Chapter 8: The Chase

"C'mon guys! Let's hustle!" I called to my teammates as we jumped off the lift when we were at a safe distance and tore through the tower's doors. We were so focused on getting back, I almost forgot what was going to happen next.

'Oh shit! That's right!' I said as I stopped and looked up toward the top of the tower, my friends stopping as well and looking up when they saw me unresponsive.

A huge, black shape was up there, walking to the edge of the platform. Then, it leaped, dropping down towards them.

"Watch out!" I yelled before back peddling quickly. And just in time. A huge, black machine dropped down right where I'd been standing, the mechanized weapon landing nimbly on its four legs. With a thunderous, mechanical piston-like stomping sound, its legs spread out, balancing the heavy weight of the machine. The weapon turned its attention towards us, as if sizing us up.

Looking at the X-ATM092 on the screen was one thing. Seeing this monstrous thing in reality was a completely different thing altogether. It was huge, twice my height, and as wide as it was tall. It had a long, rectangular body, supported on four large, cylindrical legs, spread out like the legs of a spider, with sharp, clawed tips. It was painted matte black, excepting bluish designs on its legs, red markings across its body, and the steel-gray grating on the front of the machine. Behind this grating, something glowed a dark red, a sensor perhaps. Whatever it was, it was looking directly at us. A quartet of turbines in the back powered the machine, and a pair of black and gray metallic pinchers, like those of a scorpion, waved around like that of a real scorpion just in front of the gray grating of its "head." Aside from the designation "X-ATM092." Written on the side in blocky, Galbadian script, beneath it in hand painted, white paint were the words "Black Widow."

The machine, apparently finished with its analysis of us, stepped forward, its metal legs gouging chunks out of the concrete bricks below them. "Oh boy!" I said as I stepped back a few paces before looking at my friends. "Zell, can you distract it?" He nodded and gave be the thumbs up. "You got it!" He then charged forward and hopped over the pincers to land a powerful kick into the machine's front end. The sheer power behind the kick caused the machine to stumble back, almost through the Comms Tower's doors.

As Zell served his role well I turned to the other two. "Selphie, do you have any Thundera stored?" I asked. She nodded. "Yeah! A bunch."

"Great! Squall, you summon Quezi while Selphie and I cover you with magic," I said.

Squall nodded before he began to concentrate.

"Ok! Here we go!" I said before Selphie and I began to fire off bolt after strong bolt of Thundera magic while Zell hammered away on the things 'face'. However after the 4th consecutive Thundera bolt the machine toppled forward, Selphie's spell finishing the device. It dropped down into the ground and was still, and my fellow cadets breathed a sigh of relief. Not me though. I knew that it would take more than that to put this machine down for good.

My knowledge of the world of Final Fantasy 8 was quite extensive so I knew a lot of things that other players didn't. However it seemed that Sora had inputted extensive information about all things Galbadian, seeing as I came from there in my make up history. For example; I knew Galbadian computer technicians and programmers were quite skilled, and their programming capabilities were shown in their ability to program the army's military robot forces. They had even developed an advanced artificial intelligence program, which was still being experimented on. That AI program was capable of learning from its mistakes and adjusting for them, as well as developing new methods and solutions to a problem. Such an AI had yet to have been tested in the field, so the Galbadian military command had decided to put it into use on a relatively minor military conflict, to determine its effectiveness. That conflict happened to be the one in Dollet, and the AI was included in the latest model of the Galbadian "X-ATM" series, X-ATM092, along with advanced targeting programming, new weaponry, and highly advanced redundant systems with heavy armour. The engineers were most likely very proud of their new weapon, which they promised it would dominate the future world battlefield.

"Time to go!" I said before turning around and pelting up the path, my classmates close behind me.

After about a minute we had almost managed to work our way back up the trail to the spot where we had spied on the Galbadians earlier, and still had about twenty-five minutes left. My ears caught the sound of a familiar metallic stomping and I looked behind me to curse out loud. I knew that the AI inside that thing would repair the damage, but not this quickly.

"Fuck! I thought we had more time!" I said, making the others turn to me before they saw the Galbadian machine, hot on our heels, seemingly undamaged by the brutal barrage it had suffered earlier. "The hell?" Zell protested. "I thought we already busted that thing up?"

"Not a chance! That thing has an advanced repair system controlled by an experimental AI program! We're just going to have to outrun it!" I said, speeding up and not giving the others enough time to question how I knew this.

"Yeah! Let's go!" said Squall. The other two cadets nodded, and we hurried up the path, scrambling even faster than we had been before. We quickly left the machine in our dust, judging by how its metallic stomps faded into the distance.

We soon passed the cliff top where Seifer had observed the Galbadians and Selphie had joined us, and continued down the path. I led the group, while Squall and Zell were in the middle. Selphie was right behind them, only trailing by a few feet.

Then, a black multi-ton mass of metal, legs, and destruction leaped straight up the cliff face and missed Selphie by inches, its legs swooping down towards her head and almost scoring a hit. She cried out in surprise and ducked, rolling away as the machine landed nimbly on the rocks above the cliff top. It spun around immediately and charged again, aiming deliberately for Selphie once more.

"Shit! It's decided that Selphie is the most vulnerable and dangerous!" I said, a little put out that the AI thought that Selphie was more deadly than me. However now was not the time to be jealous.

We met it, the gunblade-wielding cadet hurling a Thundara at the machine while the martial artist and I dished out a mighty flying kick and several bullets into its grille. The spider machine was knocked off-balance for a second, long enough to allow Selphie to recover and add her own Thundara spell to the attack while Squall joined Zell in close-quarters combat and I hung back to guard Selphie and occasionally summon a bolt of Thundara.

X-ATM092 took several damaging blows to its front before stepping back and turning to the left, almost defensively. Squall and Zell followed up, trying to disable the machine quickly. But they realised almost too late that the bot had done a feint move as the machine's forward right leg shot out in a sweeping slash. Zell backflipped out of its way, but Squall took the clawed end across the chest and was knocked off his feet. The machine came right in behind its own attack, stomping over to the downed cadet and attacking him with a pair of raised pinchers, which dove down at Squall's prone form.

In a flash I had removed Ragnarok and had blocked the machine's advance on Squall. "Move Squall!" I yelled at him as he looked at me in shock. He quickly regained his senses and scrambled out of the way as Selphie cast a Cure spell on him.

Then Zell jumped over my head and pounded away with superhuman strength into the weapon's front grille. A third Thundara struck the machine, which still stubbornly stood. It stomped forward, forcing Zell back. The machine shifted its angle slightly, bringing it in line with Selphie once more.

A fourth powerful Thundara blasted the machine's backside, hitting its turbines precisely, courtesy of Squall, who was now located behind the weapon. The electrical blast overloaded and destroyed several of the turbines, and the weapon stumbled, losing power to critical systems. Its legs suddenly stopped moving, but forward momentum still carried it towards Selphie. She dove out of the way, barely getting clear as the huge weapon hurtled past.

And then it fell right over the edge of the cliff, tumbling down to smash into the concrete bricks below. It didn't move.

"Ouch," I said as I looked over the edge. I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned to see Squall.

"Thanks," he said simply.

"No problems!" I said.

"So is there any reason why it seemed to target me?" asked Selphie as we began to run down the path.

"As I hail from Galbadia I know quite a lot of their many dirty little secrets. One of them was a experimental AI, or artificial intelligence. It's probably been uploaded into that thing for field testing. I think that it's been programmed to learn from its mistakes and adjust to them, as well as develop new strategies to a problem. The problem being us," I explained as we stomped down the path.

"So is it dead?" asked Zell. At that point a familiar metallic stomping assaulted our ears. "Aw, hell no!" Zell denied, looking over his shoulder. The weapon was once more on its feet, and had leaped back up to the spot where it had ambushed us minutes ago. Still, that was a fairly great distance, and the machine only looked like a distant and ominous black shape up there.

"Let's try to put some distance between us and it," I said as we stepped on the gas and charged forward.

I looked behind me. The spider machine still stood up there, looking ominous yet impotent. I could still see the faint red glow of its sensors, even at this distance.

'Creepy,' I noted in my head.

"Indeed," said the new GF.

'Ah, hello there. I assume that Shiva and Ifrit have explained the situation to you?' I asked.

"Yes," she replied. "My name is Amaterasu. I'm the GF for Light. I use light to attack, blind, confuse or just to light up the area. Undead don't fare well against me."

'I see. What form do you take?'

"A white nine tailed fox."

'Wow!' I said.

While I was having this conversation I had deliberately slowed down for the other three teenagers to pass me. As they passed me they looked at me questioningly.

"Don't worry. I'll guard you rear's and scout behind to make sure there's no sneak attacks." They nodded before continuing on. As we got to the bottom of the stairs I looked back.

It was no longer at the top. Instead, the multi-ton killing machine came right down the side of the mountain, leaping the entire distance to slam down onto the steps no more than ten feet behind me. But I had anticipated this and had jumped backwards before it came in contact with the ground. I landed several meters away and held Ragnarok in a guard stance.

It didn't advance. Instead the machine was spreading its legs out wide, as if bracing itself. Both its pinchers folded up around its head, and suddenly, steam poured out from its turbine engines, rising up over the machine's back. A glowing ball of energy began forming directly underneath the machine's "face."

"Oh SHIT!" I yelled loudly before a yellow beam shot out from that ball, striking the ground right in front of me.

Then I was airborne, hurled up and back by the force of the explosion as the machine's attack blew the ground at my feet apart like an artillery shell. I came down almost right on top of Zell, who, along with Squall and Selphie, had spun around to face the suddenly very real danger that the machine posed once more.

Selphie wasted no time launching another Thundara the machine's way. The electrical blast staggered the machine as it had before, but didn't come close to stopping it. In response, the weapon set its feet once more, and a second ball of energy formed.

Wasting no time I thrust Ragnarok into the ground and pulled out Oblivion. An accurate shot to the middle of the ball of energy destabilized it. The energy literally blew up in its face. A large column of smoke was thrown up and when it cleared, the X-ATM092 was on its side once again, but this time it looked like it was dead. The head was horribly disfigured and melted. In some places the underneath was showing; electricity sparking from those areas.

I spun the black gun in my hand and holstered the weapon. "Let's go!" I said and we continued forward. We arrived at the bridge and sped over it to move into the city. Dollet's streets were as empty now as they had been before, and Squall, Zell, Selphie and I hurried through them, knowing we didn't have much time to get to the beach. The tall buildings loomed up overhead like the rock walls of the mountain trails had minutes ago.

"Seven minutes!" Squall warned us as we saw the Central Square ahead.

Then, the impossible happened.

Thunderous metallic clanging sounded down the street behind us.

As one, we spun around, and saw X-ATM092 charging down the street, still bent on its singular purpose.

"Motherfucker!" I swore loudly.

"That . . . No way!" Zell shouted. "That's impossible! It's supposed to be dead!"

"Go!" I shouted, spinning back towards the Central square. "Go! Go!" We took off and charged down the street, the machine hot on our heels. I looked back over my shoulder to see the machine closing in even faster to us.

As we entered the Central Square, Squall spun around next to the fountain and focused, closing his eyes tightly. It looked like he was focusing for a GF attack.

"Squall!" Selphie shouted, noticing he'd stopped.

"What the hell are you doing?" Zell also shouted.

"Get out of here," Squall responded quietly, barely audible over the sound of the metallic clanging as X-ATM092 neared the Square. "I'll hold it."

"But-!" Selphie began, but Zell only nodded and grabbed her by the shoulder.

"We gotta move!" he replied, and ran down the street towards the beach. "We don't wanna be here when that thing arrives!" Selphie hesitated, then turned and ran as well.

I walked across to stand beside Squall. "What do you think you're doing?" he asked quietly, still focusing.

"Sorry but as the second in charge since the captain abandoned us, I'm not leaving behind my subordinate," I said calmly. I drew my sword, ready to defend Squall if needed. Moments later, X-ATM092 stomped into the Central Square. It took a step towards us, but then paused, seeming to realise Squall was summoning a GF. Its legs spread outward, and the turbines pumped once more, and the DH-22 Ray Bomb powered up.

Then Squall opened his eyes, his summoning complete.

The skies above Dollet, or rather, just above the Square, suddenly sported ominous, spiralling storm clouds. Rain began to pour down upon the Central Square, drenching my hair to my head. Then, from the centre of the spiralling clouds, a single mighty lightning bolt struck the ground. But, instead of scoring the concrete pavement, from the impact point rose a spinning yellow entity.

It took on the form of a mighty yellow bird as it continued spinning, rising up and growing bigger, crackling blue electricity running along its length as if demanding to be released. Within an instant, the creature had fully manifested, a great yellow bird with black markings across its body. Except this bird had no feathers, or beak, or even face. Its neck and head resembled that of a serpent's, but without eyes or mouth. In fact, the whole body was smooth and yellow, with many white lights playing across its surface as it hovered in the air for an instant.

Quezacotl looked down on its foe, and then the lightning Guardian Force's head snapped forward, seeming to spew lightning from where the mouth would have been on a snake. The lightning swiftly surrounded X- ATM092, then began to form a dome of electrical energy around the weapon, high above the ground. From the apex of this dome, a single brilliant bolt of energy lanced down, striking the weapon dead centre and sending tremendous amounts of electricity throughout the machine. Components exploded, the turbines blew apart, and within an instant, X-ATM092 was down once more, this time at Quezacotl's hands.

Its duty done, the Guardian Force faded away. Squall began to retreat but I stayed my ground. He turned to see my lack of movement.

"Josh! We need to go!" he said.

I turned to him to see his worried face. It looked like he had an inkling that the X-ATM092 wasn't out and he didn't want to stick around.

"Sorry, but I need to stay here to strike it out of commission," I said.

"But why? We can escape onto the boat before it gets to us," Squall tried to reason.

"And if we do? Then the X-ATM092 will just turn on anyone left inside the city. It's certainly smart enough to play dead until the city folk return. And then it'll attack. I'm going to stay here to make sure that doesn't happen. Plus you three are tired and spent. You three would be easy targets. There's a saying. 'Those who break the rules are scum. But those who abandon their comrades are worse than scum.' I consider you three my comrades and I will protect my precious people!" I then turned back to the X-ATM092 and summoned my wings into view. I heard Squall gasp at the sight. "Go Squall. There's no way I'm dying yet. I'll meet you at Balamb... I promise."

Squall paused before nodding and running towards the beach.

I then walked up to the already rising X-ATM092 and, using focused Ki energy in the sword, sliced off one of its legs, preventing it from getting up. "Your purpose ends here and now."

"Shiva. I'd like to summon you in your real form," I asked, not really caring that I was speaking out loud.

"Glad to do so!" she said lively before a large amount of power began to build up inside me. The power reached a peak before it left me. Small tendrils of icy energy spiralled around me for a moment before 5 huge ice crystals were summoned out of no-where and they all smashed into the ground at one point, creating a sort of flower. Then a glowing, transparent female form with large tentacle like appendages flowing from her head drifted down from the heavens and seemed to meld into the ice. She then changed into a blue skinned woman with 14 very thick bundles of blue hair bounded with gold material in a couple of places per bundle. In some cases there was a gold ring attached to the end of some of these hair bundles. In addition there was a long, thin plat that extended almost all the way down to her feet. The end had a gold ring with the bottom half fitted with pale blue feathers. She was clad in a very skimpy outfit that had me blushing at the sight of her generous curves. One breast was covered with clothing whereas the other was covered with a sheet of ice. Attached to the right side of her hip was a bright indigo coloured piece of clothing looking like half a skirt. It took me a couple of seconds of ogling her to realise that I was looking at the Final Fantasy X form of Shiva.

She looked at me slyly before walking up to me in a very sensual way; her hips swaying, her perky E-cup breasts bouncing slightly with each step and her long, toned and sexy legs stepping elegantly. She walked right up to me and I realised that she was a couple of feet taller than me. My head was in line with her very large breasts. She then bent over to look into my eyes at eye level. I looked back and was transfixed.

Her eyes were a very exotic mix of amethyst purple and sapphire blue. I thought my heart skipped a few beats in a row from staring into her beautiful eyes. She then smiled and tapped me on the nose. I expected her touch to flash freeze me into a meat popsicle but her touch was unexpectedly warm. She then spoke.

"What say I rid Dollet of this menace before we go home?" she asked, her voice rich, melodious and calming.

"...yeah," I said dreamily, still locked in place from her beauty. I was then shocked out of my hormone misted state when X-ATM092 tried to get up and failed, creating a loud clang.

"Well, time to see what you got!" I said as Shiva prepared her move.


-] Third POV [-

Currently Squall, Selphie, Zell, Seifer, Quistis and Zu were crowded round the screen showing the city of Dollet as their vessel moved into deeper waters.

"I know what I saw and he grew black wings," said Squall stubbornly.

"Uh, you sure you weren't hallucinating from all the adrenaline in your veins?" asked Zell worriedly.

"No I didn't. I..." he would of continued but a bright light suddenly filled the screen. Worried, Squall, Zell, Selphie and Quistis climbed up the ladder to the top gun and squeezed onto the small platform. They looked at the direction of Dollet and gasped.

A bright pillar of ice blue energy had shot up from Dollet and was now suspended there. Quistis took a pair of small binoculars and looked at the light with them. It looked like a massive amount of energy was rising into space. Then the energy died down and what was left was a ten mile high thin spike of glittering ice. Squall took out his own pair and checked near the top.

Completely frozen and impaled was the X-ATM092, about 9/10ths up. From his view the ice was creeping into the X-ATM092's cracks and gaps in the armour, freezing it completely. The X-ATM092 was still trying to escape, still trying to get to its targets. But it was rapidly slowing down as the ice continued to seep into its electronics and power cells. Eventually it stopped completely, this time really dead. However to make sure it really was the spike of ice shattered into billions and billions of pieces, taking the X-ATM092 with it, completely shredding its insides.

"What was that?" asked Zell as the other two were silent in awe.

"I think that was a sample of the true power a GF is capable of," said Squall.


AN: Another chapter and the close of the Dollet mission. Reviews please. Let me know what you think.

Update 31/12/2011: A few small changes, mainly the size of Shiva's breasts and her height.