By CAM.
Chapter 2: The Last Flight of the Flying Falcon.
- Falcon Highwind
Wolf with Kamots by his side begin their trekk across the Swamps exiting the Mithril Mines. Wolf had his body bag slung over his shoulders. The duo wadded into the murky waters, it came up to Wolf's waist and Kamots had to preform a "doggy paddle" to manage to stay afloat. That's when it came, a large, ravenous Midgar Zolom bursts from the surface of the waters, ready to feed on the unfortunate souls that would enter its home. The serpent towered over the pair, and Wolf only clenched his staff. The horrid serpents opened its mighty maw, revealing its fangs dripping with venom. Still Wolf did not move a muscle.... the black materia in his staff pulsated.
With lightening fast reflexs the Midgar Zolom struck, its menacing maw was caught by Wolf's staff. Wolf gazed menacingly back at the massive serpent, Wolf's eyes a bright green showing no sign of emotion or care. With only mere concentration from Wolf, a nearby tree uprooted itself and let fly. The tree's end like the end of Venus Gospel, pierced the hide of the once mighty serpent. The Midgar Zolom, the mightiest threat to travelers in the area, is now impaled in its own home swamp. Close to another serpent, that was placed on display in that same manner for similiar reasons.......
Kamots looked with concern at Wolf, Kamots knew more about the nature of materia than Wolf, and felt something, something inside the planet, awaken upon Wolf's channeling of the black materia. And something did awaken. In the lifestream ,trapped in a prison of its own evil, something stirred. Jenova's master awakened......
Beads of sweat rolled down Cid and Falcon's head, as they looked into the barrels of Stephen's pistols. This proves there are truly more things in life that will more than likly kill you than cigarettes. Considering how tough Cid and Falcon are to kill this was a very lucky day for Stephen. After taking these clowns out, Shera will be unprotected. An easy three million. There was nothing like another cool three million to add to the bank account, but the money wasn't the point. Stephen got 10 million gil from killing President Shinra's oldman, and while President Shinra was in office was completly untouchable by the law. That changed during Rufus' reign. Well, Rufus wanted to control the people by fear, Stephen controled Rufus by fear. Reeve, he's different, he's just plain stupid. He tries to control the Turks, but they don't have any of the morals that Reeve possesses. It was a Turk that set off the bomb at the Sector 7 pillar, it was a Turk that attempted to stop AVALANCHE from saving Midgar, it was a T rk that kidnapped Aeris, and it was a Turk that was going to kill the Highwinds and their little maid. Or so Stephen thought. Stephen would care less who or how many people he kills if its the right price and the challenge of it. He would have been the perfect Turk if Rufus was still around, but alas poor Rufus, we wish him well on his descent to hell.
Unfortunately, Stephen will not have his victory over the Highwinds at this moment, he had made a very fatal mistake. You shouldn't leave your sniper rifles laying around, because somebody else might use it. Suddenly, Stephen winced in pain and doubled over, two rounds had already pierced into his back. Much like a Turk, Stephen retreated to save himself, he had never been so humiliated in his life. There shall be retribution, and Stephen shall be the one to extract it.
"What the f---?" Cid asked.
"My words exactly," Falcon said. Suddenly, someone walking out of the flight tower caught his eye. A woman with brown hair and clad with a white labcoat. "Bout time you do something right, Shera." She smiled in response.
"Heh, I told ya she would come in handy," Cid said,"swear my life on her work." Falcon was surprised by hearing such a thing from Cid, usually Cid is just complaining about how is doesn't work fast enough. My my, things change when you gone for too long, but for Falcon too long would be two days.
"Glad to hear you've retired," Shera said.
"I know it is," Falcon said,"but I think you need to watch where you leave your rockets laying around. The new one nearly killed me."
"That was you?" Cid inquired.
"Uh, yes," Falcon replied.
Cid slapped him in the back of the head and said," And that's for scratching up our rocket!"
"Our rocket?" Falcon inquired.
"Well," Cid began,"to pull off all the things you did and not kill yourself. You have to be a damn good pilot. Last name says it all."
"Damn straight," Falcon replied.
"Um, I hate to break up the reunion," Shear interupted,"but I think a certain Shinra executive might get mad at you for your absence."
"Well I think another Shinra executive might shoove his spear up the other's ass sideways," Cid stated,"Hey Falcon, I'll race you back to Rocket Town."
"Hey, wait a second," Falcon said, but dispite his protest Cid was running for the Highwind and Shera was tailing behind,"Dammit Cid! You know that the Highwind can go around the world twice before I make it to Rocket Town. Cid? Dammit!" Falcon shut his cargo area, and jumped into the open air cockpit of the Flying Falcon. After the key was turned in the ignition, Falcon pulled himself into the sky. Within only a few minutes Junon was out of his immediate grasp, but Falcon only got that head start because the Highwind takes so damn long to get into the air. As if on cue, the Lady Luck streaked by the little bird. The Flying Falcon at full speed, still trailed far behind the Highwind. The only possibility that would allow Falcon to win the race if something would shoot the Highwind out of the sky, or it runs out of fuel.
Midgar. The largest mako-metropolis in world, but now in post-armageddon time the one proud mako reactors have been altered to run off Corel coal. A downside for Midgar, and an upside to Corel. It seems that coal was not the sign of the times after all, in post-armageddon times it seems to be the "in" form of energy. Barret was wrong, and Dyne was right. It's the only "in" form of energy, though, because Reeve said it would be. Reeve doesn't want to seem like a iron fisted tyrant, but Shinra has to be changed so that old mistakes can't happen. Reeve is positive that he would not commit the same crimes of President before him, but people change. That's why Cait Sith has complete access to the Shinra computers, so if Reeve does become corrupt, AVALANCHE can destroy him. Reeve thinks of almost everything beforehand.
METEOR caused hell to Midgar, but before all was said and done. Reeve had a real mess on his hands, he had to get all the Sectors up and running again after the massive damage they took. Including Sector 7, the dreaded memorial of the Shinra's mistakes. First, Reeve had the Sister disembled and shipped back to Junon to be configured like it was before; second, work was done to repair all the damaged buildings in all of the Sectors save for 7; and finally, the Sector 7 plate has been removed so that the slums there can be repaired. But some things can never be repaired. The best thing Reeve can do is repair the physical damage and put up an memorial to those that died in all of Shinra's error, but nothing can ever repair the mental damage and the trust lost.
Wolf strode into the Sector 5 slums through the Midgar gates, AVALANCHE had used this entrance many times to get make into the slums when nessecary. Kamots followed behind, carrying the girl's body over his back. The Cetra pair marched forward with determination in their eyes, their destination was the small chapel that dwelled in Sector 5. Wolf pushed aside its delapidated doors, and kneeled in the flowers that grew here. The white materia inset in his staff glowed softly. Kamots brought in Aeris' body.
Stephen trotted into the Junon command room, he was pissed. His wound, no his humilation, was healed with a mere Full Cure materia. Being a member of the joint command of the Shinra Peace Peservation Corps, Stephen was going to shot down a falcon. More or less a flying falcon.
"All artillary, except for our cannon," Stephen commanded,"fire at the Flying Falcon!"
"Yes sir!," an artillerist said,"firing arillary at fugitive Falcon." Good, Stephen thought. This guy knows who Falcon is, less stories to tell.... The artillery cannons all came out from behind their hatches, and all soldiers armed with rocket launchers on duty ran to the docks to open fire on this fugitive.
"Make sure to avoid hitting the Highwind," a captain instructed,"fire!"
Falcon was in his true home, the sky behind the controls of his beloved, the Flying Falcon. Here Falcon could be without any of the troubles he faced in life on the ground. If he could, he'd stay up in the air forever. His ideas remind him of his favorite song, and then, as if by mental command, its faint familiar tone started playing over his makeshift radio. Falcon immediately turned the volume dial, and "Fly Away" rang out through the heavans.
"I've got to get away," Falcon sang along,"I wanna flyyyyy awayyyyy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I want to get away. I wanna fly away." While Falcon was enravelled by his song, the artillery cannons and rocket launchers boomed in unison. Falcon snapped immediately into attention, as a hail of shells and rockets flew toward him. Falcon strapped his valuables to his back: spear, money, and radio. A situation like this kinda makes Falcon wish he had included parachutes with this plane or at least not have sold them.
Falcon pulled the stick left in a attempt to dodge the incoming onslaught, a stray shell slammed into the Flying Falcon. The entire right wing of the Flying Falcon was severed from the body. Falcon's heart skipped a beat, he couldn't bear his beloved plummetting from the skys, especially with him in it. Falcon took the only option he had, he bailed out with all of his valuables strapped to his back. Before Falcon made his descent, he noticed a rope attatched to the Highwing whipping in the wind, that rope could possibly be the golden thread of hope he was needing. The weary pilot reached for his golden thread of hope, and grabbed hold. The winds immediatly struck him in an attempt to stop his escape from his fate, Falcon held on for dear life, but still slide down the rope violently til he came to a stop at the edge. Falcon's hands burned, and he realized why Cid wore gloves as Falcon saw that his hand had been cut deeply. Falcon cringed as the sharp mooring rope cut deeper into his hand as he pulled himse f against the wind closer to the Highwind.
All Falcon wanted to do was let go of the rope and end this misery they call life, but deep inside he knew if he would die that would be just another time Falcon had let down Cid. Falcon let down Cid too many times already, and this time he would even let down Shera. Fortunately the sight of the Flying Falcon going down had ceased the fire of Junon's artillery. Falcon used whatever strength he could muster to inch his way ever so slowly towards his final destination, the Highwind.
Wolf stepped out of the Sector 5 Church with Kamots following behind, but now without the burden of Aeris' body. Wolf looked back at the church and smiled, the white materia inserted in his staff glowed ever so faintly. Wolf surveyed the area around him, Reeve tried his best but people were still poor and that is even more true in post-armageddon times. METEOR had leveled homes, buildings, and even entire Sectors. Crime had risen, but since Kamots was a quite intimidating animal, Wolf did not think he would have any problems. He was not going to have any problems with muggers and such, though, he is going to have problems with those he seeks as allies.
Only a few yards away strode Barret Wallace with his adopted daughter Marlene resting upon his left shoulder. The burly miner was walking from the recently rebuilt Tifa's Seventh Heaven towards the Sector 5 church to pay their respects to Aeris. Barret and Marlene came here often to remember the darling flower girl that let herself get captured so that Marlene might get spared, but Aeris had touched the lives of many. She summoned HOLY, she sacrificed herself to ensure that plan would work, and she fell in love with the slayer of Sephiroth. The latter was more devastating to Cloud than helpful, and Aeris was going to touch the lives of the Planet once again before all would be said and done.
Barret had adjusted well to somethings in post-Armageddon times, and somethings he might never get used to. Barret enjoyed the fact that the entire world was now running on coal from his hometown. It was only recently that the whole world was running on coal again, though. The transition from Mako to coal was not made over night. Many people lost alot of money from coal, it wasn't as profitable as Mako was. The work of modifying the reactors so that they could run on coal took along time itself. People had to be given time to adjust, the change was done sector by sector. It wasn't but a week ago that Midgar had been completely changed.
Barret was torn about where he should be, whether he should return to North Corel to help with the new coal business or if he should stay here and assist in rebuilding Midgar the town he hates so much. His main motive for staying is staying with Cloud and Tifa. He didn't have that many family members still alive, like around none. Marlene wasn't related to him by blood, but he didn't mind. AVALANCHE was his family now, it was more than just being merely friends. That the way it had always been, well at least with the members he trusted. When Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie died it was like losing a member of the family, Aeris' death was even worse. Within the time of his adventures all of him companions had become more than just friends, they all became family, except for maybe Yuffie.
Wolf was far from Midgar, his mind in the clouds. How was he going to make Cloud believe his story, and still could they be able to finish what he had begun? Wolf sensed now that something was stirring in lifestream, hours after Kamots had sensed it. Kamots was a much more powerful Cetra, he was one of the first to arrive on the Planet. The massive wolf was much more concerned about the whole ordeal, but he was much better at not showing it. Wolf not so concerned with the task of walking at hand, bumped into Barret with full force almost knocking the Marlene off the massive miner's shoulders.
"Watch where your goin' foo'!" Barret bellowed, but decided to keep his dialouge clean for once since Marlene was around. Barret looked over the stanger than ran into him, the stranger merely glanced at him and walked on. Barret noticed their was an odd look in his eye, something startlingly familiar. They were sky blue, and they shoon like saphires giving the stranger a look of caring and innocence. Barret swore he had seen the look in someone's eyes before....
Something else caught Barrets attention and it shot chills down the miner's spine, a glint imbedded in the stranger's staff. The glint was more of a sphererical void absorbing the light surrounding it, i-it was surely Black Materia. Barret would recognize that shit anywhere, he remembered holding on to it on AVALANCHE's first visit to the Northern Crater. Barret knew this could not be good. Barret sat Marlene down.
"Now, Marlene, Daddy has to do something important for a minute," Barret whispered in her ear,"Why don't you go to the church without me for a minute?" Marlene nodded reluctantly and ran into the church. Barret made sure his gunarm Missing Score was loaded, for some odd reason it was, and he pointed it at Wolf. "If I were you I'd tell me what the f--- you are doing with Black Materia sucka!"
Wolf stopped in his tracks, he wanted to avoid Barret Wallace, Barret was one of the most stubborn members of AVALANCHE. Except for maybe Yuffie.... Wolf just turned around, glanced, and went back on his way; he didn't feel like giving him a reply. Barret infuriated fired a few rounds at Wolf, merely warning shots something Barret rarely gave but there was something about this stranger that reminded him if Aeris... he could never hurt Aeris. But this man was not Aeris, he was carring Black Materia, he could be trying to summon damn Meteor again. The Planet didn't need another emergency like this, there were no more Ancients so Holy wasn't a option this time. This time the bearer had to be stopped. Barret gave him a chance to explain this fact, but that time was up now.
Wolf knew this as well, there was no way that he could explain this to Barret, a battle would erupt here. Wolf looked towards Kamots, and the massive wolf nodded as if recieving a mental command. Kamots slipped into the shadows out of the miner's sight, and then slipped into the church. Wolf spun around bearing his staff, if it was a fight Barret wanted it was a fight Barret would get. All Wolf planned on doing was rendering the big man unconsious, because Wolf would have to ally with him at a later date.
Barret fired a barrage of rounds from Missing Score, this time with intention of killing Wolf. Wolf jerked himself out of the way of the onslaught of shells, only getting his ribs grazed by three. Wolf recoiled in pain, as blood flowed freely from his wound, Wolf felt his anger peeking. A hazy red aura whirled about Wolf as he invoked the magicks within him, Wolf murmered a slight prayer and seraphs breifly circled over Wolf's head engulfing him in the white light of Holy. When the heavenly hosts had vanished, Wolf's wounds binded themselves and he was rid of angony. A light in the White Materia glistened....
Barret's jaw dropped, he knew he had just seen this stranger's limit break and it was Great Gospel! That was supposed to be Aeris' ultimate Limit, and this guy was carring the damned White Materia too. This was certainly too much. Wolf could have gotten off scotch free, but his anger had gotten the best of him. Wolf uttered and gestured a phrase of magic, and the green materia set in his staff responded and hurled a Bolt spell into Barrets bad arm. The huge miner screamed profanities as the smell of sulpher filled his nostrels of flesh burned, the wound was superficial but that didn't mean it didn't hurt like hell.
Three Shinra guards in blue uniforms on break from their helping in the rebuilding of Sector 7, were passing by and suddenly witnesses this "savage" and "unprovoked" attack on Barret Wallace one of AVALANCHE the heroes of the Planet. Meaning the only part they saw was Wolf casting Bolt of Barret. The three guards opened fire with their rifles on the stranger, Wolf was caught off guard and got hit with full force. Two shots went into Wolf's back causing him to stagger forward, and a third poorly aimed shot went straight through Wolf's knee causing him to do an unsightly backflip to the ground. The Black Materia inset in Wolf's staff pulsated....
Wolf ingored the pain with no remorse, he slowly brought himself from the ground and started at the guards, gripping the end of his staff with both hands as if it were a sword. The guards only gawked at this sight, the man they had fired on's eyes were crystal green that contained an eerie glow shining with no other emotion but anger and hatred. His hair (which usually is short) comes down to his thighs with white streaking through them in some places. Though his appearance was slightly different the guards thought they were fighting Sephiroth. One of the guards departed from the group with the mission to call for reinforments.
Kamots slipped into the Sector Five church unoticed, thankfully, by Barret. Barret would flip if he knew that Kamots was in there. Gun fire filled Kamots' ear, he wanted so much to break off from this mission and protect Wolf. Being Wolf's guardian was Kamots REAL task, but this was the decent thing to do. Kamots intercepted Marlene's attempt to run outside to see what the source of the gunshots were. Marlene was somewhat startled by the appearance of such a massive wolf, but being around things like Uncle Cait Sith and Uncle Nanaki she wasn't as afraid of it.
"W-who are you......?" Marlene murmered.
"I am Kamots," Kamots replied,"um, I'm your Uncle Nanaki's brother."
"Really?"
"Yes, Marlene." Kamots spoke with a gentle soothing, knowledgble voice much like Uncle Nanaki did. Marlene believed every word of it. "Marlene your daddy has to take care of some business. A 'bad man' to be precise."
"Will Daddy be ok?" Marlene whimpered.
"Yes," Kamots whispered gently,"Nothing bad will happen to your daddy. Aunt Tifa sent me here to bring you to the bar, if you get in the way you might be hurt." Before Marlene could raise any protest, Kamots had already lifted her up onto his back much like handling a cub. "Hold on." Marlene clung to Kamot's flowing hair as he carried her past the delapidated church towards Sector 7.
Falcon pulled himself ever so closer to his rescue with every tug on his "golden thread of hope", which cut deeper into his ungloved hands. Each movement was unpleasant, and painful. Falcon just wanted to let got of his hope, and plummet to the ground like a falcon gunned down by a game hunter. But to do that he would once again fail, fail his brother one more time and this would be one of the most horrible betrayals that Falcon could preform yet. Falcon was all the family Cid had left.
That wouldn't be, if it wasn't for me. Falcon's grip on the rope lessened.
That's it, Cid would be much better off without you. Falcon stiffened as he relized that was not his own voice.
Lies! All lies!
Is that so. If you never entered Cid's life he wouldn't have lost his parents in a crash caused by you, he wouldn't have lost his first chance to go into space since he lost the extra help you provided Shera, and Cid would have never lost the Highwind if it wasn't for you. The alien voice said.
No....
You know as well as I do that's all true.
Get out of my head God dammit! Falcon shook his head, and tighten his grasp on the Highwinds "reins". Falcon clentches his teeth, and starts pulling himself onto the deck hand-over-hand again. After a grueling five minutes Falcon pulled himself into the Highwind's deck. The rails of deck protected Falcon from the wind, while he layed motionless on the Highwind's deck.
"What do you mean you lost him on radar!? Cid cursed as he pounded his fist on the radar,"Where the f--- is he?"
"I don't know sir," the radar operator replied,"We lost the Flying Falcon on radar about ten minutes ago."
"Why didn't you tell me sooner dammit!?" Cid cursed again.
"Because we didnt' know if it wasn't a radar glitch or not," the operator replied,"we waited for a couple more sweeps since this is some messed up equipment."
"What kind of a f---ing idiot are you!?" Cid barked grabbing the operator by the collar of his shirt,"When its something this Goddamn importants you tell me!"
At that moment, Falcon pushed open the door to the bridge and stumbled on in. Cid rushed to his brother, Falcon was covered in blood, damp, tattered, beaten, and had some very large lacerations in both hands. "Falcon!"
"Hey Cid...." Falcon weakly replied.
"What the hell happened to you!?" Cid asked.
"Well the damn Shinra fired on me," Falcon replied sullenly,"She's gone Cid, she's gone."
"Don't worry you could always rebuild the thing," Cid said regretting his choice of words sounding more like "We'll just buy you a new puppy". "Besides the Highwind is a family name, so that means its a family ship."
"Yeah...."
"Falcon!" Shera exclaimed,"Your hurt."
"I know, the Highwinds ropes cut into my hand deep," Falcon replied,"I stopped the bleeding with my Restore Materia, but those f---ing Turks used most of it up."
"I think we have some potions in the back," Shera said examining the wounds,"I'll go get them."
"Thanks..." Falcon meekly replied. Shera smiled, and walked off deck.
"I say we give those Shinra a little payback!" Cid announced,"Then I'll yell at Reeve later."
"Cid?" Falcon asked.
"I won't hurt anyone," Cid replied,"but they deserve something for thrashing my brother and his plane! Jerry fire some missles at Junon, but only a yards from the docks. I just want to get those soldier boys shook up."
"Yes sir!" Jerry replied.
"Holy shit!" a captain screamed,"Their firing! Retreat!" The other Shinra guards dropped their weaponry, and headed for safe ground. The Highwind hanging omniously above them let loose a salvo of missles. The missles fortunately only hit the waters yards away from the docks, causing a waves of waters to spray up on the soldiers nearby.
"They returned fire sir!" an officer called to Stephen,"but there were no injurys. I think their just messing with us, sir."
"I doubt it...." Stephen replied,"Activate all defenses!"
"Yes sir!" the officer replied, and repeated the order to the remainer of the staff. Within minutes the walls, similiar to the ones used by Junon when Saphire Weapon attacked, raised around the city. Alarms began to blare with a femine voice stating that "Junon Harbor is under attack."
Stephen walked over to the man that operates the Junon Cannon, "This will be too easy to kill all three."
"The Turks have authorized use of the Junon Cannon," Stephen said to the cannon gunner,"Do you have the Highwind's cordinates?"
"Yes sir," the gunner replied,"but do you think its really neccessary? Well if all fives turks said so, I can't do anything about that." The gunner typed some commands on the keyboard into the aiming system."There we're locked on to the fires. Once all five Turks get here, we'll use the keys to commence to fire."
"That won't be neccessary," Stephen replied holding all five of the Turks keys,"I have them right here."
"What!?" the gunner said as he reached for his pistol, but was cut off by the blasts delivered from Stephen's sidearms. Two rounds entered the gunner's chest before he would pull off one shot, he slumped to the ground holding his profusely bleeding chest. Stephen pushed the gunner out of his chair, and took his place. Stephen pulled out the five keys, inserted them into their appopriate slots, and turned the keys. Suddenly the a red button under a glass cover started to blink on and off, Stephen flipped the cover and pressed the button. The screen sitting in front of Stephen ready "Charging Mako Cannon. Firing in ten minutes."
The rest of the Department of Administrive Research/Co-Heads of the Department of Peace Preservation sat in the Junon Harbor infirmery recovering from their bought with the Highwinds. The staff medic was bounding Elena's shoulder with some linen when the alarms started to sounds followed by a feminine voice that said,"Junon Harbor is under attack!"
"What the hell!?" Reno exclaimed,"Who authorized that!"
"Oh shit!" Cam said as he noticed Stephen was gone,"Stephen must want Falcon real bad."
"I can already tell that this has gone too far," Rude said.
Elena then noticed something horribly wrong,"Sweet Jesus Christ Almighty! That crazy ass mother f---er has got the keys!"
"I'm going after him," Cam volunteered of course no one objected since they were horribly injured in the fight with Falcon.
"Just don't get yourself killed," Reno replied.
Author's Notes: Well there was a long period of time between chapter one and chapter two, but I can explain! I was working on a bunch of other stuff, and hard at work at reading Children of Jenova. Since I was swamped with fanmail for this fic, I got off my arse and decided to write another chapter. So what did you think!? If you don't tell me, I'll use my advanced technology to teleport into your house through my computer and ask you myself. Trust me you don't want me in your house! Oh by the way visit RockeT CanyoN! Pleasssseeeee.....