Fire Hazard
Sirra and Ruluf had been sent to do some random checks on things in the Slums, and had met Shears in Wall Market. One of the better restaurants there had become their destination, though a vaguely amused-looking Ruluf had parted ways with the other two at the doors. For her part, that annoyed her as much as she wondered why he was even doing it, but then she'd remembered Shears effectively proposing to court her (yeah, it was an old-fashioned term, but it was more accurate than any modern word besides 'woo', and mercs didn't 'woo' anyone). That had been three weeks ago now, and she'd still needed some time in the Hospital Wing and some time off to rest to fully recover, so she hadn't been expecting him to still be interested.
In the last half-hour, he'd amply proven her wrong on that point—he was still very interested. And she wasn't sure if she should be pleased or annoyed, especially since she'd been enjoying the time (what little of it she'd had) she'd spent with him.
But damned if she wasn't throwing her own ingrained insistence to never have a guy in the toilet...
They'd just finished eating when some kind of racket started up outside, and Ruluf threw open the door to shout, "Shears, Sirra, the Deepground patrols have suddenly started attacking everyone on the streets!"
"Fuck!" both of them hissed as they rose and headed for the doors, readying their weapons as they went.
Outside was a mess—Deepground had plenty of fodder to kill in Wall Market, and one patrol had been right in the middle of the area when they'd suddenly gone into attack mode. Sirra, having no sympathy for them at all, mercilessly shot them down as she made her way forward, and Ruluf joined her in the shooting. Dead already littered the streets, and she briefly had the grace to wish she had a Revive to help them with, but she didn't, so her focus went right back to killing the killers.
Suddenly, she blinked as one of the dead people stirred and sat up slowly, looking confused, and she lowered her guns to scan the area.
"Sirra?" Shears asked with a small frown.
"Someone's healing and rezzing the dead," she replied. "But I can't see anyone. You and Ruluf keep taking care of those guys—I'm going to find a better view."
"Be careful," the man said, then turned back to the Deepground attackers, jumping forward from the space she'd left so he could attack directly.
Admittedly, she was impressed to only get that much from a man who was interested in her—most relationships where both were in a combat position didn't work out because of the strain of the danger and both wanting to protect the other, usually by trying to keep them from fighting. It looked like Shears wasn't going to do any more than worry about her if she was actively fighting at the time, not try to keep her close to him or stop her from doing it. Admittedly, that was a strong point in his favor, as long as that never changed.
It didn't take her long to slip around the corner of a nearby building to a pile of crates and use them to climb onto the building roof. From there, she made her way to the street side and peered around, wondering what her new vantage point would let her see. The result was three shocking things.
The first was how a few of the Deepground members in the first patrol group had started fighting against the other Deepground members.
Second, she happened to have a good view all the way down the street, right to Corneo's Mansion, where another Deepground patrol group was fighting and killing people—and it was huge. She suddenly thought maybe it wasn't a patrol group at all. That one was being somewhat held off by some of Corneo's men.
And finally, in an alley nearby, there were two large, cat-like creatures in orange and red with manes along their upper spines and burning tail tips. They wore sharp metal clips in their hair, and those clips had the glow of Materia—and every time the Materia glow intensified, someone else was healed or revived.
It was the last which gave her pause, since she wasn't sure if she should take them as monsters—they were obviously fully sentient to use Materia. Then, she looked over at the slaughter closer to Corneo's Mansion and realized the Deepground numbers were growing, even with an odd few who were fighting against their fellows over there, too. Finally, she turned her gaze to the patrol group nearby, saw that it was nearly taken care of, and jumped down to head for the alley where the two cats were.
They both blinked at her in surprise as she stepped into the alley and gazed at them for a moment, which caused the pair to trade looks. In an instant decision, she asked them, "So, can you two talk, or do we need another way to communicate?"
They traded looks again, then one, the more maned of the two, said in a male voice, "We can talk. You're a Turk."
"Yeah," she agreed, setting aside how they knew the uniform for later. "You're the ones healing people on the street."
"We are," the other cat agreed, that one's voice more feminine than the first's.
"Well, there's a bigger fight going on further down the street, and we can use some healers to rez people while we're trying to stem that renegade army. You game?" she asked, not caring that she was talking to two giant cats. Healers were healers, and damned, but they desperately needed more help of whatever sort they could get.
Once again, they traded looks, then the female asked, "Can you guarantee we won't be attacked and killed or taken as experimental subjects later?"
"I can, just by not mentioning in my report that you were anything other than 'healers'," she replied. "Then, the assumption will be that you were humans using primarily healing Materia, not something else. You'll be free to walk away when the fight's over."
"Good enough," the female agreed, stepping out onto the street past Sirra. The male gave a small, tired sigh, but nodded and followed her, so she quickly turned and fell in with the two.
"I'm Sirra. Shears and Ruluf—he's another Turk—are the ones doing the fighting here. Your names?" she asked as they got closer to where Shears and Ruluf were talking with the few Deepground members who had turned on their fellows. Those ones all turned to face her and the two cats in surprise. She noted how the cats were still healing people, pointedly ignoring how people were gaping at them in shock and wary surprise—which quickly became reverence as they realized the cats were healing them.
"I'm Nanaki, she's Deneh," the male offered.
Nodding, Sirra looked at the two men who had been waiting for her and said, "There's a whole army of Deepground people by Corneo's Mansion. These two are the healers. Got any word on what's going on?"
"Apparently someone used their control chips to force them to attack, but it didn't last long, then some chose to stop attacking civilians. These three are the ones who stopped once the control chips deactivated," Ruluf told her. "The same thing probably happened to the ones down by Corneo's. Let's get over there."
"Right," Sirra and Shears, and the members of Deepround who had pulled their helmets off all agreed, and the group quickly headed in that direction.
It didn't take them long to find the first of the Deepground guys, so they set to work. It was going to be a long day.
FoWD
"Traitor!" one of the Restrictors snarled at Verdot. "And we'd even been thinking of letting you live because of your skills—but now we know we have no control over you."
"You never had control of the Turks, Hounds or Guards," Verdot replied blandly. "And if you ever thought you did, you truly are fools."
Before anyone else could say anything, Veld punched the nearest Restrictor, sending him flying into the sitting area at the rear of the office. "Less talk and more elimination of a threat, Verdot," he commented dryly.
"No complaint about the President's death?" Verdot asked, quickly aiming his gun at the Restrictor who had been talking to him before, the one standing across the President's body from him. The man started to dodge, assuming he'd need to dodge a bullet, but instead, he got hit with a rather large fireball as Verdot cast Fire 3 on him.
"Oh, I already knew he'd have to go, sooner rather than later," Veld answered mildly. "So no, not torn up about that part." He was then forced to dodge and grasp the other Restrictor's arm to pull him over his hip in a clear wrestling move to throw an opponent.
Verdot snorted—and dodged the Restrictor he'd just thrown the fire at as the nearly unharmed man attacked him with force. It was going to be a hard fight if the magic wouldn't work, so he focused on staying out of the man's reach and shooting at him suddenly at random moments. It worked out rather well in general, but wasn't making much headway against the man, and it didn't help that both were slightly distracted periodically by the battle between Veld and the other Restrictor.
That battle was brutal. Blows hit and broke bones, left cuts, and definitely bruised. They fought fist against fist and foot against foot, exchanging blows so rapidly that sometimes it was almost as though they were standing still. Verdot was shocked by how forcefully they fought one another, with absolutely no hesitation at all. To top that off, they often also threw their opponent, and those throws tended to travel several feet unless they were directed downward at the ground. Then, Veld hit the window behind the desk, and everyone turned to look in surprise as it cracked with a sharp sound, and the man hissed in pain.
As the Restrictor Veld fought jumped at him with a triumphant smirk, the Deepground woman suddenly reminded them of her presence as she threw herself into him from the side. It unbalanced him—but in the next moment, his fist hit her so hard in such fury that her entire chest caved in as she hit the wall near the stairs leading down and out of the office. Verdot's eyes widened as the Restrictor turned to face Veld again, only to get hit so hard with fire that he ended up on the sitting area coffee table in a scorched heap. And somehow, he was still alive!
Verdot turned his eyes back to his opponent, barely missing a blow from the man—but he'd been distracted for just a moment too long, and was hit by his other fist and sent flying to slam into the wall opposite the door onto the balcony. The air was knocked from his lungs in a whoosh of breath, and spots crossed his vision as he desperately tried to both breathe and not lose awareness. He blinked, and the Restrictor was standing over him, letting him know he hadn't been successful—he hadn't known he'd fallen to his knees on the floor, still leaning against the wall, or that the Restrictor had moved. He was utterly screwed.
Then, Veld was slamming his fist into the Restrictor's spine, right between his shoulder blades, and the man dropped to the ground with a hiss of pain.
Verdot blinked again, then his eyes widened as he saw both Restrictors unleash some sort of power explosion on Veld—and Veld's body was torn apart. He wouldn't be recovering from that, and both Restrictors were both still alive, even if they were badly injured.
And both of them faced him with demented smirks, standing over him with their fists raised and ready to strike the killing blow.
His only regret was that he hadn't been able to properly return all of the Turks to Lady Shinra, but he'd done the best he could, and even if it had been late, he'd made amends. These two would now be able to be finished off by others.
Then, before their blows actually struck him, while they were in mid-swing, a sudden surge of red power came from Verdot, momentarily blinding him and washing over the room. His eyes widened as his vision cleared and he found himself looking up at a Phoenix Summon, whose gaze was turned to him. Both Restrictors were somehow dead, even the one resistant to magic, and the Deepground woman, whose body had still been in one piece, slowly sat up, staring at the Phoenix as well.
But he didn't have a Phoenix!
Suddenly, the Phoenix looked amused as it said, "You have one. You have always had one. However, when you agreed to a mass slaughter, I refused to be Summoned by you. Until you met Carbuncle and both you and I realized the truth. I have seen your actions become honorable, as the man I had once known. And now, in your time of greatest need, I have returned to you."
First, Verdot blinked, then hurriedly reached into his pocket for the red stone which had been his family heirloom, pulling it free and holding it up in awe and realization. It had always been a dark scarlet color, not the bright red of a Summon Materia, and it had made the dull stone sound when hit, not the odd, glass-like chiming of a Materia. But now, it was brilliant, glowing red, and very obviously was indeed a Summon Materia—a Phoenix Materia. His family had always revered fire and worshiped Phoenix. It suddenly all made perfect sense.
His gaze moved back to the Phoenix as tears came to his eyes, but he held them back as he said a heart-felt, "Thank you...so much, Phoenix."
The bird turned to look at the woman, and at the pieces of Veld's body, then said, "My only regret is that I waited a moment too long to act, and he now is not able to redeem himself properly, even after as far as he has come." Phoenix turned back to Verdot and said, "But from now on, you shall be able to summon me properly. Hold to your true honor, and move forward. Much work remains to fix what has been done to this world."
Verdot nodded, and the Phoenix faded out as the glow from the Materia dulled, but didn't disappear completely. His family heirloom now held true to the traits of any other Materia. After a moment, his gaze lifted to the woman, who eyed him patiently, apparently waiting for something.
Oh, right, orders. Most of Deepground apparently couldn't make their own decisions without a commander.
Slowly, he pushed himself up—but damn, that still hurt—and said, "I doubt this was the only incident in need of seeing to, so we'd better find out the next thing." He pulled out his PHS and was about to send a message to Lady Shinra to ask for further direction—only to find a message from her saying that he should ask Lazard if he needs something else to do after seeing to whatever he had been doing. By the fact that it was only sent about two minutes prior, he knew without doubt that Lady Shinra was still alive, causing him to breathe a sigh of relief. Then, he put in a call to Lazard.
Work was work, and they'd have plenty of it that day. The rest, he could think on when it was over.
FoWD
Scarlet was still sitting beside Reeve in that room, absently watching Shelke work, until her gaze focused on what the girl was doing—some very advanced engineering. "Are you—giving her Materia slots?" she asked in amazement.
"Yeah," Shelke agreed, tone absent as she focused on her work. "Since she was only a medical companion, she actually had a lot of unused space in her body, even as small as it is, so because Yufi kept finding really interesting Materia in Ed's apartment, we thought we could let Elicia make use of it."
The woman's brow quirked. "Materia like what?"
"Master Summon, Master Magic, and Master Command. And Mega-All and a Materia that's somehow all of the Plus Materia at once," Shelke replied dryly, and both Reeve and Scarlet stared at her in shock. "She had three slots already, but when we decided—or when Yufi decided—on those five, I needed to make her two more slots."
"Well, that will certainly make her a powerhouse," Reeve commented dryly. "But is that really just a prototype you're still testing?"
"Nope," the girl replied. "We did the prototype months ago, so we know it works—I just have to finish it." Elicia nodded emphatically at that.
"Okay..." he blinked. Scarlet noticed his gaze move to her, so she looked at him curiously, only for him to ask, "Speaking of prototypes, what was in this room? Something maybe useful to the mess outside?"
Blinking Scarlet turned to look at the room, then rose and walked into it as she thought about where it had been along the wall, even as she murmured, "Now that you mention it..." There was something niggling at the back of her mind, something she'd been working on, but had been put on hold since the bombing of Sectors 5 and 6. And Shelke's work on the Materia slots was one of those things helping to serve as a trigger for what was in the room.
Suddenly, she realized what it probably was—the portable Materia Cannon she'd been working on—and moved to the block where she'd last left the prototype. In the dark, she could vaguely see hints of the metal making up the device, but running her hands over it—yes, it was indeed the Cannon.
"I think I'm going to have to turn on the light when you're done with that, Shelke—if you think Elicia wouldn't mind being plugged into the Materia Cannon so I can shoot it at those Deepground assholes," she commented to the girl.
"Don't turn on the light if you don't absolutely have to," Reeve said in alarm. Then, his tone became a mix of curiosity and alarm as he asked, "Materia Cannon?"
"I don't know if she would. Elicia?" Shelke asked.
There was a pause, then Elicia asked, "How does the Canon work? What does it do?"
Scarlet blinked in mild surprise, having not realized the robot was literally capable of independent thought before, but said, "It uses Materia as a power source to shoot off a high-powered beam of energy similar to a laser in what it can cut through. Its general design means it vaporizes things in its path more than it damages them in other ways, so even most heavy, metal plates can't hold against it for more than a minute. The type of beam it shoots depends on what kind of Materia is attached to it if it's something in the elemental or effect line—which sometimes causes explosions—but turns to just pure damage if it's something else. If I plug it in to you, it's going to shoot a beam that's the combined power of all five Materia housed in you, but as far as I know, it won't affect either you or the Materia, and you're not casting anything by doing this."
There was another long pause, until Shelke said happily, "There! Done! Now to get the Materia in and close it up!"
Finally, as Shelke was doing that, Elicia said, "If I'm not casting, I can do that."
"Good," Scarlet grinned.
She quickly retrieved the prototype to set on the floor near Shelke and Elicia, in the beam of light coming in from the slightly open door. She then made her way to the shelves to one side of the room, thankful she was pretty anal about what things went where, making it easier to find things in the dark. On those shelves, she found the wires with the plugs she needed to attach Elicia to the Cannon, then took those over to where the girls were—and was surprised to find that Shelke had been examining the weapon while she'd been grabbing the last parts.
The red haired girl was quick to take one end of the wires and plugs Scarlet had brought back so she could plug the jack into a slot on Elicia's back under where her ribbon was. Since she took care of that part, the blond woman quickly found the Materia slot on the Cannon, opened it, and pulled the jack there out so she could adjust it for the wires instead. It only took her a minute to make the change and re-fasten it in place, properly plugged in, and a check of the registered power supply showed it at full—it was definitely good with taking power from Elicia's Materia.
"Okay, all done," Scarlet said with a grin, pulling the roughly bazooka-sized canon up and hefting it onto her shoulder. The wires had enough give for Elicia to walk on the floor a few feet behind her if she wanted, but Shelke picked up the little robot and carried her.
At that, the woman drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly, then moved to the door, followed closely by Shelke and Elicia, who were followed by Reeve. She pushed it open and stepped out, taking a moment to scan the room for her likely targets, and focused on the biggest monster in the room. She knew that one had to be the target—it had already torn apart three workstations, and five of her people laid dead at its feet. She knew her own people were already trained to obey her orders instantly, so she checked for Yufi and found the girl well outside the range of the Cannon's fire.
The Cannon was already charged, so she aimed and put her finger on the trigger, then yelled harshly, "Down, now!" All of her people were throwing themselves to the floor as she hit the trigger, which she hadn't waited more than a second to do, and the Cannon's energy beam crackled white as it surged towards the huge monster.
A moment later, after vaporizing parts of two other members of Deepground, one of those a smaller monster, it hit the big one in the shoulder, shoving it sideways a bit, then causing a howl of pain. About five seconds after it hit, it went through the armor plating and right through the monster's body to hit the armor plating on the other side. In the meantime, by the sickly, acrid smell filling the room, she was pretty sure it was liquefying some of the monster's body parts. Finally, another five seconds later, it went through the monster's other side, and kept going until it hit the wall, but by then, she'd released the trigger, so it just left a hole in the wall which didn't even go right through it.
Everyone froze and turned to stare, first at the monster as it collapsed, very dead, then at Scarlet as she shook her arms out and lifted the Cannon back to her shoulder. "So, do I need to shoot again, Deepground scum, or do you leave me and my department the Hellfire alone?"
The rest of her department roused themselves into a cheer, and she noted how the monster who had been attacking Yufi stepped back and returned to human form. The woman pulled off her helmet and lowered her blade, making Yufi just stare at her in surprise for a moment, but the remaining four members snarled and attacked again.
Before their attack got far, a Phoenix surged to life in the middle of the room and sent out a wave of fire which revived all the engineers it could, healed those it could heal, and killed the last four Deepground attackers. The one who had removed her helmet and stepped back was left unharmed—was actually healed—making her and everyone else blink in surprise.
"...What just happened?" Scarlet asked no one in particular.
She hadn't been expecting to get an answer, so jumped when Elicia replied, "Shelke just gave me lots of Materia." She sounded smug. "Since your Cannon didn't drain my actual energy, just borrowed from the Materia, I thought I could cast the only easy-to-use mass healer I now have."
"Oh, well done," Reeve told the little creature happily. "It looks like the fight is over now, too."
Scarlet turned to look at the creature, who had climbed onto Shelke's shoulder and was preening at Reeve's praise. With a chuckle, she agreed, "So it seems. Good pick, kiddo."
Elicia gave a happy chirp, and Shelke giggled, then pulled the wire free and set Elicia down so she could run over to Yufi to make sure she was okay. Many eyes rolled at Shelke's fussing over the young Wutain, but there were just as many 'awww' moments, so no one complained.
Everyone, other than a few early deaths, had survived with relatively little harm, and Scarlet was very thankful for that, as much as anyone else in the room. But still, she hoped very much that the excitement was now over for the day...until a check of her PHS made her groan and sigh.
"What's the matter?" Reeve asked her.
"Apparently, this wasn't just about out department, it was about the whole damned city," she answered. "I have to send out some of my robot soldiers to help keep Deepground from spreading any further than they have."
"Oh," the man blinked. "But the changes..." She nodded tiredly, and he paused, then gave a nod and said, "I'll help."
Scarlet blinked at him and asked, "You're going to help me program machines to kill?"
"I can make their terms specific enough to not kill Deepground members attacking other Deepground members, so yes," he answered. "I'm not fond of Deepground as a whole, you know."
She had to smile at that. "Thanks. That will help." She led the way to her office so they could get to work.
