FF7
Heartstrings
Vincent
Unleashed
by
TacomaSquall
Part Five:
Junon. The largest city in the Commonwealth
of City-States, it had become the headquarters of ShinRa after the destruction
of Midgar. It was from Junon that Reeve, the highest ranking member of ShinRa,
Inc., mustered the manpower to assist AVALANCHE in helping the survivors of
Midgar.
Now, slightly more than a year since
Midgar's fall, and the destruction of Meteor, Junon still towered over the
breaking waters of the ocean. Reeve had been asked why he kept the plate that
kept Lower Junon in perpetual shadow intact. Invariably to these queries, he
gave the same reply. "So we never forget what we once were."
The residents of Lower Junon had begun to
look for land out of the plate's shadow, and Lower Junon now stretched more
than a mile out from the plate's (and Upper Junon's) shadow. The outlying areas
were largely dedicated to small clusters of homes, broken by scattered farms.
The people of Lower Junon had finally rediscovered hope, and with the new
commitment to the people of the Commonwealth by ShinRa, a sense of pride in
being ShinRa's headquarters.
Deep beneath Junon, two men and a woman met
in the Undersea Reactor's submarine pens. Once a combination submarine base and
energy research center, President Reeve had turned the Undersea Reactor into a
center for oceanographic research. However, the three were not there to discuss
the study of the oceans.
"I say we should just dump him for the
fishes." The speaker was slender, with a cane and a mop of unruly
red-brown hair. He was dressed (as were the other two) in a dark blue
sportscoat and slacks, with his shirt collar and top two buttons unbuttoned.
"He and his buddies caused us a lot of hurt a year ago. Have you forgotten
that he helped AVALANCHE dismantle ShinRa last year?"
The other man, slightly taller than his
companions, and with his head shaved completely bald, shook his head in
negation. "Reno, he was once a Turk. And Turks take care of their
own."
The blonde-haired woman spoke.
"Besides, it turned out in the end that he was right. He was working with
President Reeve's sanction."
"Damn it!" Reno slammed his right
fist into his other palm. "Elena, Rude, can't you understand that Cloud
Strife wants us arrested for our part in the 'crimes' that President ShinRa and
his son, Rufus, committed? If we let that gunslinger live, we might as well
just turn ourselves in!"
Rude spoke softly. "If we help Vincent,
it may be that we can persuade him to speak on our behalf. After all, the
members of AVALANCHE share culpability for all of the lives lost during the
past crisis."
Elena continued. "Besides, it would be
nice to go back to work somewhere. I'm tired of living in hiding."
At that moment, a submarine of the old Heidegger
class entered the submarine pen and pulled up to the dock. As it closed with
the dock, the three Turks turned to watch it. Elena nodded to Rude, and the
bald Turk left the pens, heading for the research laboratories, where they had
stowed the unconscious Vincent.
He passed through a series of short
corridors, ending in a hexagonal complex of labs. The entryway was in one of
the six corners of the hexagon, with an hourglass-shaped common area that
connected to four separated labs. Rude transitted the hourglass and strode into
the room on his right. He was surprised to see Vincent sitting up. "How did
you…"
"I woke up and decided I wasn't going
to get anything done, lying down." Vincent was stripped of his customary
scarlet and black clothing. It had been ruined by the processes he was
subjected to in Midgar's ruins. Dressed in only a pair of shorts, the
gunslinger reached for his gun and then remembered that he had lost the Death
Penalty in the central pillar of Midgar.
"The drugs we gave you to keep you
quiet during transit were calculated to affect your unique physiology. You
should have been unconscious for hours more!" Rude's face was flushed, and
his voice became more forceful. "It doesn't matter now. If you resist us,
we shall have to take steps to make sure you stay quiet."
Furious, Vincent tried to call upon the
power of the Galian Beast to deal with Rude. Nothing. With a rush of
remembered terror, he recalled the events beneath the Midgar ruins. Worried, he
looked frankly at Rude. "Who sent you to find me?"
Rude returned the gunslinger's gaze coolly.
"Someone let us know that a Turk was in trouble, and that we needed to
hurry."
"And so you came and rescued me?"
Rude nodded. "Come with us, and we will
make sure your recovery is complete."
"Can you get me some clothes and guns?
I am not going to travel in a uniform I was found unfit for more than thirty
years ago." Rude nodded assent. "Then I'll go with you, for
now."
* * * * * *
Elena was standing next to a tall black man
in the uniform of a ShinRa Naval Service Captain when Rude and Vincent arrived.
Surprised, she looked Vincent up and down in his appropriated black leather
jacket and jeans. The gunslinger's hair was pulled back into a single ebon
tail, and was arranged to keep his bangs out of his eyes. Elena smiled, liking
the new look being sported by the undead gunslinger.
As the two approached, she called out to
Rude. "I see he was ambulatory." Rude nodded. Elena turned to the man
beside her. "I'd like to introduce you to two former members of the Turks.
The bald one who is still in uniform is Rude. The dashing man in jeans is the
former Turk who joined AVALANCHE, Vincent Valentine. Rude and Vincent, this is
Captain Michael Townsend, the commanding officer of the SSV Palmer.
Vincent looked down at his feet. The Captain
spoke. "You were on board the Reeve, weren't you?"
Vincent nodded. "I am sorry about the
other four subs."
Captain Townsend shook his head. "You
were doing what you had to do. I was fortunate enough to be able to break off
after you sank the Heidegger and Midgar. For a group of non-Navy
men, you did exceptionally well with the Reeve."
Rude spoke briskly. "As much as I enjoy
these moments to reminisce about battles won and lost, Elena called you here
for a serious purpose, Captain. Using the Emergency Action Clause from Section
145 of the ShinRa Uniform Military Code, Elena and I are giving you special
orders to transport Reno and the three of us to Costa del Sol, posthaste."
The Emergency Action Clause from Section 145
dealt with the eventuality that ShinRa fell out of the control of the ShinRa
family. Under such circumstances, the Turks were given the authority to take
command of ShinRa military units. The assumption was that the Turks, who were
sworn personally to serve the ShinRa family, would use their authority on
behalf of the ousted ShinRas. The founder of the company never considered the
possibility that his family line would be wiped out.
Captain Townsend recognized the section of
ShinRa regulations, and knew he had no choice to submit. "Very well. If
you will join me on board the ship, we will leave port as soon as the
replenishment teams are done."
The two Turks accompanied the Captain onto
the submarine, followed by Vincent. Within an hour, the submarine set out from
the Undersea Reactor, heading due east, for Costa del Sol.
* * * * * *
Hundreds of feet above the Undersea Reactor,
in the tallest building in Junon (ShinRa's new headquarters), Cid Highwind was
growing impatient. He and Barret were cooling their heels in an executive
waiting room, waiting for Reeve to arrive, so they could have their meeting
about the subsidization of the Highwind-Wallace geothermal reactor design.
Without the sizable funds controlled by ShinRa Inc., there was no chance of the
revolutionary design becoming as widespread as Cid knew it could be. They had
been waiting for two hours, and Cid's temper, never well-managed to begin with,
was starting to get the best of him.
"Where is that damn stuffed toy,"
he growled.
Barret looked over at his collaborator in
invention. Being able to spend much of the last year with Marlene, with the
sure knowledge that she would grow into a beautiful young woman, had worked
wonders for the former leader of AVALANCHE's disposition. "Hang on, man.
I'm sure he'll be here soon."
"That's easy for you to say, you big,
dumb brute. You don't have a ton of work that you need to oversee on the
reactor in Wallace City. If I allow those lazy S.O.B.s to run wild, the reactor
will blow up when they first turn it on!" To emphasize his point, Cid
threw his hands apart, signifying the huge explosion he foresaw if anyone other
than he finished the work in Wallace City.
The door to the waiting room slid open, and
Reeve stepped out. "Gentlemen, if you would care to join me?"
Cid grunted an assent and started to stand
and then stopped. "Who the heck are you calling a gentleman? I work for a
living!"
The three friends walked into the Reeve's
office. The office was a spacious room that dominated the floor it was on, with
only a waiting room and a station for Reeve's executive assistant sharing this
level of the ShinRa Tower. Unlit by lamps, the room was shaded heavily,
allowing Reeve to relax in his office from the rigors that had been forced upon
him by assuming the chairmanship of ShinRa.
Reeve gestured to two comfortable chairs
that were arrayed as two points of an equilateral triangle, with his desk being
the third terminus. "Please, friends, be seated." His mellifluous
voice worked to soothe Cid's temper somewhat as the two heroes sat down.
Reeve continued. "We have come together
to discuss how best ShinRa can help make your geothermal reactors a reality, am
I right?"
Barret nodded emphatically. Cid added,
"Damn right!"
Reeve nodded as well. "I have some good
news and some bad news, gentlemen. ShinRa has the resources to subsidize the
first reactor's construction. And we will gladly be partners in its creation.
However, unless the set-up process is made less expensive, we will not be able
to afford to just donate resources to this project."
"What," Barret yelped in surprise,
his old temper flaring for a moment.
"You sure as hell better be joking,
Reeve." Cid stood up angrily. "Because if you aren't, I'd have to
kick your sorry –" The tower shook. "What the hell?"
Reeve looked up at Cid. "It is just an
earthquake. We occasionally get them –" The tower shook again.
Astonished, the three stood in amazement as
the tower shuddered, almost as if it were being pounded on by the world's
greatest sledgehammer. . Cid was forced to be seated, as the floor beneath him
swayed in time to the impacts from below the tower. Barret stood up and
staggered to the waiting room, where he had left a bag that contained his
gun-arm.
Reeve slapped on the intercom.
"Security? Tell me what's going on!"
A frightened security guard's voice came
over the intercom. "It's the Death Gigas! It is hammering at the central
support for the airfield plate."
Cid's mouth went dry in a sudden rush of
fear. What the hell is Vincent doing? If the plate's support fails, the
whole ShinRa headquarters would fall onto Lower Junon!
Reeve looked at Barret and Cid. "Do you
remember how to get to the airfield from here?" They nodded. "There
are parachutes there. You can use a couple to get down to the lower section of
the city. It's the quickest way down."
"What about you?" Barret was
worried.
"I'll marshal a squad or two of
ShinRa's troops to attack the monster and keep it busy until you can arrive.
I'll make sure some decent help gets to you as soon as possible."
The two warriors staggered from Reeve's
office, darting for the elevator down to the airfield. Behind them, Reeve
opened his desk and took out a familiar remote-control headset. He would be
there before the others. After all, it was his responsibility to protect ShinRa
and the people, wasn't it?
* * * * * *
Cid and Barret strapped on parachutes and
ran to the edge of the airfield. Whatever else they could say about ShinRa,
they had done a good job of keeping Vincent's murderous alter ego busy, as the
thunder of the Death Gigas' punches to the supports below had ended. They had
been replaced with the crackle of small arms fire, punctuated by the boom of a
high-powered rifle and the coughing of a machine-gun.
As they ran, they saw a white and black form
leap out of the top story of the ShinRa Tower. The two shared a look of horror.
Cid exclaimed, "Reeve doesn't know about the risk of feedback damage!
Shit!" The two heroes increased their pace towards the edge of the
airfield.
As they reached the edge of the field, they
leapt out into space. Unconsciously, both of them remembered the HALO (high-altitude,
low-opening) jump into Midgar over a year ago to stop HoJo from firing the
Sister Ray. They both started counting to ten and tucked their arms close to
their sides to hasten their descent. At the count of ten, they pulled on the
d-rings to open their parachutes.
Horrified, they watched as Cait Sith
plummeted towards the Death Gigas.
* * * * * *
"Hey, Vincent!" The Death Gigas
looked up at the falling stuffed moogle. "Just wanted you to know that you
have earned a prize with your show of strength!"
"Huh?" The Death Gigas was
perplexed. This puny one was not like the others. They attacked him, not even
bothering to try and talk. It didn't matter. As soon as it was close enough, he
would Gigadunk it into oblivion.
"Yep! You win a prize!" Cait Sith's
voice was full of congratulatory exuberance.
"Prize?" The Death Gigas did not
understand.
"And here it comes!" Cait Sith
laughed.
The Death Gigas held its arms out to catch
the prize, only to be struck feet-first by Cait Sith. As the moogle hit the
monster, Reeve triggered a switch. Cait Sith screamed at top volume through its
megaphone, directly into the gigantic monster's ear. "It's showtime!"
The Death Gigas fell backwards into the
water. Cait Sith used the momentum gained by its impact with the Gigas to
somersault over to the beach. As it landed, he threw open his toy box. An
enormous chocobo as large as a house bounced out of the box and fell on top of
the supine giant, stunning it even more.
Cait Sith looked up and saw Barret and Cid
about two hundred feet off the ground. "I'll keep it busy!"
Cait Sith peppered the Death Gigas, now
rising clumsily to its feet, with bursts of Fire, Ice, Thunder, and Earth. Each
burst of magic was followed up by a hypersonic screech from Cait Sith's Battle
Trumpet.
The Gigas was rocked by the blasts of magic
and sonic force, but it kept on moving. It placed one foot in front of the
other, drawing ever-closer to the gigantic toy. Finally, it leapt into the air
and landed, seat-first, on the toy, squishing one of the toy's legs. It stood
up, and looked amazed to see that Cait Sith was not bleeding.
"Fool! Leave him alone!" Barret,
having just landed, let loose a burst of automatic fire from the A-M Cannon
that staggered the Gigas. "A boy that breaks his toys gets spanked!"
Barret pulled the chute release as it hit the ground, and a gust of wind
carried the chute out to sea, away from the combatants.
Reeve called upon the randomizer program
within Cait Sith again, hoping for something more useful than the damn toy-box,
this time. It came up with the three hearts of the Lucky Gal. A faerie appeared
and blew a kiss at Cait Sith, and all of the damage done by the Gigadunk
healed, as his power reserves filled up to full capacity from a magical surge
of energy.
Unmoved, the Gigas arced the Livewire, a
torrent of electrical power, into the robotic moogle. Systems started failing
as the electricity overloaded Cait Sith's systems. Cait Sith staggered and fell
backwards, smoke drifting from the maintenance hatch in its back. Then, the Gigas
leapt into the air, performing a Gigadunk on Cid just as he landed. Cid went
down under the parachute and the beast's weight.
Barret let loose with the A-M Cannon,
stitching the Gigas with round after round of heavy ammunition. He might as
well be attacking the Death Gigas with a squirt-gun for all the good it did.
Each shell's impact was taken without flinching by the Death Gigas.
The Death Gigas zapped Barret with a
Livewire that left the man twitching. While the man was stunned, the Gigas
leapt into the air for another Gigadunk, slamming Barret to the ground.
"You die now."
"All right! Now, I'm really
pissed!" Cid scrambled out from underneath the parachute in time to see
the Gigas pick Barret up and slam him to the ground, face-first. Calling upon all
of his rage, he screamed and leapt into the air. He came down spear-point-first,
into the Gigas' back. He rebounded from the monster, and dove again. He struck
and bounced off the Gigas, who was staggered by Cid's blows. Cid rebounded
again, and dove and bounced four more times. Each impact of his Dragon Dive
rocked the Gigas, and the final impact left it at its knees.
Cait Sith rose carefully, and activated one
last Materia. A swirling explosion of lambent plasma blossomed behind the
Gigas, blasting it from existence. The stuffed toy collapsed. "I need some
repairs, I think."
Barret stood and looked at the remains of
the Death Gigas. As he watched, it turned to dust, and then blew apart in the
sea wind, leaving only a single carnelian jewel of Materia. At that moment, the
PHS system Barret always carried with him rang. "Yo! What do you
want?"
"Barret! Something has happened to
Vincent!" Cloud's voice barked urgently from the PHS' receiver.
"You're tellin' me! Somehow, the Death
Gigas got loose and tried to trash Junon Airfield's support pillar!"
"The Galian Beast attacked Kalm!"
"This is bad, man! If those two got
free, then the Hellmasker and Chaos might be as well!" Barret was
horrified.
"Meet us at Wallace City as quickly as
you can get there! I'll send messages to the other members of AVALANCHE,"
Cloud ordered.
"I'll let Cid and Reeve know. The three
of us barely beat the Death Gigas. I'll ask Reeve to bring some Elixirs on
board the Highwind."
Barret closed the PHS and sighed. So much
for the surety of his little girl growing up in safety.
End of Part Five