Final Fantasy ~X~
Disclaimer: See prologue and part one, do ya really think I'm gonna write all that again?
Part Two
Grik Chorovich grunted as he brought his massive weapon around to slam into the opposing guard's torso. There was a series of sickening crunches as the heavy, spiked ball at the end of the steel chain tore through flesh, muscle, and bone. What it couldn't slice with the spikes, it simply mashed into tiny pieces. The guard dropped without a sound.
"Any idea where these guys came from?" Stise Creski panted, slashing at another with the broadsword he held. Pinning his enemy's blade against the wall, Stise kicked him in the stomach, and then brought the sword around for a clean, decapitating blow. He had no time to exult over his triumph, however, as three more guards leapt into the air, swords at the ready.
Another of the barbarian sentries, this one wielding a pike, rushed at the small Zun Kos. Zun narrowly dodged to the side of the deadly shaft, and brought his axe down, cleaving it in two. "How should I know?" He yelled back. "They popped out of no where!" He swung the battle-axe at the barbarian, but the man blocked it with the steel handle of what was formerly his weapon. Sparks flew as time after time the axe met the rod. "I'm getting tired of this…" Zun muttered, and hurled his axe into the sky. He used his small size to his advantage, slipping between the guard's legs. Before the guard could react, Zun plucked the axe from the sky and brought it down between the guard's shoulderblades.
The fourth member in the party, Shu, dealt with her assailant in a different way. He lunged at the small woman, scimitar gleaming wickedly, but each time, she wasn't there. Like Zun, Shu was using her small size and speed to her advantage. The guard was exerting all of his might attempting to hit her, while she had barely broken a sweat. Eventually, the guard collapsed, exhausted. Her foe helpless, Shu placed a foot on his neck and pressed. Bone crunched, and the guard's chest stopped rising and falling.
Stise dispatched the last of his enemies with one mighty slice, and stood up. "Any that we missed?"
Shu shook her head, and opened her mouth to respond, but a rumble, like a distant thunderclap, split the air, accompanied by the appearance of a small pillar of fire a few miles away. "I'm guessing that would be Cyria, Cid, and Strato…" the petite yet strong martial artist said.
"Probably…" shrugged Grik, resting the handle of his mace on his shoulder. "Let's hit the power plant and leave…"
Zun started to jog to the large structure ahead. "Good idea, big guy! Let's go!"
"Wait!" Stise called, looking around. "Are there any other guards? We don't want to have to deal with fighting for our lives after we've set the bombs—at least, I don't."
Brushing her black hair from her face, Shu began to follow Zun. "There shouldn't be any more. This power plant isn't exactly that important, it was here before the takeover."
Stise groaned inwardly. "Why is it whenever anyone says something like that I get a bad feeling inside?" he muttered silently.
***
"Okay, are you sure you know how to do this?" Shu inquired of the puppet that had been brought to life by some sort of sorcery.
Zun Kos was annoyed. "Yes, I'm sure! Now don't distract me!" He fiddled with several wires at the base of the generator. "Now, this is the feedback regulator," he explained to the rest of the quartet. "It ensures that a power surge won't destroy anything. However, if I splice the wires so that it bypasses the regulator, a large increase in power would spark a chain reaction that pretty well would level the entire plant!"
"So how do we get the power surge?" Stise absentmindedly ran his hand over the blade of his broadsword.
Grik had the answer, as he usually did. The big man, although incredibly bright, preferred not to speak that much. But this time he did. "Bolt or some other weak lightning spell."
The puppet nodded. "Right! We don't want too much, or it'll blow before we can get out. So a low level Bolt to the generator should do the trick!" Finished, he stood up to admire his handiwork. "There! Now, Stise, since you're the new guy, I'll let you cast Bolt for us." Shu cleared her throat, as to remind Zun that she was the leader, and should make that choice, but Zun didn't hear her.
"All right…" Stise raised his hand. "Bo—!"
An enormous bird swooped down from the ceiling and grabbed Stise in its talons. "What the hell?" Shu growled.
BOSS BATTLE WITH…AVIO!
The young man struggled with the gigantic as well as hideous bird. "Let go of me you freak of nature!" Stise shouted, whipping his sword around and slicing deep into the claw holding him. Avio screeched in pain and dropped the blond man down to the floor. He rolled to his feet and then groaned as the pain of impact rolled over him like a steamroller. "That one hurt…"
Shu threw a glance at her injured comrade, but then ducked with everyone else as Avio flew directly overhead, venom in its eyes. "I think you made it mad, Stise…" The creature opened its mouth and sprayed shards of ice out at the party.
"Hit the deck!" cried Zun, throwing himself to the ground. Stise and Grik followed suit, but Shu was hit by the full force of the blast. She fell her knees, wincing, cuts and gashes covering much of her body.
"I'll be okay…" Shu reassured while climbing back to her feet, her black eyes blazing with fire at Avio. "But Tweety over there should be punished," Avio was looping around for another attack, diving lower. "Grik! Give me a boost!"
The largest in the small band that they had assembled, Grik clasped his hands together and allowed Shu to stand in them. It was almost as if it required none of his massive strength to support her. "Ready…now!" Shu commanded, and Grik catapulted her into the air. The martial arts expert gracefully flipped and brought a booted heel to smash right into Avio's eyes.
Squawking with fury, Avio bashed Shu right back to the ground again with its muscular wing. She rebounded off the floor and crashed into a pile of crates. "Shu!" Stise cried. "Okay, that's it! Let's get this thing!" No one noticed the sapphire amulet that the woman wore around her neck starting to glow with energy…
"Take that!" Zun yelled, chucking one of his tomahawks at Avio. The primitive yet effective weapon spun around, the blade slicing through feathered flesh.
The bird attempted to retaliate against Zun for the injury, but Grik wouldn't allow any such creature to attack his friend and partner. His mace whistled through the air as he slammed it into Avio…but the bird withstood it, easily. There was a flash of light, and Grik was hurled back into a wall. He slid to the ground, injured but awake.
"Okay, that's it! Crimson Blade!" rumbled Stise, and his broadsword crackled with power as he cast magic that augmented his attack strength. "HYA!!" he bellowed, sweeping the sword around, a crescent of scarlet energy knocking into Avio—yet the bird was merely angrier, and didn't seem to be affected at all.
Stise, shocked by his attack's ineffectiveness, was even more startled to see Shu climb to her feet. "Shu…your amulet…" he stammered, but she paid it no heed.
"You worthless little creature…one of Kyaro's genetic failures, I suspect…probably best to put you out of your misery…" She leapt into the air, a kick aimed at Avio's forehead, but the bird was ready for her.
It met Shu's attack with a blur of motion as it scraped into her flesh multiple times with razor-sharp talons…however, it did not seem to be doing any damage, and her amulet was shimmering ever brighter.
"Sunburst!" she shouted, leaping into the air. Her amulet started to project azure energy, wrapping around her like a blanket. Her legs together, she levitated herself off the ground, and began to spin. A virtual tornado of power, Shu abruptly halted her spin, and glared malevolently at Avio. Her leg came up in a powerful kick, and power exploded as she connected. A bright flash filled the room, and everything seemed to freeze in time…until it all collapsed back in on itself.
***
Stise cradled the unconscious Shu in his arms. "Wow…a Limit Break…I only saw a few of those at the academy, and those were some of the best warriors on the planet. Shu must…wow…" he was speechless.
"Come on," Grik grumbled. "We're gonna blow this place…I'll carry her, if you want." He offered.
"Nah, it's okay, I'll carry her." Stise said. "She's not that heavy." Was it his imagination, or was there a knowing smirk on Grik's bearded face? Why would there be one, anyway? What could the big man possibly be thinking?
The three of them, Zun, Grik, and Stise with the exhausted Shu in his arms, walked away from the power plant as it burst into flames behind them. "Now we go meet up with Cyria, Cid, and Strato, and hit that armory!" The puppet shouted.
"Yeah…let's actually show the barbarian Empire that we can hit hard instead of just being mildly annoying…" Stise muttered. Grik just grunted, and the other two chuckled at that entirely TOO in-character remark.
***
"What kept you guys?" Strato was lying on the ground, resting his back against a tree. Shu now awake and able to walk by herself, the four other members in the resistance paraded triumphantly into a small clearing in the forest.
"We've been waiting for a long time…" Cid added from his perch on a large boulder.
Cyria stood up straight as she saw the clearly tired Shu. "And what the *#$& happened to her?"
The smaller woman looked at Cyria and smiled wanly. "We had a run-in with one of the monsters that Kyaro created…Avio. I blacked out during the battle, I don't know what happened to cause that, though."
Strato's friend Stise looked approvingly at Shu. "She doesn't remember, but she did a Limit Break to beat that bird thing," the other three were astonished, they knew of the rarity of Limits. "And we think it exhausted her. She passed out, we set the charge—literally—and we got out of there."
"Yeah! It was awesome!" Zun was practically jumping up and down in excitement, the adrenaline…well, whatever passed for adrenaline in his wooden body…rush still having an effect.
Shu steadied herself on Grik's massive arm. "I'll be fine, let's get back to business. We took out the power plant, I'm assuming that you got the supply line?"
Cyria nodded. "Yep, we took it out…we messed with a Captain of the Guard, but Cid took it out, no problem." Cid tipped the brim of his hat and smiled. "And Strato here found some Materia crystals."
"Really? Materia?" Stise asked. "Let's see them, then!"
Strato reached into his pouch, and then his face fell. "What? There's only one left…The others must have fallen out during the battle with Captain!" The white-haired young man pulled out a luminescent white orb. "This is the only one that's left…" he said. Without warning, bolts of power shot from the crystal into Strato's body. He convulsed and fell to the ground.
*~ STRATO learned: GF Bolerafone ~*
"Strato! Are you all right?" Stise ran to his friend, who was lying on the forest floor.
Strato sat upright, his hand on his forehead. "Yeah, I'm fine…but my head is all tingly and stuff…" His eyes wandered to the Materia crystal still clenched in his hand. "Wow…I got a new GF…"
"How do you know?" Grik rumbled.
The younger man shrugged, an odd look on his face. "I don't know how I know…I just…know."
Cyria examined the crystal closely. "Well, this &*!^ing thing is now useless…oh well, at least ONE of us has it equipped, whatever it is."
"Right," Shu nodded. "But we don't have much time, they will have auxiliary generators for the armory up soon…we need to take it out before they do! Come on, everybody, let's go!"
Cyria extended a hand to Strato, who pulled himself to his feet. "Thanks."
"Don't mention it…" Cyria jogged after Shu, the rest of the group close behind.
***
The party cautiously crept down a dark and narrow corridor. "This is too easy, we're gonna all die!" Now that Zun Kos's 'adrenaline' rush had passed, paranoia had set in.
"Oh, will you shut up already?" Stise snapped. "We AREN'T going to die! The power is off, and nobody knows we're here!"
They had infiltrated the armory with remarkable ease. The automated turrets had all been without power, and when they smashed in the doorway, no alarms sounded, no guards came to combat them. It was, as Zun had said, almost TOO easy. And even though neither Stise nor any of the others wanted to admit it, they were feeling the same things as the marionette.
Those hunches, those feelings, were soon to be proven right. With an earsplitting "CRASH!" an iron door slammed to the floor behind them. Through the ringing in his ears, Strato heard Cyria swear. And then, as he saw who was walking around the corner, he reached to his back and unsheathed his swords, bringing them to fighting position.
The man that Strato and the others had seen was fairly tall, although by no means was he anywhere near Grik's size. At first glance, Strato thought the man's head was on fire, but when he looked closer, he saw that it was flaming red hair with orange highlights, spiked up in front and hanging down in the back. He wore a cold smirk on his face, and green eyes danced with a sadistic delight. And in his hands, he held a large, wicked-looking machine gun. "Well, well, well…Time for us to play!"
TBC…
I have two VERY nice pictures of two of the characters in my story, done by DA MAN, Boss Reo, who was kind enough to draw them for me. And they're REALLY good, too!
So muchas gracias to Boss Reo, and enjoy the piccys of Strato and Stise!