Raspberry Polar Bear - Yes, the search begins! The clock is ticking away, and the Turks need to get to the cave in time... but they don't even know where the cave is yet! Muwahahaha. A lot of Elena (well, more than usual) in this chapter... I was disappointed that Tseng and Elena didn't play major roles in AC as much as the other two did. Well, Crisis Core is supposed to have Tseng, so now I'm going to get PSP for my college gift!
Crazy Bubbling Blonde - Thanks! The characters are based on actual people (including Reno... who would have thought that an OCD case horribly gone plus ADD actually existed, right?), so I'm hoping Arien isn't too Sue-ish. (Some people called her anti-sue... don't know what that's supposed to mean...) I was going to have ElenaxReno first, but after thinking about it, I realised it didn't really work out. Elena's too crazy about Tseng :-P
Echo the Ethereal Swordmast... - Michele will be making her appearance, don't worry! She'll be making an appearance in... 2 chapters or so. And yes, Reno doesn't like her... (Arien does :-P) Well, he finds her annoying. I'm still thinking about finding Rude a girlfriend... but apparently Rude had a very tragic romance story to his background (it's from Wikipedia, so not really a reliable source). Maybe that's why he's shy?
Moonshine's Guide - Andora's dead for good, and good riddance too... and I can't see for the life of me why exactly she wanted to get into Reno's pants. Well, actually, yes, I do, but that's NOT THE POINT! The fish mutated because of the Junon underwater mako reactor (remember in the game when Reno was transporting the Huge Materia and brought out a robot?). Clarissa's disease is probably not something we know... (good excuse)
This chapter isn't really well written, because long expositions get in the way of creating speed and tension. Lots of actions here, and lots of yelling and shouting. Also materias come to play.
I really hate it (as a writer) when Square-Enix comes up with new backgrounds that negate my version... yes, I've found lots of discrepancies now that DC, BC and CC are in Square-Enix list of games.
Anyway, enjoy!
Chapter 13: Nothing's Ever Easy
The bag contained a large machine with a drill at the front, some papers, a stack of yellow bars that Reno identified as glow-bars, a box of hand grenades, clips, three objects that looked like headphones with monocles attached, ribbons, a coiled length of rope with a hook attached at the end, and a spare EMR. "Rude packed this," Reno said, looking through the bag.
"How do you know?"
"Because he always put in a spare EMR. Dunno why." He pulled it out, and jammed it into his belt.
"Maybe for the occasions when the battery runs out?" Arien asked.
"This doesn't run on battery."
"Then what does it use as the power source?"
"Dunno. Never checked." Reno grinned at Elena and Arien, who sported identical surprised expressions. "What? As far as it works, I don't give a shit how it works."
Arien shook her head, and pulled out the headphones. She put one on her head, then pulled the lens down and flipped it in front of her right eye.
"There's a note from Tseng," Elena said, reading the papers.
"What does he say?"
"Nothing. Just the missive from Rufus and how to use the cameras." Elena picked the other headphone up. "There's the button on the ear portion on the left. It's the on off button."
"How do we record?"
"Just say record."
"Playback?"
"Say playback."
"Voice-operated, huh?" Reno said, picking up the last one. "Guessing that for stop and play, you say stop and play."
Elena nodded.
"What's the missive?" Arien asked.
"Vince's tracking resurfaced… we're to return to The Edge once we complete this phase of the mission, then proceed to the next phase with the recruits." Elena read. "Received contact from the librarian. Says she received a message from an unknown source regarding the heir."
"From a librarian?" Arien reiterated.
"That's what it says." She folded the paper and shoved them into her pocket. "Let's take everything and leave the bag here."
"Arie, I need to borrow your pistol." Arien rolled up slacks again, retrieved the pistol from the holster.
"We should re-sort our materia and sort our stuff," said Reno, sitting Indian-style on the floor after making sure that the place was dry and clean. Elena sat down across from him; Arien found a place between the two. Without words the three began to remove the materia from their bodies; a few were produced from wrist guards, many from the weapons they carried.
"How many do we have?" Reno asked after rolling out his last from the EMR.
"Erm…" Arien counted. "Twenty-six."
"Color and count?"
"Purple, three; blue, four; yellow, two; red, five; green, twelve."
"Status?"
"Almost all of them are masters."
"Okay." Reno gathered the materia, then started to roll them out. 'Elena, you get the protectives and Lightening." He rolled out Barrier, Heal, Lightening, Restore, Revive, Phoenix, All, and Quadra-Magic.
"Reno," Arien whispered, "Why exactly are we overloaded with materia?"
"Because we can't carry anything except our weapons and our camcorders," Reno replied as sorted the materia.
"Why?"
"Because we'd be weighed down, and we won't have time to use items in battle anyway." He rolled Ice, Poison, Bahamut Zero, Knights of the Round, Shield, Time, Ultima, Manipulate, Typhoon, All and Cover to the brunette, keeping Ice, Shield, Shiva, Sense, Destruct, All, Super Enemy-All, and Speed Plus to himself. "Aw come on," he continued, "do you really expect to pull out stuff and start using them? The buggers'll be eating a six-course dinner while they wait, yo!"
"...I didn't say anything," Arien muttered quietly. "And why am I the one who gets most of the materia?" She asked as she snapped them into place.
"Because you have the most MP, and you aren't real aggressive," Reno replied, also snapping his materia into the EMR and his bracers. "I need Elena alive, because she's the only one who can read this shit. You're better than me at using magic, yo. Don't worry, your Ice isn't mastered."
"Thanks," said the Turk dryly.
"No problemo," said the redhead as he distributed the camcorders and ribbons. "Arie, give your other pistol to Elena. Don't worry, Laney," he said, "Most of the offense'll be done by us. Worst comes worst, we only need you out of here alive."
After making sure that the members were ready to go, Reno stood up. "Right, you two gotta help me set up this thing," he said, jerking his thumb at the drilling missile that sat in the bag. "It's damn heavy."
Raising the missile was one problem; to rest it on the shoulders was another. The three heaved, Reno in the front and Elena in the back, since Arien had the least physical endurance when it came to gravity. After much sweat, groaning and grunting, Reno finally set its tip on the wall.
"Elena, hit on. It's on the left side."
Elena struggled, turned to face the side of the missile, feeling for the button. When she found it, she pressed it. The drill roared to life.
"Arie, Elena, push!"
The two women pushed as Reno guided the missile into the wall. After it disappeared into the concrete, Reno grabbed the remote and a small PDA from the bag, guiding its progress.
"Man, this wall's thick," he muttered as he guided it through. It took fifteen minutes for the drill to get through to the other end. When he saw on the screen that it had breached the wall, he hit "stop", then "reverse". It took less than five minutes this time to get to the middle of the wall. Then he hit "stop" again.
"Get out of the room," Reno ordered. The two followed directions without question; Arien silently grabbed the bag and the glow-bar. Elena in lead, the three left the room, Arien shutting the door behind her.
"Get away from the door."
After making sure that all three were within a safe distance from the door, Reno hit "detonate".
There was a deafening bang, then a series of thunderous crashes that sounded like concrete breaking and tumbling down. There were clangs that sounded like heavy objects hitting the walls, rolling noises like large rocks rolling down, more crashes, then silence.
Reno opened the door just a tiny bit, took the flash light from Elena who was holding onto it, peered in. Then, he opened the door widely. Seeing the altered interior, Elena and Arien's eyes widened.
The room was cluttered with debris and large chunks of concrete and rock. Where they had inserted the drill, there was a large hole gaping much like a tunnel, with metal bars sticking out around the edges. The newly made tunnel led to darkness, with no light at the end. There was still dust in the air, but most had settled already; the fish corpses were covered with the dust.
Reno stepped into the room, half-climbed, half-walked over the concrete, Elena and Arien in tow. When he reached the tunnel, he stopped.
"Arie, you're in the front. Take the flashlight and glow-bar. Elena, you're last."
None of them argued. Arien started to walk through the hole, careful not to get caught by the metal bars sticking out from the wall, warning the other two whenever a caution was needed. The walk itself was uneventful, if a bit slow; some of the debris had made the trek difficult and Reno had to shove Arien aside and dig out the path. But they kept on walking, carefully, each using their enhanced senses to perceive any possible danger.
It was at the end of the tunnel when it happened. As far as Reno could see, the tunnel suddenly ended to nowhere, leading out into the air with nothing below. Arien, however, took another step forward, oblivious to the fact that she was going to be walking on some couple of feet up in the air.
"Arien!" He grabbed her by the belt, and yanked her back, holding onto her waist. She looked back, puzzled.
"Bahamut, didn't you see that it opens up to nothing? You're going to be walking out on couple of feet up in the air!"
"What?"
"What's going on?" asked Elena, not being able to see anything that had transpired and confused.
"Elena, stop." After halting her advancement, Reno grasped Arien by the shoulders, and shook her hard. "Goddamn it, wake up, Arien! This isn't time to fucking snooze off!"
Arien stared at him. He knew something was wrong. Arien was a fully trained member of the Turks squad, each sense honed to its maximum capacity to sense danger and to avert it. By all means she should have seen that the tunnel led to the air. She was too careful to make such mistakes; something was up.
"Arien," Reno addressed her slowly, "what the hell did you see?"
"I saw another room," she replied.
"And?"
"What do you mean?" she asked back.
"Any details?"
"It was yellow, a bit like the color of sand. There was a large circle in the center, with some writings around it. Why?"
Reno realized a new danger: illusions.
Arien turned and stepped back in fear, now knowing that something was wrong. She saw no difference in her perception. She looked back at him again, fear in her eyes.
"What's going on?" Elena asked again.
"Elena, come over here. Tell me what you see."
Arien and Reno moved aside as Elena stepped forward. "I see a large hall," Elena replied, "there are lots of pillars supporting the ceiling, I guess. Nothing too interesting." She looked at Reno, puzzled. "Why?"
"Where's the floor?"
"A step down?"
The three looked at each other.
"We're all seeing different things," Arien said at last. "And we don't know who's seeing the right thing."
"Let me check somethin'," Reno said. "Tell me what you see." Tapping into the materia in his left bracer and letting the magic course through him, he cast Dispel. Green light flashed in the darkness, then the only light source became Arien's flashlight and glow-bar again.
"I don't see any difference," Arien said. Reno covered her eyes with his hand for a second, then released her.
"Look again, baby."
She turned around, and gasped. She saw a large chasm gaping its mouth in front of her like some maw of a huge, hungry beast. One step out and she would have fallen, smashed into a pulpy mess.
"Ramuh, what the hell…" She whispered.
"Yeah. Thank me."
"Thank you," Arien said dryly. "Well, as far as the two of us can't really see where we're going, you'll have to go alone."
Reno sighed. "Move," he told the tall woman. "Arie, you're in the middle."
Reno threw down the rope, hook in his hand. "Arie, gimme the light."
She tossed the glow-bar, which he caught overhand. He tossed it into the chasm. It hit the bottom noiselessly, illuminating the area with a soft yellow light.
"Can you see the bottom?" Elena asked.
"Barely. Lemme go first."
Making sure that the hook was in place, Reno shinnied down the rope expertly. A few minutes after his head disappeared, the two heard him shout, "Let's go."
Elena went down first, then Arien bringing up the rear. When Reno heard the light "pat", he turned, EMR in hand. It was switched on and ready to go. Walking over, he picked up the glow-bar, tossed it to Elena.
"Gimme the map."
Arien silently handed the map. "Alright," he said as he unfolded the paper, 'We're here" – he pointed at a square – "and we wanna get… here." He pointed at a large square in the center.
"That's that door," Arien said, pointing at an entryway some steps away.
"Yeah, okay. Looks like it's not gonna be hard. Let's go." He walked toward the door, when Arien stopped him.
"Okay, Radar, it's my turn," Arien stated. "Step back, would you?"
"Huh?"
Promptly pushing Reno aside, Arien unlatched the safety with her thumb, aimed at the doorknob, and shot. The doorknob exploded, and as the three watched, a piece fell on the carpet they were standing on. It hissed as the carpet melted, leaving a hole.
"Acid," Arien explained. "Shall we go?" She kicked the door open, and motioned Elena to throw the glow-bar in.
"Wow," Elena gasped.
It was a medium-sized hall, with seven braziers surrounding the markings on the floor. The room was in darkness, the only light source being the glow-bar. There were markings all over the walls, and a large pool of what looked like black water was at the center of the floor.
"Let's get to work," Reno said.
"Light?"
So their first step was to place more glow-bars that they had carried in their pockets into the braziers. After the bars began to glow, the hall became considerably lighter, and Elena could see the markings more distinctively.
"Let's just record then get out of here," said the redhead as he snapped the lens in front of his eyes. "I get the north and the west walls, Elena you do east, Arien do south."
It was nearly at the end when Reno heard it; he had first thought that he was hearing things after being underground for so long. The silence was eerie. "Arie," he called to the woman who was looking up to record the last portion, "do you hear something?"
"No… wait…" she dislodged the headphone from her ear. "I hear something like…"
"Water!" Reno and Arien looked at each other. Reno groaned.
"Knew it was too easy."
"The harbor… someone released the dam!" Arien whispered.
"Yeah, well hurry up! We gotta go!"
"Elena, hurry up!" Arien shouted as she returned back to work. She scanned the last portion of the wall; she didn't have time to do it as carefully as she would have liked. She ran to Reno who was recording the last portion, and motioned him to go help out Elena, who had more than a little left. She quickly scanned the images, then took the headphone off and jammed it into the inside pocket of her jacket, where it would be protected by the waterproof lining. "The dam broke! We're getting flooded!"
"Arien, there's people coming. Do something!" Reno's shout. She heard Elena - or was it Reno? - shooting at something. Arien closed her eyes, concentrated, trying to shut out the sound of the water, the footsteps splashing… she felt an acute pain in her shoulder, but even that pain went away…
Red light exploded from her hands, then pulsed, as if it was living. The red pulsing light grew larger and larger within her hands, then exploded…
A bahamut.
"Let's go!"
Arien only had a nanosecond to see what had pained her shoulder, only to see an arrow sticking out of it. She did not have time to get healed; that would have to wait. Reno was sporting a bloody thigh, and blood was seeping onto the blue cloth. Elena looked a little singed; someone had attacked with Fire, not a strong magic, probably level one, but it burned nonetheless.
"Time to go," Reno shouted. Adrenaline was pumping in all three Turks' bodies, enough to let them forget the pain and the injury. In a matter of few seconds, the three had returned their headphones to the waterproof pocket, and was running out the door. Reno seemed to not realize that his leg was shot cleanly through the thigh; he ran faster than anyone, and it seemed that the injury did not hinder him at all. Arien broke the arrow as she ran, leaving the thin wood behind; having a long stick sticking out wasn't going to help.
They ran through the door and to the wall where the rope was still dangling. Reno went up the rope first, being the fastest; then Elena, then Arien. When Arien was going up the rope, the water was already there slapping against her ankles, and increasing in level by the minute.
"Come on, faster!"
"I can't!" Arien shouted back furiously.
"Oh shit." Reno realized that Arien was injured in the shoulder, making it very difficult for her arms to support her weight. "Elena, come on! Help me pull!"
The trek back to the elevator was haphazard and treacherous; the three ran through the tunnel, now Arien in lead as there was no light. As she ran in the front she pulled out her gunblade and repeatedly shot at the door, then kicked. The door gave way. The Turks ran out of the room and around the hall, when Reno realized something crucial; the elevator didn't work anymore, since the cable was cut.
"Arien! The stairs!"
Arien suddenly turned right instead of left, Reno nearly crashing into her. The three continued to run, Arien in lead, going left, then down the hallway, through the doors then to the right. Finally Arien saw a door that was labeled "Stairs" up ahead; Arien shot again at the doorknob, then again and again. She kicked it open.
The climb up the stairs was both exhausting and panicking. They could hear the water rushing in, and although logically it was not very probable that the water would come up the stairs, they wanted to get out. They had to climb five flights of stairs while running. Arien shot at the door at the top floor that was labeled "EXIT"; the three crashed into the door, and out into the open air.
"We… made it…" Elena gasped.
"I thought this was gonna be easy for once," Reno complained. "Damn it." He slumped down onto the gravel, wincing as he finally recognized the injury. "Ramuh, Shiva, all things holy…" he swore. "Elena, heal us."
Elena did not snap back at the rude and imperious order, but cast Heal conjoined with All. Arien felt the wound close as the broken arrow shaft fell into the graveled street. Reno stood up, wiping his hands on his slacks, making it even dirtier.
"At least we didn't have to fight anything," Arien said wearily.
"Yeah, you did."
They ran back to the hotel and took the back door to get in; they returned to their respective rooms in the hurry, eager to get out of Junon. By now someone would know that the Turks had infiltrated the temple, and that meant that faster they were out, better for them. While Arien was packing – throwing things into the bag was more like it – Reno flipped the phone open.
"Rude," said the male voice.
"Mission accomplished. Requesting immediate pick-up," Reno breathed into the phone. Without waiting for Rude's reply, he shut the phone, then threw it into his pocket. Arien was zipping up the bag; he looked into the mirror on the wall and saw that he was dirty, disheveled, and covered in dust and dirt. His hair was covered in concrete soot, and a leg was stained purplish brown with blood. His palms were raw. He looked over at his partner. She fared no better.
"Arie," he said as she looked around to make sure she left nothing behind, "I'm ordering you to take some days off from your duties after we get back."
Arien sat down on the rumpled and unmade bed. "And you?"
"I need to fucking rest," Reno grumbled. "I need a goddamn payraise!"