Chapter 26.
Barret and Vincent more or less impatiently waited for the Captain to arrive. Phil worked tirelessly trying to make some progress, but trying to fix the ship was like trying to pick up all the sand on a beach with a Dust Buster.
Time passed, and Phil became more and more hopeless to have to try and do this all by himself. He walked away from the airship, paced heavily toward the two other men, and dropped down to his hands and knees in utter frustration. "I'll never be able to do this!" he cried.
Barret and Vincent glanced at each other, underwhelmed.
A horrible sound was heard coming quickly toward them. A creature's roar? A dragon's cry? A giant shuriken heading right for them?
The huge, dark man got his Missing Score weapon at the ready. Vincent cooly raised the terrifying Death Penalty, aiming for any vital organ that happened to show up first.
They realized the horrible commotion sounded an awful lot like...squawking.
Over the horizon a figure approached. Barret's eyebrows went up in curiosity. Vincent's eyes narrowed in bafflement.
Cloud's golden chocobo, Sunrise, was running toward them. But her beak was shut. She wasn't making the terrible ruckus they heard.
Cid was.
They watched him painfully bouncing up and down and all over on the bird's back, desperately holding onto the Venus Gospel in one hand and the bird's reigns in the other. they heard all sorts of words that melted their ears and Cid hollered and howled and complained about his transportation from the moment they spotted him on the horizon, to the moment Sunrise delivered the captain, stopping a few feet in front of them.
Cid tried to act as suavely as he could muster. His butt hurt. His legs hurt. Stuff just really, really HURT. He wanted to dismount gracefully, but as soon as his right leg touched the ground after swinging it around the bird's back, he crumpled on the ground, sat cross-legged, and held his forehead in a hand.
An inordinate pause loomed in the air.
"That...really...^$#%$^#%$^#...hurt."
Sunrise closed her eyes and haughtily threw her head to the side.
The three men allowed the Captain to recover for a moment. Cid slowly got back up on his feet, and lit a well-deserved ciggie. Ahhh, nicoteine. He looked up from lighting up, took in the even more painful sight of the grounded airship, and noticed the huge gash in the ground that led up to it.
Phil was the first to open his mouth. "Sir...Could you give your diagnosis? We were hoping you could tell how badly-"
"Piece a' crap," Cid roughly interjected as he blew out some bluish-grey smoke. He didn't even need to look at the inside. He could tell just from taking one quick glance that the ship was grounded for a while. It would take too many men and way too much time to raise it. "It's a piece of crap now." He turned his attention to the men. "Good thing I'm here through. Wouldn't be able to sleep knowing you're going to Wutai without some extra reinforcement."
Barret was constantly thinking of the next immediate step. "So...now what?"
Vincent suddenly had an idea as what to do in the situation of a totally grounded airship, as the issue was percolating in his mind the whole time. "Time for plan B."
Hmmm?, thought all three men in response.
From beneath the cover of blackest hair, he sideglanced the rest of them. "You're not going to like it at all."
The other three men stared at him with bated breath.
Cloud and Tifa ran to the top deck. Sure enough, they got drenched in the pouring rain, the wind was howling, the sky was dark slate grey, and the sea deep and violent. It wasn't too long before they were naturally noticed by some of the men working on the ship, and both of them dispatched them all too easily.
The two of them scurried around trying to look for a raft or lifeboat or something., anything all along the port side to put themselves in and get away from the sinking ship and its crew.
Turning around to go to the other end of the deck, a stately, dark figure stood tall and strong in the center of the doomed ship. Some men must have cowered from them and reported to the captain. And the captain, indeed, was a very intimidating man.
"Stowaways!" boomed the captain. "Practically took a hurricane to bring the rats out of the lower levels...but nevertheless, my little friend and I are not getting off this ship until I know you're not taking any of my men's liferafts."
Cloud and Tifa were tired already from dealing with the captain's crew, inspite of the ease in dealing with them. If they had to hold on to a raft in a hurricane, they needed every ounce of strength they could spare to deal with the waters once they get on it.
Cloud happened to look left, and bared his teeth in terror. A Master Tonberry waddled, his yellow eyes matching the flame in his lamp, the lamp and eyes both glowing hotly in the greyness of the storm. "Holy crap, that's bad."
Tifa saw it too, and shuddered with good reason; in spite of their small, unassuming size and manner, the Master Tonberry was now the deadliest magician on the Planet. Being innately magical creatures, they retained almost all their power, even when the magic level on the Planet dropped considerably when all the materia shattered.
They could cast their Curse spell quickly and quietly using their magical lamps. And there were few, if any, cures left for their Curses once cast. They could dodge attacks rather well, especially since the huge, heavy Ultima weapon wasted precious time preparing and finishing attacks...another surprising talent looking at their short, stubby reptilian legs. Further complicating issues, the death of the creature didn't mean the end of the death spell it cast. And even against the Ultima weapon, an usually strong Master Tonberry had a vast, vast amount of resistance. A Tonberry could take hits until its body was cut off from the neck down. The quickest way to render it harmless would be to destroy its lamp, but the amazing strength and speed of the little unassuming creature made getting to that lamp difficult.
Cloud called out loudly, his voice straining to be heard above the roar of the wind and rain. "TIFA! Take the captain!" He tossed his head towards the Tonberry. "I'll deal with that!"
Tifa nodded in understanding. She turned toward the looming figure of the captain. Cloud came between her and the Tonberry, and drew the Ultima weapon. If Cloud was lucky, this could probably be a once-strike kill, or at least a succesful rush on the lamp, and he was sure he could do just that with his own weapon as opposed to Tifa fighting the reptile. If it wasn't a one-strike-success...well...he had to take that chance.
Cloud moved inbetween Tifa and the Tonberry, the point of the weapon trained first of all, on the lamp.
Barret was beyond agitated beyond belief at this point. He turned to Vincent, punctuating his verbiage with angry pauses. "This is the damned...most...EMBARRASING...thing...I have...EVER...done!"
Vincent, and in fact, all the men, were bouncing up and down from the waves.
"Whassa matter wit choo?"
Vincent closed his eyes and quietly answered. "Necessary evil."
"We're in the middle of the ocean...in a BIG WOODEN BOX...on SKIS...gettin' pulled by a GIANT BIRD!" Barret looked away in fury, then turned back, finger pointing in the air. "You betta not breathe a word of this to Marlene, man, or she won't EVER live this thang down!"
They did, in fact, construct a makeshift skiing boat out of wood salvaged from the crashed airship. It was, granted, the best thing to do, since Sunrise could literally run on the ocean water's surface. Leaving the rest of the crew to keep working to get the ship airborne, only the four men, Barret, Cid, Vincent and Phil, could take it from here. Cid was still hurting from riding on Sunrise to the rest of the men; nonetheless, he was happy to take his favorite student along; maybe Phil could learn something from the adventure. Cid had learned so many things since meeting Cloud, it was time for someone else to learn something. For a change. His cranky ass had enough education to last three lifetimes.
Sunrise, once she got going with the weight of the skiing boat, did nicely. She was slowed down considerably with the extra weight, which sort of worried Barret at first, but as long as she got taken care of royally when she got home, she'd be fine. And she knew she would. Especially by Cid.
Tifa stood with her arms on her hips, the Premium Heart set of gloves on her hands. The rain swept heavily across her face and matted down her long, deep brown hair.
She stared at the captain with searing reddish-brown eyes. She narrowed them. "I'm waiting for a stupid comment about my size. Or the fact I'm a girl. Or even about my boobs."
"I have many members on this ship who are half the size of you and are still terrible opponents."
She was sure he wasn't just talking about his men, but the Master Tonberry behind her, where Cloud was now moving.
The captain added, "Unfortunately, *I* am also a terrible opponent!"
"And so am I!" retorted Tifa.
And with that, they lunged at each other.
Tifa had a mighty right fist ready to strike. As she approached the opponent, she threw the fist forward aiming straight for the captain's nose.
The captain deftly dodged her fist, and grabbed her arm. He threw both Tifa's arm and the rest of her at the deck, but Tifa quickly recovered and rolled out of it. She turned herself toward her opponent in mid-air. hitting the deck, her momentum caused her boots to scrape on the wood beneath her, leaving skid marks leading up to the soles of her heavy boots. She came to a stop, and balanced herself with a fist. Her eyes glared. She was pissed. She wasn't used to anyone being quick enough to counter her fast right!
The captain took advantage of his opponent's situation, and headed right for her, planning to use an elbow as a cannon. Tifa rolled to her left, quick as lightning, and, landing on her hands and feet backwards, promptly introduced the captain's face to a steel-toed boot. The impact brought him to the ground, holding his face to ease the pain.
Tifa lunged at him again intending to end their match with another mighty straight. The captain caught her fist in mid-blow, but this time Tifa was more than ready. Using her momentum, she flipped herself clear over the captain, and, with her left hand grabbing the arm blocking her fist, brought the arm around and snapped it practically in two. The captain cried out.
Tifa sent a foot flyiung to do a roundhouse kick, but the captain, with everything he had left, caught Tifa's foot with his good hand, and using the sheer power of his frustration in almost losing and getting fueled from his throbbing arm, deftly threw her into the railing surrounding the deck of the ship. Using his full weight, he crashed into her as she was pinned against it.
Sensing an advantage, he grabbed her again by the hair, and threw her into the mast supporting the main sail. Tifa felt her head knocking against the mast, and struggled to keep her senses about her as she leaned heavily, struggling to get the wind back into her lungs.
The captian was ready to simply knock her out, and throw her overboard. He ran towards Tifa as she supported herself against the mast. As he approached, she could feel him getting closer...and closer. As he threw his final blow, Tifa was done playing 'possum, and making a quick complete turn, delivered that stright right she wanted to give him twice already.
She landed the blow right in his soft belly...and froze. There was an eternal pause as she gritted her teeth waiting to see the effects of her punch.
The captain let out a tiny "urk", fell over, and clutched his stomach, coughing.
Cloud paced around the creature with the massive Ultima weapon. As long as it wasn't going anywhere, he continued to press forward..inch by precious inch. He whispered a steady mantra as he got closer and closer. "Creepy lizard...don't even think about it...don't...even..."
The Master Tonberry was puzzlingly oblivious to his approach; its eyes were fixed on the captain of the ship and Tifa.
Slowly, the Tonberry raised a little green hand, and started to shake its lamp.
Cloud knew it was trying to cast a Curse spell.
He gripped the hilt of the Ultima weapon. He tensed his legs, and bolted forward as fast as he could. He'd smash that damned lamp to pieces in one blow.
The Tonberry amazingly sidestepped the move. It zipped to the left in a green blur, and apparently hardly moving its legs at all.
Cloud sneered. A miss that could have devastating consequences.
The creature was now tuning its head toward Cloud. Cloud found an eerie, unsettling feeling well up from inside as its gaze met his eyes. Perhaps this is why people rarely, if ever, tried to mess with a Tonberry.
The good news was that the spell the creature tried to cast was interrupted. That's all that mattered for now until Cloud could try another quick strike.
Unfortunately, the little demon scurried far away, towards the stern of the ship, far away from Tifa and her opponent at the front. Well out of range.
As Cloud inched his way again, the creature fixed its eyes forward once again. On Tifa, Cloud knew.
The Tonberry raised its lamp again...and began a new curse.
Cloud knew he had no time to lose now. He dropped out of offensive position and raced towards the Tonberry, the Ultima weapon held to the side and back, ready for a kill swipe.
Cloud knew he saw a dark cloud escape from the lamp. A spell was successfully cast.
The Tonberry dropped its lamp and gazed once again at Cloud, who was now racing toward him. The little monster was giving Cloud one more chance to give up and leave the ship, preferably he hard way. The Tonberry raised its lamp again.
It was casting another spell.
Now that the monster was in the middle of casting a curse, it was helpless. Cloud swung the Ultima weapon mightily and brought it down.
It hit the target perfectly.
The lamp was smashed to bits under the massive size and weight of the Ultima weapon. Gold pieces of glass scattered in every direction; the wood encasing it was shattered to splinters.
Its little reptilian hand was lopped off right with it. But it was all too late.
The Ultima weapon smashed the floorboard to pieces where it dug in, still needing to dispel force from loud's blow.
The Tonberry, stunned, turned its eerie gaze toward Cloud again. It was helpless now that its main weapon was destroyed. Cloud saw the demon which had escaped from the lamp fly forward towards the bow of the ship. He knew what was going to happen.
It stared at Cloud as he hissed softly. "You...little...damn you..."
Powered by sheer fury, Cloud lifted the weapon out of the floorboards it was jammed into. He swung it around 360 and brought it down and around to his front again.
He ended up lopping the entire little evil creature right in half.
The cleaved halves of the Tonberry went their separate ways; the legs dropped to the ground; the upper half was removed with such force that it flew across the deck into the railing that surrounded the deck of the ship. It left a bloody mess as it flopped down to the floorboards.
After recovering from his sheer rage, Cloud got his head together. He returned the blade to its harness on his back and ran as fast as he could toward the bow.
As he reached the bow, he saw Tifa with her hands on her knees, and the whimpering ship's captain at her feet. The black cloud of the curse advanced toward her steadily.
Cloud tried to catch up to it, but couldn't. He wondered if he called her attention to it, if she could dodge it. He felt unbearably guilty; the first curse was for Tifa, as the Tonberry was bound to protect the ship's captain before it protected itself; the second was for Cloud himself, which he stopped by destroying the lamp in time. He was angry tht the first spell wasn't meant for himself.
"TIFA!...TIFA!" CLoud desperately screamed from the rear of the ship as he ran.
Tifa only had time to look up.
The spell surrounded her...and entered through her chest...where her heart beat.
The Curse spell had been successfully cast.
Cloud immediate had the vision that usually accompanies a Curse spell...a skull, superimposed upn TIfa, looked down on her and opened its horrible jaw. Its eyes glowed eerie yellow, like the Tonberry's eyes. Her skin immediately turned about ten shades whiter...and while she rarely dropped tot he ground from fistfights with opponents, the powerful death spell brought her to her knees.
Time was now of the essence. If a cure was not found for her, she would die in a matter of a few hours.