and the fact that I poison enemies like mad. Based on all this, I’ve decided to train my weakness. I want my techniques to be able to cover for magic, so I won’t have magic materia weakening my physical abilities further. So, I’d need a technique that can heal, a technique that can poison, and an elemental technique in the future. Then, I’d be able to remove those three pieces of materia and use their slots for something else. In fact, I wouldn’t need any slots for magic materia, really. Summons, when the time came, weaken like mad. So I’m still up in the air about weather or not I’d use those. If I did, it would only be one. I would devote my open slots to enhancing my physical abilities with support and command type materia. I wouldn’t need to work on improving magic, either. I could just train my power and speed and ignore magic altogether. I’d have techniques! Screw magic!
And so, with this in mind, I went on fighting monsters. The train graveyard worked best, having the strongest monsters I could get to at this point. The ghosts were a pain in the ass. Every time I’d hit them, they’d go invisible. It was different from the game, too. In the game, you could select ‘magic’ and the little pointer finger would tell you where they were. Here, they are completely invisible and I have to find the little asses. I can either watch the fireballs being shot at me from out of no where and try to judge their position from that, or I can wait a few minutes until their form becomes visible again.
After clearing the last ghost out, I turn with my scythe and swing it at the sudden noise form behind. I notice it’s Walter before long. He caught my scythe with an open hand lazily and waved with his other hand.
“Walter, what the fuck man!” I cursed at him. “I could have killed you.”
He shook his head and slowly lowered his hand, bringing my weapon down with it. “No, you couldn’t have.”
I sigh in annoyance and cross my arms, looking at him pointedly. “And why are you here? And who is ‘The General’? I know I’ve heard that somewhere.”
“You have.” He nods. “Don’t worry about that now. We have something important to talk about.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah. In the game, what level were you with Cloud when you got to the pillar?” he asks.
“I dunno. Maybe 14 or 15?” I estimate.
He smiles with this smug look on his face. “Yep. And you’re what? Level 9?”
“Shut up.” I say tiredly.
“Listen. When you travel alone, you’d think that you’d grow faster, right? But it’s a bit different. When you’re alone, battles take longer and drain you more, even if the experience goes to you alone. Because of this, you can’t clear monsters as quickly and take on as many.”
“And?” I snap. I’m just in a lousy mood. Sorry.
“And you need a fast level boost now, or you’ll be way behind when tomorrow comes. I have something in mind for that…if you’re interested.” He adds.
“You know I am.” I answer quickly.
He nods with a grin. “Good to hear. As you know, Shinra is responsible for protecting Midgar. So if it were ever attacked, they’d send soldiers to defend it.”
“Right.”
“And it just so happens a bunch of Kalm Fangs are trying to enter Midgar.”
I raise an eye brow. “Why?”
“Hey, that doesn’t matter! They just are!” he replies, waving his hands dismissively. In other words, Walter is making them try to enter for no real reason just so I can go over there and kick some ass.
“Any how, some soldiers are already there, but it’s only a small group. The Kalm Fangs are stronger and give out more experience now then when you were fighting them back then. So, if you go over there and back up the few remaining Shinra soldiers, you’d get a lot of experience.” He finishes explaining.
I look down at my body. I have a few cuts that I haven’t healed yet and am pretty damn tired. Would I even be able to do this? I could use potions and such to fix the wounds up…
“Hey.” Walter said, breaking my thoughts. “In RPG’s, you often meet a character that can somehow heal the party’s status, life, and all that jazz. Just ask, and I’ll do the same. Normally, I wouldn’t. But if you can’t do this, you’ll become a burden to the group.”
Yeah, no pressure or anything.
“Alright.” I submitted. “Go for it. Heal me up.”
He lifted his hand up slowly to my head and I closed me eyes, expecting some kind of fancy light flash to heal me. A second later, I feel a hard flick to my head. My eyes open and I put my hand on my head.
“Ow.”
“You’re healed.” He says. “Go to the entrance to Midgar when you’re ready. And watch out. Those fangs appear to be organized.” He says before waving to me and fading away.
I looked down at my body and sure enough, I was healed. I didn’t even feel tired anymore. He did it in an annoying way, that’s true, but I really owe Walter.
From here, I book it back to the park and through the construction area. I’m not stopped by a single monster, probably because of Walter. When I make it close to the front gate, I spot the battle taking place. There are only a few soldiers left firing at the incoming fangs. On the ground are a bunch of dead guys, all torn and bloody. I think I was starting to lose my nerve. I’m used to fighting fangs, but they’re stronger now.
I release a deep breath and slowly reach for my weapon. I’m purposely taking a long time, trying to work myself up for this. Now, with my weapon out and everything ready, I’ve run out of excuses to just stand there.
Another soldier just got mowed down. There are 4 left and about 2 dozen fangs. I edge my way closer to the fray and take partial shelter behind a broken up car near the entrance. I place my hands together and chant quietly.
“Quake…!”
The ground beneath a group of 5 fangs prepares to explode. 2 of the fangs instinctively move away but the others were too slow and were soon torn to shreds. I had been hoping to remain hidden for a while longer and slowly pick the little bastards off but with their enhanced sense of smell, it doesn’t take long before a group is barreling towards my position.
The remaining soldiers continue firing as they scream into their radios for back up.
“Bio!” I shout at the incoming group of 3.
The green orbs of poison explode within close proximity, but the attack merely slows them. Before they can fully recover, I sprint forward and perform a large horizontal slash with my scythe, cutting deeply into one of their faces. The other two backed out of the way and sprung forward to bite me. I quickly crouched down and brought my knee up, hitting one in the jaw, then bring my scythe down and burying it into the back of the third fang.
Before I can turn to gauge how many remain, one tackles me down to the ground and tries to eat my face. I hold the shaft of my scythe up to try and push it back, but it’s too vicious and strong.
A sudden hail of gunfire makes the creature jerk violently before limply falling on me. I heft the thing off and see one of the soldiers running my way. A Shinra soldier, someone that works for the enemy, just potentially saved my life.
“Kid, what are you doing here!” he shouts in outrage.
“I can help!” I shout back.
He quickly turns and opens fire on another two fangs, killing them quickly. From the corner of my eyes I not another soldier has dropped. So far, it’s 3 soldiers and I against a dozen fangs that remained.
These things really are good experience. I’m close to level 10.
“Do you have materia slots?” I asked the soldier.
“Yeah.”
“Here.” I say, tossing him my Lightning. E catches it uncertainly but places it in his armlet none the less and charges forward, bringing down a fury of lightning bolts upon a grouping of fangs.
I run forward then abruptly stop and slam my weapon into the ground to do a hand seal.
“Shadow Replication!” I shout, making 2 clones form at my side.
I pick up my weapon from the earth and the three of us wait for the fangs to get closer. When they jump, we scatter in different directions and target them one at a time. With three heavy swings at the one on the far left, it dies rather quickly. The right fang lunges at a replication and slashes at it with it’s claws. It pops out of existence and my remaining clone swings at the beasts neck, removing it’s head rather cleanly. I ignore the blood that spatters on my face and focus on the remaining fang. It jumps up at me and I move to the side and swing, but it recovers quicker then the others and had already made another jump at me. I throw it off before I fall to the ground, but by that time, it had already bitten me.
I gape at the open wound on my side. My clone moves t keep the fang busy while I cast cure on myself to heal the wound.
I hear a pop and note that my clone had died. It fatally injured the fang, so a single swing was all it took to finish it off. I turn and look across the area to see how we’re doing. Another solider had died. The guy with my lightning materia was still up and about, though it looks as though he ran out of magic power and is resorting to his gun once again.
4 fangs remain and I just felt myself reach level 10, meaning a new technique was in order.
I’d thought of a number of possibilities for this. It was a difficult choice, and I almost went with the Chakra Scalpel, but I decided to save that for another time. I made my choice, and would soon regret it. Not because the technique was useless, of course. I’ll explain later.
I placed my scythe back on my back and brought my arms out to try my new technique. The knowledge of it’s uses and how it worked began writing itself into my memories. My arms felt strangely hot and then there was movement inside of them.
“Shadow Snake Hands!” I shouted at two fangs while the remaining soldier dealt with the other two.
Then, I felt intense pain in my arms as snaked tore through the skin and shot out from my sleeves. 3 snakes came from each arm and extended until they wrapped around the fangs and began biting them with their fangs, injecting poison into their bodies. The technique was intended to cover for Bio so I wouldn’t need it any longer and could give it to another party member. But as the knowledge finished writing itself into my brain, I was stating to have regrets.
It’s like this: In the Naruto anime, I watched a girl use this technique. It didn’t look like it hurt her at all and it looked pretty damn cool. I’m not entirely sure if they actually had poison or not, but regardless, Walter allowed the poison. Now, here is the problem. The snakes are now sealed inside my arms. They now live there, though not in the same form as they are in now…but…still there. I use magic power to change their forms into what they are now and they shoot out of my arms. Depending on how much magic power I use in this technique, more snakes can come out, for a maximum of 4 from each arm. More magic power will let them extend further and use more poison. It’s useful and would catch many by surprise, but depending on how I use it, it takes a lot of magic power. And worse, it hurts quite badly when they come out.
With the two fangs dead, the snakes retracted back into my sleeves and settled back in my arms, where the burning pain I had experience lingered for a little while longer. I’ll have to decide later if I made a mistake or not.
The two remaining soldiers took their places next to me and pointed their weapons at the new threat. I almost didn’t believe it. It was a GF from the game Final Fantasy VIII, Cerebus. Just why exactly a 3 headed dog from hell was leading a group of common monsters into Midgar was beyond me. Walter probably didn’t give it much thought either in terms of plot of just the absurdity of it. More importantly, how do we go about beating it? I’m sure he’s weakened it as he did with the Chocobo Eater, but still. It wasn’t a nice site.
The dead grey beast snarled with all 3 of it’s heads, drooling and baring it’s teeth as it wagged it’s tail about violently.
“Sweet Jesus…” one of the soldiers murmured.
“Back up is on the way. We just need to keep it out of Midgar until then.” The more calm soldier stated. He then turned to me. “Kid, you shouldn’t be here. Get going.”
I wasn’t sure what to make of this. I was mostly expecting Shinra soldiers to all be assholes, but these people had saved my life and were now trying to protect me. They were…human?
I rubbed my arms, still feeling them throb. “It’s fine.” I said, though shakily. I won’t lie, I was afraid. “We just need to hold it off, right?” but these people had saved my ass, so I wouldn’t run away. I’d lose some serious sleep if I did that.
The Cerebus lowered itself, getting ready to attack any second. I pulled the poison material from it’s slot and gave it to the materia-less soldier on my left, then handed an Ether from my pouch to the one on the right.
The Cerebus charged forward now, each head growling in a low and piercing way that made my insides turn. I readied my scythe and backed up.
“Quake!” I shouted.
The dog moved so quickly that he was way past the earth by the time the ground blasted to pieces.
“Bolt!” a soldier shouted.
Cerebus just moved to the side and avoided the bolt of lightning. He was close now. He spun on his legs and swung his tail. We all ducked and tried to make some distance. The soldiers all fired with their guns while I went for another quake.
Few bullets had managed to hit as the beast was alarmingly fast. It moved as the ground came up from underneath it. One of it’s hind legs were cut, but nothing more. The beast growled once more and I noted the colored wisps of air surrounding it, much like when a monster cast a spell in FF8.
“Shit, run! It’s casting!” I shouted at everyone.
Not one but three separate bolts came down from above. The soldier carrying my bio was struck and fell to the ground instantly.
“I’ll cover you! Use this on him!” the remaining soldier said as he threw a Phoenix down towards me. It was a small glass bottle with some liquid and a single feather inside.
As the soldier reloaded his gun and opened fire on the monster, I ran towards the fallen soldier and poured the liquid on his body and injured. It entered into his body and began reverting some of the damage before it jolted his brain and heart and he woke up, breathing heavily.
“Wha-“
“You died. Come on, we’re still fighting.” I interrupted him.
The soldier blinked a few times, but once he comprehended, he immediately sprung up, ignoring the intense pain he was likely feeling. He raised his gun at the Cerebus and began firing. When his clip ran out, he sent a Bio spell its way.
While this was going on, I ran in with my scythe. I swung at the center head, using the logic that centerreally important head. The creature backed up, making my scythe hit air, then tackled me heard. I fell back and rolled around on the ground a bit. When I opened my eyes, I saw it coming down from above in spite of the bullets piercing it’s skin. It was trying to crush me.
I rolled off to the side quickly, but my scythe was now underneath the monster and I had no weapon. I’d still be able to use the materia in the weapon since magic can be extracted from it up to a certain range, but using an earth spell right now would damage my weapon.
Cerebus swung it’s forepaw at me, so I quickly dived out of the way. Then, the wisps came again. Where the hell was that backup?
The bolt of lightning hit my body, and I felt my body shaking violently as the electricity coursed through. I felt glass shatter on my body a second later. One of the soldiers whipped a Hi-Potion at me. The shattering wasn’t too bad, and it’s healing properties are probably the only thing that stopped me from dying.
The monster seemed to be on a magic frenzy now, not moving from it’s spot above my weapon. Left and right, the heads were throwing lightning down at all of us, as we kept moving and dodging frantically, unable to open up any kind of offense of our own.
After the last bolt, there was a slight break in the spells, so I ran forward and held out my arms. I really didn’t want to, but without my weapon or anything else useful, it was my only option. Wonder what these dudes would think when they actually saw this?
“Shadow Snake Hands!”
As I summoned up the snakes again, my arms felt positively wretched. It seems that using this technique in close succession is also a bad idea.
I funneled all remaining MP into this technique, and shot 3 snakes from each arm. I guided the snakes, having one go around the neck of each head, one wrap around it’s body, and the remaining two around it’s front paws. When I did this, I had mentally pictures this restraining the beast, but soon found my logic was flawed. With strength far greater then my own I was swung around and in the air as it fought. The snakes were still wrapped around tightly, but I was being thrown all over the placed, hitting the ground again and again and slowly losing my control of the snakes. But as this was happening, they unleashed gobs of poison into each of the captured areas. As I lost my grip, I hit the ground hard.
The two soldiers stared with clear surprise at the technique, but returned their attention to where it was needed. The poison was flowing through the monsters body and it had slowed down, but it was still able to stand. They began unleashing wave after wave of spell until their magic power was drained. The added poison from Bio finally made the creature drop to the ground.
And, what do you know, just as it died, another squad of soldiers showed up. I had kind of been expecting that somewhere, I think. It’s cliché and the timing way to convenient, but whatever. The monsters were dead.
The experience that thing gave off when it croaked was unbelievable. I went strait from level 10 to 12. I was also close to another level up, but in my state, fighting more for the day would be a bad idea.
As the soldiers rushed in and surveyed the area, the two that fought with me approached me and knelt down next to me.
“You alright, buddy?” one of them said to me, actually concerned.
“Ugh.” I replied.
The commander of the second squad stepped forward.
“What happened here?”
One of the two soldiers removed the poison materia from his armlet ad placed it down on the grass next to me before walking towards the new group of Shinra troops.
“I’ll explain. Jeff, you wanna help the kid out?” the soldier said, referring to the soldier that held my lightning materia.
“No problem.” Jeff replied.
He examined me from head to toe then shrugged. “You’ll be okay. Nothing some potions and rest can’t take care of. I’m out though. Do you have any?”
I nodded slowly and he reached into my pouch, pulling a few of the green bottles out. After he applied them, he helped me to my feet and walked me over to the other soldiers in blue.
“That was some crazy shit you pulled with those snakes.” Jeff commented light heartedly.
“Heh…thanks.” I say back.
“Alright.” The leader of the second group said, “Looks like everything is okay here.”
“We’ll submit a report by tomorrow morning.” Jeff stated.
“Right.” The soldier nodded. “Why don’t you two take the kid home?”
“Sir!” the two complied.
The soldiers all broke off and Jeff continued to help me walk, moving me into the Midgar slums. The other soldier, whose name I never caught, followed along beside us.
“Oh yeah, I still got your materia, don’t I?” Jeff says. With his spare arm, he pulls it from his armlet and slides it into my item pouch. “So where abouts do you live, kid?”
I thought about lying. If I said sector 7 slums, he might suspect I’m from AVALANCHE or something. Or does he know where our base is? I’m not really sure how much or how little this guy knows. Of course, I’m not in any condition to go there on my own and I could always just say I’m a civilian or something.
“Sector 7 slums.” I reply.
I feel his body tense and notice both soldiers wince slightly.
“Sector 7 slums? That’s a dangerous area.” Not really. No more then any other, anyways. “Maybe…you should move to somewhere else? Like…Sector 5?” the power of suggestion was strong in Jeff’s voice.
I knew why he was doing this. Both soldiers were aware of what was to happen in the sector 7 slums. How did they feel about that? Why were they going through with it? Normally, my first response would have been to hate them for that. But I saw their human side not long ago, and can’t pretend to know what their thinking. Suddenly, it doesn’t feel like a black and white kind of thing anymore.
“I don’t think I’ll be living in sector 7 much longer.” I say. It was truthful since after tomorrow, we’d all be out and about and such. “After tomorrow, I probably won’t go back there for a long time.”
I said this hoping to ease their minds a bit. It seemed to work just a little.
“You should do that as soon as possible.” The nameless soldier remarks.
I nod but say nothing. We move through the area until we’re at the park near Sector 7 and the Wall Market. I remove myself from Jeff’s hold and manage to stay on my feet.
“Thanks for everything. I’ll be okay from here.” I say to them.
If Barret saw them carrying me, he’d likely shit a brick. And we couldn’t have that, now could we?
“You sure?” Jeff asks.
“Yeah, ‘m fine.” I say like it were nothing.
The two exchange looks before finally agreeing.
“Alright. Thanks for your help today kid. We could have been killed if you didn’t help.” Jeff says thankfully.
“We saved each other out there, so we’re square.” I respond.
“Heh.”
With that, the two turn and head back the way they came. Once their gone, I plop down on the park bench to rest for a little bit. My arms still hurt…they hurt bad. I bring them up and slide the sleeves down to get a better look at them. The spots the snakes came through are all red. The skin seems to close itself back up when they retract, but it leaves these marks that sting when I do it. There’s also some dry blood near the red marks.
Was it a mistake? I think Walter has made it so that every technique will have a price, no matter what it is. It’s probably so I don’t get overly powerful and so I actually have to use techniques a bit more conservatively. If I could just use every technique again and again without consequence, I’d become the equivalent of a Mary-sue in this game…or in my case, this world.
I sigh again, something I’d been doing a lot lately. This stress is intense. Far more then just “Man, I have homework” shit. The stuff I used to angst about was nothing compared to this. I think I’ve been given a better appreciation of things in light of this all. I stand up and take one last look at my arms. I can feel them moving inside…the snakes, that is. I wonder what they look like before their summoned out?
When I make my way back into the slums, it feels like a bath is in order. There’s only one place in the entire area that has such a thing, and it costs money to use it, but I’d pay like 1000 gil for one right about now.
I enter the house next to Tifa’s bar without knocking. In this world, barging in isn’t considered rude by most. When I look at the older man that lives here, he eyes me, noting my weary appearance.
I stagger towards him and reach into my money pouch.
“I’ll give you 1000 gil if you let me use the bath indefinitely.” I blurt out.
The man’s eyes went wide and he looked at me with disbelief. To prove I meant it, I counted out 1000 gil and pushed it towards him on the table. It was a bit much to be paying for a bath, but I really didn’t care at this point.
The man didn’t even bother to count it. At the sight of a whole lot of gil before him, he just nodded and pointed to the bathroom.
“It’s all yours, kiddo.” He said with a shit eating grin.
I went into the bathroom and began running the hot water. I slowly undressed myself and put my belongings aside. The water hadn’t reached the desired height by the time I was undressed, so I spent another few minutes thinking “fill up faster god damnit” until it was ready. I twisted the handle back to stop the water flow and stepped into the bath, lowering myself in slowly until I was laying down with my head above the water. I’d best make sure I don’t fall asleep in here.
The hot water is definitely relaxing. My muscles feel a lot looser, which is always a good thing. In times like this, I liked to think. I was that kind of person. If I had the time, I’d think about all kinds of things. Right now, I was going over everything that had happened so far and some of the things to come. A lot of things so far had happened that I couldn’t predict. Likewise, I’m sure a lot would happen in the future to catch me completely off guard, especially with Walter working behind the scenes. I didn’t really mind it, either. It kept me on my toes and made things a lot more interesting, even if I did have a tendency to almost die a lot.
I wonder what some of those other ‘echoes’ as Walter called them are up to? There are probably a few in different FF7 worlds going about their business and such. I wonder if they get as scared as I do sometimes? I’d hope so. Anyone that can look a giant monster in the eye and not feel their heart race is a nut job. And then there are likely a few in FF8. Guys and girls. I wonder how they get join up with Squall and the others? I’d hate to meet Quistis. I don’t know if it’s just me or what, but I hate that woman. Then there’s FF9 and FF10. I’m guessing for 10, most people either show up when Sin attacks Zanarkand or show up on the beach like Tidus. Makes sense. That’s probably how I’d go about getting there.
I lift my leg up slightly and fart, watching the surface of the water ripple and bubble slightly before I go back into thinking mode. I go down a few for avenues of thought for another half hour or so before I decide my bath is done. I stand up and pull the plug, allowing the water to slowly slip away down the pipe. The water drips off my body slowly until I step out and dry myself off. My clothes still smell like shit too. I’m surprised Jeff didn’t complain when he carried me.
I’ll probably have to pick up another outfit like this from the tailor I usually visit.
After I finish getting dressed again, I thank the owner of this house once more and leave. I wander to the tailor’s and pay for new clothes before returning to the bar for the night. When I enter, Biggs stands up from his stool and waves.
“Yo, man. You look beat. Did you have any luck finding Cloud?”
I shake my head. “No. Sorry. But I’m sure he’s fine. He’ll probably come here tomorrow or something.” I reply. I stretch and yawn. “I’m goin to bed.”
“Already? It’s not that late.” Biggs says with a raised eyebrow.
“I know, but I’m tired.” That and tomorrow will be a big day.
I smack the pinball machine on the square platform and wait for it to bring me down to the lower level where Barret and the others are going over a few odds and ends about their next mission. Barret lifts his head along with the others when I come down. Before he can ask, I answer.
“Didn’t find Cloud. Some people said they saw him around the church in sector 5 though. He’ll probably come by here tomorrow.” I said. I didn’t actually ask anyone, but I knew he’d be here tomorrow anyways, so it didn’t matter all that much if I lied, right?
Barret let out a sigh of relief. “So da hell happened to you?” he said. “You look like hell.”
I laughed to myself. “Heard that one already. Just ran into some trouble. Nothing I couldn’t handle. Anyways, I’m goin to bed. Don’t worry about being loud or anything, I’ll probably pass out right away.” I said.
“…Awright then.” He answered. He turned back to the group and went over plans again. What they were exactly, I didn’t care, because I knew we’d never get around to executing them.
I laid down on my bedroll and closed my eyes. Falling asleep took a little longer then I thought with all the anxiety about tomorrow, but I was tired enough that it didn’t take TOO long.
When morning came, I found that I had woken up a lot earlier then I would have liked. It was 5:30 AM. That still amounted to like 9 hours of sleep, but I wanted MORE. Sadly, I’m the type that doesn’t like to go back to sleep in the morning after waking up.
I sat up from my bed roll and rubbed the sleepiness out of my eyes. A quick glance around the room told me that the only one other then myself that was awake was Barret. This was later confirmed when Barret said ‘Good morning’ when I went upstairs.
I wasn’t all that surprised that he was awake. He worked hard in AVALANCHE, going to bed late and getting up early. He planned a lot of things, both near and long term. It really was a shame that things were going to go so off course. And, you wouldn’t know this from the game, but Barret actually makes a really good leader. He might have a foul mouth and say weird or dumb things sometimes, but he gives a lot of thought to what he does. A lot of it has to do with the fact that lives are on the line.
“Morning.” I say, yawning once more. I hate how when I wake up, I yawn over and over.
I walk into the open, away from the pinball machine, and glance around. The coffee pot sits about half full on the counter. When I walk over to it, I hear Barret scold me from his spot at the table.
“Dat stuff ain’t no good for a kid.” He says.
I smirk. “I’ll live.” I had started drinking coffee the same year I came here. It kept me awake, in time it began tasting good, and it soon became habit to drink it. Glen always said I shouldn’t, but it was one of the things I ignored him on.
After I pour myself a cup, I add a little bit of sugar and cream and sit at the table with him.
“What you doin’ up so early, kid?” Barret said, keeping his eyes on the paper in front of him. The 7th heaven was closed this early and he used the time to go over plans and information he had out in the open instead of downstairs in that cramped and unappealing room below.
“I couldn’t help it. If I had it my way, I’d be asleep for another few hours.”
He looks up at me with the small ‘I’m not pissed off at the present moment’ smile.
“’m goin’ over some shit. It’ll go into action once Spiky-ass gets back.” Barret stated, noticing the attention I was giving his papers.
I take a sip of my coffee and nod. “I see. Oh! By the way…”
I reached into my pouch and slid the poison and quake materia across the table. I had no need for the poison anymore, and quake wouldn’t be useful in the Shinra building nor on the top of the pillar since their was no earth present. I’d stick with lightning until I got a new technique, and then I could ditch that too.
Barret glanced down at the glowing green orbs quizzically. “Why you givin’ me these?”
“Well, I’m not giving them to you per se. I don’t need these anymore, and since you’re AVALANCHE’s leader, I thought it best to let you decide who gets them.” I explained.
He reached for them with his massive hand and held them both uncertainly. “I’m thankful and all kid, but you sure? I’ve seen you use em’ a lot.”
I nod definitely. “Take them. I won’t be using them anymore.”
He tilts his head a bit and scrunches his face as he places them in his pocket. “Awright then.”
“Any word from Tifa?” I say, shifting the conversation.
He nods once. “Yeah. She came back here n’ put on some blue dress. Said she needed it to confirm somethin’. I wondered da hell she was thinkin’, but I left it be.”
“Ah.” I said absently.
I’m hoping they’ll make it back to the pillar early since Tifa knows about Don’s trap now. If this fails, not only do Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie die, but people left behind in these slums and a bunch of people above the plate will be killed.
At that moment, I thought about telling Barret about my arms. He’d probably slip or something when they eventually made their appearance (the snakes that is). But then, maybe I could just pass it off as another one of my fucked up techniques and no one would ask any questions? I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it I guess. Besides, I can’t think of any way to bring it up other then saying “I have snakes living in my arms” and that really didn’t appeal to me as a conversation starter.
I glanced at the clock. 5:44. Damn, what would I do to pass the time? Then something occurred to me.
I quickly stood from the table and my mind raced.
I assumed that this whole pillar thing would be going down later in the day. But if Tifa already came here to get her shit, that means she’s already in the Wall Market or is just passing by the park about now. I remember in the game, Cloud got up early and Aeris even said “You’re up early” when she met up with him, but I didn’t think he was up THAT early. But wait…the people in Wall Market were all up and about when Cloud got there. Of course, it was an RPG and the game had no night and day system. So, weather it was 5:30 AM or 4:00 PM, everyone would have been doing the exact same shit. Here, a lot of them were probably still sleeping though. Or maybe Cloud would take a long time to get all his woman stuff. I really can’t say, but at any rate, the pillar thing was going to go down a lot earlier then I had expected.
“Wha’s wrong?” Barret asked.
“Uh…nothing…just…yeah.” I stammered.
I heard the pinball machine coming up and watched Jesse enter with her arms crossed.
“Wha’s with you?” Barret asked, this time directing it at Jesse.
She shook her head uncertainly and brought her hand up to stroke her chin.
“I’m not sure. I got a decoded message this morning. When I got up to check it, it didn’t send quite right. So…I’m having the computer decode it right now…”
“And?”
“And I just have a bad feeling about it.”
“How long til it decodes?”
“Well, a lot of data was corrupted and-“
“How long?” Barret asked again. He wasn’t one for techno babble.
“Half an hour?” she offered.
But would Shinra come before then and we’d just hear a lot of commotion? Would we read the message and set up position at the pillar to wait? Or would it be timed so perfectly that just as we read the message, they came? I wasn’t really sure, but I’d need to stock up. I used most of my items the previous day.
“I’m going out. Be back in 15 minutes or so.” I said as casually as I could.
When I left, I power walked to the item shop and bought as many potions, Phoenix Downs, grenades, and pain killers as I could carry. This took about 5 or so minutes, so I used the remaining time to take a dump. I wouldn’t be allowed to go when we were protecting the sector after all, and I’m not sure how much time we’d have for that kind of thing afterwards.
When I left the sop, I noted that a few Shinra soldiers had made their way into the town. I wasn’t sure what they were doing, but so far they were just walking around suspiciously. A few were edging closer to the pillar, but remained outside the fenced area. Scouting the area, perhaps?
I quickly made my way back to the 7th heaven where Barret was still at the table drinking coffee and reading.
“Barret.” I said as I walked in. He picked up on the urgency in my voice and gave me his full attention. “This isn’t right. Something is going on.”
“What?”
“There are Shinra soldiers in the slums. They’re all moving around real fishy like, and a few are hanging close to the pillar.”
Barret’s eyes narrowed. “The pillar…do you think they’re…?” he let the suggestion hang in the air, seeing if I would agree with his unfinished accusation or not.
“I think we should go see for ourselves.” I answered.
The answer seemed to satisfy him. He stood up strait away and yelled for the others to come. Less then a minute later, the crew had been assembled.
“Barret…I haven’t finished decoding the message yet, but it seems to have something to do with the pillar in the slums.” Jesse stated.
This furthered the notion that they were going to target it.
“They’re goin for the pillar…those scum!” Barret roared.
He loaded his gun arm and pointed it at the door. “We’re movin’ out!” he turned to me and placed his hand on my shoulder. “Grant, Marlene is sleeping downstairs. I want you to take her somewhere safe. Can you do that for me?”
This caused the wheels in my head to spin. Two problems had been presented. The first, was that if I agreed to his request, I might not be back in time to stop Reno from planting the bomb. Of course, I don’t know how long the battle was going on before he sowed up. There could end up being lots of time when I come back. The second problem, was that if I get Marlene out of here, Aeris might not get caught. If this happens, we won’t need to go to the Shinra building.
Looking at hi serious eyes, I couldn’t say no, however. I’d just have to hope this all worked out.
“Alright.” I said.
Barret nodded and patted my shoulder. “Thanks.”
As he left the bar with the others from AVALANCHE, I went down stairs where Marlene was still sleeping soundly. I knelt down near her and shook her lightly.
“Marlene…wake up!”
When she finally opened her eyes, I grabbed her hand and pulled her up. A bit forceful of me but I wanted to get her out of this sector as quickly as possible. As we rushed out of the bar and towards the sector’s exit, I filled her I using simple terms such as ‘Bad men’ and ‘crash! Boom!’. She seemed to get the picture and picked up her pace a bit until we made it into the park. I seated her at the bench and knelt down near her.
“Listen, Marlene. I’m going to take you to someone called ‘General’ in sector 5, okay? Now, there might be scary things in this area we’re going to go through, so I need you to climb on my back and I’ll run you through there as quickly as I can, okay?”
I could see tears forming I the corners of her eyes, but she nodded slowly and climbed onto my back. After she was secured, I booked it as quickly as I could. I made my way past any monsters I might have normally stopped to fight, almost having a close call with a Hell House, but eventually made it out and into sector 5.
When Marlene and I entered, I brought her over to the pipe and checked to see if the General was there. Sure enough, he was sitting in a chair reading a book.
“Excuse me.” I said.
General lifted his head and smiled. “Oh, Grant. Nice to see you again.”
“Yeah.” I said quickly. I know I was being a bit rude, but this was urgent. “General, I need help. Shinra is trying to fudge up the sector 7 slums by destroying the plate! I’m going to try and fight them off. Do you know somewhere that she can stay while I do this?”
The shock was apparent on General’s face. He stood up and removed his hat, letting out a disbelieving sigh. “I can’t believe those…” he trailed off, then continued a moment later. “I know a girl in this sector that will look after her for a bit. She lives in the big house on the east side of these slums.”
Sounds like Aeris’s mother (not her biological one). “Thank you.” I said.
The General nodded and looked at Marlene. “Come on, miss. I’ll take you to a nice ladies house. There are lots of pretty flowers there.” He stuck his hand out. Marlene was generally shy, but accepted the hand. I gave one last gesture of thanks to General before taking off towards sector 7 once again. With any luck, Shinra will still kidnap Aeris. I know I sound like an ass for saying that…
Once again, I dodged all monsters on the way to sector 7. When I entered, it appeared as though the battle had become. I ran up to the fence, which had quite a bit of spectators by now. Biggs was fighting two soldiers near the start of the staircase. He was firing with a simple hand gun, managing to hold his own for now. I can only hope the others are okay. If Wedge falls all the way from the top of this pillar like in the game, he’s done for. It’s still beyond me how he didn’t get splattered on the ground at that height.
“Shit.” I cussed under my breath. I glanced up and noted that the other members were fighting their way to the top. Biggs was staying behind to prevent any other enemies from entering from the bottom of the stairs. Someone should have stayed to back him up. Now I had a dilemma. I could stay to back him up and hopefully save him, but then what would happen to those that went up? Jesse and Wedge…
I shook my head and charged towards the stairs. I couldn’t afford to waste time standing around.
I drew my scythe and pushed passed the crowd near the fence. As I ran towards the stairs, another two soldiers came from above, holding two blades attached to a spinning device that made it act as a ‘hand held helicopter’.
I ran in with my scythe and slashed one soldier in the back. Killing Shinra soldiers seemed harder after yesterday’s events, but it couldn’t be helped in some cases.
Two soldiers turned around after hearing their comrade shriek in pain. Biggs used the opening to shoot one several times while I swiped at the other. He stopped spinning his blade and brought them up to block my weapon. He pushed be back slightly and tried to stab me with one blade. I moved to the side and tried to use a push kick to get him away a bit, but he spun around and slashed at my leg with one blade. The cut wasn’t too bad, but still hurt. Biggs was busy shooting at another two soldiers, so this one would have to be mine.
The soldier tried to slash at me again, but I blocked his blades with the shaft of my weapon. When he made another attempt at slashing, I dropped down low and swiped at his legs, cutting them up. With the adrenaline rush, I didn’t even hesitate when I lifted my weapon above my head and then bore it down, stabbing him in the chest with the blade of my scythe. I pulled it out and huffed, feeling guilt and adrenaline dancing about on my insides.
“Grant, glad you’re here! They just keep coming!” Biggs cried.
I nodded and reached into my armlet, pulling out the restore materia. I grabbed his hand and placed it on firmly.
“Take this. I taught you how to use materia already, so put it in your armlet. If you find yourself hurt or dying, heal yourself and get out of this sector. Got it? You won’t be any use to us in a state like that.” I ordered. I tried to, at least. In reality, he had seniority and was older then me.
He looked at me strangely, like ‘what the hell are you thinking’. Before he could protest, I cut him off.
“Just do it. And don’t die, because I’m gonna want that back later, alright?” I said in a rush.
He slowly nodded, “Alright. What about you?”
I poured a potion on to my leg then tossed the bottle aside. “I’ll be fine. I’m going up to help the others.”
“Gotcha. Go get em.” Biggs said, pumping his fist into the air.
I ran up the stairs, clutching my weapon tightly. I was beyond scared. A lot was riding on this, my lives and others. If I was like this now, what would happen when I left Midgar and the stakes were slowly being raised? I couldn’t think of that now though.
As I made my way up, three soldiers flew into my path, blocking my way up the stairs. I growled in frustration and got ready. My adrenaline was going wild as I slashed about like a mad man, feeling like I had gone berserk. I felt myself get cut here and there, but ignored it in favor of doing some damage of my own. I’m not sure how much time passed, how many people were down so far, I just kept swinging at whatever moved in front of me.
When my scythe hit the last guy in the side of the head, I crumbled on the stairs and began breathing heavily. I think my rush was slowing down. I was thinking more clearly now and realized I really needed to calm down. I need a level head and was probably way to reckless. I have cuts and injuries everywhere.
I sat on the stairs for a moment and pulled out two potions and a bottle of pain killers. I know it’s bad for me, but I can’t let pain get in the way. After my injuries had been healed and I threw a few of the drugs into my mouth, I continued up the stairs.
What time was it? I wasn’t sure. I also have no idea how long we have to hold out. I’m hoping my plan worked, and Cloud and the others won’t need to go through the sewers.
I was a little past the half way point, and when I looked up I saw that Jesse was still alive and moving, though she was being swamped at the moment. In the game, you never really saw how many soldiers had attacked the pillar, you only saw the enemies you’d fight in random battles. It was worse then I had imagined. I stopped for a moment to look down and noted that a form below that resembled Biggs was still fighting with everything he had.
I continued up, but was stopped by bullets that hit the stairs just in front of me. I panicked and jumped back, looking around for the source. A few soldiers had managed to slip pass Jesse and the others. However, they had no helicopter blades, which means. Yes, there seems to be helicopters up there dropping soldiers off. These three coming down towards me had machine guns. Not good.
“Bolt!” I cried. Luckily I kept that equipped. The electrical bolt traveled through the air and towards the group. It struck one, making him fall and roll down the stairs before passing out. Two remained.
It always amazed me that the electricity never traveled through the metal it struck or anything. Walter would probably explain it by saying metal here is ‘special’ and doesn’t conduct electricity or something off the wall like that.
As the soldiers looped around the spiral stairs and appeared in front of me, they raised their guns to fire. I jumped over the railing and swung myself onto the lower level, and they began running down again to engage me.
“Bolt!” I shouted again. Sadly, this time it missed and only managed to slow them for a few seconds before they resumed coming down.
Then I got a crazy idea. I held one arm out.
“Shadow Snake Hand!” I called out.
I had a single snake shoot out of my arm and wrap around a railing above me. With the snake secure, I jumped up and began retracting the snake while it was still wrapped. As a result, I went up to the level above and was right behind the soldiers. I swung over the ledge and brought the snake back into my arm. The soldiers heard my movement and were about to turn but I swung at them before they finished. They fell back, one off the railing and down towards the ground below, and the other rolled down the stairs a bit. I finished him off with a bolt spell and began running up the stairs again, ignoring the pain in my arm. That ‘spider man’ stunt I pulled hurt like a bitch. When I use the technique, it seems the snakes are connected to me. I feel their pain too.
Finally, I had made it to Jesse. There were two soldiers, one with blades and the other a gun.
“Bolt!”
I zapped the first one and watched him jerk and spasm as he dropped his gun. The other one Jesse grabbed and threw off the edge. I ran up to get closer to her.
“You okay?” I asked.
She nodded. “I’m fine. Why are you here?” it sounded like a jab at my age, which was rather annoying.
“I’m with AVALANCHE too.” I answered in a huff of annoyance.
I wasn’t sure what to do for Jesse and Wedge beyond watch their back. They were to close to the top, so I couldn’t just tell them to leave if they got hurt. They’d have to crawl down and make it past a whole lot of soldiers. Make sure they live and stop the pillar from being destroyed. That was my only option for them.
“Jesse, lets help Barret and Wedge at the top.” I suggested.
“Right.”
We moved together up the remaining stairs until we joined the others. Barret noticed my presence and I gave him a look and nod which meant ‘Yeah, Marlene is safe’. He seemed to understand.
The soldiers were coming in heavy by now, practically in waves. I kind of regretted being the only one without a gun. The four of us formed a circle, backs to each other. We were in tight formation with one person facing each direction. As the others would fire with their guns, I would cast lightning magic.
Time wore on as helicopters and soldiers were brought down, but we were not without injuries ourselves. We all had at least one gun shot by now. Potions patched them up nicely, but the pain remained and not all the damage could be taken care of.
After what I would guess was 20 minutes of fighting, we were really starting to wear out. Jesse and Wedge had run out of ammo some time ago as clips laid scattered around the area. They had taken the weapons of fallen Shinra soldiers and began using them instead. Barret himself was begging to run low on ammo and his shots were becoming far more conservative by this point. The amount of fire magic he would use went up as his ammo supply went down as well. I had thought to pack a few ethers I had just in case, but with 20 minutes gone, I had used most of them up so I could continue fighting at long range with magic. My potions were running low as well and taking more painkillers could be dangerous. It bothers me that without gunfire support and all these potions, I would have died a long time ago. It’s a little bit scary.
“Ah!” Wedge cried out.
A soldier had shot him in the chest. I watched Wedge stumble back, getting dangerously close to the edge. Barret had his hands full and a group of helicopter soldiers was coming my way once again.
“Shadow Replication!” I shouted.
The replica of myself ran at Wedge and stopped him fro falling to his doom as I continued to fight. I took out the first soldier with a bolt spell but found my magic power had run dry once again.
Reaching into my pouch, I noted that I had this one Ether left. I drank it down quickly and ducked under the incoming blade. Incoming bullets killed the soldier before he could follow through with his attack. I gave a nod of thanks to Barret.
My replication used the only potion Wedge had on him to tend to his injuries. It wasn’t all that much, but was something at least.
We formed out ring again, minus Wedge. My replication filled in for him and picked up a machine gun one of the many soldiers left behind.
This was getting out of hand. There were bodies everywhere, on the stairs and around us, and on the ground below. There were times I almost tripped on one. And, while this may sound disrespectful, I’d throw dead ones off the edge to clear up room whenever there was a small break in their attack. It was nothing like the game. This was madness.
The bomb had already been planted on the pillar some time ago, but we hadn’t allowed any one to activate it. Jesse warned against us removing it. She said it required careful attention and if we just yanked it off, it would explode on its own accord. So we fought, keeping soldiers away from it so no one could turn the innocent looking box on.
“Barret…This is…too much.” I wheezed out.
I didn’t know how much longer I’d hold out. We were all tired, sweaty, and aching, but we had no choice but to fight. I was still a kid and this is what I was doing. Call me what you want, a pussy or a wimp or whatever, but I wanted to breakdown right there. Of course, I didn’t because then I’d be shot and killed.
“I know kid, I know!” Barret shouted back. “Ugh. Do you think you can make it back down an’ outta this sector.”
Yes, he was suggesting I just run off and leave them here. And I’ll be honest, the thought did appeal to me a bit. I was afraid, which was natural. But I had become quite attached to these people and this sector. I’d be ashamed of myself if I ran. I’d be a failure. If I can’t stay and fight here, no way would I be able to help take on the Weapons or Jenova or any other such thing.
“No!” I yelled.
Barret hesitated. “A’right, I’ll try an’ clear you a path down.”
Oh, I see. He thought I meant ‘No, I can’t get down’.
“No need. I’m not going anywhere.”
Realization dawned on him and I think he was deciding weather to be proud or call me a fool.
Then, salvation came. After hucking a grenade at a helicopter and having it miss completely, exploding in a pile of junk on the ground below, blades of ice flew in and did the job for me. I turned and saw Cloud and Tifa rush in to back us up.
“You guys are awesome…” I said, almost wanting to cry with joy.
“Is everyone okay?” Tifa said.
While Barret filled her in quickly, I noticed that Aeris was not present. I moved towards the edge and peered down. A girl in pink was slowly escorting someone out of the sector. Must have been Biggs. Yay! So she’d be kidnapped after all!
“Grant, don’t zone out.” Cloud scolded me.
I turned to him and lowered my head. “Sorry.”
Tifa sprung into action, using a fast blitz of hand to hand combat moves to bring down a group of soldiers. Barret continued firing, but stopped when his gun made a click. He ran out of ammo. He cursed to himself over and over, for he had no remaining magic power and no ammo. Cloud brought down another helicopter with an ice spell and started cutting into a few soldiers that ran up the stairs to join in the battle. My replication and I took on a few soldiers ourselves.
After another 5 minutes, things slowed down tremendously. From what I gathered, Shinra hadn’t been expecting this much resistance. As a result, it would take some time before additional support came. Reno wasn’t here yet either, thankfully. If it took them long enough and we kept any soldiers that remained off of Jesse’s back, she may be able to remove the bomb.
“Jesse, can you deal with it?” Cloud asked.
Jesse examined the bomb closely. “It’s…set up so only a Shinra executive can actually remove it. In theory, I mean. I can remove it, but it will take a long time…”
“How long?” Barret asked.
“…half an hour?”
That was a long time, especially if back up did come. Barret picked up an enemy weapon and tried to use it as best he could. The ammo wouldn’t work in his gun, so he had to use the machine gun with a single hand since his other was…well…a gun with no ammo.
As time rolled on and we continued to fight, still no Reno, something very disturbing had occurred to me. Even if Reno fails, just how many will they send before they give up? Would they send their entire army? Perhaps a bunch of mechs? Maybe more Turks? These thoughts troubled me. So I had to ask someone.
“Cloud, how many are they going to send?”
Cloud slashed another soldier and jumped back in his ready position.
“I honestly don’t know.” Came his most assuring response. Couldn’t he lie to make me feel better?
A few minutes later, another helicopter appeared. Barret began firing at it with his gun, but it zoomed by, avoiding the bullets just barely. I knew what was coming.
“Shadow Replication!” I shouted.
I made a copy and we stood together near Jesse, preparing to block Reno’s path. He leapt out of the helicopter and avoided Barret’s gunfire. I saw him coming my way, so my clone and I moved forward with our weapons.
Reno yanked out his night stick and with impressively fluid motions, he smacked my copy before it could attack, then swung it quickly at me, smacking the side of my face and hitting me in the body a few more times until he pushed me out of the way and continued towards Jesse.
Tifa sprung forward, sending a high kick towards Reno’s head. He ducked underneath it and smacked her leg hard, making a loud slapping noise. Tifa fell, but got back up quickly enough.
Barret couldn’t fire with all of us this close, so he ran in to use his bare hands instead.
Cloud was in now too, swinging wildly with his weapon, each time only hitting air. I had to admire Reno’s strength.
Cloud swung once more, but Reno backed away and brought his night stick up. An orange flash followed, and light traveled towards Cloud. When it hit, it formed into a semitransparent orange pyramid that trapped him inside.
Tifa threw a quick series of jabs, each hitting Reno in the face. He rubbed his cheek and smirked, before running at the girl. Barret tried to get in his path, but he spun around and got past him, hitting him in the back of the head with his stick in the process.
Cloud was trapped and Barret was looking a little woozy. I scrambled to my feet and hurled my weapon at the pyramid that encased Cloud, hoping it wouldn’t go through and injure him. It bounced off the pyramid and the orange light slowly faded, freeing Cloud.
Jesse was still working at the bomb, frightfully aware of the battle taking place right behind her. The idea that she could be attacked any second probably didn’t play well with her, and I admired the fact that she hadn’t screwed up and blown us to bits yet.
As Tifa avoided another swing, she clenched her hands behind Reno’s head and brought her knee up into his chin. Blood flew from his mouth and he let out a gurgling sound as his head fell back, but he managed to get back up. He backed away and rested his stick on his shoulder. We all stood next to one another, blocking his path to Jesse.
“Geez, what a bother.” Reno mumbled. He then noticed my presence. “This is a bit of a surprise. Never would have figured you’d be with AVALANCHE.”
“Yeah.” Was all I could think of to answer with.
“Sorry to say this…I have nothing against you all, but you’re in my way. And I don’t let anything get in the way of my mission.” Reno said cheekily.
I growled angrily and lowered myself down, placing my hands together. Reno was standing on a flat surface instead of the metal barred section of the floor, meaning my shadow would be able to extend towards him. Even if I wouldn’t be able to hold him long, I just needed to stall.
“Shadow Imitation…!”
My shadow shot towards him as quickly as I could move it. He seemed surprised by the sudden technique, but kept his wits about him. As it came, he timed it so he would jump to the side as the shadow passed him by. I looped it around and had it continue to follow after him, but when he leapt onto the barred floor, it was over. My shadow wouldn’t project properly there. I retracted the shadow back towards me and watched as Cloud ran at Reno. We stuck near Jesse to act as her defense.
Watching the two battle, I came to the conclusion that they were equal. He got the jump on us earlier, and it took a while to figure out how he fights, but now they were fighting each other to a stalemate. Reno made another attempt at his Pyramid, but Cloud was ready for it this time and avoided the attack.
“Done!” came a highly relieved voice from behind us. We turned and saw Jesse holding up the small metallic box proudly. “Removed and disarmed!” she said cheerfully as she gave the thumbs up.
Reno leapt back and away from Cloud.
“Ah, hell.” He complained. He looked pissed. I’m guessing it isn’t often that he fails a mission.
The sudden noise of a spinning propeller caught out attention. A single helicopter flew up before us with a man and woman on board.
The man was tall and wore the blue uniform of the Turks. His hair was long and black. Next to him was a girl wearing a long pink dress. She had a small red jacket over top of the dress and her hair was long and brown, done up in a pony tail. Tseng and Aeris.
Aeris had been bound and gagged. Her hands were tied behind her back and her ankles bound as well. A long silver strip of duct tape was placed over her mouth as she watched us all with frightened eyes.
“Reno, abort.” Tseng said disappointedly. “We’ve exceeded the amount of man power we were allotted for this mission.”
“You bastards!” Barret exclaimed as he lifted his gun and pointed it at the helicopter.
“Now now, wouldn’t want to hurt our special guest, would you?” Tseng scoffed.
“Aeris!” Cloud shouted.
Barret dropped the Shinra machine gun and cursed to himself. I took a quick glance over my shoulder and noted that Reno had left at some point during our dialogue.
“The people will know what y’all tried ta do!” Barret stated matter of factly.
“Will they?” Tseng smiled. “Or will they see video footage of AVALANCHE viciously killing the Shinra Soldiers that protected this pillar with their lives?”
Barret’s blood was probably boiling under his skin right about now.
“You low…!”
“Yes yes. Well, we’ll be off now.” Tseng gave a gesture of his hand to the pilot and the helicopter began moving upwards.
There was little we could do to stop them. So, with this whole plate fiasco over with, I collapsed onto the floor and lost consciousness. I pushed myself a bit too much there.
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