Noctis steps out of the motel blinking against the harsh morning light causing him to lift his arm shielding his eyes from the sun.
He looks up and down the road. His sight ghosting over the buildings and many people who pass by. Hoping to see Dave with Ignis at his side.
Noctis reached into his pocket pulling out his phone checking to see if he missed any calls or texts yet he saw none.
"What the heck...its been two whole weeks..." he grumbles "You'd think someone would know something." Noctis whispers as he looks up towards the sky.
He lowers his gaze closing his eyes sighing.
"Hey Noct, Dave call you yet?" The deep booming voice of Gladiolus reaches the king who looks up at the older man only to shake his head "Nothing...I'm starting to worry that asking the Hunters for help was a mistake." Noctis sighs as he straightens his posture upward and crosses his arms.
"Whaddya mean?" Gladiolus asks as he stands next to his king. "I'm talking about how they haven't given us a lead at all on Ignis." Noctis growls "I feel like they don't care. Or maybe they don't just find this as important as we do." Noctis says running his hands through his hair.
Gladiolus let's out a heavy breath "I can't speak for the rest of them but I know that Dave isn't going to rest until he finds us a lead on Ignis." He turns to Noctis "Prompto thinks we should head on up to Niflheim." Gladiolus says looking back out to the street "I think we should hold it off until we know for certain that Ignis isn't here."
Noctis puts his hands on his neck sighing "I just hate this...I don't know where to go, where to start looking. I wish life was like an RPG ya'know...with an object and map marked with where we're supposed to go." Noctis laughs trying to make the moment light.
Gladiolus nods liking that idea "If only." He sighs "Is Prompto back yet?" He asks earning a shake of the head from Noctis "I haven't seen him since last night. I called him but he didn't pick up." Noctis says as he starts to feel nervous "I just hope he's okay."
Gladiolus shakes his head "That moron...doesn't he know that he's making us worried...bad enough we lost Ignis we don't need to lose him too." Gladiolus says pulling out his own phone in attempt to call Prompto.
The sudden chirp of a Chocobo causes Noctis and Gladiolus to look up and to the left only to see Prompto racing up on the back of his clumsy red Chocobo.
"Guys! Guys I have good news! Or at least I think it's good news." Prompto shouts as he hops off his bird "Stay here Axel." He says petting the soft bird turning his attention to his friends.
"Okay guys I think I got a tip on where Ignis is." Prompto says enthusiastically "This guy thinks be saw a couple of Magitek and some guy with glasses enter this cave near Hammerhead." Prompto says his voice quaking with excitement.
Noctis and Gladiolus look at one another trying to recall if they ever seen a cave there "You think it could be him?" Noctis asks "I don't know...but I think it's worth a shot to check out in case he's really there." Gladiolus says looking to the youngest members as Noctis calls for his and Gladiolus' birds.
"All right, Prompto lead the way!" Noctis shouts once mounted.
Prompto nods as he mounts his Chocobo and thrashed the reins "Hi-Yo Silver! Away!" Shouts Prompto as his Chocobo races forward clumsily leaving Gladiolus and Noctis to chase after him shouting at him to slow down.
:7
They see Hammerhead coming into view around noon. "Hey is that the cave?" Gladiolus asks.
Prompto looks in his direction "Huh? Where do you see one big guy?" He asks looking all around them. "Behind the Cup Noodle sign." Gladiolus says pointing to the sign. "Only one way to find out." Noctis says moving his bird forward.
Rounding the sign, sure enough they saw a large hole in the rock face. "Was that always there?" Asks Prompto looking into the cavity. "I don't think so. But I know one thing if Ignis is in there we shouldn't waste anymore time." Noctis says thrashing the reins forward sending Enix, his chocobo, towards the cave. They climb off the birds once near the cave all three peer into to dark entrance "Please be in here." Noctis whispers as he enters the cave "Lights on guys." The king says looking over his shoulder as he clips his miniature flashlight to his chest.
"All right let's move." Noctis says as he steps further into the cave "Careful guys." Noctis says looking down "There's wires everywhere." He adds stepping over a tangle of green wires.
The further they go into the cave the narrower the tunnel becomes, "How you holding up Prompto?" Gladiolus asks looking over his shoulder. He could see Prompto starting to panic, his eyes were wide and his breathing was coming in short pants.
"Not so well." Prompto responds his voice trembling "It's getting h-harder to breathe." He adds sounding upset. Noctis looks behind Gladiolus and then back to the path in front of him. It looks like the tunnel opens up to a large opening with lamps against the walls of the cave and from where he stood he could see a bright orange generator with wires coming from it in the center of the room.
"Okay hang in there Prompto. We're almost to a big space." Noctis says causing the photographer to whimper.
Like Noctis promised they soon arrived in the opening causing Prompto to shudder with relief "Sit here and catch your breath, me and Noct will look around." Gladiolus orders.
Prompto nods as he watches Gladiolus and Noctis disappear into two of the various holes in the wall leaving him alone.
Noctis wanders further down his eyes ghosting up and down the hall seeing only trash tossed over wires with the occasional shell of bullets but nothing more.
Gladiolus on the other hand only found more wires leading to another room which held nothing but another generator. He walks further into the room his eyes ghosting over the various tools that lay scattered on the floor.
As for Prompto, when he calmed down enough to breathe normally he stands up and tries his luck with the passage directly in front of him. He steps through the entrance leading him into an entirely new section of the cave. The space before him is a massive room, big enough to be a classroom. The back is lined with cages each had hay scattered on the floor and each had a creature inside. Each one was contained a creature and daemon that they had encountered.
However the last one caused Promptos' heart to race, inside it chained to the wall was a man. The man appeared to be dead, his clothes were tattered and blood was pooled and dried beneath him. His thoughts going immediately to Ignis as he races up to the body as he prayed that it wasn't their strategist as he kneels next to them.
From where he sat he could see that it wasn't Ignis, but he was wearing glasses and relief washed over him. Standing up Prompto makes his way back to the main room where he is joined by Gladiolus and Noctis.
"Okay well this cave was a total bust. I didn't find anything." Noctis says crossing his arms. "Same here." Gladiolus adds looking at Prompto who puts his hands on his belt "Well I found a room with a bunch of dead things in cages, not going to lie there was a human in there but it wasn't Ignis. The guy did have glasses so I can see how the tipster mistaken him for Ignis."
Noctis rubs the back of his neck with a sigh "So now what do we do?" Noctis asks looking at his team. "Well seeing that we're next to Hammerhead I say we ask Cid for help." Gladiolus says "He has a friend in Altissia right? So through Cid we ask his pal to see if the Nifs came through with a Magitek." Gladiolus suggests.
"A golden Magitek." Prompto corrects earning an eye roll from Gladiolus "Whatever, but that's the plan we have going forward." He says as he begins to lead the younger brothers out of the cave.
Cid walks up to a big bulky red car with green racing stripes decorating its body. The car sat outside the garage a bit with it's front half inside as Cindy was fast at work tinkering away at its busted engine.
"How long you been working on this?" Cid asks stepping beside his granddaughter "Couple of hours now. Shouldn't be any longer until this puppy is up and running again." Cindy calls as she tightens a screw "Hmm. Well how's about a break? I picked you up something to eat." Cid says setting the plastic bag down. Cindy pulls herself from the engine and looks over at the bag from Takka's restaurant. Smiling she gives Cid a hug "Aww shucks, you shouldn't have paw-paw." She says but Cid only hugs her back before ushering her inside with her meal.
Once Cindy was inside Cid walks over to his usual chair and collapses into it closing his eyes enjoying the warm air of the late afternoon. He opens his eyes gazing at the land before him when something catches his eye, turning his head to the left he sees Noctis, Gladiolus, and Prompto approaching.
Sitting up his eyes widen at their appearance. It was clear that they had seen better days, they looked exhausted and run down. As they approached he could see dark circles under their eyes.
"You boys look like somethin' the cat dragged in tossed out and brought back, what the matter with you-" Cid pauses realizing that something wasn't right with the group "say where's that fancy dressed fellow that has the accent...he reminds a bit of Weskham." Cid says snapping his fingers as he tries to think of the name belonging to their party member.
"That's why we're here." Noctis says with a heavy sigh "Ignis was kidnapped. We don't know where he is but we do have a feeling we know who took him. We think it may have been Niflheim...Prompto says he recalls seeing a golden Magitek and a few ships. He thinks that maybe that Magitek took Ignis."
Cid looks thoughtful for a moment before turning to Prompto "You see anything else?" He asks him causing the blonde to shake his head "I blacked out soon after..." Prompto admits softly "When I woke up Ignis and the ships were gone."
Cid nods "Well if you boys think its the Nifs, I can give a friend of mine a call. Weskham is in the heart of Altissia. He runs a shop in that city, where it's located he gets lots of folks coming through. I'll call him and see if he has any information on your friend." Cid says standing up making his way to the back of garage.
Gladiolus turns to his friends grinning "What I tell ya?" He says crossing his arms "How'd you know he would do that?" Prompto asks sounding amazed "Didn't. I actually thought we would need to convince him to help us. I assumed all that what I said back in the cave." Gladiolus says with a laugh.
"Well I'm just glad it worked out." The king says as he looks into the garage.
"Well let's just hope Weskham agrees." Gladiolus adds "He might based off what my dad would say about about him."
XC
The first few stars had begun to emerge in the night sky when Cid returns to them. "Okay I have good news and bad news." Cid says walking up to them "The good news is that Weskham is willing to help you boys. In fact he says he is going to do all he can to help you out, says it's the least he can do for Reggie."
"And the bad news?" Prompto asks nervously.
"The bad news is we can't get to Altissia without a boat." Cid grumbles. Noctis steps forward "What? Why would we need to go Altissia?"
"Weskham says he's willing to help, but how will he know what your friend looks like if he ain't never seen him?" Cid snaps "You three will need to get him a photo and wait for any leads that may come up. Second of all you boys think your friend is being held by Niflhiem. You need to get to Altissia to get to Niflhiem." He adds.
"Now I can fix the ship, but it's going to take sometime. I say keep looking for leads here, who knows maybe the bots and crafts were all some big distraction they could still be here." Cid says turning back to the garage "Its late now, you boys best find someplace to stay."
With that Cid leaves them alone.
"Well looks like we're going to Niflhiem." Prompto says looking at the others.
"And Altissia, but it won't be for a wedding." Gladiolus adds. Prompto looks over to Noctis "Do you think Lady Lunafreya will be there?" He asks.
"Why wouldn't she? And why are you asking?"
Prompto looks away shyly "I was thinking that she could help us look for Ignis." He admits looking at his friends.
Noctis seeing that Prompto looked discouraged decides to lift his spirits "Well we just have to wait and see." He says "Luna might not know where to look or something." He says looking at Gladiolus for help but he simply shrugs.
"Well I mean she's the Oracle right? So maybe she could help lead us in the right direction." Prompto quickly says making Noctis scratch his head "I get what you're saying but that's not how it works." The raven haired king says starting to feel frustrated.
"We can at least try right?" Prompto asks his eyes holding determination.
Noctis nods "Yeah, we can at least try."