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.38 Preparing for the Concert
"Okay, now I'm really curious. How do someone that short run so fast?!" I shouted, panting with my hands on my knees. Yuna and Paine were in the same state of exhaustion as I, and Rikku had even plopped down on the ground from exhaustion. The four of us had continued chasing Tobli up and down the Moonflow for several hours, all the while the showman was running from his Al Bhed debt collectors.
First we had managed to catch another distance glimpse of him, then we heard in the passenger waiting area that he as at the South wharf. So when we had traveled south, we chased after Tobli again after seeing him, only for the guy to get his hands on a scooter and ride away on it. Finally, we reached where the scooter had crashed and frightened a lot of people, only to find him gone.
So now we were at the present situation. Each of us was tired, irritable, and just about ready to drop. "You know… I'm starting to think… that we should just let Tobli go," Paine said between pants. Despite being on the ground, Rikku jerked her head up. "No way! We still need Tobli to get the concert done! We have to find him!" she said. Yuna sighed, straightening up. "As hard as it is, I have to agree. We need Tobli I we're going to make this concert work," she said.
I sighed as well, but inwardly admitted that they were right. Paine must have admitted it too, because she stood as well. We kept going and made it to the shoopuf wharf. There, Paine approached the resident Hypello for information. "Yesh? Could I help yous?" the Hypello asked. "Have you seen Tobli?' Paine asked, getting straight to the point. "Mishter Tobli? Oh yesh, he crosshed da river on a shoopuf jusht a while ago," the Hypello told him.
"If that's the case, may we catch a ride of the shoopuf?" Yuna asked politely. "Why, shertainly! All aboards!" the Hypello told us, and we all climbed into the basket on the shoopuf. The ride across was rather peaceful, though not without the memory of Rikku trying to kidnap Yuna here two and a half years ago. At that I stopped, and leaned my head back. "That's right…" I said, getting the other to look at me. "This was it, right? The moment during the pilgrimage where you just us, right Rikku?" I asked
Rikku blinked in surprise, before smiling. "Yeah, you're right! This was the place!" she said. "The pilgrimage…" Yuna said. Paine weighed in, asking "That's the journey summoners took to get the Final Aeon, right?" The rest of us nodded, and Yuna said "It all felt so much simpler back then. Journey to different temples, acquire all the aeons, and reach Zanarkand. Not worry about fighting governments, undead enemies, and a giant machine that could destroy Spira in one shot."
The rest of us looked down. Compared to that, yeah, the pilgrimage had felt like it was a cakewalk. At least, until all the mess with the truth about Sin and Yevon. But now wasn't the time to contemplate that. It was in the past, and now, we needed to focus on the future to ensure our present was laid to ruin. We made it to the other bank without incident, and saw the group of Al Bhed near the road to Guadosalam.
"He has to be somewhere!" the first man said, to which to second replied "You don't suppose he climbed into one of those trees, do you?" The third man decided to test the idea and kicked one of the trees. Luckily—or unluckily, depending on who you were—Tobli dropped right out of the tree and landed on the first Al Bhed's head. Using that as a springboard, Tobli launched through the air and landed on his feet, speeding away in the opposite direction.
The Al Bhed were nearly frothing in rage, and the first one yelled "You! I'm gonna KILL you!" They ran after Tobli with all interests of getting their money gone, weapons in hand. I grimaced and looked back at the others, seeing Yun already with her hands at her pistols. "We ready to stop them?" I asked, and they all nodded back.
We ran after the Al Bhed and made our way back to the Moonflow. I could see the river shoopuf already on the river, meaning that Tobli had no way to escape on it now. He was cornered. Once we were close enough, we could even see him, having somehow managed to climb on top of the passenger waiting area. The Al Bhed were there and ready to take aim, and shoot him.
"Ready?" the first one called. The others turned off the safeties on their guns. "Aim…" They all did, zeroing in on Tobli, who had nowhere to run. "Fi-!" the first Al Bhed began, before he suddenly heard Rikku's voice call "Thundara!" They all looked up in time to see several bolts of lightning ran down from nowhere, striking the Al Bhed and paralyzing them. Not only that, but the heat of the lightning caused the powder in their guns to ignite, partially melting the guns and rendering them useless.
The three Al Bhed turned towards us, but then paled when they saw a second shoopuf stomping its way towards them, having been startled by the lightning-natured spell. The Al Bhed all screamed in fear and ran away from the massive beast as quickly as they partially-paralyzed bodies would allow. Once they were gone and the shoopuf had been successfully reigned in, we came close to Tobli.
Once the Al Bhed ran way he jumped back down, and didn't try to run. Instead, he smiled as we approached. "Hi, hi, what can I do for you? What brings you here?" he asked. "Well…" Rikku said, before she told him everything that we wanted done in regards to the concert. As she kept talking, Tobli became visibly more and more excited. Once she finished, he said "Spectacularly spectacular! 'Twill be a yummy Yunapalooza indeed! 'Twill go down in history! I most definintely, definitely want to arrange it! Can I, can?"
Yuna smiled and nodded. "You got it!" Tobli literally jumped for joy, before pausing. "Wait. One minor detail. Where oh where should it be?" he asked. We paused as well, thinking. We honestly hadn't thought of the location yet. "Well, the more people we can gather, the better," Paine pointed out. Tobli nodded, thinking for a second, before his head shot up. "Aha! Then how about the Thunder Plains? Yes! You could practically pack a plethora of people into that place!" he suggested.
It sounded like a good idea to me, so I nodded. "Okay. Now, how do we get people to come?" I asked. "Simple, simple! Leave it to me! My power PR team will push it pronto! Oh, boys!" Tobli called. At his call, a group of Hypello came over, some of them emerging from the river. "Advertising ish our spheshalty. We'll get your shpectatators," one of them said. Paine frowned, "Are you sure about this?" she asked.
Just then, we received a radio transmission. It was Buddy, who said "Brother's orders. Bring every last Hypello with you." Paine grunted, having received the answer to her question, and the rest of us nodded. "Okay, let's go get this thing started!" Rikku called.
After having loaded Tobli and all the Hypello aboard the Celsius, Brother flew the ship north until we were over the Clam Lands, where we would start spreading the word. "We're at the drop-off point. We ready to go?" Buddy asked. Brother nodded. "Grab everyone you see! We do not want anyone in Spira to miss this!" he ordered.
As one, all of the Hypello nodded, the lead one saying "Leave it to ush." With that, the loading bay doors opened, hitting all of us with a blast of wind. "Will they be all right?" Yuna asked worriedly. "Be back in a jiffy," the lead Hypello said in response. With that, they all before literally diving off of the ship. "Well, they've definitely got guts," Rikku commented.
I nodded in agreement, and we returned to the bridge to check and see how things were going. I noticed that Shinra was tinkering with something, and so I asked "What have you got there?" "A project. I'm engineering a giant sphere screen for the stage. That way, even people way in the back will be able to see you," the young genius told me. I nodded, thinking that it was a good idea. "And it will be all your invention?" I asked.
"Of course. Not to mention that we're still picking up lots of waves through the CommSpheres," he commented. "Really? Let's see what we've got then," Yuna said, typing into the terminal. It first showed an image of Dona, who was standing near the end of one of the ports, pacing. "Without you, the house seems so empty. I can't bear it. I wake up each morning, but without seeing your face it's as though the day hasn't really begun. So please. Please! Come home, Barthello!" she said, before stopping and shaking her head. "This is so not me," she added, sighing.
After that there was a little more silence, and then Dona tried again. "You seem to have forgotten exactly who it is you're supposed to be guarding! I ought to fire you for just up and leaving me the way you did. But I suppose I'm partly to blame, letting you get away with so much. I didn't give you proper supervision. We both need to do some soul-searching. Barthello, we're leaving," she finished, and smiled. "Yes, that should do," she said.
At that moment, a Hypello appeared on the scene, who said "Come to the conshert." Dona gasped, and glared at him. "You. You did not see anything," she said warningly. The Hypello merely nodded, saying "I didn't shee a thing." Dona nodded and ran off, leaving us to wonder where she went. Then she came back with a handful of balloons, which she tied to the CommSphere. "These are sure to reach the temple. Let's give it a try," she said.
"This can't be good," Shinra remarked, and the rest of us nodded in agreement. The CommSphere began floating in the air, and as it flew away we heard Donna call "All my best for the concert!" We cut the link and looked at each other. "Well, it's nice to know that they're at least trying to patch things up," Rikku said. Paine rolled her eyes. "I suppose so. Even if they're both being idiots," she said.
"Let's see how Besaid is," I said, thinking of Lulu. But rather than her or Wakka, the one we saw through the CommSphere as Belcem. He frowned when he saw us, but unlike before there was little bite to it. "Oh, it's you. You've probably heard, but I've been called back to Youth League headquarters. It is a shame, though… having to leave Besaid in the hands of slackers," he said. Yuna shook her head. "Besaid will be fine. Wakka's there to keep an eye on things," she told him.
Beclem snorted. "Hmph. Small consolation. If you ask me, his brother was ten times the man Wakka is," he stated. I raised an eyebrow. "You mean Chappu? You know him?" I questioned. Beclem nodded. "We fought in the Crusaders together. He always talked about Wakka. Said, 'My brother's the greatest person in Spira!' Imagine my surprise to find out the legendary Wakka's nothing more than a wishy-washy wimp. There are so many things I'd wanted to talk to Wakka about... But not anymore," he told us.
"What kind of things?" Yuna asked, surprised. "Memories. Well, that's enough chit-chat. I need to get ready to leave," he said, and turned off the sphere. We changed the wavelength to match that of the sphere in Zanarkand. Once the image resolved we saw Isaaru standing there with a Hypello. He blinked in surprise at seeing our faces, and said "Yuna?" "And us too!" Rikku called.
Issaru smiled. "The Hypello told me the news. You're having a concert? Using the power of song to unite Spira. Is that it? I know you can do it. Or rather, you're the only one of us who could do that. Good luck, Yuna," he said. The he suddenly starting chuckling. "Something funny?" I asked. "Using machina to talk like this still doesn't feel right to me. Working with Cid, I did get used to the idea, but I have my doubts. Maroda often laughs at me and says I'm behind the times," he said.
"We actually talked with Maroda using one of these. He's in Bevelle," Paine told him. Now Isarru looked even more surprise. "Bevelle? Really? How is Bevelle these days?" he asked. I sighed. "It's not going so well. They can't find anyone to lead in Baralai's place," I replied. Isaaru sighed. "I see. Well, I wouldn't be surprised if they tried to push some of their problems on you, High Summoner," he said, looking at Yuna.
Yuna gulped a little at that. The concert was enough… "Well, what would they expect me to do?" she asked. Isaaru didn't have an answer, and merely began walking away. "I had no idea that things had gotten so bad. Thank you for telling me," he said to us. Then he sighed and laid down on the ground. "I wonder what I'm supposed to be protecting. Hmm…" he muttered, the image went dark.
Just them, we got a blinking red light from the sphere in Kilika, and Shinra quickly opened it up. We were instantly treated to the face of Barthello, who had the CommSphere right in front of his face. "Hey, look! There are some balloons that Dona sent to us. So we decided to send some back," he said, gesturing to a large number of them behind him, held by some other people.
"What about you?" Yuna said. Barthello sighed. "It's no good. No matter how many times I try, I over0inflate the balloons and they pop. Oh! Will my feelings be stranded here forever? Dona!" he yelled. However, when Barthello did so, he yelled at such a volume that the crystal of the sphere cracked, cutting the image short as the CommSphere short-circuited. Shinra shook his head, saying "Such wanton and vocal destruction."
I chuckled at the spectacle. Buddy, meanwhile, looked up from his own monitor to say "All the Hypello have been deployed." Brother grinned, pumping a fist into the air. "Action, baby! To the concert grounds!" "Wait! First, we need to work on rehearsing!" Rikku said, before quickly changing into her Songstress outfit. I followed her example and, after a moment's quiet groaning, so did Paine. "Hey, Yunie, hurry up and change!" Rikku said.
Yuna nodded and changed into her own Songstress dress, the one that had belonged to Lenne so long ago. Then we head went to Cabin, where we began practicing.
It was a good thing that we had practiced, as it turns out that Yuan was nervous when it came to singing to so many people- especially after the concert with Leblanc as Yuna. We spent the time taken to get to the Thunder Plains practicing, which worked wonders to help Yuna get over her stage fright. Once we were there, Yuna said "It's almost time. Do you think people will show up?" I smiled. "You bet they will. Odds are that the Thunder Plains will be packed. But what do you plan on singing?" I asked.
Yuna frowned. "Umm…" she said, before she began humming a tune. It was surprisingly beautiful, one that I wouldn't have expected Yuna to come with. Once she was done, Rikku stared at her with huge eyes. "Wow, did you write that?" she asked. Yuna shook her head, saying "It's more like I felt it. I can heart it echoing inside me." Paine frowned, asking "Lenne?"
"I thank so. I don't know much about her, but I'm learning more and more. Bits and pieces of her memories keep pouring in. It's like… like I can feel what she was feeling!" she said, almost amazed at the concept. Rikku nodded sagely. "Thus shall Lenne's scattered thoughts be woven into bittersweet song…. Something like that?" she said. Yuan couldn't help but smile. "Hey, that was pretty poetic," she said. Rikku giggled in response.
Paine cut in, saying "We'll be arriving soon. After Buddy drops us off, he and the others will go pick up the spectators." "So when that happens, we won't be able to board for a while," I said. She nodded in response. "Exactly." With that in mind, we rode back up to the Bridge. Buddy was there, and asked "We're over the Thunder Plains. You ready to land?"
Yuna swallowed her lingering nerves, and nodded. "Let's land," she said. Brother cheered and lowered the Celsius to ground level, where we jumped off. Once we were off, they flew off, leaving us there. We could see teams of Hypello moving from here to there, moving with amazing efficiency to get everything ready. "Wow. Maybe Tobli was onto something when hiring these guys," I said, watching them go.
One of the Hyepllo approached us, who said "Hello, Gullwings. Good to shee yoo. Are yoo ready to shing your shong?" Yuna nodded. "Yeah, more or less. You ready?" she asked. But the Hypello shook his head. "We've got a shticky shituation. Shum fiends have shown up to shnack on the shpectatators," he said. As if to punctuate that statement, the lightning flashed and we could hear the sound of a fiend roaring.
In the distance, we could see a massive fiend with a long, yellow-ish body and spikes along it, walking into a cave. Paine smiled slightly. "Pre-concert hurtfest time," she said, drawing her sword. The rest of us smiled as well, and we chased after the fiend, into its den.
The preparations for the concert are now complete! All it'll take is one dead fiend, and then we have the show begin! Stay tuned!
Please review! If you flame me Bruce Lee will smash you with his nunchaku. (I'm just kidding… or am I?)