ch 50
Two sounds were very prominent as the group scattered the cross road away from the Proud Clod. The first was the combined laughs of both executives booming as they watched us all cut and run. The second was a high pitched whine that I briefly considered to be tinnitus before the smell of melted asphalt made me turn and run faster down the block as two blue beams trailed down the street. The road crack and melted back together as I dived left into an alleyway and let the lasers fly by as I took what I could to catch my breath.
"Those things are mean."
"Dear god!" I turned and stopped myself from backing out into the open as I glared at Yuffie. "Do not scare me like that! I didn't even see you."
"I was running right beside you, you just kept looking over your right when the lasers came in."
"Had to keep track. Despite how good we've all gotten I don't think a point blank blast from a laser is on the list of things we can survive without both regular and magic barrier, and unfortunately Aeris didn't take the same way as us." The conversation was interrupted as heavy thuds shook the ground and I heard metal clicking noises.
"Well it looks like they are hiding like the bugs that they are."
"It looks like we'll have to exterminate these insects then" Scarlet and Heidegger's voices boomed as flames shot down the street and made me flinch away.
"Why would they keep their mike on? It just lets us know what they're doing."
"They're cocky. We just need to divert their attention, what do you got on you?"
"Lightning and enemy skill. I have a cure and time as well."
"I doubt we can slow that thing so give you and me haste. I need you to get on top of the roof and give them a magic hammer. If they engage try to lead them down towards the cannon, when we're done we need to book it to Hojo otherwise everything's going to shit. Think you can manage?"
"You got it. See you on the other side." Her hand waved and I felt my senses sharpen before Yuffie jumped. My head lifted up as she easily hopped back and forth between the two walls before disappearing onto the rooftop of the three story building. I waited just a second before I heard a huge groan of metal and the flames in the street stopped flowing. I chanced a look to see the mech raising a fist over its shoulder with a very clear intention to obliterate the building I just happened to have chosen for cover.
I panic ran as the last two stories of the building crumbled from the impact before it dragged its fist forward and covered the alley in rubble. I sprinted down the sidewalk as I heard the whine again before the next five buildings were equally pulverized from the beam as the leftovers blocked the street. My eyes scanned the area to find another ally on the opposite side. I booked it as my ears started to ring in warning. I didn't look back this time as I ran next to the buildings until I heard an explosion above. I jumped back as the buildings ahead of me fell and destroyed my escape route. I turned and threw a lighting as I saw the bolt strike the chest piece and scatter leaving only a scuff mark.
"He thinks he can harm us."
"Oh that's just precious Kyahahahah." I heard a heavy rotating grind as the Clod lifted its arm to point its secondary down at me. The grinding increased in tempo before my vision was washed over with red as I felt myself get lifted by my legs. Bullets riddled the road as I felt the thump from Vincent landing before he dropped me onto the roof.
"Thanks."
"I recommend staying close, we may need to vacate soon." I stood back up to see Cloud running on the ground before taking a swing at the mech's ankle. A very heavy clang rang out as I saw that his blade made a very large dent into the metal but no cut. Without even looking one of the machines back arms turned and started to shoot down as it turned with another charged beam. Cloud quickly lifted his sword and blocked the bullets before jumping away and down another alley as the mech's knees opened up and flooded the street with flames again while the street was cut by the concentrated shot.
"This is going nowhere fast." The mech had a weapon for each limb and with the amount of flailing Scarlet and Heidegger were making the machine was too big a hazard to take on directly. We had only run down a few blocks and already seventy percent of the buildings on the way had been destroyed beyond recognition and most of the street had been either cut, crushed, or turned into gravel by machine guns.
"Those lasers and machine guns are our biggest problems. We need to take out the arms before we can damage it enough on the outside."
"Your plan?" Vincent asked as I watched the machine, using what enhanced awareness I had to take in every detail I could. I saw sparks fly off it as bullets ricocheted off the metal plating of the Proud Clods back. Looking down I saw Barret stop firing on the opposite side of the rubble and run as the mech stomped down the street. The impassible debris for me turned to be a mild inconvenience for the mech as it just stomped over the rubble as it started searching for Barret by smashing the buildings closest to here he ran. While its back was turned again though Yuffie jumped and cast magic hammer again. I focused on the ridiculous image of a giant toy looking hammer slamming into the back of a giant robots head when I saw the flash of blue from its wrist lasers blink and sputter before the machine turned and smashed the building she jumped away from with its fist.
"There, we can interrupt its power distribution. After Yuffie hits it the power fluctuates for a few seconds, that's our opening. I'll start running ahead and you go and tell everyone else. We need a distraction and a heavy hitter." Vincent nodded. I started running before jumping to the next rooftop and doings so again and again. He easily passed me easily as his jumps cleared the six foot gaps as well as half the buildings themselves. I caught up just in time to roll and hide behind the two foot stone rail as I saw the Proud Clod started to turn my way. I waited thirty seconds before risking a peak to see the mech turned in the opposite direction. I wondered briefly why it was standing still until it decided to step through the two buildings in its way before turning again to scan the street. I cursed that I couldn't do much from the distance I was at but lamented the fa that I would have an easier time escaping if I was noticed.
I heard more firing as I saw the mech turn to suddenly riddle a building with bullets as its right fist charged with a laser. I placed myself on the edge of the building before throwing a lighting. Right when it hit I leaped and rolled to keep myself hidden as the beam blew away the roof behind me as I slammed myself to the back. I scrambled seeing another blue light before a fireball was lobbed from the building across the street from my own. The flames washed over the thing as its super heated face switched targets and mowed down the thing as I saw a red cloak jump down into the street and continue flowing towards the cannon. We were still a good twenty or so blocks away from the cannons base so I continued running and jumping rooftops to get ahead of the machine. Since I was running closer to the back alleys I saw that most of the buildings I was traversing had fire escapes so I made a note on that in case I needed to get back on the ground fast.
After another jump I looked behind me to see the mech a good three blocks away from me. It was still advancing forward knocking over building after building as we led it. My hand twitched when I saw someone come up the fire escape before relaxing.
"Joining the run away crew huh?" Tifa huffed before ducking beside me to watch the destruction.
"They have heat sensors I think. When Cait, Aeris, and myself tried to take pop out to help it's legs would let loose fire and some corrosive mist. The buildings that were hit by that would start to break away so after we helped Barret out of one of the alleys we decided to lay low and take pot shots when we can."
"Can't do much with fists though. What do you got?"
"I have a cure and contain along with Ramuh hooked to an elemental materia. I have a spare revive if we get hurt to badly and a cure won't cut it. Aeris has another revive as well as the full cure and heal but she is on the same street as that thing."
"Alrighty then. Did Vincent get to you guys with the plan?"
"That's why I'm here. I saw you were at what would be called a safe distance that still allows you to see them. Now quiet I need to concentrate." I shut up as Tifa held the red materia to her chest. I looked over to see the machine was just a few blocks and a street away as it continued to plow through. I heard thunder and lighting rumble as the moon in the sky was blotted out by storm clouds. It didn't take much longer before in a flash of light the image of a grand old man appeared in the sky well above the Proud Clod. Lighting flashed continuously as Ramuh waved his staff while the Clod looked up. He swung his staff down as a pillar of lighting half the width of Shinra tower struck the machine. I felt some satisfaction seeing the machine jump and start steaming as I saw one reactor on its neck fizzle and explode out before it raised a hand to shoot into the air.
That satisfaction grew when I saw a huge hammer appear and hit the machine square in the back. The beam fizzle before a huge burst of energy shot from another roof blasted the arm making the machine throw it up before a magic covered great sword come up with a trail of blue energy and sliced through the joints between the cobbled together double arms and come back down cutting off the main arm and leaving the machine gun arm dangling halfway from its elbow.
"That's what I'm fucking talking about!" I yelled as I saw the machine stumble at the lack of a limb and a half. Magic was tossed in earnest as lighting, fire, and even large shards of ice were thrown at the thing. Each blow knocked it back until the machine finally lost balance and fell into the street. Huge dust clouds kicked up and obscured my vision of the scene.
"Is it down?" Tifa said, sounding very winded at the over charged summons attack. I waited for the dust to clear as I saw the top of a crater of buildings with the machine laying still. Just when I was going to reaffirm her I heard the rubble crack as the thing shifted. That was then followed by and explosion as the back of the mech burst in flames and started to lift the back back onto its feet. Magic was hurled again but this time a bright green shield flared around it as everything bounced off and shot back at their casters.
"Shit the reflect shields up we have to-" I was interrupted by two roars of anger as the ground shook. I stumbled as the mech went rampant smashing everything around it and shooting two machine guns and a laser as it thrashed. I saw the dos of my friends scatter to get away from the mayhem as the machine continued to overheat. It stopped and looked before its head jerked to my direction.
"Shit!" The shiver in my spine intensified as the mech made a sprint for us. I turned and picked up Tifa in a bridal carry as I started to run down the fire escape trying not to trip as Tifa would hit metal supports down the way. Once we reached the ground the approaching footsteps were covered up by the body of the Clod sliding through the building as I continued running. I couldn't look back but the heavy metal thunks behind me gave me enough to go on that continuing down the ally was going to be a bad call. I turned at the sound of whirring to get into the main street but the buildings above me cracked and started to fall.
I held my breath as the chunks started to fall above me but the impact never came when a flash of green below me flashed up and expanded in ice to create a roof. It held just long enough for me to pass through before it collapsed on its own weight. I chance a look down to see Tifa sweating a bit but less winded that when she summoned. I let her down only to immediately take her hand and start running again as another building was destroyed and the Proud Clod burst through.
"Just die already!" Scarlet yelled as the good arm aimed at us. The laser shot at our feet as I pulled Tifa into me and dodged to the side as the sidewalk was obliterated. The mech tried to correct to hit us while we were down but a large purple beast jumped from a rooftop and started to breath fire into its neck. Right as the machine grabbed Vincent in his Galian beast form the reactor he was attacking blew out, the explosion propelling him farther ahead of Tifa and me and forcing the machine to stop as the lower part of its head had been shattered and its hand had been blown off. I took the opportunity to pick Tifa up and run. Out the corner of my eye I saw Aeris wave me down to another ally across the street. Going in Tifa had an ether shoved down her throat by Cid as Aeris cast a heal on both of us.
"Fuckers are damn persistent. We need to keep moving." I nodded to Cid as the four of us continued running. We had peace for just a moment as we continued before the roofs above us were blasted. The back rows closed with rubble as we went another street over and waited as more heavy steps pounded through. Everyone held their breath as we heard beams and machine gun fire go past us towards the cannon.
"I was hoping that beam would be out after that. I guess it only lost a few fingers." I huffed as I listened to the sound of magic being reflected and the odd impact of a spell in between.
"That reflect barrier is a pain. Nothing I've cast has gotten through."
"You have to time it now." Cloud answered Aeris as he jumped down from a building. "It doesn't have enough power to attack and defend at the same time now. There is a flicker when it uses its laser that I was able to get an ice spell through, the problem is its machine guns are operated separately so those don't cause it to go down."
"Think they realized it yet?" He shrugged at that. I thought for a moment before coming up with with something.
"Cloud I need you to take me up to the rooftops with you. We need to run another distraction and hit the big metal chest piece, that's whats throwing up the barrier. You guys stay ground level and wait for it to flicker then hit it as hard as you can."
"That is risky, they may just decide to use their regular guns."
"That's why I need you up there with me. Your swords still able to take bullet fire so you have to cover the both of us, anyone here have the barrier materia?"
"Got you." Aeris cast as the materia as I saw the shimmer around me and Cloud come up and then disappear.
"That should lessen the impact and keep your sword in decent shape. Lets go." I made a two finger salute at everyone else as Cloud picked me up and jumped onto the roof. I struggled just a little when he jumped again and cleared roof after roof as we followed the Clod. We landed to the building across from the mech as it had forgone walking through the streets and decided to walk though the buildings. firing its machine guns at anything it perceived as a threat as it stumbled through. Cloud jumped one more time as I cast a lighting towards the barrier. It bounced off and struck where we were in the air as we landed and Cloud let me down. Its head turned to us before another lightning struck and reflected back.
I heard a growl from its speakers before one arm pointed away from us and started spraying in the direction of the spell before its good arm aimed at me and Cloud. I ducked behind him as he took his sword and laid it flat. The bullets impacted the sword and all around us as both our barriers flared and what bullets hit the blade pinged and flew off the blade. My heart raced as my hyper awareness kept jumping as its attack went on. Those seconds felt like minutes as Cloud kept angling his blade to shield us as with his SOLDIER grade danger sense was more than likely anticipating where the bullets would hit.
"Think you're clever huh?" Heidegger's voice came out before the arm shifted down. The bullets continued to hit the blade but now the rooftop was the primary target. We couldn't move as the building was pelted before I felt a crack underneath my feet. I yelled as someones home caved in and made a slant that would knocked us both off our feet and made a slant that would drop us off into the street.
"No no no no no NOOOOOO!" I yelled as I slid and felt a bullet or two hit my leg and side as I slide down and flopped to the ground from about a story high. I hissed and rolled over to see the Clod step over to the both of us as a panel opened up on one of the machines knees. Fire burst out as I covered my face. The flames licked at me as I looked up and saw Cloud whipping his blade around in the air. I tried to process the fact that he was using the flat of his blade to fan away the flames with inhuman speed before the leg in front of us froze over and became encased in a layer of ice that was already melting.
"Bye bye insects!" The last laser arm pointed down as I saw the finger-less hand flex down as I saw a blue light flash. Time seemed to slow as in my panic I made a very different choice than my comrades who all threw different spells at its chest. My hand came up and as I fired a lighting into the barrel of the laser wrist as the spells impacted and caused the Clod to stumble back again to one knee while the arm I fired at clutched at its armor-less chest. That was when the crackles of electricity sparked out as the hand now almost directly over the cockpit of Heiddeger and Scarlet started to flash blue again before the wrist exploded out with energy. Shards of metal flew past as I got up and started running with Cloud behind me as I heard more yells coming from the machine.
I felt Cloud grab onto me with one hand as he held up the buster sword with his other as I turned to see the chest of the machine bright red as it fell apart to pieces and slag as the machine slouched. I took a breath as a huge explosion rocketed out of the Proud Clod and propelled the both of us back into the air and down the road. I felt myself turn and get tossed before I started to roll and feel the ground grind at me until I lost the breath I got as I impacted a building chunk.
I was flat on the ground as I wheezed and coughed to get the air back into my lungs. I felt hands turn me over before I felt the familiar soothing sensation of a cure on my before I finally got my eyes open. Aeris was staring down and smiling at me. I lifted my arm to give a thumbs up before I was hoisted up by Cait who slapped my back and made me his.
"Good job my boy! That was good thinking going for the arm." I growled at the cat before taking the chance to look down the street at what was left of the Clod.
The lower torso was the only thing that held somewhat together as the legs to the waist up were warped and broken. What was left of the chest was a skeleton of itself as the shoulders and arms hand been blown off and into the burnt and now shining wrecks of buildings that still had chunks falling apart. I bulked as I saw the head and cockpit weren't even there any more on the body. I smiled as I continued to look at the smoking wreck and the several blocks worth of damage.
"Holy shit."
"How much collateral do you think we've caused?" Aeris asked. Cait sputtered a laugh.
"My answer is that I think I'm happy I lost my job." That got a good laugh out of us as everyone else started to appear out of the buildings behind us and stare. I looked around to see that the ones who were worse off were Cloud and Vincent with Cloud having to feel out his limbs from the burns he got and Vincent limping as he adjusted from being pelted by the explosion from before.
"I think we need to go." Nanaki spoke up. That cued me to remember the time limit we were on and turn. The cannon now predominately above us but still blocks away.
"Drink your elixirs and heal up we have no time." I called out as we all continued to book it. Having to juggle running and drinking made me cough but it kept up as we all got to the bottom of the cannons steps and started to climb up after I had looted the boxes at the bottom.
"Its only Hojo left, what do we expect?" Cloud called from up front. Finishing my terrible tasting drink I ran up to the front of the group.
"He's mutated to shit so don't let his weak looks deceive you. Jenova's cells have made it so after we beat him down he'll transform like that parasite does at least twice in the middle of the fight so when he's down just keep attacking what pile of sludge is left over beforehand. He'll have a couple of his experiments fight us but nothing we can't handle. Once he changes though he's going to have attacks that would make a Marlboro jealous. You and Tifa have the two ribbons that will negate that and I made sure Aeris had a Heal materia if the rest of us are hit with anything. Keep on him and we'll be good, his fight should be a hell of a lot easier that a fucking mech." The long trek upwards continued as we went up stairs and across catwalks at Cait's directions. It was near the top when we waited for Cait to give us a choice of where to go when I heard a voice above us that confused the hell out of me.
"Up this way friends!" Everyone looked up to see Cait, not on a mog but standing by itself. I wasn't the only one who did a double take to make sure ours was still on the mog which it was.
"Wait...wait what?" I sputtered. Both cats smiled before Cait number two spoke up.
"While we were in the maintenance tunnels your gamble in Mideel payed off. Kunsel was my guard and he was able to get me a few things that will help everyone out that I brought along while everyone was running and fighting." The lone cat pointed back at two cases behind it. We all walked up as it flipped open both. The first item grabbed was a megaphone, this one compared to Cait number one's was the fact that it had some kind of slides on the speaker to expand the size along with a series of bright lights and extra bits jutting out the side.
"The HP Shout. My latest in sound technology that I have tweaked and worked for the better part of two years. Able to burst eardrums from a mile away and concentrate the sound to become physical blasts with enough force to even make a behemoth tremble. With the necessary functions to channel magic through I can place materia in to create a wide variety of effects such as directed lighting storms, frigid ice blasts, and fiery blazes." The ultimate weapon was tossed to the mog before the next was lined up. This one was clearly an attachment that had three flexible digits in the middle that Cait number two manipulated...somehow. Around the three fingers though was what looked like an arsenal compact into a huge ring that looked like a miniature fortress of guns.
"This is for you Barret. One of Scarlet's few projects to help amputees in the only way she knew, by weaponizing them. The Missing Score is the first successful prototype of its kind to utilize every kind of weaponry Shinra has to offer. Single-shot, slug, semi-auto and full automatic fire that use cartridges that are essentially blocks of metal that are chipped away by the system in the prosthetic to be fired with the aid of your inherent magic to fire with the force of regular bullets without worry of low ammunition with even your low reserves in magic. It even has the feature of magic based lasers to burst fire, but those are more intensive so I recommend saving those for special occasions." Barret flexed the three fingers and looked over the weapon in awe before his smile turned feral.
"Oh we gonna have fun tonight, just you wait Hojo." The cat nodded at him before looking to the rest of us.
"Sorry I don't have anything else. It was all I could carry and still be able to catch up to the group before everything. But I can warn you, what Nate said is true about the experiments helping Hojo. There are dozens of empty cages above us leading to the cannon that make me believe he has a slew of monsters that he somehow has control over so be aware." Everyone nodded, I expected as much since having only a couple help would have been optimistic on my part. With everything that happened to the group I fully expected nowadays that every battle would be escalated compared to the games.
"You've helped more than enough Cait-er Reeve...are you both Cait or is there something else I should say." Tifa stumbled, I hummed in agreement.
"The amount of cognitive dissonance you have controlling two Caits must be hemorrhaging your brain." At least I think it was, I would have to get an in-depth explanation from Reeve some time at how his ability to animate Cait worked.
"Oh no I learned that lesson a long time ago. This Cait is a spare body I'm controlling via remote from my cell." That...did not help me in the slightest. The function of one remote on that cat would have to make the thing huge or Reeve has made enough room for a screen, microphone, and enough hot keys that would would make an MMO's interface look like child's play to manipulate it as fluidly as he was.
"Then its time to go. We have an appointment with a doctor to make." That caused Vincent to look at me.
"He doesn't have a doctorate you know."
"Shh, you're ruining my amazing one-liner. Now before you argue we need to stop a madman before our time runs out." Now with everyone hyped up with small smiles we ran past the spare cat and continued up. He wasn't kidding about the cages either. Along the way there were big ones and small ones that dotted our path up. One happened to be large enough that it could hold the whole group that made me a little nervous and curious what Hojo pulled to get it up onto the place.
After that the platforms were empty and became narrower as we finally reached the top of the Sister Ray. In front of us was a huge platform that ended with a huge network of controls that were giving off electrical sparks all over with one lone soul standing in front of the machine as he went away typing and flipping levers.
"Hojo!" The typing stopped as the man in front of us made a heavy sigh.
"Of course...the failure."
"You should at least remember my name. Its Cloud!" He along with the rest of us had brandished weapons at the mans back.
"Every time I see you...it pains me to see I had so little scientific sense. I evaluated you as a failed project, and yet you were my only success as a Sephiroth-clone" He huffed a few laughs. "I'm even beginning to hate myself."
"None of that matters. Stop this nonsense." That made the man turn to us.
"Nonsense? This? Ha, Sephiroth seemed to be counting on the energy, so I'm going to lend him a hand."
"Why would you do this?!"
"Quit asking why you moron!" He turned back to the screen before sighing again. "Ninety two percent, this has taken far to long. My son is in need of the energy and power, so of course I would help."
"...your son..." That was from Vincent. The man looked disgusted at the statement as Hojo continued.
"He doesn't know though, what will he think when he finds out I'm his father? Always looking down on me like that." The man laughed before he suddenly stopped and looked up at nothing before snickering. "I offered the woman with my child to Professor Gast's Jenova Project. When Sephiroth was still in the womb we gave him Jenova cells."
"You MONSTER!" Vincent was livid as he bared his teeth.
"I can't believe you would do that..." Aeris spoke up.
"The illusionary crime against Sephiroth..." Cloud muttered.
"You are wrong, it was my desire as a scientist!" The man cackled again.
"The one who should have paid for their sins...you die here Hojo."
"And you think a group of failures will stop me? A sad excuse of one of my successes, a failure of genetics like yourself, a now useless beast and a long dead race I have no care for?" The man started to walk toward us. His footsteps were loud as he approached and stopped before he stared off into space again before making a sick smile.
"But then you were lead to believe that weren't you...yes yes this is all coming together nicely I understand now!" He threw up his arms and laughed harder than he had before.
"He's insane." Tifa whispered, he however stopped and starred.
"No...no in fact I have never been more sane in my life, and it is all thanks to you." One hand pointed at me and I felt a cold chill run through me.
"The fuck are you on about?"
"It seems odd when you think about it. A ragtag group of individuals somehow eluding all of Shinra's might. Always one step ahead of them and just a step behind Sephiroth. Every achievement that should have been impossible somehow always coming together...odd, isn't it?" I felt my blood go cold now. Hojo was making to much sense as a thought occurred to me.
He looked too normal to me. No discoloration, no cancerous tumors, he looked the picture of health for a man in his fifties. There was also the fact that every time he spoke it wasn't with the twinge of madness I had associated with his character. Not a single thing was wrong with him and that caused every single one of my nerves to go haywire as I tried to figure out what was different, what had changed that caused him to look like he did now that made my instincts run wild.
"What did you do." An order that caused him to snicker.
"A change from your plans then, yes my theory is proven right!" Once again he guffawed as the whole group tensed up.
"Why you were the difference boy. I must thank your friend for providing samples of yourself for me to experiment with." He pointed at Yuffie as he continued. "Are all of you curious to what I found?" No one moved so he took that as a sign to continue.
"Your genetics were so odd. Blood that was conducive to mako more than even the best of SOLDIER candidates, a lack of resistance to regular poisons but a higher than normal resistance to magic induced ones. Everything about you points to an origin that is a human that lost the connection to magic hundreds of years prior. Yet we all know that can't be possible..." I hate to admit it but I was hanging off every word. How he got my blood from Yuffie I could only guess but how he explained everything sounded to damn familiar to how I described my scenario.
"Get to the point already!" Barret threw up his gun arm. Hojo just clicked his tong in annoyance.
"The final piece fell into place when I used your genetics in combination with Jenova's cells...the ones I had injected into myself. The results were...baffling to say the least. My mind became so clear and I could hear here voice better than I had before and she confirmed my suspicions of the one she called the outsider. So tell me boy...how did they kill her?" That threw me for a loop, I could only sputter as he continued to speak.
"Dark matter was found months ago when AVALANCHE suddenly started to become a nuisance, a group that included one boy that had no record of even existing. So my theory has been for the past few weeks that you boy...are a time traveler."
"W-What?!" That stumped me, I was still nervous but that fact that Hojo was so close, yet still very wrong kept me on the back foot.
"Jenova must have gotten close, so close to achieving everything yet someone in our time must have found a way to stop her just short of it. It must have left the word in tatters, a wounded animal waiting to bleed out to death. It would taken roughly a millennium for the world to have no life left but in times of desperation humanity can achieve scientific marvels, and the best option for human survival would have been preventing it before it happened...and so you all accomplished the ability to time travel yet it must have been to crude since our time-line has only you as an outlier that appeared at a sub optimal time."
"Nate." Cloud growled, Hojo was the last person we needed to have these idea's. Especially if his claims of having a stronger connection to Jenova were true.
"It doesn't matter now. You're already dead." That got another laugh.
"Boy, you haven't the faintest idea what has happened thanks to you. Jenova will prevail, she and my son will take this world and I will be the last witness to it all. This world and every other she comes to will be-" A shot flew over my shoulder and went in between Hojo's eyes. My ear was ringing as the whole group proceeded to toss every spell they could at the body. After a minute of continued magic assault what was left was a mangled torso and a scattered leg and arm off to the sides.
"Always talked too much." Vincent added as we circled around the dead body, keeping our distance for the inevitable change.
"HeATheNs thE lOt of YoU." The horrifyingly garbled words came out of the torso as black sludge spilled out and started to take form. No one stood idol as we all started casting.
"Holy fuck!" My eyes shifted to Barret who was struggling with a black humanoid monster that appeared to be made entirely of black and red exposed muscle. The one messed up part was the fact that Hojo's arm was jutting out of its stomach. Another yell made my head swing as Tifa was struggling with another one of those things that head his leg popping out the back of the black muscle before it morphed into a tentacle that lashed at her with broken bones.
I ran over and slashed off the tentacle as Tifa bashed its elongated face with her fist as she knocked it back, its neck snapped as I took that moment to cast lighting at it. The monster became spastic before its arms split and grew bones out of the four arms before thrashing wildly at the two of us. One step back caused me to trip as Tifa made an effort to deflect the things attacks. I looked down to see the tendril I cut tightening and slowly growing bones to grind my legs before I ignited my hand before cutting it and grabbing the thing as it lit up before I spewed flames to the ground and incinerating its other half.
I turned and threw a fireball over Tifa's shoulder into the monsters face knocking it back. I ran up and slashed into the things shoulder as I channeled lighting into the blade as the thing twitched, trying to move in a way that would hurt me as the muscle around my blade healed and kept it in place. I struggled for a second before its had was cut off by Yuffie making the thing fall as I ignited the whole thing.
"These aren't regular monsters."
"Bigger problems Nate!" I looked over to Barret unloading into half of his creature is it tried to crawl it him without legs through his bullet storm. Yuffie ran over before taking a breath and spewing fire out as she burned the creature and its rapidly regenerating lower half. Once we were sure it was down we all looked back to the main group and stared along with them at the scene.
In place of Hojo's body was a black cocoon the stood seven feet tall as it squirmed and writhed in place. I saw the scorch marks and icicles stabbed into the steel around it. The mass of muscle stopped moving before it unfolded into a huge flesh flower that held Hojo in the center, looking just as normal as he did before as the four pedals of flesh flashed up and blocked the spells and bullets aimed at him.
"What...are you..." Vincent spoke as we let up on the attack, clearly not getting hits in and seeing the flesh wall recover faster than we could burn it away.
"The success to your failure Turk. The boys and Jenova's genes were the catalysts that allowed me to take in the mass and minds of the monsters I had brought with me here without the drawbacks you have. This is what will allow me to follow Jenova on her journey, but do not worry, after this I will take all of you into me as we travel through the cosmos together. After all life has been taken I will use the boys knowledge and the minds of other scientists to travel back with my her and my son. We shall escape the universes entropy by rewinding time again and again!" He threw his arms as the flesh walls exploded out into a different looking flesh beast as they all ran towards us.
Lighting crackled as I jumped back and hit a dog beast before switching the spell and tossing a fireball. It stumbled from the two hits but quickly recovered as tendrils sprouted from its back as it continued its run. I ducked as it jumped and slice off a leg before I was shoulder checked by a fifth beast as it fell down with me. I blasted the flesh on my chest that had slowly started crawling onto me as its head opened up. I struggled while rows of teeth bit at my head while I twisted away and took the opportunity to shove the thing onto its back and scrambled away. Another shot of lighting stunned the thing before I looked around at the chaos.
Tifa was behind Yuffie as she sliced limbs off of the monster she faced while Tifa used her lightning charged fists when she could to knock it back before Yuffie would torch the thing and what bits she had cut. Cloud protected Aeris as he cleaved through his monster and pinned it down with ice before going back to toss a blade beam at Hojo as Nanaki came up to burn the thing down. Cid was dancing with two monsters as he kept knocking them away to be shot down by Barret and Vincent who were taking pot shots at Hojo who blocked Clouds limit with another wall as it turned into another monster that found itself being gunned down.
The back of my head tingled as I jumped away again as yet another monster that had spawned with eight tentacles as it had tried to grab where I stood. I ran up and punted the thing back at Hojo as it collided into the man. This gave me the wonderful scene of him laughing as the beast morphed back into his body before he returned to normal and sprouted four more pedals from under his feet. My mind raced as I tried to figure out his weakness, he had well over a dozen of these things he could throw at us and if we didn't take the time to burn them down then he would just absorb them back and spit it out good as new. The one thing I knew was that even though he had the condensed mass of all these things he himself wasn't moving as he grew more monsters so he didn't have the coordination to do both.
That meant we needed to get through his wall and start putting him on the back foot so he couldn't continue before he overwhelmed the rest of us as we got tired since even with the quick recovery we made we still had bruises, burns, and we were all having to deal with a dead sprint up a tower. I couldn't ask for help with my plan since everyone kept having to deal with a new monster or two but I knew everyone was on the same thought train, we just needed an opening.
An idea popped up as I electrocuted a monster before burning it down to cinders like the rest. I could channel more than one spell at a time with my magic reserves and how I interacted with Gaia's type of magic. The problem was the only other times I could remember not alternating with spells and dual casting was back at Icicle Inn and that was with different materia and at Gongaga was when I was in my split personality so I wasn't conscious of what I was doing.
"YOOOOOOOOO!" I lurched as the huge burst of sound blasted past me as two more monsters tried to form in front of Hojo but the vibrations coming from Caits new weapon was actually vibrating them hard enough to the point that bits would try to form only to ungulate and simply drop to the ground as they would be stuck in place as they tried to wiggle back to Hojo.
Knowing this was as good a chance as I would get I sheathed Fusion and started to channel magic into both my hands. A headache started to come on as the experience was very different from Icicle Inn. What was two complimentary materia then was now two very wild materia I was trying to control at the same time. I concentrated, I tried to brake it down to basics as I blocked out the sounds around me. Fire magic was hungry, to do my flamethrowers I needed to feed it a continuous uninterrupted stream of magic to both feed and control it. Lightning was different in that a stream of electricity would need to conduct through an object connected to its target, its problem was that I needed to burst fire the magic so I would just continue discharging in the area I wanted.
The conflict of how I was using it was turning that ache into a migraine as I grit my teeth. The magic in my arms was sputtering in both arms as I felt bursts of fire like my fingertips and sparks fly from my other hand. I discarded my previous though and imagined it instead as rhythm and sound. One was a flat note that was being complimented by a steady rhythmic beat. I felt my nose drip as both increased in pitch and tempo but they were in time with each other. I opened my eyes to see both hands engulfed in their element along with a few drops of blood.
Cait was still yelling as I threw both hands in front of me, one open palm and the other in a grab motion. I walked slowly as a stream of flame ate away at one monster as it struggled to move as its flesh first melted to the ground before being charbroiled as it was turned to charcoal. following that was just bursts of lighting that flicked away at the dead thing as the charcoal was scattered into dust as I moved. Cait's sound wave became more concentrated as a gust started focusing on Hojo as I walked forward, holding my concentration as I felt the toll of both materia start to make my thoughts fuzzy and migraine worse.
Hojo yelled something as a flesh wall appeared and made me stop for a moment as I stood to burn and shock it down. I heard more gunfire as another wall appeared to block the shots but that stuttered the growth of the one I was on enough to mow down the obstruction. Walking through I felt the soles of my boots became hot as I felt a little resistance lifting up my feet as I walked through the scorched flesh and metal.
My breath quickened as I was not ten feet away from the man before I ran, flames licked me as I burst through the fire and heard Hojo scream as Cait cut his attack as Cloud started to throw ice at the literal meat shield, piercing through it about halfway as the flesh stopped and ate at the ice spears. I didn't let up as Hojo convulsed from the electricity as I tried to burn him down. Unlike his monsters though he had more mass to spare so as I saw his coat and flesh burn into black chunks he would reform immediately to normal before the process would continue.
Then the ground exploded.
Or more accurately Hojo's feet melted before flesh expanded out and up around me as his legs blended and he increased his height by several feet. I tried to fend off the wave but I was left open as the flesh grew to fast around me before it all rose up into a dome.
"ENOUGH!" The dome closed in and I stopped using fire as flesh compressed onto me. Everything was dark as I was being crushed inside of the meatball as I struggled to hold it back. I flared the lighting in my hands as the inside lit up from my left hands sparks to show nothing but monstrous bits around me. I couldn't hear anything from the outside and I only had room to breath due to me struggling to push against my closed cage and the lighting in on hand forcing the mass to become disoriented. I held my breath as I felt the familiar sensation of being electrocuted as being enclosed only had me zapping myself.
Then I felt sharp pricks hit my skin as teeth slowly grew around me as the flesh stopped trying to crush me and instead grind and chew into me. I took a breath and coughed before holding it in again as I became lightheaded and dizzy, I realized he was breathing poison as the air inside slowly became invisible with a dull mist that was escaping from pours in between teeth. My vision was getting spotty and I needed another breath, I felt thumps through the dome too. I didn't know what was going on but someone was trying to free me and I would be a liability if I passed out.
I felt a chomp on my calf as I stopped myself from yelling and taking more poison as the flesh closed in just a little to shove my sword tightly to my side. Warm blood ran down my leg as I decided to forgo the lighting and let it go dark again before two lights of blue flashed in my hands. I stabbed my hands into the flesh as I felt energy flow into me from my two support materia. I continued pushing against the prison but I felt some give as I sapped away the energy being used to keep me in.
Seconds felt like minutes as my lungs screamed for air but I held on before I was thrown into the side and rolled with the trap. I tumbled for a few seconds before light suddenly burst out from under my feet as the mass around me convulsed and deformed. The sky appeared as sweet delicious air flowed back into my lungs and Cloud took my arm and hoisted me up. Standing I burned the cocoon down before looking up. Hojo was now fifteen feet tall, his entire lower half a black pillar with two columns around him as he swiped and smashed as the rest of the group held back.
Then Hojo dipped as all the flesh around him pooled together into a huge ball. Everyone attack as bits were fried off before it started to take shape. Six legs with large human hands popped out before a main of tentacles formed on an elongated body. A head that looked vaguely like a behemoth came out the main before its mouth opened to a maw with six rows of teeth and miasma leaking out as its eyes changed into a human face with a second mouth that opened to also to many teeth.
"You brats. You believe you can stop me?! I can't die, I am your demise!" The two disturbingly voices of a male and female came out of the mouth as the face's eyes opened to a mako green cat slit and a blood red one with no pupil.
"Hojo!" Vincent roared as he morphed and grew purple skin as he turned into the Galian beast. I felt a wave wash over me as Aeris cured whatever I had breathed in as both monsters roared and charged each other. The beast collided in fire as the miasma from Hojo ignited under Vincent's fiery breath. Vincent clawed and bit into the monster as the Marlboro mane thrashed and cut into him as four out of the six limbs grappled with the smaller beast.
Bullets from Barret hit into the side of Hojo before a tendril shot out the side of the monster and wrapped around him as it slammed once, twice before it swiped at Vincent with it. He back off as Cloud made to brake Barret out as another tendril flew out and took Cloud sword and all before slamming them together in a shield Vincent stopped short at before a third came from its back and stabbed at Vincent with razor teeth covering the tip of the appendage.
Two more tentacles came out and made a grab at Nanaki and Tifa. Nanaki barely avoided his as Cait jumped of his mog body and let it get caught before screaming into his megaphone as a wave of fire hit the giant stuffed body and Hojo before one of it six arms extended and grabbed and tried to crush him but the tiny cat struggled. Vincent came back in and grappled with the beast again as it hugged Vincent and molded its arms together as they got into a biting match.
I jumped and made a cut for Cloud as yet another tentacle sprouted. Cid jumped in and stabbed the thing into the steel and impaled it. I cut halfway through Clouds restraint as it went lax for just a second before out came flesh in a grab. I panicked just as the thing went for me before it went tot. I fell back as the flesh wiggled in front of me before I griped my sword in both hands and ignited it in flame before cutting the thing away and freeing cloud as I burned away the excess flesh.
"He's running out!" Cloud yelled. The beast stopped biting at Vincent's purple body before slamming both Barret and Caits mog down on top of him. Hojo then tried to fling both off the edges of the makeshift arena but Tifa ran and grabbed the tentacle with Barret and held as Yuffie jumped and cut it down, freeing the man as he continued spraying bullets until he aimed and a beam shot out into the monsters face.
This was followed up by Tifa running up to the monsters face before she started to beat down the things face. I couldn't do anything but stand in awe as she kick flipped off its face right into a roundhouse before basically doing a shoryuken knocking its head up before she ran under and grabbed its huge body. Muscles flexed as I heard her yell as she lifted what had to be at least a ton of monster as she finished with a suplex. Right after Yuffie slashed away at the thing as it scrambled to orient itself. One limb came off right before another fell with it from Cloud. Cid and Nanaki battled another as poison spewed from Hojo's mouth before a gale of healing wind blew through from Aeris. The Galian beast began breathing fire and pinning Hojo down as we all came together.
Hojo screamed. Every thrash was met with a blade, every swipe was cut down and burned as his body started to compress. Vincent tore away two arms as Cid jumped in and impaled its head before a stick of dynamite was thrust into its mouth. Its face was blown apart as flames from Yuffie, Cait, and myself nearly covered the platform as Barret, Nanaki, and Cloud pelted the body with fire, ice and bullets. Everything was just noise as the field was lit up as body parts were frozen by Tifa and burned away before they could be a threat.
I don't know how long we held him down, but everyone was sweating and breathing heavy as the flames petered out and we survived our destruction. Electricity was flying off from the console for the Sister Ray as it had not escaped from the damage. The screen flickered as steel burned red hot all around us with char marks where flesh was burnt into the steel. In the middle of it was was half of Hojo's torso. His body shifted around as it tried to grow back but we had gotten rid of dozens of monsters worth of mass as the black body dragged at a sad pace towards the console. I walked up and slammed my foot down on his head. His semi-human face looked up with a bloody eye as his mouth gurgled. I took pleasure in grinding my heel harder before the eye changed into a green slit
"You can't hope to stop me. The end is here and I am it harbinger." The female voice came out again. I just stomped down harder.
"You were killed before and you will die again." Flames flew from my hand as I burned the lower half the body. An in human screech came from the body as I continued moving up.
"Meteor will be stop, you will fester but we will find you and we will eviscerate you. Two thousand years worth of sins are going to be paid in full monster. So hide for as long as you can because you're next." Flames were added to mine as everyone walked up.
"For the Planet." Cloud said with Tifa, Barret, Yuffie, Aeris, Cid, Nanaki, and Cait all stopped.
"For Lucrecia" Vincent whispered, back in his regular form and staring down the now un responsive body as we made sure to burn the thing into the steel. Once everyone was sure it was dead we all just stood around as the moment sank in.
"Hojo was the last one." Aeris voiced.
"Shinra's finished." Cait added.
"Goddess...we did it. We actually took down Shinra." Tifa wobbled as Barret held her up.
"..Yeah..we did didn't we?" He sighed. Wind blew past and pick up what ashes were left and picked them up. The dust scattered as my gaze turned to the flickering lights of Midgar.
"So whats next?" I turned to see everyone waiting for me. I riffled through my hair before pointing at Cait.
"Cait just to be sure lock down that console, wipe what memory it has and make sure its inoperable when we leave. After that we need to leave through Sector five." I paused, then cursed. "Not until we make a stop at Wall market. We need to grab something on the way out. After that we need to deal with the rest of the worlds problems before we deal with Jenova and Sephiroth."
"What about what he said? He may have been wrong but Jenova knows you have to much information. What if she prepares for us?" Yuffie asked.
"She can't gain power faster than what she's doing now and I still remember the fights in the Crater better than the rest we've gone through. We'll be just as prepared if not more so, the problem right now is the time limit we're going against. With how everything's changed I don't know how much longer we have left to do this."
"Done!" I looked to see Cait standing on the now shut down cannon. Nodding I took one of the few potions I had on me and downed it as I wiped my face of dry blood.
"Then lets go. Tifa, Wall market has the best weapon for you and I think you'll like it. Its crunch time now guys, it only gets harder from here."
XXX
Authors note.
That took so long for me to get through. Once again sorry for the wait ya'll, life just seems to keep getting in the way when i actually want to get something done so I do apologize for the extended wait. But I enjoyed writing two boss battles in a row and I am relieved to finally finish up and get to end game material.
I don't remember when I came up with the idea but at some point of time years ago I wanted to change the Hojo fight to something reminiscent of both Blacklight and Nero Chaos from Tsukihime. It took some working but i want to believe this was something to enjoy.
But all that we have left are the WEAPONS, weapon grabs, training montages and then finally the Northern Crater. I deally i would love to finish this story right after Christmas but considering my track record a more realistic goal would be late January. As for plans after that...
I have a lot on my mind- in a good way!- and i need time to get all of that out and online. So after this story ends i'm going to take the time to get a few chapters of this stories sequel written along with two other stories getting started up. for more info my profile does have the top three fics I want to work on after this. In the mean time enjoy yourselves and hopefully i see everyone some time after Halloween.
