A/N: Sorry for the delay again. My updates are agonizingly slow, but I can't help for that. Daily life and same old excuses.
I don't own Sailor Moon, Final Fantasy VII(or it's Compilation), Final Fantasy: Spirits Within, the Prince of Persia, Kingdom Hearts, Pokemon, Cardcaptor Sakura, Shrek or Ice Age. They belong to Toei/Naoko Takeuchi, Disney, Square Enix, Dreamworks, CLAMP, Nintendo/Pokemon Company, Ubisoft and 20th Century Fox/Blue Skies. I only own Medge(the city in the present of this story) and Lusie/Chibiusi-Future Mini Moon.
Chapter 9: Rescue and Escape-2.
Back in the Past...
By the time Cloud and the others had reached the Gold Saucer in both the Balamb Garden and Shera, the group and the SeeDs were utterly shocked to find the entire theme park almost over-run by GMO soldiers who most were patroling main rides such as the rollercoaster, and some even guarding the Battle Square. Along the way, Reno was still coming to terms of either his death or the death of those he cared about, or even his former enemies. But he had done his best to focus on the new mission right about now.
The rest of the Sailor Team and Cloud who had secretly seen the redhead cry vowed to make sure no one dies and hoped that Sailor Moon, Sora, Ash, Pikachu and Meowth would be able to rescue Chale and return to the past before they get captured in the future.
"You gotta be kidding me!" Yuffie nearly shrieked when she and everyone else saw the large number of GMO soldiers in the now closed up and sealed off Gold Saucer.
"There's so many of them!" Dawn added, worriedly, while Piplup sweatdropped nervously in his trainer's arms.
"I thought you said there was only some!" Zell yelled at Cait Sith who groaned while rubbing his head in irritation.
"I dannea say d'at! I didn' 'ven tell ya's how ma'y d'ey 'ere!" Cait Sith argued, placing his hands on his hips while glaring at the young SeeD member.
Rufus shook his head, focusing on the sight before them while the pilots of both vessels quickly hid behind the hills to avoid in being seen the seemingly large numbers of GMO. "Well, that's problematical."
"I guess that means we'll have to sneak in and distract them at the same time." Mickey thought with a serious expression.
"Sounds like a plan." Squall agreed.
"Yuffie, Tifa, you two, Elena, Selphie, Rinoa, Rufus, Kairi, Dawn, Piplup and Goofy will sneak your way through to rescue Reeve and WRO." Cloud began to instruct a stragedy, "Barret, Vincent, Cid, Mickey, Tseng, Reno, Rude and I will take the west side of the Gold Saucer. Squall, you, Zell, Quistis, Jessie, James, Veld, Cissnei, Balto, Sailor Mars and half of the SeeDs take the East side of the park. The rest of you stand by as back up for both teams."
"Hey, who died and made you leader?" Jessie protested in annoyance. Who gave Cloud Strife the right to give out others instead of either King Mickey or the President?
Reno sighed, "Look, as much as I don't like taking orders from anybody else who ain't my boss, this is the best salution as we're gonna get if we wanna save Reeve's ass and the rest of WRO and get outta there alive."
"You're asking this guy to go do the rescuing?" Zell asked in disbelief, gesturing at Rufus, who ignored the comment.
Cloud shrugged, "I still don't trust him, but I trust him enough to not put him at risk of facing GMO's army."
"Annnnd you're leaving us to babysit him, right?" Yuffie grumbled.
"I think it's more of babysitting you, Yuffie." Selphie teased, "Just in case there are materia or other things for you to steal."
"What's that supposed to mean!?" The eighteen year old asked.
"Lassie, will ya please shut your gob!" Cait Sith groaned.
"I think we should get going before an argument breaks out." Vincent suggested with a sigh.
Tseng roughly pinched the bridge of his nose, sighing, "I couldn't agree more." Veld, Rufus, Cloud, and Squall all nodded in agreement with the Wutaiaan Turk.
"Why do I get a feeling something's about to go wrong?" James mumbled to himself, before whispering to Mime Jr who came out of it's Pokeball, "You don't go, Mime Jr. You just run away."
"We're all going!" Jessie growled, having heard her partner in crime whisper.
The blue-haired man shrank back, saying apologetically, "Yes, of course! That's what I said!"
At the entrance of the Gold Saucer, two GMO soldiers stood patrolling the area, when suddenly they were suddenly hit on the back of their heads and knocked to unconsciousness. Reno and Rude had snuck up behind them and were now pulling the two men from the future around the corner while making sure the other GMO soldiers haven't noticed yet. The two Turks returned to where the rest of the group were, stripping the GMO troopers off of their commucation devices and such before tying them up and gagging them.
Cloud nodded in approval before silently signalling the others to follow his and Squall's lead. The group silently crouched low and were trying to be careful on where they were going to avoid in getting captured themselves.
But just as they paused when they nearly reached the center of Gold Saucer, unfortunately, since James was behind Jessie, the latter's hair lightly tickled him in the face, a few hair strings touching his noise. The reaction of this was making him desperately want to sneeze and he tried to hold it back...
"Ah-ah-AHCHOO!"
Too bad he lost that battle.
"Who's there!?" One of the fifteen GMO soldiers demanded as they all went into alert, scanning the area.
AVALANCHE, Sailor Mars, Dawn, Piplup, Mickey, Goofy, Kairi, Rufus, the Turks, the former Turks, the SeeDs and Jessie all slowly turned to glare at the apologetic and sheepish James who shrank back a little for not being able to keep quiet and now he had alerted GMO which made things complicated for them.
"You've got a gift." Balto deadpanned.
"...Plan B?" Irvine inquired to Cloud.
"Fight our way through." The older man simply replied. "Barret...?"
"One step ahead of ya', Spiky!" Barret declared, but surprisingly in a whisper, as he was already loading up his gun-arm. Once it was loaded, he stood up from the crouched position and fired rapidedly like mad at the GMO soldiers who were just about to investigate and were quickly gunned down before they even had time to fire back at him. Mickey, Goofy, Kairi, Dawn, Sailor Mars, Rinoa and Piplup looked away while Jessie held a freaked out expression.
James had a blank expression before muttering, "At least we're not having a problem with mummies."
"Will you just shut up and stick with the program!?" Jessie grunted angrily.
"Over there!" An unfamiliar male voice shouted from the corner, as more GMO soldiers came torwards them.
Barret reloaded and fired again, and this time Vincent, Tseng, Elena and even Rufus stood before firing shots from their hand-guns while landing a bullseye on the GMO soldiers that were gunned down before more kept on coming. That's when everyone knew that it was time to fight. So everyone immediately stood before things went crazy. Cloud leaped up before slashing a killing blow at five GMO soldiers when he descended, before whirling around and slashed another that tried to come up behind him and then flipped backwards to avoid gunshots that were fired at him.
Irvine shot several shots from his rifle before he and those who had guns hurriedly reloaded when they ran out of ammo from their weapons before repeating the progress. Veld, due to his right arm having been replaced, thrusted it out with use of Materia, blasting a powerful Ice Spell which send shards of ice right at them. This was beginning to frustrate the GMO members who tried to take shots at the intruders but due to only being trained for gun-fighting, they were rendered useless.
Mickey preformed a triple air-sommersault while hitting one GMO soldier repeatedly before thrusting his Keyblade at a few more and then jumped onto the heads of the enemies one by one to aggreviate them, though it also distracted them to not being able to notice Goofy throwing his shield at them, knocking them out cold. Selphie and Quistis whipped their ropes at several of the GMO while leaping out of the way to avoid in getting injured.
Squall did a similiar move as Cloud did earlier and thrusted his Gunblade at several more of the GMO soldiers before holding out his weapon and fired a couple of shots right through helmet of another enemy soldier, killing him instantly. Zell prevented a GMO soldier from shooting him by getting up close and grabbed the other man's arms, kneeing him in the stomach, forcing him to drop his weapon before the younger man punced him right in the jaw and then kicked him on the side where the GMO soldier landed onto the ground, unconscious.
Rude headbutted one GMO before punching him squarely in the face and then punched another in the stomach in a powerful blow. He then grabbed hold of the man before tossing him right into four more GMO soldiers who dropped to the ground before the Turk punched the ground due to the guanlet of Materia he was wearing that increased his strength, sending a small shock-wave that blasting the five GMO men and trapped them in the soiled ground.
Reno dodge rolled to the ground as several GMO soldiers he was facing attempted to shoot him dead, but because of him being built for speed, he was too fast for them. The redhead then managed to get close to them and kicked upward at one of them, kicking away the high-tech rifle before kicking the man right in the stomach and quickly finished him and another off in a double combo punching his apparent main opponent in the face and at the same time thrusted his EMR right into the face of the GMO standing on his left when the man tried to give out a surprise attack but got the surprise attack himself, the front of the helmet smashed open and his face scarred badly by the Turk's surprise attack.
Dawn had Piplup use Whirlpool attack to distract many of the GMO soldiers who got caught in the Pokemon's attack, thrown into the air. Cissnei and Yuffie both threw their Shurikens upward to finish the men off before leaping out of the way as more GMO soldiers attacked, but likewise the men were either knocked unconscious or they met their demise. Balto simply slashed the GMO soldiers that came at him single handedly with his Katana before he spun around and finished three off in just one hit.
The SeeDs that were with Squall and the others used different combinations of their own weapons and/or fighting styles of material arts.
Sailor Mars used her Fire Ignight ability to try and roast six GMO soldiers who had the flames underneath them and were comically dancing to avoid in getting burnt, and despite that the flames finally settling down, they didn't notice until too late when Tifa and Kairi both approached, the former punching and kicking them into dreamland while the latter whacked them on the heads with her Keyblade while ducking in time when the GMO men attempted to grab her.
Rinoa used a Blizzard spell to freeze some of the GMO men before whistling out for Angelo who rushed over and biting the legs of the enemies, allowing Squall and Cloud to finish them off simuliationly.
Cid thrusted his Spear into another GMO before hitting five more that attempted to attack him by getting up close and even Cait Sith jumped and tricked on GMO into running towards the Gongula ride, shutting the door and locking it behind him as the man accidently left his weapon outside.
"Come on out, Carnivine!" James called out as he threw a Pokeball to let out his Pokemon, who as usual showed off it's affection by biting him on the head. "Not me! The GMO guys!"
The Pokemon then nodded and then under James' command, let out a series of Bulletseed Attack, knocking most of the GMO's rifles out of their grasp and knocking all of them unconscious.
Jessie had Serviper use Poison Tail to knock away two GMO soldiers at the time before the Pokemon ducked when it was almost shot to death. Even then, more kept on coming and it wasn't long before Cloud and his group were becoming trapped in a corner despite them recuding the numbers of the enemies, there was still so many of them, and by now they were getting exhausted for having to fight so many of the enemies.
"There's too many of them!" Goofy cried out, worriedly.
"We've got to do something!" Dawn added.
"Where's the Sailor Twerp when you need her!?" Jessie yelled out.
"Just wish we could've done a mission without havin' to fight for once." Reno panted, but still kept his guard up and refusing to back down, even if it meant this was a fight to the death.
"We have to get through or we'll end up imprisoned ourselves." Cloud grunted, not wanting to believe that this was the end. Suddenly he felt like he was facing what Zack would've died in if Sailor Moon and Mickey didn't save him that day, only this time it was different. But no, they can't give up.
Mickey stood firm, saying, "I guess there's only one way to get outta of this mess."
"Combination of our attacks?" Vincent guessed, reading through the lines of the sentence.
"Yup." The King nodded, instructing to everyone, "Fellas, we attack all together! Ready?"
Realising what Mickey had in mind, everyone nodded even knowing that this could be the end, but at least they were willing to try this and hope that Sailor Moon and the others can finish what they started. So, with the magics of Materia, Rinoa's Sorcereress abilities, the orbs of light from Mickey's Keyblade, Piplup's Whirlpool attack, Reno thrusting his left arm sideways with his EMR unleashing a surge of electricity power, Cloud thrusting his Fusion Sword which glowed blue due to the power of the Materia, Vincent, Tseng, Elena, Rufus, and Irvine firing several shots, Carnivine's Bulletseed attack, Sailor Mars' Fire Ignight, Yuffie and Cissnei tossing their Shurikens and Barret unleashing a large flame of Green Energy from his Machine-gun-arm which all counterpointed with the GMO's gunshots which met in the middle.
The group's attacks went through the GMO's gunshots and most of the enemy troopers were hit by the combined attacks from Cloud and the others, resulting a huge explosion which blocked everyone's few before both Mickey and Rinoa quickly used a Time-Stop spell to freeze the enemy troops in place.
"This way, lads and lasses!" Cait Sith quickly told the group, leading them towards where AVALANCHE, Rufus, the Turks and Mickey would recongise as Corel Prison, knowing that the rescue mission was a lot more harder than they wanted it to be.
Back in the 25th Century...
Sailor Moon, Sora, Ash, Pikachu and Meowth followed Chale down through a couple of corridors in hopes of finding Aki when they accidently bumped into another group that caused them to stumble back a couple of steps. When the group looked up, their eyes widened in surprise and relief to see Aki, Gray, Jane, Neil and Ryan, along with an elderly man in a operation outfit.
"Aki? Gray? You guys?" Sailor Moon muttered, surprised and relieved.
"...What're you kids doing here and who the hell is this guy?" Gray demanded.
"We came to rescue Chale here since he was brought here into the future by those GMO bad guys, and he told us that you guys got arrested too. It's a long story." Ash quickly explained.
"Do you know these young people?" Dr. Sid asked to Aki and the group.
"I met them while I was in Midgar in the past." Aki answered, before saying to Sailor Moon and her friends, "This is Dr. Sid. He's my mentor."
"Nice to meet you, Doctor." Sailor Moon smiled at the elder man, "I'm Sailor Moon, and these are my friends; Sora, Ash, and Pikachu, and that's Meowth. Long story short."
"Wait, what?" Gray asked, now shocked at what Sailor Moon just said when the teenager introduced herself.
"She's Sailor-" Neil began, shocked.
"-Moon!?" Ryan finished for his friend, also shocked.
Jane shook her head in disbelief, "You gotta be kidding me. Is this some kind of joke?"
Even Dr. Sid was almost completely speechless, "My word...the theory is true. She has come from the past before her sleep."
"...Say what?" Sailor Moon asked, confused.
"Can't we just worry about how these guys know you already later Sailor Twerp?" Meowth shouted out, getting impatient, "We gotta get outta here!"
"Agreed. This is not the place nor the time for this conversation. The Phantoms are at large already. We must make haste." Chale said in agreement, despite the distrusting looks he was retrieving from Ash, Pikachu and Sora, but the three of them and everyone else knew that he was right.
"Uh, r-right!" Sailor Moon stammered.
The twelve had entered another corridor which was see-through glass above and around them except for the floor when the entire building shook violently, causing Sailor Moon, Chale, Aki and Gray to end up a bit futher ahead of the others while everyone tried to keep their balance before it eased off, as the roars of the Phantoms and explosions continued on outside, while many air-ships try to fly away from buildings, but they keep on getting encountered by giant dragon-like Phantoms that easily flew through them, and the moment they did, glowing blue lights seep from the ships before fading into the creatures while the vehicles began to tumble over and fall, crashing into buildings and/or the ground, causing explosion, killing anyone inside them.
Before either of them could move, the Phantoms began to slowly rise from the floor, in front of Sora and the others. Except this time they looked almost physical as they were glowing bright orange now.
"The Phantoms!" Ash exclaimed, readying to summon his Keyblade.
"They arrived." Chale whispered as he and Gray were pulling Sailor Moon and Aki back away from the Phantom that blocked them from reaching Sora, Ash, Pikachu, Meowth, Dr. Sid, Jane, Neil and Ryan who were backing up to where they came from.
"But the others!" Aki protested, calling out worriedly, "Dr. Sid!"
"Ash! Pikachu! Sora! Meowth!" Sailor Moon cried out, echoing Aki's concern.
"Red Eyes'll take care of them." Gray ensured as he and Chale pulled Aki and Sailor Moon to the end of the corridor, leaving the others.
The four had found an elevator, and while Aki pushed the down botton, she asked while silently pleading the elevatio door to hurry up, "What's happening? Why can we see them now?"
"You mean no one else but me and my friends can see them?" Sailor Moon asked, surprised, wondering if being able to see the Phantoms had anything to do with her and her friends in the Sailor Team and in the Present and Past to see the Phantoms. Even Team Rocket can see them.
"It's because those who are connected to you are able to see them before." Chale answered to Sailor Moon before answering Aki's question, "They must be carrying a residual charge from the barrier."
Finally just as the four of them were about to be attacked by the slowly approaching humanoid Phantoms, the doors behind them opened which allowed Sailor Moon, Aki, Chale and Gray to enter inside and the doors closed just in time.
Aki sighed in relief, not seeing the tentacled Phantom through the glass behind her, but Sailor Moon, Gray and Chale did as they warned her before pulled her to the floor as all four of them ducked just as the elevator descended, just in time with the Phantom missing and the Elevator went down, the creature staying behind in frustration.
After ten minutes, Sailor Moon, Chale, Gray and Aki stepped out of the elevator to the bottom floor, scaning the area with Sailor Moon sensing the Phantoms close by, before the four went ot the right, running down the hall where military-cars and ships are held.
When they entered the much larger area, they stopped in shock, horror and sorrow. There were bodies everywhere; techs and guards and prisoners all littering the expanse the exit. Some lay as if they hadn't been expecting their sudden deaths, others had their weapons still smoking by their sides. But most had been trying to escape; trying and failing.
Phantoms were also coming out, but luckly further away from the four other humans. Gray then noticed a gun that layed a few feet ahead of them, and slowly and quietly leaned to grab it without getting the Phantoms' attentions. Unfortunately, a Phantom suddenly raises from the floor, causing him to jump back, and then he and the others made a run for it to their right, in hopes of escaping the Phantoms that were increasingly appearing.
But they couldn't get far, as Phantoms were in front of them too. They were surrounded. Three blocked their path, but Sailor Moon quickly summoned her Keyblade and despite Gray and Aki's protests, she slashed one downward which caused it to disappear, while Chale materialized a sharp dagger-tail, whipping it at the other two Phantoms into oblivion which cleared their path, but soon the four of them were again surrounded.
Suddenly Gray and Chale shootings that were destroying the Phantoms, and pulled both Sailor Moon and Aki away just in time. The shootings came from machine guns that were piloted by Jane and Ryan, while Neil had hijacked an abandoned vehicle, Pikachu was using Thundershock attack to electrocute some that tried to get near the car and Sora and Ash slashed other Phantoms that came too close with their Keyblades. Dr. Sid and Meowth were passengers and were holding on for dear life.
Neil came to a stop near Sailor Moon and the others.
"All aboard!" Sora instructed as he and Ash helped Sailor Moon, Aki, Chale and Gray into the vehicle, while Jane and Ryan turned their guns around to the back and fired again, while Neil drove the car to a lower, train-road like path in a ditch and drove off away from the Phantoms.
They drove onto a bridge that was now outside of the cell and into another building, while all around them, people tried to escape in more airships, but the Phantoms were quicker. Some climbed onto the front and sucked the lifes of the pilots first while others seeped up from within ships and swallowed the spirits of other people.
Those who didn't get inside the ships were also getting their souls sucked out of their bodies: Their spirits all glowing blue as they struggled to free themselves from being absorbed into the Alien-Ghosts while the bodies fall onto the floor, lifeless.
Panicking people who were left behind ran around, screaming, as one of the dragon-like Phantoms flies through one ship, killing everyone on board, as it then flies lifelessly towards the bridge and killing everyone else on that platform.
The group heard the screams, but knew that there was nothing they could do. This city was now offically another dead zone of this world in the future. Sailor Moon felt the guilt in her heart increase. If only she'd known about this sooner, then maybe she can try and fix things up. The question was how?
"We need to find my ship!" Aki requested.
"Where can we find it?" Ash asked.
"lf it was towed here from the Time Dimension, it would be in the military hangar." Ryan figured.
Neil slightly turned to him and mumbled, "That's a big 'if'."
As they were making their way to a large indoor building, just as Neil was about to fiddle with the gear, Aki screamed out when she saw something in front of them, "Look out!"
Neil looked he quickly steered the car to avoid burning wreckage of metel before pulling to a stop when a giant beetle-like Phantom appeared from the floor.
"Get us onto the platform." Gray ordered.
Neil tried to back track by going up a ramp, but had to stop after seeing a large burning metal blocking their path and turned the vehicle to be facing the giant deadly Phantom once more. They were trapped.
"Couldn't the Phantoms come any smaller at least?" Meowth asked as he quivered violently in terror on the urge to got into a hysterical panic attack.
"Okay, now what?" Neil asked, still holding the steering wheel.
Ash looked around before noticing a window leading to another area and then had an idea. "Neil, drive us through that room!" pointing at what Red Eyes realised was the Station the young Pokemon Master was referring to.
Not everyone liked that idea, as Neil, Jane, Sailor Moon and Meowth protesting.
"The Station." Gray cuts everyone off firmly, "We're going through it, just like the kid's demanding."
"It's the only way to get outta this mess." Sora nodded in agreement, and Ryan nodded as well.
Sailor Moon sank low into the seat, groaning, "This is not gonna be a fun trip."
Dr. Sid nodded before glancing at Neil, feeling unsettled, "So I gather this will be somewhat of a rough ride?"
"Dr, you've got a talent for understatement." Neil stated, before pulling the vehicle into gear while telling everyone to hang on, driving it towards the Phantom.
Then at the last second, Neil turned the wheel to the right, and drives through the glass, before the vehicle drives off the ledge and onto the landign bay, everyone bracing themselves. It crashes dislocating two tires and losing another. The group were crouched down.
"Guys?" Neil asked after a moment.
Dr. Sid rose up first, simply muttering, "Interesting."
Soon one by one, everyone rose up slowly, though Sora ended up groaning, "I'm gonna be sick."
"Not as sick as me, Keyblade Twerp." Meowth moaned.
"Is everyone alright?" Sailor Moon asked.
Pikachu shook his head before his eyes widened when he saw something that made the small Pokemon's blood run cold and his heart freeze. So he alerted Ash, "Pika Pi!"
"What is it, Pikachu?" Ash asked, before going over to his best friend, only to gasp as his blood and heart reacted the same way Pikachu's had. The eleven year old then hurriedly alerted the others, "Guys! Ryan's hurt!"
Hearing this, everyone moved to the back of the vehicle and saw that Ash was right, as their expressions turned to horror. Ryan, who also survived, was deeply wounded in his stomach, as a sharp broken part of the vehicle had managed to stab him when they crashed.
"Oh, god." Neil whispered in shock, before turning to his friend, begging, "Talk to me, Sarge."
"Ouch." Ryan managed to groan, in great pain, but surprisingly managed to hold back the strong urge to yell out in agony.
"Gimme a hand, Jane!" Neil told Jane who nodded, only for Chale to hold them back.
"No, you're only going to risk further injury, and possibly cause his blood to gush out." Chale warned them.
Dr. Sid nodded in agreement, "He could end up bleeding to death."
"Well, we can't just leave him like this!" Sora protested.
"Isn't there anything we can do for him?" Sailor Moon asked, urgently.
"We need the proper tools to cut him out." Dr. Sid told him as Aki handed him a silver small gun-like device.
"They're in my ship." Aki told her mentor.
Meowth, seeing the device, asked, "What's d'at thing?"
"Sleeping gun, it's a type a sleeping pill that places into the neck and puts people to sleep for a time being to be operated on." Jane explained.
But Ryan held a hand up to Dr. Sid, groaning in pain, "No. No, Dr. No drugs."
"Captain?" Dr. Sid frowned, before turning to Gray who replied, "You heard the man."
He then turned back to Ryan and told him to comfort him, "We'll find the ship. We'll be back for you."
"I'll stay with him." Sailor Moon voulenteered, not willing to leave the injured man behind. She wanted all of them to get out of this alive.
"Me too." Ash added with determination, and Pikachu shared this feeling.
Ryan shook his head and said, having trouble breathing now, "Nobody's stayin'...Just give a gun."
Sailor Moon, Ash, Pikachu, Sora and Meowth were greately worried and shocked that Ryan still refused their or anyone else's help. They turned pleadingly to Gray who knew that, as soldier, Ryan was doing this since he didn't want to run the risk of anyone dying by his side. But at the same time, the captain wasn't going to leave him behind either.
After ordering Neil and Jane to do as Ryan requested, the two handed Ryan the veichle's huge gun-handle for him to grasp, while Gray held his hand and says ensuringly, "We'll be back for you. You hear me?"
"I hear you, Captain." Ryan replied weakly, "Now get outta here."
"Let's move out!" Gray ordered.
Hesitating and now Sailor Moon feeling like it could very be Ryan's death that would replace Reno's death, she knew that she had to do what she can to try and save both of them and keep Chale safe from the Dahaka, before she and her friends, Meowth and Chale followed the remaining five of the 25th Century as they approuch a huge flying ship that looked like it could travel through Space, but as Aki told them, it can also travel through Time which is what she used in locating the Spirits.
Aki typed in a few keywords, and shortly after that, the platform crane lifts them up and into the platform of the inside of the ship. Once it stopped, they got off, and noticed another smaller vehcile, that looked like a drag-car thingy with a glass window that was shaped like a ball.
"What's that bubble-thing?" Ash asked, confused and amazed. It reminded him of the bathysphere Eliza and her family used to go underwater...which is what Angelica and Meowth stole to locate Rini, the babies and even May and Nigel on the island they, Serena and the others and their relatives were shipwrecked on for half a day a year ago back in the past.
"A quad-axle ATV. This is good." Neil sighed in relief.
"A quad-ax-what?" Sora asked, puzzled as he folded his arms in thought.
Sailor Moon slumped a little, dumbfounded, "Kinda looks like that weird Submarine Mr. Thornberry and his family had." before covering her mouth after realising she blurted out without realising it.
If anyone heard what she said, they didn't acknowlage it. In the mean time, Dr Sid was near the vehicle, saying, "lt can be used to retrieve Ryan and bring him safely here." before pulling up cylinder like things from the side, sighing, "However, we need to replace these spent fuel cells."
"There could be some live ovo-pacs in the hanger." Jane suggested.
Nodding, Gray began giving out orders, "Alright, Jane, check the hanger. Neil, get us ready for takeoff. The rest of you guys, prep the Quatro." before saying, "l'll go to the tower and rotate the airtray. This city may be lost, but we are not! Let's do this and get the hell outta here."
"I'll go with Jane." Sora voulenteered, causing everyone to stare at him. "Someone's gotta make sure Jane doesn't suddenly get attacked by those things."
"Don't slow me down, kid." Jane warned, though she had to admit that he had a point.
Sailor Moon, Ash, Pikachu, and Meowth glanced at each other while Chale nodded. Dr. Sid gathered head-piece phones for the group, and the four of them were about to leave the ship, Aki told Gray to be careful which he responded to her to do the same thing.
Sora and Jane hurried over to the hanger where a large contraption was held. The two nodded before the former stood guard, his Keyblade in hand, while the latter carefully put her machine-gun to the ground, and found a crowbar to yank open contraption that was holding the ovo-pacs. Fortunately, no Phantoms came, and Jane successfully opened the thing, where she found several of ovo-pacs. After collecting the entire case, Sora and Jane returned to Aki's ship while Aki and Dr. Sid were getting things ready for the Quatro, and Sailor Moon was pacing back and fourth, Ash, Pikachu and Meowth sitting on the floor and Chale having his arms folded.
The group then noticed that Sora and Jane returned with smirks and the case of Ovo-pacs. The group soon got to work in replacing the dead Ovo-pacs for the newer ones.
Meanwhile, Gray had entered the main control room and began typing down on the high-tech keyboard and such to prepare moving Aki's ship for launch before tapping to his commucator.
"Neil, do you read me?" Gray asked.
"Loud and clear, Captain." Neil's voice replied through the earpiece as the younger man was already in the cockpit. "This baby'll fly itself."
The two then got to work in beginning to rotate the airtray as the flight path was clear. It wasn't until Neil noticed a problem and quickly signaled Gray, "Whoa, stop the airtray. We have a problem. An impound tractor is attached to the ship."
Gray stopped it before going over to the window while questioning, "Can you disengage from the cockpit?"
"No, sir. Permission to go outside and detach the coupling."
When the captain saw what Neil was talking about and instantly knew that there was no other choice despite the discomfort, he gave the younger man persmission under order that Jane would join him just in case, and this time ordered Sailor Moon, Sora, Ash, Pikachu and Chale to stay in the ship with Aki, Dr. Sid and Meowth as he didn't want them to risk their lives.
After making sure and double-checking as they approached the impound tractor which was attaced to the ship like sucken cups. Neil, being the expert of hacking, went over to the control panel before grumbling that the controls were locked, which left him with no other choice. He layed on his back under neath the panel before yanking open the bottom and began hotwiring it.
During this while Jane was keeping guard, Neil asked her, "Jane, let me ask you something. You think we're going to get out of here alive? I mean, I wonder if anyone else has gotten out. You think anyone's made it this far? Huh?"
"Uhhh..." Jane mumbled, not sure how to respond to that. Despite Neil being an idiot, she had to admit that he did have a point. Did anyone else really got out and made it this far without confronting the Phantoms? She wished she knew the answer, but as she didn't, for once she simply allowed her friend to continue.
"You think this "Eighth Spirit" stuff is really gonna work against the Phantoms? And that blonde-haired teenager really is Sailor Moon's past-self? What if they're both just a bunch of mumbo jumbo?"
As Neil just finished asking that, the panel suddenly zapped his hands after a small spark, causing him to grunt, "Ow!" before requesting to the still speechless woman and not even remembering that he was the one that'd been talking for the entire time and had started the one-sided conversation in the first place, "Jane, do you mind if we stop talking? I'm trying to concentrate here."
Jane just smirked and instead just remained silent. Trust Neil to tell her something that he himself had started and had been doing all the talking in the first place. She was brought out of her thoughts when she felt a sudden chill and crept a couple steps. The area was too quiet, but her ears picked up a familiar sound, and not very welcoming. So just in case, she fired a shot into the air.
True to her suspicion, hundreds of Phantoms seeped up from the floor, slowly preparing for the kill.
"What's happening down there?" Gray asked as he heard the gunshot.
"Nothing we can't handle." Jane reported, before quickly firing away at the Phantoms before they could even get half-way close, shielding Neil who continued his work as quickly as possible.
"Neil, what's your status?"
"Almost there." Neil replied, and he meant it.
"I want you two back inside the ship." Gray ordered.
Neil smiled as he took a quick glance at Jane's wild firing range, saying, "We're fine, Sir. Jane is negotiating with extreme prejudice."
"Talk to me, Jane."
"No problem here, Captain." Jane reported, still firing at the Phantoms and destroying them instantly, the numbers quickly reducing, much to her and everyone else's relief. For now, anyway.
Back in the Past...
Cloud spun around which caused a huge impact on the GMO soldiers blocking the way towards the elevator leading down to Corel Prison, killing the enemy troopers instantly that tried to get to him and the rest of the group.
But just as they were about to enter the elevator despite that they would have to go group by group, sounds of rapid footsteps came behind them and when everyone turned to see, lingering shadows of more GMO soldiers began to get closer and closer, much to their dismay.
"Oh, come on! Give us a break already, damn it!" Reno groaned, but still readied himself none the less, as did most of the others.
"You'd better go retrieve Reeve and WRO. We'll handle things here." Vincent instructed to Dawn, Piplup, Goofy, Kairi, Yuffie, Tifa, Elena, Rinoa and Rufus who all nodded and told him and everyone else to be careful before quickly boarding the elevator and controlled it to lower them to where they need to be. The former Turk in the meantime, along with the rest of the group, stood firm for another fight against the enemy soldiers.
"These guys just don't know when to quit, do they?" Zell asked, exasperated.
"Welp, neither are we!" Mickey said with determination.
"My thoughts exactly." Balto agreed calmly.
"Not my thoughts." James groaned.
"Ladies," Irvine spoke up to all of them, "Less talk, more fight."
When Kairi and her group finally reached the bottom of the Corel Prison, it was nothing like she, Goofy, Dawn and Piplup were expecting. They were surrounded on all sides by vast amounts of sand that it was so hot that they and the others could feel it. The sand seemed to stretch ahead of them for miles, but they could see the outline of mountains in the distance.
As Kairi, Goofy, Dawn, Piplup, Tifa, Yuffie, Elena, Riona and Rufus disembarked from the platform, they were standing next to a large set of buildings, one of which had a large tube hanging down from where they had been so carelessly dropped to the bottom.
The land around them was also heavily laden with a lot of rubbish. Broken bits of metal, empty boxes and crates, anything that was of little use had been dumped in the sandy lands. Although evidence showed that some of it had been serviced for other uses, they were crude creations. Finally, a large barbed wire fence bordered the land around them, although in some areas the fence had been torn away, leaving gaping holes.
It's obviously gotten worse since Meteorfall two years earlier.
"Ugh. I really wish we didn't have to come back to this place." Yuffie groaned in disgust, "I forgot how disgusting it is in here."
"Not a good place to spend the weekend, that's for sure." Dawn muttered in agreement, while Piplup looked like he was about to be sick, to which she noticed and gently rubbed her Pokemon's head to comfort him.
"I wonder where Reeve around here?" Rinoa questioned, glancing around in hopes of finding them.
"Tifa, Yuffie, Rinoa! Mr. President and Elena. Are you alright?" A new male voice greeted them, causing the group to look up to see a man in his mid thirties with black short hair, small goatee and thin beard, wearing a suit that's similiar to the Turks' uniforms though had been covered in sand and dirt, along with several injuried men and women in military like greyish-white uniforms approach them.
"Reeve!" Tifa sighed in relief as she and others approached the man who is Reeve Tuesti.
"Are we okay? Forget us, Reeve! What about you?" Yuffie shouted, "Do you realise how worried sick we were about you!?"
Reeve sighed, "I'm fine. Relatively speaking. Sorry that I made you worried, but GMO caught us off guard and well...you know the rest."
"While it is a relief that you are alright, Tuesti, may I suggest we get a move on before we lose Cloud and the others topside?" Rufus inquired, just as the entire area shook all of the sudden that nearly made everyone lose their balance.
"What's happening now?" Elena cried out, worriedly.
Goofy suddenly felt a terrible feeling happening and gulped, "Gawrsh, I sure hope it's not what I think it is...!"
Back with Cloud and the others, they were still fighting off the now fifteen GMO soldiers with the numbers reducing. The group were getting beyond exhausted at this point as they were running low on cure spells and magic via Materia, or in Mickey's case, his magical core, and they were down to two potions left. Things were not looking good.
But none of them were willing to give up.
"...Any regrets, Cloud?" Squall panted.
"Over my dead body." Cloud sarcastically replied.
Just as the group were about to fight one more time, Cloud's group instantly stopped as did the remaining fifteen GMO soldiers as in the middle of them, familiar orange, ugly looking humaniod ghostly things emerged from the ground, some were facing the group, some were facing the stunned and horrified enemy soldiers. Jessie and James both screamed hysterically while clinging onto each other as they recongised the ghostly things, as did Mickey and Sailor Mars who both had their eyes widened in shock. Everyone else were stunned in shock and horror at the unfamiliar monsters.
"What the hell're those things!?" Zell exclaimed.
"...The Phantoms...!" Tseng muttered, almost as shocked as everyone else.
The Phantoms that were facing the GMO soldiers marched forward only to be taken out by the men themselves, but unfortunately, the tentacles from some of them managed to thrust through most of them, leaving only three left alive while the rest of them had their souls sucked out of their bodies which slumped lifeless onto the ground. As they realised that they were about to get killed, the last remaining GMO soldiers attempted to escape by abandoning their weapons, but were met with the same fates, and were instantly killed themselves.
"...Did they just...what in the...what's going on!?" Selphie cried out, horrified.
"This is what happened in the Mako Reactor that Chale took me, the two kids and Pikachu...! And I didn't even see it back then." Reno muttered, horrified beyond belief as his heart nearly froze all together at the horrifying sight before him, his friends, his superiors and his former enemies.
The rest of the Phantoms all quickly began to charge towards the group who most of them flinched in horror, until Sailor Mars quickly used her Fire Abilities to engulf most of them which they melted in a matter of seconds, while Vincent, Tseng, and Irvine fired gunshots at the remaining five just before the monsters could even reach them with their tentacles.
Just when they thought things were about to calm down a little, they all suddenly sensed a stronge dark pressence coming from their right and just as Mickey and Sailor Mars both gasped in horror when they realised who was about to face all of them, a strong dust of winds of sand sweeped right at all of them, sending Cloud and everyone else flying across from the entrance and crashing onto the ground, nearly crashing into the empty Chocobo cages, but their energy spend at the unexpected attack. The ground shook violently once, as all of them slowly lifted their heads and their eyes widened in horror once more as the Dahaka, almost twice as big as before stood halfway from where they landed, glaring down at them.
"...What the hell?" Squall muttered, eyes wide in shock and disbelief.
"No! Not that thing again!" James shrieked in pure horror.
"Care to explain?" Irvine requested nervously.
Mickey weakly pushed himself up, nearly tumbling in the progress before answering, "The Dahaka..."
"That's the Dahaka?" Zell asked, shocked.
The Dahaka growled dangerously as it began to approach the weakened group who all tried to get up as quickly as possible, before they realised that it was approaching Reno who was closest to both Cloud and Mickey who saw this and the two of them immediately stood protectively around the Turk despite the redhead's protests.
"What the hell are you two doin'!? It's me he wants!" Reno yelled.
"I'm not letting you or anyone else but me die!" Cloud argued.
Mickey nodded in agreement and said, "Or me! The Dahaka's more angry with me and the only reason he wants to kill you is because of the Spirit you hold! I'm not lettin' ya or anybody else disappear on my watch, pal!"
"If thou wish to perish with thy chosen vessel, then so be it." The Dahaka spoke darkly when it heard what Mickey and Cloud had both said, raising it's tentacled arm, thrusting it straight towards the trio who braced themselves for the impact and quick death, while all of their friends screamed out to Mickey, Cloud and Reno, but were unable to do anything to save them.
Fortunately, someone did manage to block the attack...but not without a price. When everyone looked to see who it was, a sudden chill entered their vains and their hearts froze in shock and horror and devastation.
But none more so than Reno.
A/N: Sorry for the slight cliff-hanger, but I promise to work on the next chapter and post it as soon as possible. See you real soon!