Author's Note: I do not own Final Fantasy or anything affiliated with it. The rights to it belong solely to their respective owners.
Ch.25 Underground Labyrinth
Once we left the sleeping Leblanc in the hands of Ormi and Logos, Yuna and I made our way back to the dining room. Rikku and Paine were still there, having not been given their own orders. "Well, how's it go?" Rikku asked. Yuna grinned. "Better than we hoped. Not only is Leblanc asleep, but there's something hidden in this room!' she revealed. "Really? Where?" Paine asked, skeptical. "Well, it's supposed to happen when you press this switch..." I said, trailing off as I stood in front of the switch against the wall. Pressing down on it, I heard a groan before the picture on the wall next began to sliding up, revealing a blank surface.
We waited for a second for anything else to happen, but then it didn't. "Huh? That's it? What a letdown!" Rikku exclaimed, kicking the wall in frustration. But then that section of the wall suddenly spun around on and Rikku fell behind it with a shout. "Rikku!" Yuna, Paine and I shouted. Looking through the opening of the secret door, we could see Rikku sitting at the bottom of a set of brown stone steps, rubbing her rear. "OWWW. Who's idea was that?" she asked, whimpering. "Take it up with the boss," Paine said in way of reply.
"Boss?" I asked, looking at her. "Huh? Ah! I've had this thing on for too long. Let's change," she said. The three of us nodded and as one we all spherechanged to our usual outfits. We walked down the steps and into the hidden labyrinth beneath Chateau Leblanc. I looked around in curiosity; this whole area certainly hadn't been here when the manor belonged to Seymour Guado. My curiosity was interrupted by the comm link turning on, and the four of us receiving a transmission. "This is Brother! How's it going?" Brother asked loudly. I frowned, and Rikku hissed "Be quiet! This is a covert operation! Over and out."
Rather than be quiet though, Brother got louder and said "Rikku! How dare you speak to your leader like that?!" I grunted. "Crid ib, oui pmaylr-pmuhta vuum!" I muttered in Al Bhed. (Shut up, you bleach-blonde fool.) "HEY! My hair is not-" Brother began yelling, but then we heard another voice. "Who's there?" it asked. We froze and turned around, seeing Ormi standing there. Brother wisely decided to shut up, but it was too late. Ormi grinned, flanked by a Dr Goon and a Fem-Goon. "Ah, the Gullwings!" he said, and took off his shield. "Oh, great," Paine said aloud, drawing her sword. The rest of us held our respective weapons, and got ready.
While Ormi and the Dr Goon charged, the Fem-Goon stayed behind to cast Thundara at Rikku. She ducked and used Steal to take a Hi-Potion, before spinning and landing a mick right to the enemy's abdomen. The Fem-Goon bent over and Rikku was about to attack when she saw that Ormi had thrown his shield at her, and she shouted before rolling away. The Dr Goon pulled out a pair of dagger and tried to slash at Paine, who blocked both of them with her sword. Then she shoved him back and the White Bracelet she wore glowed. "Blizzard!" she called, and fired a spike of ice despite being in her Warrior outfit.
The Dr Goon hit the spike of ice and sent it flying away, but then his dagger was shot out of his left hand by Yuna. Before he could recovered she also used Trigger Happy, unleashing a wave of bullets that hit him in the arms, legs and the side of his ear. He crumpled like a puppet without strings, unconscious but still alive. Yuna only aimed to kill with monsters. That being said, Ormi picked up his shield and charged at her like a linebacker, smashing into Yuna from the side and bowling her over. I glared at Ormi and cast Demi, freezing his in his tracks as the increased gravity pushed down on him. He grimaced and was about to hit me when Rikku used Steal on him as well, swiping an X-Potion.
Ormi glared at her and straightened. "Okay, girlie! Get a load of this!" he said. I could see a rush of energy travel to his arms and legs before he literally rocketed forward, speeding towards Rikku. "Supercollider!" he called, and smashed into her with enough force to send Rikku flying. The Fem-Goon tried to hit her with a spell while she was airborne, but I pointed my swords at her and called "Confuse!" An orb of energy formed at the tips of my blades and took the shape of a comical star, before firing at the Fem-Goon. It hit her straight in the chest and she staggered, the magic disrupting her ability to tell friend from foe.
As such, it was no surprise when she turned and forgot Rikku, casting Fira at Ormi. He locked it with his shield, and called "Hey! What's the idea?!" In response she simply cast Watera, which he again blocked. Then Yuna used Cheap Shot and fired a bullet that went through his shield, grazing his arm. Ormi was ready to use Supercollider again when Paine came from behind, hitting him with Power Break. His strength dropped and he stopped, but by then Rikku had taken her stolen X-Potion and drank it, healing herself completely. Then she cast Borrowed Time on Ormi and froze him, letting Yuna rip the shield out of his hands and fro me to hit him with a barrage of Drain spells.
Once the effect had passed her nearly dropped to one knee, and grunted. "You aren't making it out of here!" he said, before turning and running. The Fem-Goon was still confused, but Paine took care of that with a blow to the head, knocking her out. The fight was over, and I sheathed my swords. "This isn't good. Now they know we're here," Yuna said. "Well we can't stop now! We gotta find our sphere!" Rikku urged us. We nodded and kept going, making our way through the labyrinth. Near one end was a room we identified as belonging to Ormi and Logos. Initially, we would have just passed by. By when we peaked in, we noticed that next to Logos's bed was- "A sphere!" Rikku exclaimed.
We went in and Yuna picked it. "Think this is it?" she asked. "Play it back, and we'll see," Paine said. Yuna nodded and activated the sphere, generating a holographic image. It opened up to an image of several corpses in a darkly lit cave, surrounded by pyreflies. Next to me I could see Paine tense ever so slightly, but didn't think to question it. Why? Because I was too focused on recognizing the scene- it was from that 'Crimson Sphere' we had gotten from Ormi and Logos at the Mushroom Road. This one even began with the same words, and this time I recognized the voice as Ormi's. "Let's see... Total survivors of the final Crimson Squad selection exercise: zero, zilch and zippal. Job done!" he said.
But then another voice, one that I could now identify as Logos, said "Ugh, you pinhead. Did you even count?" "Huh?" Ormi asked. "Look. There are bodies missing. There should be three more candidates and their recorder," Logos told him. "Uh, your point?" Ormi asked. "Three plus one is how many? Four still live. Fix it," he ordered. "Figures," Ormi muttered. Then a third voice, one that sounded like it was in charge, called "Did you say something?" Hurriedly, Logos replied "No, sir! Pay him no mind!"
That was when the sphere ended. "Just a dud. Not our sphere," Paine said. I nodded, but pocketed it all the same. That made three Crimson Spheres that we had now. If we managed to find all ten, we could open that door to that place called the Den of Woe. Such a strange place filled with curiosity, and I just had to figure out the whole story. I was brought up of my thoughts by the sound of someone clearing their throat loudly, and we turned to see Logos and Ormi standing at the door. "Only naughty girls would through other people's bedrooms," he said, drawing his pistols.
I glared at him. "Is that so? Interesting then, considering that you stole from us, already," I said. "The boss's orders are permission enough!" he exclaimed, and fired. We all dodged the shot and ran at the two of them, breaking through and into the more open area of the hallway. Logos and Ormi turned as we drew our weapons again, and charged. I cast Confuse and tried to hit Ormi, but to my surprise the spell had no effect. Instead, he smirked and charged at me, pulling back the hand that wasn't holding his shield and trying to punch me in the stomach. I moved away from the blow, but still frowned as one of my spells was rendered useless.
Logos aimed his pistols at Yuna and Paine, and called "Russian Roulette!" The revolvers of his guns glowed and spun, before firing. Both of them were hit, though neither were inflicted with Death. Yuna changed to White Mage while Paine shifted to Black Mage, and Rikku went for Warrior. She held the Crystal Sword high and charged, swinging down at Logos. He dodged back artfully and fired, but she deflected the bullets. Ormi was about to charge at her when I used Darkness and shot at him, and he had to block with his shield. Even so, the energy from the Darkness attacked exploded and sent him staggering back, and I weakened him further by restoring the health I spent with Drain.
"Parting is such sweet sorrow," Logos said, before using Hail of Bullets and aiming at me. I tried to avoid them all but ended up with a shot to the left shoulder and one to my right forearm. I gritted my teeth to avoid crying out in pain, and instead watch as Yuna and Paine cast Thundara and Watera at Ormi respectively. The water completely doused him and his shield, which acted as a conductor for the electricity of the lightning. Ormi did wail in pain, and Logos pulled out a Hugh Grenade. Since he had his hands full, he pulled out the pin with his teeth before throwing it at Yuna and Paine. They both tried to jump back but failed to do so quickly enough, and were both hit with a small explosion that inflicted Silence.
Now that they were both barred from magic, they switched to Warrior as well and I became the Black Mage. Paine and Rikku charged and hit Ice Brand and Flametongue, while I cast Watera and Yuna swung at Logos with Thunder Blade. Ormi held them off with his trusty shield, but Logos wasn't so lucky and was forced to stay still because of the force of the Watera. This in turn caused him to be hit by the Thunder Blade, both giving him a cut on the abdomen and a nasty shock. He moved away and aimed at Yuna calling "Russian Roulette!" again. He shot her and failed to inflict Death, but he did get her with Poison.
Instantly Yuna dropped her weapon and feel one all fours, hacking and coughing horribly. "Yuna!" I called, and tossed her an Antidote. Logos tried to shoot it out of the air, but Rikku stopped him by hitting him with Power Break. Yuna drank the Antidote gratefully and stood in her Gunner garb, aiming her guns at Ormi. "Scattershot!" she said, and unleashed a large number of bullets over a wide area. He couldn't avoid them all took a step back from the pain of a bullet in either arm. Then he took a stance and began charging for Supercollider. Before he could unleash it though, I cast Fira and hit him with a mid-size ball of fire. The damage of it was increased by a Mental Break that Rikku hit him with at the same time.
Logos pulled out another Hush Grenade and was about to throw it at me when Yuna shot it while it was still in his hand, making it explode. Such a close-range blast sent him flying a few feet and he landed on his back. We were ready to finish them off when Logos called "We need the boss for this! Retreat!" Ormi nodded, wincing from the burns of the Fira, and they both ran off. Along the way Logos pulled out something, and before we could stop him pressed a button. Alarms began to go off and the two of them escaped.
I groaned, seeing as they had managed to get away and were now going to come back with Leblanc. I turned to the others. "We need to find that sphere. Fast," I said. They all agreed and we turned, running further into the maze to find our stolen sphere.
The Gullwings have now made in underground. Can they find their sphere though, with the Syndicate blocking them at every turn? Find out, next time!
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