Written by Benoit Goudreault-Emond
11. The Cavalry is always a trifle late
"Here it comes, everyone--get ready!" Cid yelled over the loud noise of the WEAPON crashing through the mountains.
AVALANCHE got ready with a clatter of steel as weapons were taken out of their different holders. Everyone snapped their Materia orbs in place. For all the good those will do, thought Cid grimly. They all got in position not a moment too soon: with the sound of stone crashing down from the mountain's wall, the WEAPON appeared, crawling with its arms and remaining leg.
"This is it--our last stand! Let's make it good!" yelled Barret over the noise as he opened fire.
Vincent and Reeve opened fire as well, as the others charged. As expected, their shots and blows had little effect. However, the commotion woke the Midgar Zolom. The large snakelike creature rose out of the swamp, hissing loudly, head swinging from side to side. It tried to bite Barret, who got out of the way just in time.
"No, you idiot! Don't bite me, bite the WEAPON!" Barret yelped.
"We have to get the WEAPON to attack it!" Nanaki pointed out, as he was vainly trying to scratch the WEAPON's surface.
"I'm on it," said Vincent simply. He stood next to the Zolom and cast Fire on the WEAPON. The WEAPON reacted by sending a single bolt of energy that hit the Zolom. The Zolom hissed even louder, rising its bulk on its tail, and was obviously preparing to cast a spell.
"Clear!" ordered Vincent. Cid and Nanaki backed up. The Zolom cast its spell, and a tower of fire appeared, engulfing the WEAPON. It did some damage, apparently, as several spots on the WEAPON's armor became dark. AVALANCHE cheered.
Unfortunately, their cheering did not last. The WEAPON, sensing a threat, launched a barrage of its energy beams at the Zolom. The Zolom screamed and died quickly. All that was left was charred bits.
"Now what?" groaned Reeve.
"We go all out," replied Cid. "There's nothing else to do." He sounded like a man ready to die.
AVALANCHE went all out, casting spells and hitting the WEAPON with all they had. The WEAPON stopped advancing and fired several bolts, which were barely dodged. This kept on until first Reeve, then Barret gave up, exhausted. With only three people still hammering it, the WEAPON started advancing again. It did not even bother firing its energy beams.
"This is useless!" screamed Cid in frustration. Nothing they were doing had any effect.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, a green mist appeared, accompanied with a thundering roar. The mist coalesced around the WEAPON. A blinding green flash surrounded it. When it cleared, the WEAPON was scarred.
Everyone stared. That looked just like someone had cast Ultima!
Out of the Myrthil mines came the familiar figure of a young girl with black hair, wearing a ninja uniform, and triumphantly holding a green Materia Orb.
"YUFFIE!" everyone exclaimed.
Yuffie Kirasagi smirked. "You thought you were going to have fun without me? Forget it! Here, catch!" and with that, she threw several Materia Orbs towards the other members of AVALANCHE. The men gratefully removed their uselessly young Materia and replaced them with the mastered Orbs Yuffie was giving out. As they snapped the orbs in their holders, they could feel their power immediately. Their energy and morale came back strong.
"All right! Let's kick some WEAPON butt!" said Cid, opening the fight with a strong Bolt spell.
The WEAPON stopped its advance and started firing its beams again. However, Reeve was faster, casting a Barrier spell on everyone. He followed with Restore-type spells and ended the sequence with a strong Fire spell in the WEAPON's wounded leg. The leg broke off, leaving an oozing wound.
"Yuffie! Cast inside the wound!" ordered Cid.
Yuffie complied, and cast Ultima inside the wound. The WEAPON seemed to struggle against the force of the explosion, and finally laid there, inert.
Everyone cheered, slapping one another's back and surrounding their unlikely savior, Yuffie. Yuffie was grinning openly, looking very proud of herself.
"Well, I never thought I'd say that, but... I'm glad to see you, Yuffie!" said Barret, hugging the young girl.
"Yeah... Just let me breathe, you big bear!" replied Yuffie, her voice muffled by Barret's chest. The big man released her, a grin plastered on his face. "What's so funny?" she asked rather testily.
"Ironic that you ended up saving our butt by giving us Materia," replied Barret.
"Yeah, well, I just couldn't let you get killed, now, could I? Who would I steal Materia from in the future, anyways? No one is using it much nowadays," she complained.
"How come you came in that late?" asked Reeve.
"Hey, I just saved your butts! Be thankful I showed up at all!" screamed Yuffie, red-faced.
Reeve brought his hands up placatingly. "Peace! I'm just wondering why you weren't answering your PHS, that's all! I tried to raise three times, and you never answered. All I got was the carrier."
"Well, there's something wrong with your PHS, because mine worked fine--I heard you nice and clear! I thought you had gone crazy or something, just droning on and on about needing my Materia---" replied Yuffie.
"Our Materia," Vincent corrected calmly.
"My Materia," asserted Yuffie.
"No, it must be your PHS. I use mine to talk to my employees all the time," Reeve replied. "Let me take a look," he ordered, thrusting his hand forward. Yuffie complied, putting the small cell phone in Reeve's hands. Reeve unsnapped the casing and peeked inside. He did something with a wire inside and snapped the casing shut.
"Here," he said, handing the PHS back to Yuffie, "Good as new. Somehow, the microphone's wire got disconnected. You could have yelled loud enough to be heard across Wutai, and I still would not have heard anything--what the mike picked up was just not being transmitted."
"Oh," said Yuffie. "Anyways... Where's Cloud and Tifa? And you said you brought Aeris back to life?"
"Well... Things got... Complicated," Cid replied. Yuffie raised her eyebrows at that. "Aeris sort of went AWOL and summoned that WEAPON, Cloud wants to kill her, and Tifa is pursuing them both, and I hope like hell she got there in time."
Yuffie blanched. "That's awful! Why would Cloud---"
"He's a fool," snapped Cid. "But now that the WEAPON's gone, we probably should go help Tifa, and possibly knock some sense in Spike. But the Highwind's scrapped..." Cid trailed off. It was obviously not something he liked to think about.
"Yuffie," Nanaki interrupted, "How did you across the ocean?"
"Why, by chopper!" she answered, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Where do you think the Shinra helicopter ended up?"
"You mean you managed to steal a helicopter?" asked Reeve, incredulous.
"Who, me? Never!" replied Yuffie, trying to look innocent and failing.
"Folks, this all fine and dandy, but I'm really worried that Spike lost it and did something terrible," said Cid. "Also, if he didn't lose it, Aeris definitely did, and although I'm sure we're now able to dispatch any WEAPON sent our way, I'd rather not. I think we should go give Tifa a hand as soon as possible. Yuffie, is there room in that chopper?"
"You bet," the young ninja replied simply. "It can only take four people, though. And don't think I'm staying here!"
"I'm going too," said Barret.
"So am I," said Cid. "Who else comes with us?"
Nanaki, Vincent and Reeve conversed for a while. It was finally decided Nanaki would go. Reeve had business in Kalm, and Vincent wanted to try to come up with a battle plan to move into Midgar. Reeve waved goodbye, while Vincent was already moving ahead. The rest ran to the entrance to the Myrthil mines.
They ran into another Zolom, but it did not last three seconds against the combined assault of four offensive spells.
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Benoit Goudreault-Emond April, 9 2001