Land of the Dead

by phatpigge

A one shot story. SOLDIER member Tso Lan is sent on a strange mission during his vacation. By the end he is lucky to escape with his life, but that's just a normal thing for a Soldier.

When his eyes opened and sudden spasm snapped his entire body out of bed and onto the floor, all that Tso Lan could do was lay silently in the dark on his cold tile floor and breathe deeply in a chilling sweat that cooled his body and made his night clothes stick to his body. There wasn't enough of a sound to cause alarm with any of the other soldiers in neighboring rooms, and Tso Lan was too shaken to care about the strange nothing that haunted him so. As he lay on the floor, shivering so bad that one might think he was convulsing he clutched at his own arms and rubbed against his chilled flesh, trying to warm it as if he had been in a terrible storm. His breaths came in raspy and uneven intervals, coming in sharp on each inhale and shuddering on each exhale. He risked the instantaneous feel of the cold to move his hands from his arms and rub his face. He could feel the sweat cling to his fingers. He moved his hands away from his face to look at his long fingers. They trembled and quaked before him, making the pale night light glisten from the sweat on them. With a deep breath that quelled his uneasy breaths, he looked up at the ceiling of his tiny room. Something clawed at him from the back of his mind, although what it was he could not say. As he thought, his body calmed itself enough to where he could concentrate on keeping himself warmed in the chill. He slowly pulled himself up off the floor and onto the side of his bed, where he sat quietly in the cold. He could see his breath leave him in tiny puffs of mist in the soft moonlight. He wiped his face with his hands again, this time running them through his short hair. He took a few deep breaths to collect himself before looking around his small room of a home. All was as it should have been, except that the temperamental temperature machine had somehow been switched off. Tso Lan wandered towards it and flicked it on with hands that still trembled from nightmares unknown to their master. With seconds, the noisy machine flicked to life and mercifully showered Tso Lan with a gust of dry warm air that washed over him like a cascade of water. He stood there for a moment, his eyes closed, letting the warmth pierce his mortal coil, warming it back life. Tso Lan's eyes slowly opened and his gaze slowly shifted up to the room's sole window. It was still night out, but that was due to change soon. The clock read that it was 6:00, an hour before sunrise and the hour in which Tso Lan started his day. With a resigned sigh, he walked over to his sad little bathroom. He let his hands rest on the sink as he looked into the mirror, closely examining the dark bags under his eyes. He tilted his head slightly as he raised his hand to rub his stubble, contemplating if he should shave or not this particular morning. He wasn't scheduled to have active duty in the next few days, so he didn't see why he should. Then again, he had never loved the idea of having a beard. Tso Lan shook his head and pulled the mirror, revealing a small medicine cabinet behind it. He pulled out a toothbrush, tooth paste, razor, and lather before shutting it again.

"I hope you aren't planning on going anywhere,"

Tso Lan snapped to attention as he saw the dark figure of a man in the mirror, apparently behind him. He instantly spun around, slashing his shaving razor where the man was supposed to be standing, only to have his arm fly through empty air. A sudden pain hit him when a stick of some sort was drawn across his throat and pulled backwards. The thing was being pulled back with incredible force, crushing his throat and throwing him backwards off balance. As he fell back, Tso Lan looked up to see the dark man above him, strangling him. His eyes widened in horror and his mouth fell open in amazement as he finally understood what was happening. However, all Tso Lan could do was stare up at himself as he strangled himself from behind.

"It would be simply awful if you went anywhere," Tso Lan said to himself. "It would be dreadful if something happened to you." With that, Tso Lan could hear his windpipe break as the staff crushed through it.

When his eyes opened and sudden spasm snapped his entire body out of bed and onto the floor, all that Tso Lan could do was lay silently in the dark on his cold tile floor and breathe deeply in a chilling sweat that cooled his body and made his night clothes stick to his body. There wasn't enough of a sound to cause alarm with any of the other soldiers in neighboring rooms, and Tso Lan was too shaken to care about the strange nothing that haunted him so. As he lay on the floor, shivering so bad that one might think he was convulsing he clutched at his own arms and rubbed against his chilled flesh, trying to warm it as if he had been in a terrible storm. His breaths came in raspy and uneven intervals, coming in sharp on each inhale and shuddering on each exhale. He risked the instantaneous feel of the cold to move his hands from his arms and rub his face. He could feel the sweat cling to his fingers. He moved his hands away from his face to look at his long fingers. They trembled and quaked before him, making the pale night light glisten from the sweat on them. With a deep breath that quelled his uneasy breaths, he looked up at the ceiling of his tiny room. Something clawed at him from the back of his mind, although what it was he could not say. A faint though suddenly came to him. He tried to figure it out, but he simply couldn't understand it. What had it meant? Why had he even dreamt that? As Tso Lan regained control of his body and the warmth from his heater began to reach him again, he began to piece parts of the puzzle together and fully comprehend it. What had it meant? A dark self? Coldness? Travel? Tso Lan sat up on the edge of his bed and contemplated this. Was somebody trying to tell him something? Perhaps he had to go somewhere, somewhere cold? He shook his head. Dreams were simply the end result of the mind's ways. All the disorganized information that a person took in during the day had to be sorted for long-term memory storage and retrieval. That's what dreams were for; nothing more and nothing less. Then again, there was something odd about it all. Tso Lan couldn't conceive anything like that. He knew cold, but not cold like the deathly chill he had felt. He knew what travel was, certainly, but he had never given it consideration further than move from one part of the city to the next. He shook his head again, there was no way that his could have been a naturally occurring event; something was happening.

A shrill sound filled the room and Tso Lan was on his feet in an instant. His hands wet to his bedside lamp, which he held, ready to throw as he spun around only to see his alarm clock going off. It was 6:00, time for him to begin his day. His daily routine of cleaning himself and shaving passed by uneventfully, and he was soon dressed and ready for a fulfilling day of nothing. He was off active duty for a while, and he fully expected it to stay that way. Tso Lan stifled a yawn as he walked to his door, ready to leave for breakfast in the mess halls. As his hand came to rest on the handle, the sudden image of his nightmare came to his mind. His free hand reached up and felt his throat; there was nothing there. He let out a small cough and turned to look at his weapon in the corner. It took only a second of consideration before Tso Lan took the spear in hand, letting himself get used to the weight of it. He slid it into its makeshift holster on the back of his belt before finally leaving his room. As he walked, the feel of the metal against his body and the head that was tipped with twin blades felt oddly familiar. Again, his hand came up to his throat and a strange though crept into his mind. His footsteps came to a halt as he considered the impossible and disturbing. Tso Lan eventually lowered his hand and continued walking, dismissing his thought as what it appeared to be; impossible.

The rest of the day flowed like clockwork. Go to the mess hall (still being mopped by morning regiment), eat a hearty breakfast (big ol' bowl of snot), exercise (spent reading a book), leisure (spent reading a book), a hearty lunch (a lesser bowl of snot), leisure (examining that damned skull again), dinner (biggest bowl of snot) and finally bed. It was the life… if you were criminally insane. Unfortunately for Shin-Ra, not all of their sad little troopers were failures like the clones and failed experiments that it tried so desperately yet pathetically to keep secret. Comparatively, the Mako-Induced Humans were the closest semblance to normal that the entire company possessed. There was even something wrong with the president, though Tso Lan would never openly admit it. He nodded to this thought as he finished brushing his teeth for the night and stared into his medicine cabinet mirror. The entire memory of that strange dream had long since been out of his head. All he remembered was a tingling sensation and a few stray thoughts amounted to nothing more than a few ibuprofen enriched capsules and a good night of rest. Don't go looking for trouble and trouble won't find you.

"Do you really think that?" a voice asked.

Tso Lan quickly grabbed his spear and held it to the ready as his head snapped to the direction the voice had come from. All he saw was a dark room. His eyes squinted and his brow furrowed at this. What was happening? A few stray thoughts of the dream that morning came back to him. Hadn't that been the same voice? Tso Lan slowly lowered his spear, keeping his gaze adamant. There had been a voice, he simply knew it. Then again, maybe it was just something simple, like voices through an air vent. There were no air vents in his room; his rank pulled him the privilege of a window. There was a knock at the door and Tso Lan spun, bringing his spear back up. He took a cautious step towards the door. There was another knock a few seconds later. Tso Lan realized he was being ridiculous and lowered his spear. Suddenly the knocking turned into pounding.

"Damn it, Tso Lan," a voice yelled from behind it. "Get your ass moving! We've got a crisis in Sector 6!" Tso Lan recognized this as one of his co-soldiers; a foreigner simply named Brom. Brom was usually calm, so if he was swearing then this had to be a real crisis. "Sentry's mobilizing, but we don't think they'll contain the situation! Further information will be given once we get on scene, but were leaving now!" Tso Lan looked around the room for his precious few belongings, which were his spear, his uniform and his single materia. He was about to go out the door when he realized his uniform wasn't on. He bit back a curse and hastily grabbed the Shin-Ra appointed monkey suit off its hanger.

"I'll be out in a moment!" Tso Lan yelled as he ripped his clothes off. Within half a minute, he was out in the hallway with Brom, almost jogging to the transports. He tugged uncomfortably at his uniform. He hated to wear it, but he wouldn't get away with wearing his costume, not when there were so many high ups around on this. Besides, as corny as it sounded he preferred to keep his identity secret.

"You're not going to believe this," Brom commented suddenly. "I've been hearing rumors running around with the others about what we're going up against. Don't know what it is, but it's apparently taking down the Sentries faster than we can send them. Whatever it was came from an area near the Don's mansion and is trying to move out from there. That new kid named Skit says he thinks it may have come from the sewers but I'm not buying into that." They turned a corner to find the elevator busy, so they took the stairs. "The higher ups haven't said anything, but I don't think this is going to be easy on us. My personal wager is that several of us are going back home in body bags."

"Home," Tso Lan commented. "What a novel idea."

"Yeah," Brom commented as he pushed a door open. "A load of orphans and riffraff that wouldn't be missed from the society jacked up with highly experimental goo and classified as a military secret. Like hell we'd be sent anywhere except that whack job Hojo." Tso Lan shivered at the mention of his name.

"He creeps me out," Tso Lan mentioned.

"What about him?" Brom asked. "His accent, his hunch or the rumors of his crazy ass experiments?"

"All of those things," Tso Lan sighed in response as he turned a corner. "You know, one of his experiment recordings accidentally got shifted into some soldier's stuff? He played it and thought one of his friends had slipped him a tape of interspecies erotica."

"Gross," Brom said. He raised his hand and pointed at the exit. "What happened to the soldier?"

"Nothing much," Tso Lan replied. "I had to give the tape back and was told that this counted as a warning."

"Warning?" Brom laughed. "What do you think the full blown punishment is?"

"You know," Tso Lan commented as he opened the exit. "I'd rather not be in a full blown animal orgy. I guess I'll slip you the next tape." At this, the two saw their transportation, a good old fashioned made by Shin-Ra truck. Tso Lan and Brom were the last two people to get on, so Tso Lan helped Brom into the back before sitting.

"I'll think it over," Brom commented as he checked his rifle. Tso Lan took this as a sort of signal, so he clasped his ice materia into Di Gazmagog. "I've always wondered how bitches feel about doggy style."

Tso Lan shook his head and sighed; the truck was moving off. This was going to be one of those nights.

Continued Here

Most people don't understand what a battle actually is. The feeling you get as you sit in the truck, waiting for the moment to come when you finally get your chance at proving yourself. Fear, ambition, embarrassment; all these things are as good as the same as the metal rocks beneath you and your seat shakes. You could look to the others on your right and left, only to see the same thing in their eyes as they stare straight ahead. Then you realize that in a few moments your very life might well depend on this person's capabilities and ability to act. Then after that the realization comes that the same applies to you, and there's a good chance his life could lay in your hands before the night is over. The atmosphere is unbearable; the truck is filled with uncertain Soldiers. Under any normal situation, there would be no uncertainty. Soldiers, by their very nature are self reliant and confident. Then again, these were unnatural events. A mysterious enemy in a sector of Midgar, the very home of Shin-Ra. How could nobody have known about this? It was preposterous. Then there was the issue of fighting this mysterious creature. Most jobs required only one or two Soldiers, maybe a handful at most, not a truckload full of them. Rumors were beginning to spread that even the Turks were being pulled in on this operation.

The truck stopped and the squad unit hurried everybody out of the vehicle. Tso Lan followed the man in front of him, his knuckles turning white from clenching Di Gazmagog. He was afraid, even if he didn't know it. The entire squad was suddenly stopped and lined up in formation for briefing. Tso Lan couldn't concentrate on what was being said, he was too busy concentrating on the surroundings. It was a chilled and darkened night. From what Tso Lan could tell, they were just outside Sector 6 now; he could see the faint structure of the Don's manor and the Honey Bee Inn. There was no light coming from the sector, leading Tso Lan to conclude that Shin-Ra had shut off the Mako-Reactor to prevent damage to it. Their squad leader, some burly with chopped silver hair was still talking about the dangers they would face in the sewers. Tso Lan almost regretted not listening but was able to guess what he had missed. Shin-Ra this, honor that, save the citizens for the good of the company, blah blah blah. Every mission was the same.

From what was being said, Tso Lan deduced that there were some strange creatures roaming about in the sewer systems, organic beings that seem to have adapted to moving about in the pipes. All that Shin-Ra officials knew about them was that they're fast and apparently venomous. Anybody who was harmed by one of these creatures should pull out immediately and report back to the medical car. Tso Lan took note of this. All Soldier members were given either a field medic or a care package in events like this that usually contained first aid supplies. This toxin must be beyond the abilities of a simple 'Antidote' to heal, so the creatures must be considerably strong.

The Soldiers would be separated into groups of four, three units and one medic. Each one would enter the sewers from an assigned entrance and explore for these creatures until called out. The squad leader again pointed out how agile these creatures can be, so all the troops should try and attack them in confined areas. After that, the briefing was concluded each Solder was assigned a group. Tso Lan had the enjoyment of working with Brom, some scrawny gun toting kid called Jack and a medic who called himself Werther. From there, they found their assigned manhole cover and waited for their signal to go in. A few minutes of pacing and quiet passed before anybody spoke.

"This your first mission?" Jack asked Tso Lan.

"Officially, yes," Tso Lan replied. "I've done odd jobs before."

"Odd jobs," Jack replied. "Huh. How about you," this time addressing Brom. "This your first?"

"Kid," Brom said in the tone of voice that told Tso Lan that Jack was about to get it. "This is a mission, not a woman. I suggest you keep it in your pants. It would be a shame to get it ripped off on your first mission.

"Or chopped off," Werther added.

"Or crushed," Tso Lan finished. Brom stared at the kid, Werther laughed and Jack looked horrified.

"Kid, I've been doing this for years," Brom finally said. "As far as I'm concerned, we're going to, killing baddies and getting paid for it. If you really need religious or emotion justification for that, go ahead, but please don't try and find it by bringing us down to your comfort zone. We'll look out for you. That's what we do." Jack nodded. Werther's communicator let out a static filled beep and he checked it.

"It's time," he said. He then reached into his pack and tossed Tso Lan, Jack and Brom each a flashlight before lifting the manhole cover off the sewer entrance and climbing down into rank and moist darkness. Brom patted Jack on the shoulder.

"Virgin's first," he said. Jack didn't complain, but he looked absolutely terrified as he climbed down after Werther. Tso Lan fastened Di Gazmagog to his back hook and climbed on down, holding the flashlight in his hand as he descended. He could hear Brom get on after him and could hear Werther come out on the sewer floor in a splash.

"Hey guys," He said as he turned on his flashlight. "Guess what? Shin-Ra turned off sewer operations in Sector 6 for the duration of the operation. Don't get any into your mouth." Jack splashed down next to him and let out a loud wretch as he turned on his flashlight. From the sounds of it, he vomited a few seconds later. Tso Lan dropped down in the filth and stepped back for Brom, who simply dropped down and took in a deep breath of human feces, urine and other various things.

"I've had worse," he said before letting out a few wet sounding coughs. "Alright, flashlights on. Looks like pathway 'A' is a dead end, much too small for us to fit through anyway so let's go this way." With that, the group set off on their little expedition into the bowels of Sector 6.

Tso Lan couldn't tell if time passed or not down there. All he knew was the filthy stench of sewage, the strange and squishy feeling of rot between his toes and the seemingly endless pipes and brick walls randomly illuminated by their flashlights. Every once in a while they would spy something strange that only turned out to be a trick of the light or some small rodent. Regardless of what it was, their march through the sewers continued unheeded. Tso Lan swept the walled to his right with his flashlight, admiring the effects the darkness had on the faded red bricks and concrete of the walls. The bricks were probably a preliminary attempt at a sewer system. There was more than likely an iron pipe now outside or a few feet of concrete. In a sense, it was like being buried alive, but Tso Lan couldn't seem to appreciate it given his current predicament. He was ready to return his gaze to their ever-ongoing sewer when he noticed something glisten in a place slightly above his height in the electric light. He almost let this slide without thinking much of it, but the problem in what he was seeing hit him before the occurrence slipped out of his short-term memory. He turned his light directly on the strange glistening surface. He examined it for a second before reaching out to touch it with his gloved hand. As his hand touched the stuff, it was like silly putty. He retracted his hand and thought 'No'. It was more like slime. He stared at is for a second, considering this. He smelled it, only to find that he couldn't detect a scent through the filthy wretchedness of the sewage, which his olfactory system was finally starting to get used to. Suddenly, an idea hit him. Tso Lan breathed deeply from his nose and spat on the wall next to the slime. A quick comparison confirmed Tso Lan's disturbing idea. It wasn't just slime.

"Hey, Brom," Tso Lan called. Brom had gone a good thirty feet ahead and not noticed Tso Lan was behind. He came over and was about ready to yell at him for it when he noticed the wall.

"What have you got, Tso?" Brom asked.

"Tso Lan," was his reply. "You should know that's what I respond to by now. Anyway, this stuff isn't natural. At first, I thought it was stray sewage, but it's too high up to be that. I've thought it over, and I think its… well… mucus."

"Mucus?" Brom asked. "Are you serious?"

"What does he mean?" Jack asked.

"Mucus is an organically produced lining," Werther responded. "It serves as a kind of barrier from infection. Think snot."

"Ah," Jack confirmed. "So, what's snot doing up there?"

"Don't know," Brom said. "None of the fell beasties down here can get up there, so my only guess is that we're hot on the trail of one of our reported creatures. Tso Lan, tell me what you've got."

"I'm not sure," Tso Lan replied. "From the looks of it, our creature only touched down for a second. I haven't seen any more of these mucus trails, so I'm lead to believe that our creature either flies or floats through magical means."

"What if it moves through the water?" Jack suggested. Tso Lan thought this through as he ran his hand over the snot ridden surface.

"Maybe," Tso Lad admitted. "There are no splash marks and this slime is recent enough. Then again, with the humidity down here, there's a really good chance that it's come and gone long before we got here. I don't have enough to guess that."

"Ok," Brom said. "What else have you got? I've got the feeling that there's more that Shin-Ra knows that they're not telling us, so anything you can tell us will be helpful."

"Why wouldn't Shin-Ra disclose all available information?" Jack asked. "What would they gain from ill informing us?"

"Kid," Werther said. "Something you're going to have to get used to in this organization is accepted that there's usually more going on than meets the eye. The less you know, the better off you are. "

"Okay…" he said slowly.

"Well…" Tso Lan said considerately. "This is disconcerting."

"What is?" Brom asked.

"Look at these cracks here," he wiped away a large amount of mucus to find that it was concealing large hairline cracks in the wall. "They're not due to stress. I think our target must have slammed into the wall here… No, that's not right. There's not enough room to properly get back and slam into it. Our creature must have brushed it as it was going by or slammed it at an odd angle. Brick isn't the strongest material, but it's hard to crack like this. Either way, our target possessed exception strength. We'll need to take it down from a distance more than likely."

"Looks like it's your hour of fame," Brom commented as he slapped Jack on the back. "Try not to ignite the place and blow us all to kingdom come."

"Don't worry," Jack said with a weak voice. "These pistols can fire shots of magic due to my materia."

"Still," Tso Lan said as he wiped his hand off against the wall. "We shouldn't use fire or lightning down here. This place is filling with methane from being shut down."

"Gotcha," Brom agreed. "Anything else?"

"Nothing," Tso Lan commented. He began to scan ahead with his flashlight to see what was coming up. "Whatever the case, I can't see anywhere else the creatures could be except for up ahead. Now, let's get going on, I'm starting to…" Tso Lan's voice trailed off and died as something up ahead caught his attention. He focused his flashlight onto it and squinted his eyes but the dampness made a fog that veiled his sight. Without saying a thing further, Tso Lan hurried off towards the thing, leaving the others to follow him with nothing but curiosity. It was a good fifty feet away; Brom must not have focussed his flashlight on it. There was no other explanation for how Brom didn't see it. There was a recess in the sewer's walling with a stone rising that came up out of the sewage. This was probably an area for valve controls or meters of some sort. However, whatever had been here was gone, leaving only a meter wide gaping and dark hole in the stone wall. Tso Lan climbed up out of the sewage to examine it. There were a lot of metal and stone fragments protruding outward from the hole, making it look as though something burst out from the wall and into the sewer. The ground before the hole was scratched and stained with something Tso Lan couldn't make out, but it was probably that way from repeated use. Tso Lan tried to peer down the hold with his flashlight, but the darkness was incredible and impenetrable. The sound of sloshing came up behind Tso Lan as the others caught up to him. There was a slight silence before anyone spoke.

"Well I'll be damned," Brom commented. "You were right about this mission, Jack. You might just lose your virginity yet."

"Ha-ha," Jack said dryly. "Very humorous. What is this… thing?"

"Looks like a nest," Werther observed.

"Yeah," Tso Lan agreed. "It fits the description I remember hearing. It would appear that we have creatures with at most a meter wide body. It looks like it drags across the floor as it enters and leaves, so I'm guess its body is elongated. That and… wait." Tso Lan stopped here and began to notice a faint smell coming from the opening. He thought about it for a second and almost moved his head closer before realizing what it was. He straightened his back and cracked his neck with a sigh. "I'm starting to get why we need to get rid of these things. I smell rotting mean. These things are probably meat eaters that think the Sector 6 denizens are their lunchmeats." With this, Tso Lan turned and moved back into the squalid filth with his companions.

"What do we do about it?" Brom asked.

"Don't know," Tso Lan replied. He looked up and down the tunnel and scratched his head. "I'm not certain if we should go any further and risk having these things behind us, but I don't want to stay here and find out how many there are at home."

"Let's leave a marker and go forward," Jack said. "I'll watch the back and get the thing if it tries to sneak up on us." Brom looked to Tso Lan and nodded at this.

"Then I'll leave a marker," Werther said, pulling a small device from his pack. He pressed in what looked like a lens and a light turned on inside. He then affixed it to the wall next to the hole and the party moved on.

A few moments passed of silence as the group proceeded. Though each one was looking around in hopes of finding these creatures and getting out of this muck so they could go home for a nice long shower, each one was plagued by thoughts of discomfort. There was something unnatural about all of this, and everybody knew it. There was something Shin-Ra wasn't telling them. Tso Lan was the most troubled about all of this. He knew that new monsters simply didn't appear out of nowhere and start to terrorize the people. Whatever was down here must have been here for a long time. That meant one of two things. Either Shin-Ra knew about it and ignored it for some reason, or they didn't know about it. For some reason, Tso Lan had the frightening idea that Shin-Ra had known about this. Why or how he knew this, he could not say; he just knew it. Also, Sentry was supposed to be here. Where were they? There was no way that the bodies could have been removed; the death toll had been much too catastrophic. From what Tso Lan could figure, this mission was providing many more answers than questions. This, above everything else, excited him and pushed him on.

"Hey," Jack suddenly said.

"Yeah?" Tso Lan replied. "What is it?"

"How does Shin-Ra know how many of these things there are?"

"Statistical evidence, probably," Werther said. "I understand that there are some capable mathematicians hanging around the higher ups."

"Anyway," Jack continued. "What are we going to do when we find one of these things?"

"Hm." Tso Lan commented.

"I've been thinking," Jack started. "I can't shoot or else the tunnel will go sky high. It's tough, so we can't fight it in close quarters."

"I've been thinking about that," Brom said. "When we have to fight, we'll spread apart so it can't take us all down. I'll use my sword to keep it at bay while Tso Lan tries to pin it down with his ice materia. All the while, you use your not explosive materia to lay down a suppression fire. Then, if we can immobilize it, I'll cut it up."

"Sounds good to me." Tso Lan admitted. "I haven't had much time to use this thing though, so I'm not sure if I'll be comfortable with it. It might take me a few times to hit it."

"Don't worry man," Jack said. He momentarily reached around to pat Tso Lan on the back. "I think you can manage. If you can't, just hand the ice materia over to me and I'll do it." Werther laughed at this.

"Oh? Is that so?" he asked. "What makes you so certain you'll do better."

"I'm one hell of a shot you know?" Jack claimed loftily. "I scored highest marks on accuracy among all the candidates testing for Soldier when I applied. I might have gotten into Turks, but I didn't have the dough. Anyway, don't you worry, just leave it to m~"

"Quiet," Brom suddenly said. Jack went silent and Brom held up his hand for them to stop. It only took a few seconds for the sloshing to cease, and then there was silence. "Do you hear that?" Tso Lan strained his ears to the darkness around him, but nothing came to him. After a few seconds, Jack let out a small 'oh'; he could hear it. Tso Lan focused even further before suddenly realizing that he could barely hear it as well. It was a sharp yet low sound, like a sudden hit on a bass drum but not. It came at regular intervals, each time as loud as the last. There was something strange about it. The sound was almost… sickening.

"What is that?" Werther asked aloud.

"I don't know," Tso Lan commented. "Sounds almost like a drum."

"Yeah," Brom said as he took a step forward. "Except there aren't many drums down here, so I'm left to wonder what's going on. This place is starting to creep me out, and whoever this clown is isn't helping. I'm going to rip him a new ass when we get to him."

As the group proceeded, the sound continually got louder and louder until it was as plain as speaking. The dancing flashlights eventually revealed another recessed area to the left with its own raised stone step in front of it. This one had a door in it, a door that was partially opened. Brom climbed out of the muck and carefully looked through the open door, drawing his sword with his free hand. After a few seconds, he walked into the room and motioned for the rest to come. Tso Lan was last to go in. As he pulled himself up on the step, he turned his head and looked behind him. He could have sworn he heard something strange. After a few seconds, he shook his head, deciding that it was just his mind playing tricks on him and went into the room.

The room itself was small and made of stone. There were dozens and dozens of pipes and valves in the room, each one going there own separate way before disappearing out of sight. Tso Lan found the others easily in the mess; they were all standing in a group, focusing their flashlights on the same spectacle. Tso Lan walked over to join them when he almost slipped on the floor. He shined his flashlight on the floor and froze as he saw what it was. The floor was covered in what was indisputably blood. There must have been half an inch of it on the entire floor, if not more. Tso Lan slowly raised his flashlight and stepped forward to join the others in their stunned observance. It was a member of Sentry. His trademark helmet with three red eyes was lying on the floor, carelessly strewn aside. As for the man himself, his back was facing Tso Lan and the others as he stood there, repeatedly hitting his face into a large pipe. Blood was splattered all around where his head was impacting as well as streaming down the pipe before the man. For a long time, the group of four stood quietly, watching as the man further mutilated himself. With each bang of flesh against metal, a sickening crunch could be heard as some other feature of the Sentry unit's face was further damaged. Tso Lan desperately wanted to reach out and grab this man, to make him stop what he was doing. Then again, he also wanted somebody else to do it. It was a sickening feeling, but he felt that one of the other three would do it if he waited for them to. Nobody did anything for a long while. Eventually, Brom was the one to break the silence.

"Excuse me," Brom said weakly. Tso Lan looked at his friend with an almost alarmed expression. This was the first time he had ever heard him like this. Brom cleared his throat with a cough. "Excuse me," he said again, this time making his voice sound normal, if not shaken. "What the hell do you think you're doing, soldier?" The Sentry did not respond. "Answer me!" The Sentry then stopped in mid swing and stood still. Brom looked slightly taken aback by this, but eventually decided that this was a good thing. He slowly reached out to grab the man's shoulder as he continued to speak. "We're from Shin-Ra," he explained. "We're here to help. We have a medic, he'll take care of you." Brom's hand was a mere inch away before the Sentry leaned back and smashed his face into the pipe with a disgusting crunch. Tso Lan winced at this and saw Jack turn away. Tso Lan tried to turn away, but found that he was too interested. He had never seen a person act like this, and it fascinated him. He watched in shocked and scared intrigue as the now dead man slid down the pipe, leaving a wide streak of blood as he fell before he finally slumped over to the side and moved no more. Unable to control himself, Tso Lan dropped down to a knee and reached down so he could examine the man's face. A hand stopped him, and Tso Lan found that it was Brom's. Brom pulled Tso Lan up and stared at him worriedly for a second before resuming his usual commanding self.

"Well," he said quietly. "I don't know what that was we just saw, but we can't stay around and investigate. Time to move out." With this, he turned and walked through the blood and darkness to the sewer shaft. Tso Lan was soon to follow, but something caught his eye. His head snapped to a certain pipe as he pointed his flashlight at a dark corner, only to show a sentry unit cowering behind a pipe.

"Brom!" Tso Lan exclaimed. "We've got a live one!" Brom immediately turned and pointed his own flashlight at the man.

"Who are you?" Brom immediately asked. He walked towards the man and took an almost hard voice. He wanted answer and he wanted them now. "What the hell happened? What the hell was that? Come on, don't just sit there and cower. I want answers! Now!" However, no matter how much he yelled or demanded, Brom simply could not reach the trembling man behind the pipes. Everything went silent and the sound of faint breathing could be heard. Following the rhythmic mutilation, the world seemed a quiet and eerie place. Tso Lan knelt down on one knee and looked intently at the man. He was bleeding from the side of his head. Tso Lan squinted to examine this, only to see a strange and dark fluid around the wound that didn't match up with the blood. It took him a moment, but he eventually come up with an answer.

"What is it?" Werther asked as he pulled gauze and medicine from his bag.

"This man's poisoned," Tso Lan replied. "Look at his wound. There's some almost black liquid around it. Not blood. It looks as though it's swollen a bit too. We have to~" He suddenly stopped here. A strange curiosity came to his mind. He had never seen this before, and it was horrifically fascinating. What kind of poison was this? Did it affect the mind, the body or both? Was it fast acting? What would this man look like in a few hours? All of these questions and more filled Tso Lan's head and his imagination was going wild. He suddenly didn't want to help this man; he wanted to observe him instead. However, he was pushed out of the way by Werther, who quickly decided that he needed to be pulled out from behind the pipes and brought up for treatment. It took them a good twenty minutes to figure out how the hell the guy had managed to move himself into that spot and ten more to actually get him out. After they got to him, they found that he didn't resist them or comply with them. As a matter of fact, he didn't do anything except stare vacantly ahead of himself as he clutched his arms and shook. Tso Lan noticed that was muttering to himself, although his meanings were soft and unintelligible. It was also soon apparent that he wouldn't walk on his own either. Brom took one side, Werther took the other and the team was soon out of the pipe room and proceeding back to the entrance. However, Brom was persistent, and he would have his answers.

"What happened?" he asked suddenly. The man he supported said nothing except his almost schizophrenic murmurs. Brom simply glared at the man's face, though it was too dark to see from the few inches between them. "Sentry," he barked. "I asked you a question! What the hell happened down here!"

"I don't think he can answer," Werther said. "I've been thinking it over and the venom's probably started to affect his mind judging on the wound. I'd say he's as dumb as a rock by now. I don't know what this special anti-venom is but I hope it works miracles."

"Is he a danger to us?" Jack suddenly asked. He turned around and placed his flashlight beam in the Sentry's face. Werther and Brom turned their eyes with curses and other less than friendly words, but the whispering vegetable simply stared ahead as though nothing had changed.

"Point that damned thing some place else before I ass rape you with it!" Brom exclaimed.

"Jeez!" Jack exclaimed. "Fine! What's gotten into you Brom?"

"This is starting to piss me off," was the only murmuring response Jack got back. Tso Lan paid this no mind. All he cared about was getting out of here. His curiosity couldn't be satisfied and this place was getting on his nerves. The sooner he was back in his room, the better. He looked ahead and suddenly made out the faint outline of the marker Werther hand placed over the hole. That was good news; they were almost out of here. Then the light flickered. Tso Lan's brow furrowed at this and he stopped. The other three saw this and halted in their tracks. Tso Lan stared ahead as he tried to figure out what that feeling was in the back of his mind. Suddenly, a jolt of terror hit him in the stillness of the dark. He looked over to Jack, who simply looked back at him in confusion. Brom's glare offered no relief either and Werther's expression was impossible to decipher. Finally, with no better alternative Tso Lan turned his gaze ahead again and began to walk again.

It was then that Jack's screams pierced the dark and filled the tunnel with their terror. Tso Lan snapped his flashlight over to where Jack was standing, only to find he was gone. Suddenly, there was a tremendous splash of water and the screams were muffled by the sewage they were wading through. Tso Lan turned his light to this, only to see a sight that made his heart freeze and his mind go black in fear. There was a great tentacle like thing pulling a writhing and struggling Jack through the muck. Brom and Werther immediately dropped the sentry and rushed over to stare dumbfounded at the sight. Jack reached for his pistols, but the tentacle simply raised him up into the air and slammed him into the ceiling before crushing him into the filth again. Tso Lan could hear the sound of metal hitting stone, meaning Jack was now weaponless. Brom and Werther ran forward to try and help Jack, but the tentacle fled, pulling Jack along with it by his leg. Tso Lan simply stared in amazed horror. His flashlight trailed up the tentacle to find its length and see what they were dealing with. It was then that it hit him. There was no end to the thing. The tentacle was a little less than a meter wide but it kept going. The damned this had no end! Its body ran forty feet to and into the damned hole!

"Hey!" Brom suddenly screamed. "Tso Lan! Get your ass over here!" Tso Lan snapped back to attention and realized the full gravity of what was going on. Werther was pulling at Jack and Brom was hacking at the tentacle to no avail. Tso Lan pulled out Di Gazmagog and ran through the muck to help. As he reached the tentacle, he raised his spear and brought it crashing down onto the tentacle, only to feel he metal shake so violently in his hand that he couldn't help but let go. The tentacle then lifted Jack into the air and flung him around, smashing him into the group and knocking them about like they were nothing. Tso Lan fell back into the sludge and felt it go into his eyes and mouth. The fear forced the air from his chest and Tso Lan struggled to free himself from the filth. Terror gripped him as his head went light before he could finally pull himself out of the sewage. He immediately wretched and vomited from disgust before cleaning the shit from his eyes. The screams of Jack, now moving further away prompted Tso Lan to recover his weapon. As he felt his hands grip about the metal of his spear, a wild idea suddenly came to him.

"Brom! Werther! Come on!" At this, Tso Lan began to run. He passed the wailing Jack and passed the creature's body until he came to the hole it was continually heading back into. Without waiting, he pointed his spear at the space between the wall of the hole and the creature. With a quick flicker of will, he felt the air chill as he activated his materia, causing ice to form around the creature's body. Try as he might, Tso Lan couldn't make the ice strong enough. Each time the creature shifted, the ice shattered and Jack's screams came closer. Tso Lan suddenly noticed Brom standing across the creature, his sword raised above his head. Without having to think about it, Tso Lan formed more ice around the creature's body, only to watch Brom drop his sword and plunge the blade into the creature's body. The tip of the sword pierced the thing's flesh and a low groan echoed from all around. Jack's screams doubled as the creature pulled him closer to the abyss. Tso Lan desperately tried to freeze the tentacle in its place as Brom ripped at it with his sword. However, the creature withdrew yet again, pulling itself from both the ice and the sword, leaving Jack a mere few feet away from the opening. Brom, Tso Lan and Werther all immediately gave up hope of halting the creature, so they instead grabbed onto Jack and pulled for dear life. The creature gave another pull, tugging all four members of the group after it. Jack was finally in the opening and the only thing that was between him and what could only be assumed to be a horrific death was the firm grip of his three comrades. Jack's shrieks suddenly changed to cries of pain as the pull on his leg intensified.

"Hold on!" Brom yelled. "We got you!"

"Let go!" Jack wailed. "Just get out of here! Go!"

"We won't leave you!" Werther yelled. Jack's screams redoubled. Suddenly a strange and disgusting sound pierced the sound of screaming, before Tso Lan could figure out what this was there was a terrific sound that couldn't be placed and the pull on Jack went limp. Jack's face contorted with anguish as he passed out. The three fell back from the sudden loss of opposing force, only to pull out Jack's body and show that his left leg had been torn off at the hip. However, before anybody could more, there was a terrible groaning sound and the tentacle emerged from the hole again. It shot over Jack, missing him completely, only to grab Werther by the neck and pull him head first into the dark and seemingly endless chasm before them. Brom and Tso Lan tried to grab him, but they were too late. The last they ever saw or heard from their medic were his screams as he was pulled to a fate to gruesome to imagine. Tso Lan and Brom looked to each other in horror before picking Jack up between them. The two then began to run towards the exit as quickly as their aching bodies could take them. They would have called for help, but Werther had taken the radio with him to his final resting. As they ran, they could hear a loud and inhuman bellow erupt from the tunnel behind them. Tso Lan wanted with all his heart and soul to look back, but he simply couldn't. The exit was in sight and nothing could take his eyes from it.

They were not ten feet away when Tso Lan was struck from behind with an amazing force that wrenched him free form Jack and shot him forward. He smashed into the wall next to the exit face first and he could feel his ribs break. Blood ran into his throat and Tso Lan began to hack uncontrollably. His grip on Di Gazmagog loosened and the weapon was thrown violently away. Tso Lan could barely hear the clack the materia made as it came out of the weapon as it splintered against the creature's hide. The tentacle then grabbed him and slammed him into the ground. Tso Lan silently wished for a weapon, anything for him to hold so that he could at least defend himself.

"Look up," a soft voice said. Tso Lan didn't spend long thinking of the origin or ownership of this voice; he simply obeyed it. The tunnel continued ahead of him in a half a meter wide pipe. It was far too small for him to fit in, but there was something inside that glistened in the darkness; something cold. Without thinking about it, Tso Lan grabbed both the strange thing and his materia, shoving them together as quickly as he could. As the creature pulled him back, he held onto the spear for dear life. When he was finally done moving, he plunged the cold weapon behind him, only to feel the satisfying feeling of a weapon piercing flesh. There was a sudden shriek as the creature let go of him and fled away into the cave. Within moments, the strange wail ceased and Tso Lan was alone in the dark quiet. He pushed himself up and shook his head. There was a pale light shining down from the open manhole.

"Oy!" Brom yelled. "Tso Lan! Get you're ass out here!" Tso Lan didn't argue with this. He quickly pushed himself out of the sludge and limply walked towards the ladder. A few seconds later he was in the pale electric light cast by some kind of truck. Brom pulled him up out of the open hole and Tso Lan fell on the ground, exhausted. He lay quietly for a few seconds, breathing deeply from the fresher air of the slums. After a while, he sat up and looked at Brom. Jack was gone.

"You alright?" Brom asked. Tso Lan nodded. "What happened to your weapon?"

"It was shattered against the wall," Tso Lan replied. "I lost it."

"No," Brom said. "You've got your weapon in your hands. What happened to it?" Tso Lan was about to look at Brom and pointed ask what the hell he was talking about when he noticed it. The thing he held in his hands was not some random scrap of shrapnel like he had thought. On the contrary, it was, in every essence, a copy of Di Gazmagog that was darker than black and seemed to chill the air around him. Tso Lan held it in his hands staring at it. His gaze slowly rose up to meet Brom's when he realized that this was it. Now was the time that his nightmares became reality.

A hand came to rest on his shoulder. Tso Lan immediately shot up and turned, bringing his new weapon to bear on the figure that had startled him, only to find that it was a man in a fine suit with a gun at his side. Tso Lan recognized this and lowered his weapon. This wasn't just anybody; this was a Turk.

"Soldier," he said in the most calm and formal of voices. "You are Tso Lan, SOLDIER Third Class, correct?" Tso Lan nodded. The man nodded in returned and motioned for him to follow. Tso Lan and Brom obeyed and walked after the man into the back of a nearby truck. On the way there, Tso Lan spotted Jack being taken by a group of medics to be treated. He suddenly wanted to tell the Turk about the Sentry member that they had left in the sewers, but he was more than likely dead now. When the three were in the truck they were alone. The Turk turned to face them but his face suddenly wrinkled in disgust. He pulled a handkerchief from his breast pocket and held it up so he could breathe through it.

"Answer me quickly and concisely," he said through the cloth. "What did you find down there?" Tso Lan and Brom looked between one another for a moment, considering if they should share it wit this stranger. It sounded ridiculous, but this man was an outsider to them. He had not been down there, running for his life. How could he possibly be like them enough for them to even consider sharing their suffering with him? Then again, there wasn't a reason not to tell him, so Tso Lan let out a sigh before telling all. He described to him their findings, starting with their transport their and their lack of information. It took him no time at all to recount the strange mucus on the wall, the crazed members of Sentry they had found and the tentacle. It was somewhat difficult to explain what had happened to Werther, but Tso Lan managed to eventually get it out. When it came time to explain how Tso Lan had escaped the creature, he was almost hesitant to bring up the strange copy of Di Gazmagog he had found. To find such a thing was unlikely to begin with, but considering where he had found it the idea seemed almost impossible. However, Tso Lan told all and the Turk nodded.

"You are the only team to find anything and return," he explained. "Several of the other teams simply did not return and their frequencies gave only static. The others found nothing. Your friend will be deal with and we will let you keep your belongings. However, there are questions that need answers and that won't be solved here. Now, we will need to take your weapons and items for decontamination. You will get them back later." Brom and Tso Lan reluctantly agreed and parted with their equipment, which the Turk took just as reluctantly. With this, the Turk simply turned, hopped out of the truck, and closed the doors behind them. After a moment, the truck started up and began moving. Brom sprang to his feet and rushed at the door, which was locked tight. Brom swore loudly and hit the metal walls before slumping down to a sitting position. Tso Lan on the other hand was more worried than angry. They had just had an altogether unusual if not horrifying experience and the Turk had talked about questions that needed answers. As far as Tso Lan was concerned, Shin-Ra didn't seem the sort of place to simply sit one down and ask them to explain what had happened. There would be questions asked and there would be tests. Unfortunately, the fact that there would be tests would only mean one thing. If tests were involved, so too would Hojo be. Tso Lan knew where they were going, and silently hoped his return to central would be decent, let alone tolerable.

Continued Here.

Tso Lan and Brom stood next to one another naked and uncomfortable. The atmosphere did nothing to calm the two as they looked around at the cold gray metal that surrounded them on all sides. The walls were laced with either blackboards laced with information or some kind of electrical apparatus. Containment tanks or other experiments littered the floor, making the room a simple mess. However, if the room wasn't uncomfortable enough then the hunched and aged man before them with slick black hair and a lab coat was. Though most wouldn't suspect it, Tso Lan knew that this man was none other than Dr. Hojo of Shin-Ra, and his presence gave them good cause to be afraid. The old man looked hard at Tso Lan and Brom, examining every square inch of their bodies. He made them hold awkward and uncomfortable positions sometimes so that he could get a better view. This coupled with the fact that Hojo seemed to enjoy poking and prodding the two with a gloved hand in any place possible didn't help. Tso Lan suspected that any other doctor would have been too embarrassed to have such a close inspection, but not Hojo. Fortunately, the physical observation was over and Hojo was ready to move on. He pulled out a small recorder and held it to his mouth.

"Yes," he said in his mad scientist's tone of voice. "Examination log 2:11 and… of 40 seconds. After a thorough decontamination of both subjects and close observation I have detected no abnormalities in growth or discoloration of their flesh asides from their bruises or small wounds. I am about to conduct an investigation of their health and cognitive properties." At this, he put the recorder away and turned back to Tso Lan and Brom with a wicked grin on his face. Tso Lan suspected that this was Hojo's sad attempt at a reassuring smile, the kind of smile a pediatrician gives a child of four before giving him a shot. "Now, my two little Mako-Induced friends," Hojo began. Brom nearly snorted at this but caught himself before he did. Tso Lan's face remained unchanged, which seemed to please Hojo. "Now is the time that we get to look inside and see how you're doing. Now," he pulled out a tongue depressor. Tso Lan was almost sick of this guy pretending he wasn't going to tie them down and saw them open at a moments notice. It was probably by the president's orders that they weren't being tied down and sawed open right now. In the back of his mind, Tso Lan decided that was probably the only smart thing he ever did in his presidency. Hojo reached up and grabbed Tso Lan's jaw, jabbing the depressor at his face. "Say 'Ah'.

"Ah," Tso Lan replied dully. Hojo thrust the stick of wood into his mouth and shoved his tongue out of his vision. Minutes passed by and Tso Lan felt an itch on his neck. He reached up to scratch, but Hojo slapped his hand down. The examination went on for a few more moments before Hojo was satisfied and retracted the depressor. He produced another depression and went straight to work on Brom, which easily lasted another five minutes. After he was done, he tossed the depressor away and pulled out the recorder again.

"Examination log 2:17 and 23 seconds," he began. "I can detect no abnormalities in their mouths, throats or olfactory sensors. This leads me to believe that neither the venom nor bacteria are airborne. This is quite good and gives us considerable amounts of time to continue to deal with the issue. I will now finish with a psychiatric evaluation before sending the two patients away." With this, he placed the recorder away and looked at the two before him. "Now, you," he pointed at Tso Lan. "You're first. Come on. I don't have all die."

"Finally," Tso Lan muttered. It was a relief that Hojo had given up his pretense of being a friendly doctor.

"What was that?" Hojo snapped.

"Nothing," Tso Lan replied. Hojo glared hard at him before leading him into a room with a fresh uniform, two chairs and a single table. Hojo jabbed his finger at the clothes and Tso Lan wasted no time in dressing himself and sitting down. By the time he was finished Hojo had said something into his recorder and placed it upright on the table. He looked at Tso Lan with his dark eyes, examining him deeply before saying anything. Tso Lan didn't start anything, he merely sat quietly and hoped Hojo didn't decide on doing anything too nasty to him. After a few minutes of sitting in the dark, Hojo coughed to clear his throat and began.

"Name and rank," Hojo said plainly.

"Tso Lan, Soldier Third Class," was the reply.

"Let's start easily," Hojo stated. "Tell me about your service record with Shin-Ra."

"Why?" Tso Lan replied. Hojo glared in response and Tso Lan decided it would be a good idea to say something else. "Why? Don't you have my record?"

"Answer the question," was the only response he got.

"Fine then," Tso Lan said with a designated sigh. "I started my services with Shin-Ra several years ago. I came from a large family and took the initiation test in the first place with the hopes that my position in SOLDIER would allow me to travel and learn. I had great troubles passing the entrance examinations but the proctors deemed it fit that I should be allowed to join. After the Mako-Infusion process I had a few days of recovery before being put on active duty. I started off my first few months with patrol duty in Shin-Ra headquarters. After I proved myself suitable, I was sent on a mission to Kalm with a higher ranking member of SOLDIER and a few Sentry members. Our mission was to root out a local terrorist cell and destroy them. The entire ordeal took several weeks and the battle was quite… tumultuous. I wasn't too useful, but the other Soldier and the two Sentries seemed to be able to take care of it. I took an ancient skull of an alchemist in payment and have only been sent on minor operations within Midgar since then."

"Wait," Hojo said. "A what?"

"An alchemist skull," Tso Lan replied. "Shin-Ra knows of my fascination with certain items so they pulled that out of their vaults in payment. I didn't need the gil so I took the skull in its stead."

"I see," Hojo said. Tso Lan had a good feeling that this would be the part of the examination where the interviewer wrote something down in his little notebook, but Hojo had no notebook and that made Tso Lan quite happy. "Now, if that's all we will move onto the tests. This will be a simple word association test. I say one word and you say the first thing that comes to your mind. Then I'll ask some questions and then we'll do more word associations. Are you ready?"

"I am," Tso Lan said. He would have to be careful about this. He had heard stories about Hojo, but they were not conforming to his current behavior. Normally he would think that this meant the stories were exaggerated. However, the tapes that he had seen some time ago told him that they weren't; Hojo was hiding something and Tso Lan didn't want think of what would happen if he blurted out the wrong word.

"First off," Hojo began. "Tree,"

"A tree," Tso Lan replied easily.

"Frost,"

"Snow,"

"Tentacle,"

"Squid,"

"Rod,"

"Penis," With his, Hojo stopped and stared hard at Tso Lan. It took a second before Tso Lan realized what he was saying. Fortunately, he was too worried about Hojo's stare to be embarrassed.

"Moving right along," Hojo said plainly. "Hole."

"Asshole," Tso Lan muttered with contempt.

"What was that?" Hojo snapped.

"Grass Knoll," Tso Lan blurted. Hojo stared at him again but did not pursue this issue.

"Now, I am going to ask you a few questions," Hojo said. He coughed to clear his throat and began. "Do you consider yourself to be in good mental health?"

Tso Lan raised his eyebrow skeptically at this. If there was going to be some sort of trick question or feeble excuse for Hojo to do something devious, this was it. Tso Lan rolled words around in his head, carefully picking his answer.

"I'm as sound minded as everyone else," Tso Lan replied. "While I admit that I am a bit odd in some ways it is nothing to be concerned about."

"Is that so?" Hojo replied. A sudden sneer was coming up on the doctor's face, an expression that almost sent a chill down Tso Lan's spine. "Well, that's an interesting answer. Tell me, you say that you're as sound minded as everyone, but what is it that makes you odd?"

"Well," Tso Lan started. He was about to continue but the look on Hojo's face reminded him of why he needed to be cautious. He swallowed. It was a bothering feeling, this situation. Tso Lan knew he needed to be cautious but he didn't know why. Hojo was an employee of Shin-Ra so he could be trusted… right? "I tend to pursue more intellectual courses than anything else. For example, if I were presented with a problem I'd sit back and consider how to solve it until I was absolutely certain my way would work."

"That's an odd thing to say," Hojo interrupted. "It doesn't make you strange to use your head, but it does make me wonder what you're hiding. Remember that this is a psychological evaluation, so lying won't help you any. Besides, you're a part of Shin-Ra; you can trust us. Now, tell me the truth or I'll be forced to hold you for a more detailed evaluation." Tso Lan almost glared at Hojo. The bastard was playing with him. There probably wasn't even a call for an evaluation, and this was all for his entertainment. Tso Lan wondered if there was even a point to thinking out his answers anymore if Hojo knew all the right answers. With a deep breath and a quiet curse, Tso Lan prepared to spill all.

"I believe in the strange," Tso Lan explained. "Things that people usually don't give attention to. I don't accept that materia make magic just because they do, I believe they were formed purposefully somehow. I don't just say we die, I knew we must return to something greater than us afterwards. I don't accept that everything is as it seems, that there is something else going on. Most importantly, I don't accept that you told us everything about that monster in the Sector 6 sewers. Shin-Ra isn't so lax that they know nothing and there's no way you're that ignorant. I'm an odd person because I have the balls to ask questions about things that nobody else will. Now I ask you, Hojo of Shin-Ra, what the fuck was that thing and what aren't you telling us?" Hojo's smile faded and he stared at Tso Lan. After almost a minute of the exchanged glaring, he shook his head and sighed.

"I know that you are neglected in SOLDIER," he commented. "But you must not create such fantasies to gain our attention. Everything we know of the situation we know. Now, if you will stop expanding the truth, we will continue. Back to the word associations. Sword." Tso Lan didn't answer at first. He knew he had hit a nerve with the slick hair bastard but he simply would not show it. Tso Lan stared at Hojo, trying to deprive any meaning from the man's wrinkled face. What had that face seen? What lies had it told? What was it holding? Tso Lan didn't know so he decided it was time to go back to Hojo's little game."

"Sword," Tso Lan tastelessly. "That's what I think of."

"Gun," Hojo said quickly.

"Pistol," was the reply.

"Dark," Hojo said almost instantly. He wasn't giving Tso Lan time to think at all either before or after the question.

"The color black," Tso Lan replied.

"Music," Hojo snapped replied.

"A musical note," Tso Lan said.

"Fine," Hojo said suddenly. "Enough with this. You're not normal but you're not crazy. You're not a genius but you're definitely not a typical Soldier. Now, answer this question and answer truthfully. I will know if you are lying. Tell me with all the detail you can; what the hell happened down there?"

"What?" Tso Lan suddenly asked. He was certain that Hojo already knew but the tone of his voice made it seem he didn't. It might have been a trap but Tso Lan was taken too off guard to consider this. "Don't you already know?"

"We know that out of the fifty members of Sentry we sent not a single one survived," Hojo said. His voice was suddenly loud and wired, the typical voice of a man mad with hunger for knowledge. "We know that out of the twenty members of SOLDIER we sent in seven died 2 were mortally wounded and the rest of them don't know a damned thing that happened! You're squad is the only one that provided survivors. You and that oaf in the lab are the only two who have a damned clue what happened?"

"Wait," Tso Lan suddenly interrupted. "What about Jack?"

"That brainless sponge went comatose as soon as we got him to the hospital!" Hojo said curtly. "We won't get anything out of him unless the anti-toxins we're pumping into him pay off. The other that was mortally wounded is suffering from PTSD and doesn't remember a damn thing! You two are the only ones who know what we're dealing with and I want answers! Now tell me everything! From the moment you got on that truck to the moment you crawled out of that sewer covered in filth!" Tso Lan stared in amazement at the man he had considered mad not even a few hours ago. He shook his head at the news of Jack. He had barely known the kid and it now looked like he would. After a few seconds of consideration, Tso Lan gave into the human urge to tell all.

He started with the nightmare he had the morning before, which Hojo took in with a great interest. His story then turned to the sudden alarm and the call to arms, the silent truck ride, the speech and orders Tso Lan had not listened to and finally to his team. Hojo began to lose interest with the description of each of the men, only to seemingly fade back into interest as Tso Lan described the darkness of the sewers. Tso Lan went into much detail with the mucus on the walls, the aperture in the rock from which the creature eventually came and eventually to the chilling scene of the bloody room. It was here that Hojo interrupted.

"Blood almost an inch deep?" He asked. His crazed voice was gone and it was now replaced with pure and disturbing interest. "Where did it come from?"

"I don't know," Tso Lan replied. "The only things we found in that room were the two Sentry members."

"What happened to the two?" Hojo asked quickly.

"One broke his neck bashing his face in against a pipe," Tso Lan explained. The memory of this grim situation sent a chill up his spine. "I think he had been exposed to the venom and it was affecting his mind. As for the other one, he only had a head wound. We tried to bring him out but were unable."

"What happened to him?" Hojo asked. Tso Lan suddenly remembered that they had left him alone in the darkness with that thing. A shiver came through Tso Lan and he hoped that he was truly brain dead. That way he would at least not realize his death was too horrifying to imagine.

"We left him when we fled from the creature," Tso Lan replied with a tinge of sickness in his voice. "I don't think he's alive anymore."

"Now, continue." Hojo ordered. Tso Lan rubbed his arms, which seemed to calm his shivering enough for him to concentrate. It was an easy tale to recount, even if it was one he didn't want to. Tso Lan quickly moved onto the trip back and when the creature attacked. He spent a good long time describing the monster, going from the minutest detail to the broadest things about it. Tso Lan had the satisfaction of seeing Hojo's face in shock as he told him the thing was one huge tentacle rather than a creature by itself. From there, it only took a moment or so to recount the faded experience of running from the thing. Tso Lan cursed his memory for failing him, but Hojo seemed interested in it all. When it finally came time for Tso Lan to come to the part about the strange and dark Di Gazmagog, Tso Lan decided that Hojo didn't need to know. As far as Shin-Ra was concerned, Tso Lan had held onto his spear, which had not broken and impaled the creature in a soft spot near its end. After that, they had met with the Turk and now they were here. Hojo nodded at this and leaned back into his chair. Tso Lan could almost hear the gears and cogs of his mind working in their own twisted fashion. After a few moments, he looked up at Tso Lan and his face lit up with surprise.

"What?" he asked. "Why are you still here? Get out and send in the oaf!" It was then that it hit him. Hojo didn't care about the dozens of people who had just died and he certainly didn't give a damn about Tso Lan and Brom. All he cared about was his precious little monster crawling about in the dark filth of Sector 6. Tso Lan almost swore at the man but managed to hold his tongue and walk out quietly. Information, data and statistics; that's all Hojo really cared about. As Tso Lan walked over to the now clothed Brom he got a sinking feeling.

"I see you survived," Brom commented. "What are we looking at here."

"Mad scientist followed by a hint of hatred," Tso Lan replied. "You're next, so have fun."

"Sure thing," Brom replied. He began to walk over to the room where Hojo waited with his little black sound recorder.

"Say," Tso Lan suddenly said. "Brom, am I…"

"What?" Brom asked. Tso Lan thought about it for a second.

"Nothing," he replied. "Nothing at all." Brom nodded and disappeared into the dark room. Tso Lan had wanted to ask if he was like Hojo, but he didn't want to know the answer. A sound suddenly came up behind Tso Lan, the sound of someone clearing his throat. Tso Lan turned to look around and found it was the Turk, who was still here for reasons beyond Tso Lan. The two stared at one another for a moment; Tso Lan waiting for a conversation and the Turk thinking of something to talk about. It wasn't until five minutes later when Brom came back that the Turk finally said something.

"Get your things from the secretary on the way out," he said. "We're going back."

To Be continued.

Brom and Tso Lan stared solemnly at one another from across their truck bed as they rushed through the dark night air of Sector 6. Both of them knew that this wasn't going to go well. They had protested. They had objected. Hell, Brom started to swear at their leader. That didn't stop them from being sent out on a mission that was just as good as suicide. Shin-Ra had provided a miniscule force to aid them in their mission. However, Tso Lan highly doubted that five Sentry units and a sole Turk would be of much help. Tso Lan looked over at their eager faces. They were ready to orgasm just by being with two Soldiers and a Turk, let alone fight for them. Tso Lan tried to figure out how much time they had left in this world, but that was simply beyond him. One of the Sentry's noticed him and smiled stupidly back. Tso Lan merely stared at him until he turned away to look at Brom again.

"So," The Turk said. He was currently examining his side arm, making sure it was ready for combat. "What's the plan?"

"Plan?" Brom asked. "If we had our way we wouldn't even be fighting this damn thing." Tso Lan nodded in agreement.

"You know, you two are Soldiers of Shin-Ra," the Turk commented. "Yet you seem awfully scared. Aren't you supposed to be Shin-Ra's finest in terms of military might? Can't you just swing your sword and kill the bad guys like I've heard?"

"Not that simple," Tso Lan said. "We only caught a glimpse of the enemy."

"Start there, sir," one of the Sentry men said. Tso Lan had to think a moment before realizing that 'sir' referred to him. "Tell us about our enemy." Brom motioned at Tso Lan, inviting him to take the conversation over.

"We don't know much," Tso Lan began. "All we saw was a great tentacle, which is probably one of its appendages. We have no way of knowing how many tentacles there are or if there's even a main body. The thing's hide is extremely tough but there are soft spots every now and then. I managed to get in one good shot, so the thing does feel pain." Tso Lan held the dark and strange Di Gazmagog close to him with this. For the little Tso Lan knew of this weapon, it had already saved his life. He shivered from the cold the weapon gave out, which prompted worried stares from the others. Tso Lan nodded in apology before continuing. He had so far deduced that only he felt this cold, which was something he would study later. "The thing has a strange mucus about it, which is probably some form of protective barrier on it's outside to keep in moisture, making it an amphibian I guess. There's a high probability that these tentacles serve as its mouth as well as its appendages, letting the main body stay where it is."

"Which is where, exactly?" The Turk asked. Tso Lan smiled. Having an intelligent mind such as this Turk on duty would make this tolerable… maybe.

"Can't say," Tso Lan replied. "It could be some sack of organs and nerves that lives in a pocket in the earth. Or, it could be some kind of monster walking around below ground. Either way, we have a distinct advantage in the fact that its mouths are on these tentacles."

"What makes you so sure?" Brom asked.

"Because it bit me," Tso Lan replied. He pulled up his pants leg to show tooth marks on his leg above his knee. "Hojo isn't fooling me with his sweet talk. Both you and I were given the anti-toxin during our decontamination. The thing grabbed both Jack and myself by this part of our leg when it swung us around. Otherwise, our leg would have torn at the kneecap and we would have escaped. Same thing if it had grabbed. Its grip would have slid unless it had something to dig into it, such as teeth. Besides, I felt that damn thing grab me.

"So, what's the plan?" one of the Sentry men asked. Tso Lan looked at him for a second before realizing the unfortunate obvious part of the whole ordeal.

"I don't know," Tso Lan said. "If I knew more about this thing we might be able to poison it or drown it. However, I don't so we're a bit stuck. If any of you have a suggestion I'll be more than happy to take them."

"I suggest something else," the Turk commented. All eyes turned towards him. Tso Lan didn't like him and his expression. It was one of superiority, the kind of stare rich people always give him. The kind Tso Lan hated.

"And that is?" Brom asked.

"We should start out with what we've got to work with," the Turk replied. "If we know what we've got then we might make a decent plan." Tso Lan grit his teeth at this; he knew the Turk was taunting him. "I personally have my side arm, a good bit of Gil and a finished time control materia. How about you two next, hmm?"

"I have my great sword," Brom replied. It was obvious from his tone of voice that he didn't like taking orders form the Turk. "And my clothes. I've never needed anything else."

"I've got my spear here and a single Ice materia," Tso Lan said. He cast Brom a look saying that nobody needed to know anything about his spear. As far as the others were concerned, it had always been as it was. "Although my materia is low level. I haven't had time to work with it." All five of the Sentry units were equipped with a Shin-Ra grade rifle, a few magazines of extra ammo, food rations, a small medical kit with a single use of anti-toxin, and a few utilities. The contents of the truck were limited to a tow cable on the back that was about one hundred feet in length and everything in the engine. Tso Lan considered this for a while but couldn't make a coherent plan. Considering that the only thing they could see was its tentacles, which were unknown in terms of number there wasn't much they could do. Then again, there wasn't much time to think at all. A few moments after the conversation the truck came to a stop. It was time. Tso Lan closed his eyes and took in a deep breath, preparing himself for this. A hand fell on his shoulder and Tso Lan looked up. Brom was standing there, reassuring him. Tso Lan nodded and stood up.

The air outside the car was chilly; the entire sector was getting cold from the lack of reactor heat. Tso Lan fidgeted in his SOLDIER uniform. On a normal mission, he would be much colder in his costume. Then again, this wasn't a normal mission. As Tso Lan looked around, he began to realize something.

"Isn't this where our team went in?" he asked aloud.

"That it is," the Turk replied. "Where better to begin our operation than the site of the survivors?"

"Is it really a good idea to go down there?" one of the Sentry men asked. "You know, without a plan or anything?" Inside, Tso Lan agreed with him.

"Yes," the Turk replied as he stood over the open manhole. "But it's all we've got. So unless you've got a better idea then we go in. Now, I say that-"

"Hold on," Brom said.

"We go in one at a time in intervals so we can-"

"I said shut-up!" Brom yelled. The Turk fell silent and his face showed slight amazement at the thought a mere SOLDIER would speak to him as such. Brom, on the other hand, didn't seem to care. "Listen…" Tso Lan looked at his friend in confusion. When he saw the seriousness in his face he knew something was up. Tso Lan closed his eyes and listened, only to find he did hear something. At first it was undistinguishable. Then, a few moments later he realized it was the sound of water moving. Then the ground shook. The five members of Sentry quickly lost their excited air and brought their rifles to bear. Tso Lan's eyes danced wildly around the area, looking for the cause. There was another quake followed by a soft boom sound. The sound of rushing water grew louder.

"Move!" the Turk suddenly exclaimed as he ran towards a nearby building. Tso Lan and Brom obeyed immediately but the Sentry men were not fast enough. The ground below them cracked before exploding upward, sending stone and shrapnel everywhere. The Sentry men were scattered every which way. One unfortunate man fell into the hole, only to be grabbed by the massive tentacle that suddenly came out of the aperture and dragged away screaming for help he would not get. As the screams diminished a wholly troubling and disturbing feeling swept through the air as a second tentacle rose up from the chasm. The thing swayed in the air for a moment before moving at the now fleeing Sentry men. As it fell, there was a small explosion on its hide. Tso Lan looked around to see the Turk was taking aim and firing again. Suddenly, he didn't think so lowly of him anymore. The tentacle slammed down onto the ground, cracking the concrete and creating a slamming sound that echoed off the plate high above. It began to retract, but not before Brom descended on it and plunged his sword into it. There was a low bellow as it twitched and convulsed, throwing Brom and his weapon away before retracting into the darkness. During the eerie silence that followed the Sentry men ran for cover. Tso Lan held Di Gazmagog in his hand, wondering what the hell he was supposed to do. This thing was apparently not susceptible to ice, severely limiting Tso Lan's ability to fight the thing.

"Look out," a voice suddenly whispered from nowhere. Tso Lan didn't understand this at first but was more than ready when the ground beneath him began to tremble. With a tremendous leap he threw himself aside as the ground below him exploded and the tentacle re emerged. Tso Lan had to cover his face to shield it from the debris. When he managed to see what was going on he saw the massive creature towering above him, searching for a new target. However, the thing didn't seem to notice him. With that, Tso Lan had an idea. As the creature was searching, Tso Lan drove Di Gazmagog into its putrid skin and cast Blizzard. The thing's flesh turned cold and began to freeze. A terrible shriek emanated from its mouth as it began to retract. As it disappeared, Tso Lan took in a breath of air and cursed their lack of communicators.

"Guy's, don't move around!" he shouted. "These things hear us!" Just as soon as he did this, the ground beneath him began to tremble again. Tso Lan jumped out of the way just as the ground burst. As the creature ascended Tso Lan prepared for another spell. However, before he even had a chance to aim, he looked up in horror as the creature began to fall towards him. Tso Lan ran aside and out of the way, only to be knocked off his feet by the shock wave the creature made when it slammed into the ground. From there, he was half tempted to sit and do nothing, to simply let the creature lose him. Unfortunately for him, he watched in horror as his weapon fell to a clatter before him. With a curse on his lips, Tso Lan picked up Di Gazmagog and began running for the chasm before him, where the things had first appeared.

It was then that he heard the sound of groaning metal and snapping of glass. His vision went skyward and he saw their truck flying through the air. The first tentacle had come back up from its dark home and had gone for the still running truck, which had turned out to be an unsuitable meal. Tso Lan watched in horror as the vehicle soared through the air and smashed through the second story of an abandoned house. There was a terrific eruption of glass and stone that fell like an unholy rain over the street, which was ever becoming more and more like a war zone. Tso Lan suddenly felt the ground shake, and a quick glance behind him told him that the other tentacle was sweeping towards him. Without thinking it through, Tso Lan ran towards the now burst open sewer before him. As he leapt in the creature swept by him, missing him by inches. Tso Lan fell into the filthy abscess of sewer water. The stench was overwhelming but the drive from Tso Lan's sympathetic nerve system, his sheer will to survive was stronger. He swallowed a bit of vomit as he sunk his body into the filth up to his neck and waited for the creature to inevitably take notice of him. After a few moments he realized that the creature wasn't coming after him. The battle was still raging overhead, but Tso Lan was no longer a part of it.

With this, he let out a breath of relief, which sickened him as he inhaled the noxious fumes of feces, urine and rot. He pulled himself from the muck and vomited, hacking as he tried to regain his composure. A few seconds later he noticed something strange, a sound that didn't make sense. It sounded like a hiss, except it wasn't coming from the creature. Then again, there was nothing in the sewer that would cause that sound. Tso Lan looked around for this strange thing, only to notice that the pipes above him had been ruptured when the first creature smashed through the rock. Tso Lan strained his eyes at this, only to see something that both alarmed him and excited him at the same time. Though sky was dark Tso Lan could still see the ripples around the pipe. Tso Lan moved over and carefully held his hand up to the pipe. It was cold. Tso Lan smelled the air and his suspicions were confirmed. The pipe that had broken was a gas main and the current was still moving. With that an idea was born into infancy in Tso Lan's head, an idea that could very well save them, if only for a short while. Tso Lan grabbed the metal ladder, still intact through some miracle and pulled himself up into the fray.

It still looked like hell. The four remaining Sentry men were in various locations, each one shooting randomly at the behemoths they faced. Neither Brom nor the Turk were in view, so Tso Lan simply ducked his head as the tentacles smashed their way towards the Sentry men. Tso Lan watched in helpless terror as one of the towering creatures smashed through a building, sending metal, stone, and glass flying everywhere. The Sentry unit who had been hiding there sprinted through the falling shrapnel like a person running through the rain to make his way into the next building. There was suddenly a loud bang and the tentacle jerked as the shot hit it. Tso Lan looked up to find the Turk slipping into an alleyway nearby. Tso Lan waited until the two tentacles were preoccupied before coming up onto the stone and sprinting towards the alley. When he came around the Turk had an honest look of surprise on his face. He had obviously not expected Tso Lan to survive for so long. This look of surprise was quickly as the Turk wrinkled his nose in disgust. He quickly his hand kerchief and held it over his nose before allowing Tso Lan to speak.

"I've figured it out!" Tso Lan exclaimed over the chaos in the street.

"What?" the Turk demanded.

"I've figured out how to get rid of the damned thing!" Tso Lan exclaimed. "It won't kill it but it will get us out of this mess."

"What is it then?" the Turk spat as he reloaded his gun. "Spit it out!"

"The gas pipes in the sewers are ruptured and gas is still flowing through them," Tso Lan explained. You're a good aim so you'll be able get it close enough." The Turk considered this for a second, weighing the possibilities in his mind. After a while, he nodded.

"What's the plan?" he asked.

"I'll get the hole in the pipe wider and lure the things towards the sewer. As they come, I'll mark the pipe with some ice and run so the things pass over the gas. When they pass over, you shoot the pipe and the gas build up should ignite them."

"What makes you think they'll ignite?" the Turk asked.

"They live in the sewer where there's a lot of methane," Tso Lan explained. "I see no reason they should not. Are you in?" The Turk considered it for a moment.

"Alright, I'm in," he said. "I'll wait here until the opportune moment. Now, get going." With that Tso Lan nodded and ran back into the street. The colossal opponents were too busy trying to kill the Sentry men, who were doing quite well despite their low-grade weapons. Tso Lan reached the sewer unnoticed. He knelt by the side and soon found his pipe. With a few quick slashes and pries from Di Gazmagog the pipe was torn open, allowing the gas to leak out freely. Tso Lan let it disperse for a few dozen seconds before proceeding. Tso Lan raised his spear and cast Blizzard at the towering enemies. Both shots hit and the creatures turned to search for him.

"Hey!" Tso Lan screamed. "You… things! Yeah you! Come here your overgrown pornographic rejects! Yeah, that's right!" Though Tso Lan couldn't it, the Turk was putting his hand over his forehead disapprovingly. However, it seemed to get the creature's attention. As the two tentacles rushed straight at Tso Lan he was already fleeing away. Within seconds, the tentacles passed over the gas cloud and the Turk took his shot. There was slight 'ping' sound of the hitting metal before the gas ignited and exploded. The street was engulfed in a massive fireball, sending Tso Lan flying forward from the force and igniting some nearby buildings. The flame traveled through the pipe, causing the explosion to travel through the sewers for several hundred feet before the gas ran thin and the blast faded. The night air was filled with a fell scream that caused pain to Tso Lan to simply hear it. The twin appendages twisted and jerked in the air, casting a light that reached up to the plate above with the flames that scorched their bodies. After a few seconds of this, both tentacles retracted into their holes and disappeared, leaving Tso Lan, Brom, the Turk and the four Sentry men in the quiet street, breathing shakily. The Turk walked out from his alleyway, looking at the now dying flames in awe. However, Brom was more concerned with the limp figure that lay a few dozen feet from the torn earth. He dropped his sword and ran over to it, only to have his worries confirmed.

Tso Lan lay quietly, his skin burnt and his consciousness gone.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

When Tso Lan regained consciousness, he wished that he hadn't. As soon as he moved he realized that his entire body was in terrible pain that made tears flood to his eyes. He tried to move to alleviate the pain but that only made it worse. After a while, Tso Lan gave up and remained still until the pain faded. He then spent several minutes laying quietly, staring up at the ceiling. He didn't dare raise his hands to wipe the tears from his eyes due to the pain. All he could do was move his eyes and look at the world through blurry tears. He was in a spacious room that was colored, for lack of better words, in whorehouse red. Tso Lan was laying in an absurdly comfortable bed with more fluffy sheets and lacey pillows than was necessary. The bed itself was shaped like a giant valentine heart. With these details alone Tso Lan's powers of deduction told him that he was in the Honeybee Inn. A few seconds later he realized that he no longer smelled like shit. He easily decided that they, whoever that was, must have cleaned him before placing him on the bed. From the size of the room, Tso Lan figured that there must have been more in the room than he could see. Regardless of this, or the fact that he was in pain just sitting still, Tso Lan knew that he couldn't stay here. He had to get moving. Why? He couldn't say why; he just knew.

It was then that a door opened and closed. Tso Lan almost turned his head to look at his new visitor but stopped himself when he felt the burns on his neck ache. He instead strained his hearing but could not manage much. The floor must have been carpeted or the person was bare foot. Consider the location, it could have been either one of those options. Tso Lan turned his eyes in the direction of the faint sounds to find a woman with staggering blond hair and plump red lips walking towards him. Her face was round and flushed, probably from make up or something. She was smiling kindly and the tears in Tso Lan's eyes blurred every other detail about her. She came up to him and sat on the bed beside him. Even in his almost delirious state of mild pain, Tso Lan could tell that the sight of him caused her discomfort. He must have looked terrible from the burns. Regardless of this, the woman extended her hand over Tso Lan's chest and looked as though she were about to start stroking him. He tried to muster his strength to tell her to stop, to tell her not to touch him. Unfortunately, all his strength would permit was a pathetic moan that made the woman giggle slightly. She then closed her eyes and things began to change.

Within seconds Tso Lan could feel the pain leaving his body, leaving him tired and drained. He almost felt well enough to move about again but the concentration the woman had in her efforts were great enough to provoke him into stillness. This silent recovery continued on for another minute before the woman opened her eyes and looked kindly at Tso Lan. He lay still for a moment, almost afraid to move his body because of the pain. This fear was dispelled when he felt something. He lifted his head, with some effort and saw that she had her hand on his bare chest, which was its normal peach complexion. He then slowly lifted his arms to wipe the tears from his eyes, revealing the room in all its colorful resolution. After a few minor grunts and pops from his joints Tso Lan managed to get up and sit on the bed next to the woman. Tso Lan suddenly let out a great yawn by accident; the process of healing had left him fatigued. He looked down to the woman's free hand to see the healing materia in it. Tso Lan suddenly twitched, almost reaching out to take the tiny orb for his own. Fortunately for him his manners surfaced and his interest was not quite high enough for him to throw out etiquettes especially considering that these people were the reason he wasn't laying on the street with raw sewage leaking into third degree burns. Tso Lan let out groan and stretched his arms behind him, hearing almost welcome little pops from his back and shoulders.

"Feel better?" the woman asked. Her voice was beautifully sweet and deliciously tender, probably the tone she used for big spenders and frequent customers. Tso Lan looked at the woman and quieted the temptation in him. He was here to recover, not take advantage of a woman he didn't even pay for. He popped his neck and suddenly found he could not turn it. He hadn't even realized he couldn't until his head turned to look around the red room.

"Much," Tso Lan replied. His eyes came to the dark copy of Di Gazmagog, which was laying on a table with his material still in it. He got up to go and grab it, but he was back on the bed within seconds with a light head and a dizzy spell that almost made him fall over. The woman by his side clung to his chest and held him up as she stared lustfully into his eyes. Tso Lan almost wondered what her purpose was but the answer became painfully obvious to him within an instant. Then again it is a rather silly thing to have a whore cling to and make provocative movements towards one and wonder if she is or is not trying to seduce that person. Tso Lan stared at her for a second, seriously considering the repercussions of burying his face in her beautiful blond hair and ravaging her. Unfortunately for him his conscience seemed over active tonight and simply would not let him get away with such a thing. With a deep and regretful sigh he gently took the promiscuous beauty whose skin seemed as soft as fine Casmir and an apparent smoothness of cream and pushed her away. Before she could work her feminine wiles on him again he stood up, strode over to the table, and took up his spear. He felt a soft tinge of relief when he realized that he was actually wearing his pants; the upper part of his uniform was laying on a revoltingly pink loveseat. He moved towards it but found that the prostitute was between him and the loveseat, apparently not discouraged by his lack of interest in her perfectly shaped breasts and gorgeous body which was now visible. The little clothing she had been wearing before was now falling to floor in a way that would remind Tso Lan of the way leaves fall from trees in Autumn if he had ever seen such a thing. Tso Lan could feel his jaw drop slightly as his eyes fell upon the finer aspects of her luscious body, both those high and low. His mouth salivated so he swallowed, making the woman giggle as she took a step towards him.

"My manager wants there to be absolutely no misunderstanding," she said sensually as she took a step upon the soft red carpet. "That's why he's arranged for some free entertainment for tonight; for all the work that you and your friends are putting forth to keep this sector safe."

"That's," Tso Lan said. His voice was weak and pathetic; the woman giggled. "That's nice," Tso Lan said awkwardly. "However, I'm afraid that I'm not willing to learn the finer points of your sores and infections, thank you very much." She laughed at this.

"The Don makes a specific point of avoiding that," she said as she took another step. Tso Lan couldn't help but notice the bounce and perk in her beautiful, beautiful breasts. "All the girls and guys here are given regular checks and shots, so don't you fret."

"That's awfully nice of him," Tso Lan said. He made it a point to put specific emphasis on 'awful'. "However, I'm afraid that I… er… can't get up." The woman stopped in her tracks and looked at him with jocular shock.

Tso Lan had never been particularly gifted with lying, but it looked as though this one had hit the spot. He felt a bit of relief come up in his chest and almost let out a sigh. Without saying another word he walked around the very naked woman before him, whose details and architecture made him almost mad and retrieved his uniform. He set his spear down against the loveseat and was putting on the tight fitting undershirt when the woman hugged herself against his back and lowered her hand to feel his own finer parts.

"Oh," she said with a slight giggle. "I guess I've cured you. Now come on." She released him in one way only to grab him in another. As soon as Tso Lan had his undershirt on the girl grabbed him by the hand and led him to the bed. "That gives us all night to get to know each other."

"Shiny," Tso Lan said blandly. He was finding it hard to find new excuses not to do this when his pants were becoming several sizes too small. "Why are you doing this again?"

"A present to the hard working members of Shin-Ra," the woman whispered in his ear. "I'm going to take you to heaven and back, so just let me guide you." Something flickered in Tso Lan's memory, something that utterly distracted him from the naked woman tugging at him.

"Hard work…?" he said slowly. "What are you talking about?"

"That big bad beast you and your boys are taking care of," she said. "You've got it on the run so it's time for you to kick back and enjoy yourself."

It was then that Tso Lan finally remembered everything; the sewer, the creature, the battle, everything. Tso Lan pulled his hand from the woman's grasp and ran over to the loveseat, hastily shoving his body into the rest of his uniform. The woman hurried after him as well as her naked body could manage but he simply pushed past her to recover his spear before leaving. He turned around, setting the weapon in his belt holster, only to see the woman barring the door again. He let out a short groan as he stormed towards the door.

"Where are you going?" she demanded.

"Back to the battle site," Tso Lan said. "There's evidence there that I need!"

"But why?" she moaned cutely. Tso Lan clenched his fists in irritation. He had to go back, it was as simple as that. Why? There was evidence there that could help them gain the edge. There were statistics and projections that could be drawn from the battleground that would help him calculate the creature's movement's and attacks. Hell, he could probably find flesh and blood samples that would give him priceless insight into the thing.

However, more than anything else, and definitely most disturbing, Tso Lan was interested now. The thing was strange and alien to him, which was only bound to make his curiosity grow and grow. At first he had been terrified. However, now that he had survived this thing twice, he found that the terror was gone and a strange and odd interest was in its place. It was something that Tso Lan couldn't explain, something that both disturbed and exhilarated him at the same time. The whore, on the other hand, had ceased to be appealing and was now starting to find her nothing more than an annoying obstacle in his way. Tso Lan was no longer in the mood to deal with her. Tso Lan grabbed her by her free arm and pulled her away from the door. She resisted his pull and Tso Lan suddenly became furious. Tso Lan through her into the loveseat with a sharp pull that caused her to let out a small cry in pain. Tso Lan was ready to open the door and walk out when he heard the whore rushing towards him. Without stopping to think he turned punched her in the face. She let out a sharp cry and brought her hands up to her bleeding lips that were once so luscious and sensual. Blood began to flow from her small hands as she stumbled backwards and fell against the disgustingly pink piece of furniture. Tso Lan couldn't see but he tell she was crying now; it was quite obvious.

"Damn it," she muttered. She repeated this over and over again through her sobs and her blood, somehow enchanting Tso Lan to stand by the door, listening to her misery. "Do you think I like living like this?" she spat. "Do you think I enjoy waking up every morning and letting even the cruelest and disgusting men rape me? Do you?"

"So what?" Tso Lan replied. "What should I care about your poor choice of occupation?" He knew this was a harsh thing to say but he didn't care. He wanted to satiate his curiosity and this woman was in the way.

"You don't know what it's like down here," she said through her tears. Tso Lan could detect the pure contempt in her voice this time. "What we have to do to survive in the slums! You've got it easy, living on the upper plate!"

"Don't patronize me," Tso Lan said coolly. "I was born and raised down here, same as you. Except I decided to do something better with myself than sell my body out every day and think 'oh woe is me who has to suffer'. If you really hate doing this so much, why the hell do you do it? There are more things you can do for gil down here. If nothing else, save up your money and leave, just stop crying over your shit stain of a life!"

There was silence after this a cold and miserable silence that almost made Tso Lan wish he hadn't said those things, that he was going to put down his weapon and stay to comfort the woman. Then again that creature was still out there, and Tso Lan had the gut feeling that there would never be another chance like there was right now. That itself was good enough of a reason to leave. The faint sobs of the woman became audible after a while and Tso Lan opened the door.

"What should I do then?" she asked. All anger was gone from her voice, leaving a sad dread in its place. "Where should I go?" Tso Lan shook his head and stepped through the door.

"Frankly," he said. "I don't give a damn. Sell flowers or something." With that, he slammed the door behind him and left the inn. As he walked down the neon lit streets he couldn't help but look back to the brightly Honeybee Inn. There was no feeling of remorse, no feeling of anger, and no feeling of sadness. All that remained was curiosity and… something else; something that Tso Lan couldn't identify. After a few seconds, he turned away and began to walk away. Two men interrupted him, both rather ragged in appearance. Tso Lan didn't wait for them to pull a knife on them or even start out the mugging with a casual conversation. He simply walked by and cut them down with the cold weapon he held in his grasp. After that he walked to the scene of the battle, leaving the two men behind to drown in their own blood.

The entire way there, Tso Lan felt horrifically cold.

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The battlefield was worse than Tso Lan had remembered. The aperture in the earth was much longer, the destroyed buildings were still smoldering, the scorch marks on the ground were massive and the smell was absolutely horrific. Tso Lan replaced Di Gazmagog in his belt holster and began to look around the ruined street. The smell of natural gas was very faint; probably meaning Shin-Ra had turned off the flow after the explosion. The only thing left to do was to look around and try to find some scrap of organic matter, anything that could help him understand it better. The most logical place to start the search was around the long crack where the tentacles had come from to begin with. Tso Lan had barely walked ten feet towards his target when he noticed somebody else was nearby. He looked over his shoulder to see the Turk, fully dressed with his gun aimed at Tso Lan. The two stared at one another for a few seconds before Tso Lan turned around and slowly raised his hands. The Turk then slowly walked out from the shadows of his alleyway until the two were a mere ten feet apart. Tso Lan stared long and hard at the man on the other side of the gun, trying to figure out how he would get past this man and on with his investigation.

"To what do I owe this pleasure?" Tso Lan asked.

"You shouldn't throw away gifts so easily," the Turk said. "It isn't polite."

"I have more important things to do here," Tso Lan replied. He tried to lower his arms but a wave from the Turk's gun discouraged him from doing so.

"So do I," he said. With that, he lowered the gun, softly released the hammer and placed it in its holster. "But I didn't punch my girl in the face to get here."

"She was in the way," Tso Lan said as he turned to move back towards the dark chasm-like opening. "And, quite honestly, she was starting to piss me off."

"I can relate, actually," the Turk replied. The two stood side by side, looking down in the muck in the sewer. "I decided to let loose for once instead."

"Good for you," Tso Lan replied before jumping down into the filth. When he landed, he was surprised when his feet hit concrete rather than waist deep sewage. The plumbing had been off for such a long time that the waste had drained down to the floor of the tunnel, making Tso Lan's job so much easier. There was a soft tap as the Turk fell down behind him and motioned for Tso Lan to lead the way.

"Where are the others?" Tso Lan asked as the two progressed down their path.

"Enjoying the warm and full bodied company of our hosts," the Turk said. "I decided to leave them behind for this one."

"How thoughtful," Tso Lan said. He looked to his right and noticed the faint layer of mucus on the wall they had found earlier. It was now dried and crusty, marking the long time that had passed since his last visit. He ran his gloved hand over the crust, only to watch it flake off as he did so. There was nothing to gain here.

"You're not like other Soldiers," the Turk commented several dozen feet after the crust.

"How so?" Tso Lan asked, marking the hole in the wall that was coming up on the right. Werther had met his end here, but there was nothing that could be gained from that.

"You're just different," the Turk explained as he stood by and examined the twisted metal and stone around the hole. "It's hard to explain."

"Try," Tso Lan said as he looked at the wreckage. A thought suddenly occurred to him. This thing must also have something like teeth on the outside of its mouths to let it burrow. That would explain the fact that the twisted metal and destruction was projected outward. If it had been corrosive acid or something as such then there would be no wreckage at all. The strange thought suddenly came to Tso Lan that this thing was very much like an earthworm in respect to its tentacles. He took a note of this in his mind.

"How shall I begin," the Turk sighed. "Most of the other SOLDIER members are the type of idiots who run in head first regardless of the situation. You, on the other hand, actually think things through. You don't force your way in; you plot and scheme. I've been thinking that maybe you shouldn't be a Soldier at all. Have you ever considered joining the Turks?"

"It's never crossed my mind," Tso Lan admitted. He looked on the ground to find a flashlight that either Werther or Jack had dropped earlier. He picked it up, found it still worked and decided to use it to his advantage. Unfortunately, there was simply nothing to be found here. The creature had left no part of itself behind. With that, the next logical place to check was the room full of blood and pipes. "Anyway," he continued. "What happened after the fireball?"

"It worked," the Turk admitted. "The thing didn't seem to like the flames. Or it might have been the light, I'm not too sure. Either way, it stopped everything and fled without hesitation, so I guess it worked fine."

"Did it catch on fire?" Tso Lan asked.

"I think so," the Turk replied. "Though it might have just been all the shit it was covered in."

"Hm…" Tso Lan said smartly. The two had made it to the haunting room and found the door was still open. Tso Lan looked in with his flashlight to see that the situation had not really changed much since he had last visited. The blood on the floor was now crusty and brown but everything else was still rather disturbing. He climbed in first and found that he automatically looked to the Sentry corpse on the floor with a broken neck.

"Well now," the Turk commented. "What have we here?"

"We found two Sentry in this room," Tso Lan replied. "The on there broke his neck bashing his face against a pipe and the other one is gone. Probably dead now."

"I see," the Turk said flatly. He walked over to the pipes and ran his hand over the rust, closely examining it as if something was there that only he could see. Tso Lan held the flashlight up to shed some illumination on the scene. The Turk examined to pipe for a long while, leaving Tso Lan to stand behind him, bored out of his mind. A faint chill suddenly passed down his spine and he turned around to face the doorway. Nothing was there yet the chill remained. Tso Lan then slowly reached behind him and touched Di Gazmagog, only to find that its surface was cold like ice. He grabbed the thing and pulled it free of his belt. The gloves offered slight resistance to the cold, but not much. It was then that Tso Lan became aware of something, a faint whisper. He couldn't quite make out what it was but it was definitely coming from somewhere. Tso Lan began to walk out of the room, ignoring the questions and concerns from the Turk. The sound did not grow louder as Tso Lan entered the tunnel yet it still seemed to come distinctly from somewhere. With a small hop Tso Lan jumped off of the little raised area and walked through the darkness back the way he had come. It didn't take long for him to find origin.

Tso Lan stood before the gaping meter wide hole in the wall, staring into its black depth. He passed the flashlight beam over the darkness, illuminated nothing. A chill passed through Tso Lan and he noticed his hand was freezing. He let go of his weapon, letting it lean against the wall next to the rend in the stone. He then felt that there was something here, something he could use to his advantage. He took a step closer examining the blackness before him. The whispering began to fade and he noticed something. It was the soft and ongoing sound of running water. Tso Lan looked around to the pipes, but they were all shut off. The flow of water in the sewers had been brought to a complete halt. Tso Lan turned back towards the darkness from which the creature had initially come and he crept closer to it. He could hear a soft drip along with the trickle; there must have been a leak in one of the pipes. Tso Lan swept the light over the walls of the artificial cave, only to find what appeared to be a drip coming from a shut off pipe in the stone. The water dripped down into the hole and became a stream that ran down the bottom of the rock. Tso Lan peered in closer to get a better look and a low groan echoed over the rock face.

It was then that Tso Lan was grabbed by the back of his uniform and pulled backward out of the hole. His body was thrown against the floor and the Turk moved to stand over him.

"What the hell are you thinking?" he demanded. "Honestly? You think you can figure something out by crawling into the damn things mouth?"

"I-" Tso Lan began. However, a though struck him that killed all other thoughts. It was a plan, a plan quite insane and ridiculous, yet it just might work. Tso Lan looked up to the Turk with a hint of wonder in his eye, a hind that the Turk saw and let out a sigh of resignation. He knew Tso Lan had an idea yet he wasn't sure if he wanted to be a part of it or not. Tso Lan stood himself up, grabbed his weapon and began to run towards the sewer exit; the Turk followed for reasons unknown to him. Within moments they were out on the surface and the Turk couldn't hold his curiosity in anymore.

"Ok, I give," He said. "What are you planning?"

"I know how to kill the thing," Tso Lan said. It was a disappointment that the ultimate choice was the thing's death, but there were two conflicting issues. Tso Lan had to choose between his life and studying this thing, and his curiosity was not nearly enough for him to continue endangering himself to study it. "The think burns just like any other creature does so I say it should die like any other creature. There are still some gasoline lines that are left over from Sector 6's construction, right?"

"You mean before they built the Mako reactor?" the Turk asked. "Yes, I think so."

"We need to find one with some gas left in it," Tso Lan said. "If we can lure this thing out then we can catch it on fire."

"Will that be enough?" the Turk inquired. "Just burning it again and again isn't going to kill it."

"No," Tso Lan replied. "But it will die if we force feed it gasoline and light it up." The Turk stared at Tso Lan with a look of amazement in his face, yet he knew that it would actually work. That is, it would work if they could figure out a way to do it.

"And how are we going to get it to drink gasoline?" the Turk demanded.

"I don't know," Tso Lan admitted. "However, we'll need to get ready. I'll go find the truck that we had and try to get the radio working. You go back to the Honeybee Inn and get Brom and the others. Come back here when you do."

"Don't presume you can order me around," the Turk suddenly commented. Tso Lan was about to object but saw that the Turk was running off towards the inn. Tso Lan shook his head and wondered what his name was. It was getting tiresome to just think of him as 'The Turk'. Rather than finding out, Tso Lan turned towards the almost demolished building and saw that the truck was still lodged in it. The building looked pretty weak, so Tso Lan decided it would be best to find a safe route in first. He ran towards the front door, only to see that it had already collapsed in. A quick investigation of the back door revealed the same thing. Tso Lan scanned the building and saw that the second roof was close enough to the next building that he could jump across. He ran over to the next building and climbed up to the roof, only to see that much of the stone ceiling had caved in when the truck smashed through it. Tso Lan then stood quietly, uncertain of what to do. It was then that something happened that, for a moment in time, caused him to forget completely about the creature, Shin-Ra and everything else.

"Bridge," a voice whispered from nowhere. Tso Lan shivered and almost dropped his spear from the sudden cold. However, his interest was starting to peak to the point where he tolerated the pain and held onto it. He looked at the design and suddenly became aware of it. When he had first made his iron weapon it was a replica of one he had read about in a book. The weapon had been called Di Gazmagog, and it had been an evil which the planet had sealed centuries before Tso Lan had been born. Tso Lan shook his head, regarding the idea that this could be the actual Di Gazmagog as complete nonsense. His thought's moved back to his dream nights ago but he couldn't remember. However, the fact that this weapon could very well be the infamous weapon was too enticing for Tso Lan to disregard. He could have thrown it away right then and there and been rid of it forever. He couldn't though; the possibilities of knowledge and history were too great. Tso Lan didn't care that the spear was evil; he knew he could deal with it. It was then that the cold began to fade, leaving Tso Lan alone on a rooftop, holding a spear while he tried to figure out how to get to the next building.

"Bridge," Tso Lan repeated quietly. He looked at the gap between the two buildings and thought for a moment. There had been much furniture in the household. Tso Lan put his spear away and hurried down to the lower levels of the house, only to find a long table that was suitable to his needs. It was a struggle for him to move the thing to the rooftop but he eventually managed to do so. With that, he had his bridge and was soon in the other building, looking hopelessly at the truck. The thing had flipped over and smashed through part of the floor, making it seem as though it could collapse at any second. Tso Lan opened the driver door, only to jump back as the floor beneath him groaned and a few bits of concrete fell from the ceiling. A few moments of silence passed by and Tso Lan decided to try his luck.

The radio was unfortunately position in a spot on the dashboard that required Tso Lan get into the truck; the controls were too fine to operate with the blunt end of his weapon. Tso Lan very cautiously stepped into the truck, only to flinch in terror as the vehicle lowered ever so slightly. After a few seconds, he picked up his other leg and stepped into the truck. The structure held and Tso Lan let out his breath. The radio was in arm's length. Tso Lan grabbed the receiver and yelled into it, only to get static in return. After a few moments, he decided that he needed to start pressing buttons to operate it. No sooner did he start his little experiment and pressed a button did the static end and Tso Lan knew he could speak.

"Hello?" Tso Lan yelled. "Anybody there?" There was a slight moment before an answer came.

"Who is this?" a voice demanded. "Identify yourself."

"My name is Tso Lan; SOLDER, third class," he replied.

"Tso Lan?" The voice asked. There was another moment long pause which made Tso Lan very uncomfortable, sitting in the truck which seemed it would crash down to earth at any second. Fortunately, there was a reply. "Ah yes," the voice commented. "You're on a mission, right?"

"Yeah," Tso Lan replied. "Listen, we've had a momentary victory but we haven't managed to kill… er…complete our mission. We've lost one person so far. I have a plan but I need to know something. Are there any gas pipes in Sector 6?"

"Hold on," the voice said. There was yet another moment that made Tso Lan sweat in fear. "Yes," The voice finally said. "There is one near your location. However, the line's been shut down for years."

"Good enough," Tso Lan said. He turned to face the chasm the beast had created. It looked like luck was finally his. "Thanks." Then, before the voice could answer, Tso Lan dropped the radio microphone and stepped out of the truck. The metal gave a groan as his weight was taken off it. Tso Lan then looked around, trying to figure out how he was supposed to get out of the house now. The doors were both unusable and there were no windows. After a few seconds of consideration, Tso Lan decided there was one way out; through the hole the truck had made coming in. Tso Lan looked from the machinery that was the lower half of the truck to the hole. The soft sound of a stone falling somewhere made Tso Lan's insides twist in reluctance.

"Move," the voice of Di Gazmagog commanded. Tso Lan shook his head. It was going to take some getting used to, having an evil spear that gave orders. With dread in his heart and a sigh in his mouth, Tso Lan slowly climbed up onto the truck. It was then that all hell broke loose.

The ground suddenly trembled and a nightmarish groan echoed from the sewers below. Tso Lan fell down and grabbed the truck beneath him as it shifted and fell further down the house. Tso Lan swore violently as he stood up and saw the Turk return with the rest of the group. Brom made it a priority to point up at Tso Lan, which embarrassed him for some reason. Tso Lan was about ready to shout out a warning or something, but he was interrupted when a single tentacle smashed through the ground and rose into the air, towering mightily over the puny Shin-Ra members beneath it. Tso Lan decided to forgo caution and ran forward, jumping off the truck as it finally broke through the floor and crashed into the ground below. Tso Lan soared through the air for almost a dozen feet before hitting the ground and falling onto his back. He looked up and saw the creature falling at him and let out a short yell of terror before rolling out of the way. The creature smashed into the ground next to him, sending him flying into the air from the sheer force. He landed with a grunt several feet away from the being got up onto his feet and ran towards the Turk, who was laying behind a piece of rubble for cover.

"So," the Turk said. "You have a plan yet?"

"Yes," Tso Lan replied. "It's a bit odd but hear me out. The same pipe we blew up can still be used for letting gas flow. I'll send Brom into the sewers and back to the valve control room while we make cover. He'll find the gas and turn it on. When the gas turns back on, you stop this thing with you materia and the Sentry will pull it down and well get the gas pipe into its mouth. After a while we'll let it go and blow it up."

"That's retarded!" the Turk yelled.

"You have a better plan?" Tso Lan asked. "I've been working this out for hours and it's all I've got, okay? Now, I'll go tell Brom his job and you tell the Sentry."

"What did I say about ordering me around?" the Turk demanded.

"Get over it," Tso Lan snapped. "File an official complaint later or something!" With that, the Turk looked to Tso Lan simply grinned and let out a small laugh. Then, without a word more he rolled out of hiding and ran towards the hiding Sentry. The tentacle immediately noticed him and began to rush at him. Tso Lan responded with a blast of ice from his spear, which hit the creature right on its side and seemed to confuse it slightly. Tso Lan used this as an opportunity and began to run towards Brom's hiding spot. He arrived to find his partner still there so he threw himself down next to him behind his cover. Brom swore at him, saying how it was good to see him again without bleeding sores all over his body. Tso Lan briefly thought of the woman he had left naked and bleeding before letting out his fake laugh. Brom laughed along, not detecting Tso Lan's deceiving tone.

"What's the plan then?" Brom asked as he pulled his sword from its sheath and held it in his hands, adjusting to its weight.

"We blow this son of a bitch up," Tso Lan replied, carefully choosing his language to get Brom on his good side. After all, Tso Lan was about to ask him to do something that nearly amounted to suicide.

"That's great!" Brom shouted over the chaos and the creature's bellows. "How?"

"You go down in the sewers and get the gas going," Tso Lan said. "Go back to the pipe room and start opening shit. We'll cover you and deal with the thing. When you're done get back out here!" Tso Lan passed his flashlight over to Brom, who took it and stared at Tso Lan with a stupefied face.

"You serious?" he said after a moment.

"Totally," Tso Lan replied. Brom looked to the flashlight, then back to Tso Lan and nodded.

"I'm going in?" he asked. Tso Lan nodded again and Brom let out a laugh that sounded like a cough mixed with 'huh'. "Huge chance of death and little chance of success… What am I waiting for?" Tso Lan grinned. He was glad to have Brom here. Had it been Tso Lan that had to go down into the sewers he would not have done it. Perhaps the Turk was right; Tso Lan was different from most other Soldier members. It was then that there was a loud gunshot and the creature wailed in pain. Brom took this as his cue, hopped over his cover and ran towards the sewer. Tso Lan looked around the rubble in time to see Brom leap into the open earth from which the creature he was trying to kill had emerged from. The creature shrugged off its pain and took notice of the tiny morsel that was running past its body. Tso Lan aimed and fired off a spell of Blizzard at the creature. He clenched his teeth in concentration but his spell missed, leaving the creature to move towards Brom unhindered. Another gunshot resounded and the creature's 'head' moved off course, making it smash violently into the ground. Tso Lan aimed another spell and cast Blizzard again, this time hitting the creature where it had just been shot.

There was a tremendous wail as the behemoth raised its body and swayed back and forth violently trying to rid itself of the ice. After a few seconds it realized it wasn't working and simply smashed it's body against the ground again, shattering the ice on impact. It then turned its attention to Tso Lan's position and rushed towards him. Tso Lan barely had enough time to get up and run before the creature hit. The entire section of debris and ruined wall where Tso Lan had just been was smashed aside by the creature, like some massive hand sweeping away a small house of playing cards without even an ounce of effort. Tso Lan didn't look back; he simply kept running until he realized he was in very familiar place. He came to a skidding halt as he saw the back end of the Shin-Ra truck before him sticking out of the front of the building. It was then that he realized a flaw in his plan. There was a good chance that the creature would recover from the Turk's magic and resume its rampage before it had swallowed enough gas. There was no chance that the Turk could hold it by himself and Tso Lan couldn't help. However, the towing cable attached to the end of the truck proved to be a suitable answer. A quick rumble reminded Tso Lan of his situation. He turned around and saw the creature rushing at him, its mouth glistening with teeth and poison. Tso Lan didn't have the reflexes to move so he did all that he could, which was cover his face with his arms.

When the creature didn't hit him he moved his arms slightly and opened his eyes to see the creature had stopped dead in its tracks. Tso Lan looked around, only to realize that the gas was flowing and his plan was ready to proceed. The four Sentry men rushed up to the creature and flung their bodies on it, abusively taking revenge on the thing that had killed their comrade. Tso Lan yelled at them and they immediately moved back to the plan, pulling the thing towards the ripple of gas escaping from the down burst pipe. Tso Lan grabbed the cable and began to run with it, listening to the thing whine as it unwound. Within seconds he was with the Sentry and placing the creature so the burst pipe emptied into its mouth. Tso Lan handed off the cable to the Sentry men, telling them to tie the creature in as tightly as they could. They were more than happy to oblige and Tso Lan ran off to cut the cable. A quick glance over to the Turk told Tso Lan that the spell was starting to show its strain on him.

"Hurry up!" Tso Lan shouted as Di Gazmagog sliced through the cable. He hoped that Brom had gotten out all right. Seconds passed by and the Turk was weakening by the second. As the Turk fell to his knee in exhaustion, Tso Lan was only able to stand and watch helplessly as the creature escaped the spell and began pulling against its restraints. The metal gave a weak groan as the beast's sheer strength started to pull it from the cement wall and warp it. Tso Lan was overjoyed when Brom emerged from the sewer. Before anything could be said, Brom pulled out his sword and ran over the creature, only to stab his sword through its thick hide. Tso Lan watched as the blade entered one side and came out through the other, securing the creature's body around a pipe. Tso Lan could hardly contain his laughter at this. It was a brilliant idea on Brom's part and it would buy him the time he needed to finish this. Tso Lan ran up to one of the Sentry men, who snapped to attention in the most predictable text book fashion.

"Forget protocol," Tso Lan shouted. "You got a grenade?" The Sentry nodded and produced the metal cylinder, which Tso Lan took directly to the exhausted Turk.

"What now?" he demanded. "I'm about ready to call it a day you know?"

"Can you cast a Slow spell on this?" Tso Lan asked. The Turk looked at the grenade and thought for a moment or so as he breathed heavily. He eventually nodded and raised his gun up to cast the spell. As soon as it was done, Tso Lan ran over to the thrashing creature, pulled the pin and placed the grenade between the blades of Di Gazmagog before shoving the spear into its mouth. The creature followed Tso Lan's assumption about it and swallowed, dislodging the grenade and sending it to the creature's belly, which was now filling with natural gas.

"Time to go!" Tso Lan shouted as he pulled his spear from the creature's mouth. The four Sentry Men needed no further instruction and sprinted out of the ruined street. Tso Lan and Brom grabbed the Turk by his arms and carried him along with them. As they ran through the streets and alleyways, Tso Lan couldn't help but think of the creature, still stuck on that pipe and filling with flammable gas. His thoughts didn't last long. The ground suddenly shook as though and earthquake was ripping the city to pieces. A hellish wail filled the air and the ground began to crack and chip at its voice. Tso Lan, Brom and the Turk were all forced to stop and clamp their hands over their ears to block out the sand. Tso Lan fell on his back and looked up just in time to see an explosion of such magnitude that it illuminated the plate above them. There was a great and terrible wind that swept through Sector 6, knocking down anything not firmly secured. After a few seconds, the wind and the light faded but the wail did not. That lasted for many dozens of seconds until the flames finally consumed the hellish beast and killed it. The last that Tso Lan heard was a sickening gurgle as the fire consumed its body. The creature was finally dead.

It took Shin-Ra a few minutes to recover Tso Lan and the others. They were given medical treatment and yet another trip to the decontamination chamber. Fortunately, the field trip to Hojo's lab was not included on this and Tso Lan was allowed to go to his room. When he got there he leaned Di Gazmagog against a wall and didn't raise a finger to stop it as it slid down to the floor. Tso Lan simply fell into his bed and looked up at the ceiling. The creature was dead and all chances to study it were gone forever. However, he had merely given up a slight thing for a greater reward. He now had the spear Di Gazmagog, the weapon of a man so evil and destructive that the planet itself had to intervene. There would be time to study it, but now was not it. With a deep breath Tso Lan relaxed and submitted himself to sleep. It had been another almost ordinary day in SOLDIER and another completed mission for Shin-Ra.

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Hojo sat in his lab, looking out of the window towards the plate that hung above Sector 6. After a few seconds, he pulled out his little black recorder and flipped it on.

"Examination log 1:58 and… 4 seconds. Day two. The prototype organic weapon, code named 'Jet' has been destroyed by a small contingency consisting of two SOLDIER members, a Turk and four sentries. Total casualties come in as seventy-nine. Fifty-eight of them are dead. Although the formation of the creature is still a mystery I hypothesize that the Jenova cells within the subject were at conflict with the high Make exposure from the Sector 6 reactor, prompting rapid mutation and growth. Hopes for further experimentation are… ambivalent." With that, Hojo turned off the device and replaced it in his lab coat, leaving the lab in silence except for the sound of tired breathing that came from Jack's unconscious body. All tests had run as positive and the experiment would begin soon.

With this, Hojo smiled and went to work.