Chapter Nine: False Dawn
Miles stepped off the train, greeted by Irvine and Selphie Kinneas, both looking confused and rather upset. They gave a half-hearted grin as Miles walked over to them. He didn't return the smile.
Selphie frowned, "What's wrong?"
"We've got a serious problem." He reached into the knapsack on his back, and handed them a small piece of paper, "Read this."
Irvine read it, "Is this for real?"
"Very." Miles checked his watch, "You've only got an hour." With that, he hurried past them, "Don't try to evacuate! There are trip-off alarms around the city! Get Zell!" He ran for the exit of the city, but Irvine yelled after him, "Then how are you gonna get out?"
Miles smiled and turned, opening his bag, and pulling out a hook and rope, "How else? I'm going over!"
0:58:00 remaining
Peter spoke into his radio, "Okay, N-man. We're set to go." He looked around in the Garden car. An assault team had been put together for the initial investigation into Balamb. He nodded to Lance Derikson, holding his excessively large laser rifle like a baby.
Neos came back, "Okay, move out!"
The car began to move.
0:56:41 remaining
The hook hit the top of the wall with a metallic clank, and stuck. The rope tugged down a second, then, it stayed taut. There were a series of bangs on the wall, then, finally, a hand hit the wall, and gripped, followed by another, then, an entire body swung up and flipped around. Miles stood full up on the wall, and looked down for a second, then took the grapple, twisted it around to the other side, and rappelled down the wall. He stood outside of Balamb, now. He could see Garden from here. With a sigh, he began to run for the parked school.
It was the splash that got his attention. He looked out towards the sea, where he could clearly, very clearly, make out a large, red shape, which he recognized with a deep sense of fear.
Galbadia Garden.
He picked up the pace, with a mad dash towards Balamb Garden.
0:53:06 remaining
Peter looked behind him at the people in the car for a split second, checking up on the crew, for no particular reason. He looked back and cursed, hitting the brakes as hard as possible. The car stopped, just short of the man standing in the road. Peter focused on the man, and cursed again.
"Dad!"
Peter hopped out of the car, and ran up to his father, "What are you doing?"
Miles grabbed his son by the shoulders, "Listen Pete, you CANNOT go into that city!"
"What? Dad, we've got Galbadia Garden heading this way, most likely with Alex on board, some form of threat to Balamb, which you STILL haven't cleared up…"
"Get in the car. Long story. Very little time."
00:51:00 remaining
Peter cursed and smashed his hand against the steering wheel, "That's gotta be a joke."
Miles shook his head, "Nope, and we've got about fifty-one minutes remaining until Balamb becomes ground zero for the end of the world as we know it."
"So… you've got Irvine, Selphie and Zell working at it?"
"Zell has experience, I think he can handle it. We've gotta focus on ourselves. Alex is heading this way. He wants us all dead."
Peter nodded, "Then… we have little choice but to lock and load."
00:45:05 remaining
Zell was rustled out of bed by the sound of Selphie screaming outside his door. He groggily got up, threw some clothes on, and opened the door to his bedroom.
"How did you get in my house?"
Selphie shook her head, "No time! C'mon!" She grabbed him and dragged him outside.
00:40:00 remaining
"Battlestations! All hands, report to battlestations! I want everyone to be prepared for a full-out assault on Galbadia Garden! We're gonna hit 'em!"
Miles got off of the loudspeaker, and turned to Neos and Peter.
"Are you ready?"
Neos shook his head, "You sure about this?"
"What choice do we have? We have to take care of Galbadia Garden before they hit us."
"What about the people in Balamb."
"There isn't much we can do except hope that Zell can disarm it. If he can't within… the half-hour… we'll try for an air-evacuation, but our air route would be slow at best."
"Right."
Peter nodded, "Well, then… shall we?"
Miles cracked his knuckles and looked outside, where Galbadia Garden loomed closer, "Let's rock."
00:39:00 remaining
Zell took one look and cursed. Irvine and Selphie stared at him in shock.
"I can't disarm this thing."
"What!?!"
"Well… I can try… but it's well built. Look." He pointed to the device, and traced his finger along the circuitry as he explained, "The cord is all connected to the plutonium rods, as expected, now, and we can easily disarm those. However, we'd still have to remove the rods, because even if the rods are disconnected from the main device, if it blows, and they're close enough, this place goes nuclear. It gets worse." He gestured at the rods, "Behind these, they're secured with wiring. Once we remove them, the device will go off, causing the nuke anyway. Now, normally, we'd unscrew the back, and take things from there, but… even the screws are wired. Any attempt to remove them would result in an explosion."
"So…" Irvine grimaced, "What do we do?"
Zell shook his head, "I'll have to cut from the back, and hope I get it right."
"What happens if you miss?"
"Boom."
00:30:46 remaining
-Adjust, 3 degrees right.-
Peter pulled the trigger on the rifle, and his target went down. He was perched on the balcony in Balamb Garden, playing the sniper for the invading Balamb troops, as the Gardens remained interlocked.
-Adjust, five degrees down.-
The next shot went off, and another man went down.
He pulled his face from the rifle, and took in the situation. SeeDs poured out from Balamb Garden, streaming right into Galbadia's front doors. Galbadia Garden had been decommissioned, but Alex seemed to have risen it, along with his unrelenting army.
Peter grinned, -How is it that these guys always have invincible armies waiting? Oh shit!-
He saw Lance fighting off one soldier, as another snuck up behind him, sword well in hand and ready to swing.
-Adjust five degrees left, six degrees up.-
He fired, and the assaulter went down. Lance looked up and grinned, then finished his opponent. The situation was clearing up. Peter breathed in.
-Now or never.-
He grabbed the robe hooked to the Garden, put his rifle in the shoulder strap, and rappelled down the side of Balamb Garden, landing in Galbadia.
00:29:00 remaining
Zell held steady against the metallic whir of the blade as the automatic saw cut the casing of the bomb. He slowly moved it around in a rectangle around the estimated target. Sweat dripped from his brow as he cut the corner, if his estimate was a centimeter off…
But it wasn't. The back came off, and he was exposed the dull green glow of the plutonium rods. He could see the wires clearly now, and it was only a matter of cutting them… but first…
-Can they be cut?-
00:25:00 remaining
-Hooah!-
Peter dashed down the hallways of Galbadia Garden, fully accompanied by what seemed to be the full force of Balamb Garden. The hallways were bare, but nonetheless, the teams stopped and cleared every single room. No one was getting passed them, not this time.
00:24:00 remaining
-C'mon, times running out man!-
The wires could be cut, but it would have to be handled in exactly the right order. There were five wires, red, black, green, blue, and white.
-Think, think, think!-
He looked up for a moment, wiping the sweat off of his brow. They were in the Balamb Hotel room, where the bomb had been found. He stepped to the balcony, and looked outside, where Balamb and Galbadia Gardens were interlocked only a few yards away, a fantastic battle ongoing. The flares of blue, white, and green, red and black complementing each other
-That's it!-
He rushed back to the bomb.
-Blue. Snip.-
Nothing.
-Great. White. Snip.-
Nothing.
-Excellent. Green. Snip.-
Nothing.
-Hooah. Black? Red? Damn.-
00:20:00 remaining
The team stood at the entrance to the 'throne room' as it was dubbed. Lance held the rifle steady at the door, as the team slowly swiped the card through, and opened the door.
Everything brightened up, and Peter was thrown back to the ground. When he managed to push himself up, a good half of the team was dead or wounded, and Lance was just getting up himself.
"What happened?"
Lance cursed, "Door was rigged to blow. Damnit! He's not there!"
"Then where is he?"
"He's gotta be here somewhere!"
"No… maybe he's not here."
"Let's head back outside, this place is secure."
00:15:00 remaining
Zell finally decided on black.
-Snip.-
Everyone froze. Nothing. Then Selphie gasped, "Zell! The clock!"
Zell looked at it. It was going faster, "SHIT! Get Balamb Garden, now!"
00:13:00 remaining
Miles nodded and hung up the radio with Peter, "No good, he ain't there, but they've got control."
Neos nodded, then the room was filled with blaring, as the phone rang. Miles picked it up.
"Command."
Irvine's voice came back, panicky, "Countdown reduced by two! EVACUATE NOW!"
Miles cursed, "We're gonna drop ropes and fly over, you've gotta get the town ready to go!" He picked up the radio, "Pete, we've gotta split!"
00:10:00 remaining
Peter nodded in response to his father, "Roger that, we've got things under control here."
They were on the bridge of Galbadia Garden, and allowed Balamb Garden to disconnect and rush towards Balamb town.
00:09:00 remaining
The ropes and winches dropped, to a hellish scene. Balamb had turned into a hell on earth, as people all over rushed to grab a hold of the robes and be lifted to safety. The crews on Balamb Garden tried as hard as possible to get everyone, but they all knew it was hopeless. Not everyone could be evacuated. They screamed down with bullhorns for the children first, above all else, but the crowd wasn't listening. One man was on the winch, when someone from the crowd grabbed onto his leg, in a desperate attempt to ride along. In the end, they both fell, and precious time and space was wasted.
The crowd shoved, pushed, and trampled over the smaller persons to flee the town. Three could fit on a winch, but many were coming up with no one, or at the most two. Hysteria had taken over.
Meanwhile, Zell worked faster than every to remove the rods from the bomb. If he could do that, he could limit the damage. It was futile work, but he had to try.
-Seven minutes, not even, more like four.-
He snipped the next wire, hoping for the best. It worked, but he still had four more to go.
The crowd was getting worse. Parents screamed in agony as the desperate persons below accidentally ripped children off of the winches. In another disaster, five tried to fit on one, and the rope snapped, lowering the possible survivors even more.
People were attempting to climb the walls now, others were forming a daring plan to evade the sensors and get to the sea.
Irvine fired his gun into the air, in a desperate attempt to calm the crowd. It wouldn't work, it only incited them more. Fistfights broke out, as others took the contested spot on the winches.
Irvine looked at Selphie, who simply lowered her head and bit her lip. They both knew what was going on.
-This is it.-
Zell frantically cut the next wire.
-Four minutes, more like two.-
He looked up, when Selphie and Irvine walked into the room and sat down. They looked at him, with a half-smile, and he understood, for once, everything was clear to him.
He stood up, leaving the bomb, and sat down on one of the beds.
-Three minutes. One.-
Selphie grabbed onto Irvine, and they kissed, for the last time.
"I love you."
"I love you too."
00:00:05 remaining
Miles looked at the city below, unable to express himself.
00:00:04 remaining
Peter rushed to the window, pressing up against it, and looked out at Balamb, a tear forming in his eye.
00:00:03 remaining
Neos Leonheart buried his hands in his face, unable to comprehend what was happening.
00:00:02 remaining
Selphie closed her eyes and buried her face into Irvine's shoulder, who looked calmly at the bomb.
00:00:01 remaining
At that instant, everyone in Balamb Garden and the assault team in Galbadia Garden all seemed to scream at once. Meanwhile, in Balamb itself, time seemed to freeze, and everyone just stopped.
00:00:00 remaining
Everything flashed white. Miles felt the explosion in the bridge, as Garden almost flipped over, but regained itself, and began to float away from the blast. Peter collapsed to the ground, crying. Neos just looked away.
Balamb. A city built over the course of generations. A city home to some of the most famous people in the world. A historical city, a city that everyone loved. Balamb was gone, and the estimated one thousand people still in the city were dead.
Most notable on the list: Zell Dincht, Irvine and Selphie Kinneas.
However, it would become agonizingly clear in only a few minutes. The battle was not over.
Miles stepped off the train, greeted by Irvine and Selphie Kinneas, both looking confused and rather upset. They gave a half-hearted grin as Miles walked over to them. He didn't return the smile.
Selphie frowned, "What's wrong?"
"We've got a serious problem." He reached into the knapsack on his back, and handed them a small piece of paper, "Read this."
Irvine read it, "Is this for real?"
"Very." Miles checked his watch, "You've only got an hour." With that, he hurried past them, "Don't try to evacuate! There are trip-off alarms around the city! Get Zell!" He ran for the exit of the city, but Irvine yelled after him, "Then how are you gonna get out?"
Miles smiled and turned, opening his bag, and pulling out a hook and rope, "How else? I'm going over!"
0:58:00 remaining
Peter spoke into his radio, "Okay, N-man. We're set to go." He looked around in the Garden car. An assault team had been put together for the initial investigation into Balamb. He nodded to Lance Derikson, holding his excessively large laser rifle like a baby.
Neos came back, "Okay, move out!"
The car began to move.
0:56:41 remaining
The hook hit the top of the wall with a metallic clank, and stuck. The rope tugged down a second, then, it stayed taut. There were a series of bangs on the wall, then, finally, a hand hit the wall, and gripped, followed by another, then, an entire body swung up and flipped around. Miles stood full up on the wall, and looked down for a second, then took the grapple, twisted it around to the other side, and rappelled down the wall. He stood outside of Balamb, now. He could see Garden from here. With a sigh, he began to run for the parked school.
It was the splash that got his attention. He looked out towards the sea, where he could clearly, very clearly, make out a large, red shape, which he recognized with a deep sense of fear.
Galbadia Garden.
He picked up the pace, with a mad dash towards Balamb Garden.
0:53:06 remaining
Peter looked behind him at the people in the car for a split second, checking up on the crew, for no particular reason. He looked back and cursed, hitting the brakes as hard as possible. The car stopped, just short of the man standing in the road. Peter focused on the man, and cursed again.
"Dad!"
Peter hopped out of the car, and ran up to his father, "What are you doing?"
Miles grabbed his son by the shoulders, "Listen Pete, you CANNOT go into that city!"
"What? Dad, we've got Galbadia Garden heading this way, most likely with Alex on board, some form of threat to Balamb, which you STILL haven't cleared up…"
"Get in the car. Long story. Very little time."
00:51:00 remaining
Peter cursed and smashed his hand against the steering wheel, "That's gotta be a joke."
Miles shook his head, "Nope, and we've got about fifty-one minutes remaining until Balamb becomes ground zero for the end of the world as we know it."
"So… you've got Irvine, Selphie and Zell working at it?"
"Zell has experience, I think he can handle it. We've gotta focus on ourselves. Alex is heading this way. He wants us all dead."
Peter nodded, "Then… we have little choice but to lock and load."
00:45:05 remaining
Zell was rustled out of bed by the sound of Selphie screaming outside his door. He groggily got up, threw some clothes on, and opened the door to his bedroom.
"How did you get in my house?"
Selphie shook her head, "No time! C'mon!" She grabbed him and dragged him outside.
00:40:00 remaining
"Battlestations! All hands, report to battlestations! I want everyone to be prepared for a full-out assault on Galbadia Garden! We're gonna hit 'em!"
Miles got off of the loudspeaker, and turned to Neos and Peter.
"Are you ready?"
Neos shook his head, "You sure about this?"
"What choice do we have? We have to take care of Galbadia Garden before they hit us."
"What about the people in Balamb."
"There isn't much we can do except hope that Zell can disarm it. If he can't within… the half-hour… we'll try for an air-evacuation, but our air route would be slow at best."
"Right."
Peter nodded, "Well, then… shall we?"
Miles cracked his knuckles and looked outside, where Galbadia Garden loomed closer, "Let's rock."
00:39:00 remaining
Zell took one look and cursed. Irvine and Selphie stared at him in shock.
"I can't disarm this thing."
"What!?!"
"Well… I can try… but it's well built. Look." He pointed to the device, and traced his finger along the circuitry as he explained, "The cord is all connected to the plutonium rods, as expected, now, and we can easily disarm those. However, we'd still have to remove the rods, because even if the rods are disconnected from the main device, if it blows, and they're close enough, this place goes nuclear. It gets worse." He gestured at the rods, "Behind these, they're secured with wiring. Once we remove them, the device will go off, causing the nuke anyway. Now, normally, we'd unscrew the back, and take things from there, but… even the screws are wired. Any attempt to remove them would result in an explosion."
"So…" Irvine grimaced, "What do we do?"
Zell shook his head, "I'll have to cut from the back, and hope I get it right."
"What happens if you miss?"
"Boom."
00:30:46 remaining
-Adjust, 3 degrees right.-
Peter pulled the trigger on the rifle, and his target went down. He was perched on the balcony in Balamb Garden, playing the sniper for the invading Balamb troops, as the Gardens remained interlocked.
-Adjust, five degrees down.-
The next shot went off, and another man went down.
He pulled his face from the rifle, and took in the situation. SeeDs poured out from Balamb Garden, streaming right into Galbadia's front doors. Galbadia Garden had been decommissioned, but Alex seemed to have risen it, along with his unrelenting army.
Peter grinned, -How is it that these guys always have invincible armies waiting? Oh shit!-
He saw Lance fighting off one soldier, as another snuck up behind him, sword well in hand and ready to swing.
-Adjust five degrees left, six degrees up.-
He fired, and the assaulter went down. Lance looked up and grinned, then finished his opponent. The situation was clearing up. Peter breathed in.
-Now or never.-
He grabbed the robe hooked to the Garden, put his rifle in the shoulder strap, and rappelled down the side of Balamb Garden, landing in Galbadia.
00:29:00 remaining
Zell held steady against the metallic whir of the blade as the automatic saw cut the casing of the bomb. He slowly moved it around in a rectangle around the estimated target. Sweat dripped from his brow as he cut the corner, if his estimate was a centimeter off…
But it wasn't. The back came off, and he was exposed the dull green glow of the plutonium rods. He could see the wires clearly now, and it was only a matter of cutting them… but first…
-Can they be cut?-
00:25:00 remaining
-Hooah!-
Peter dashed down the hallways of Galbadia Garden, fully accompanied by what seemed to be the full force of Balamb Garden. The hallways were bare, but nonetheless, the teams stopped and cleared every single room. No one was getting passed them, not this time.
00:24:00 remaining
-C'mon, times running out man!-
The wires could be cut, but it would have to be handled in exactly the right order. There were five wires, red, black, green, blue, and white.
-Think, think, think!-
He looked up for a moment, wiping the sweat off of his brow. They were in the Balamb Hotel room, where the bomb had been found. He stepped to the balcony, and looked outside, where Balamb and Galbadia Gardens were interlocked only a few yards away, a fantastic battle ongoing. The flares of blue, white, and green, red and black complementing each other
-That's it!-
He rushed back to the bomb.
-Blue. Snip.-
Nothing.
-Great. White. Snip.-
Nothing.
-Excellent. Green. Snip.-
Nothing.
-Hooah. Black? Red? Damn.-
00:20:00 remaining
The team stood at the entrance to the 'throne room' as it was dubbed. Lance held the rifle steady at the door, as the team slowly swiped the card through, and opened the door.
Everything brightened up, and Peter was thrown back to the ground. When he managed to push himself up, a good half of the team was dead or wounded, and Lance was just getting up himself.
"What happened?"
Lance cursed, "Door was rigged to blow. Damnit! He's not there!"
"Then where is he?"
"He's gotta be here somewhere!"
"No… maybe he's not here."
"Let's head back outside, this place is secure."
00:15:00 remaining
Zell finally decided on black.
-Snip.-
Everyone froze. Nothing. Then Selphie gasped, "Zell! The clock!"
Zell looked at it. It was going faster, "SHIT! Get Balamb Garden, now!"
00:13:00 remaining
Miles nodded and hung up the radio with Peter, "No good, he ain't there, but they've got control."
Neos nodded, then the room was filled with blaring, as the phone rang. Miles picked it up.
"Command."
Irvine's voice came back, panicky, "Countdown reduced by two! EVACUATE NOW!"
Miles cursed, "We're gonna drop ropes and fly over, you've gotta get the town ready to go!" He picked up the radio, "Pete, we've gotta split!"
00:10:00 remaining
Peter nodded in response to his father, "Roger that, we've got things under control here."
They were on the bridge of Galbadia Garden, and allowed Balamb Garden to disconnect and rush towards Balamb town.
00:09:00 remaining
The ropes and winches dropped, to a hellish scene. Balamb had turned into a hell on earth, as people all over rushed to grab a hold of the robes and be lifted to safety. The crews on Balamb Garden tried as hard as possible to get everyone, but they all knew it was hopeless. Not everyone could be evacuated. They screamed down with bullhorns for the children first, above all else, but the crowd wasn't listening. One man was on the winch, when someone from the crowd grabbed onto his leg, in a desperate attempt to ride along. In the end, they both fell, and precious time and space was wasted.
The crowd shoved, pushed, and trampled over the smaller persons to flee the town. Three could fit on a winch, but many were coming up with no one, or at the most two. Hysteria had taken over.
Meanwhile, Zell worked faster than every to remove the rods from the bomb. If he could do that, he could limit the damage. It was futile work, but he had to try.
-Seven minutes, not even, more like four.-
He snipped the next wire, hoping for the best. It worked, but he still had four more to go.
The crowd was getting worse. Parents screamed in agony as the desperate persons below accidentally ripped children off of the winches. In another disaster, five tried to fit on one, and the rope snapped, lowering the possible survivors even more.
People were attempting to climb the walls now, others were forming a daring plan to evade the sensors and get to the sea.
Irvine fired his gun into the air, in a desperate attempt to calm the crowd. It wouldn't work, it only incited them more. Fistfights broke out, as others took the contested spot on the winches.
Irvine looked at Selphie, who simply lowered her head and bit her lip. They both knew what was going on.
-This is it.-
Zell frantically cut the next wire.
-Four minutes, more like two.-
He looked up, when Selphie and Irvine walked into the room and sat down. They looked at him, with a half-smile, and he understood, for once, everything was clear to him.
He stood up, leaving the bomb, and sat down on one of the beds.
-Three minutes. One.-
Selphie grabbed onto Irvine, and they kissed, for the last time.
"I love you."
"I love you too."
00:00:05 remaining
Miles looked at the city below, unable to express himself.
00:00:04 remaining
Peter rushed to the window, pressing up against it, and looked out at Balamb, a tear forming in his eye.
00:00:03 remaining
Neos Leonheart buried his hands in his face, unable to comprehend what was happening.
00:00:02 remaining
Selphie closed her eyes and buried her face into Irvine's shoulder, who looked calmly at the bomb.
00:00:01 remaining
At that instant, everyone in Balamb Garden and the assault team in Galbadia Garden all seemed to scream at once. Meanwhile, in Balamb itself, time seemed to freeze, and everyone just stopped.
00:00:00 remaining
Everything flashed white. Miles felt the explosion in the bridge, as Garden almost flipped over, but regained itself, and began to float away from the blast. Peter collapsed to the ground, crying. Neos just looked away.
Balamb. A city built over the course of generations. A city home to some of the most famous people in the world. A historical city, a city that everyone loved. Balamb was gone, and the estimated one thousand people still in the city were dead.
Most notable on the list: Zell Dincht, Irvine and Selphie Kinneas.
However, it would become agonizingly clear in only a few minutes. The battle was not over.
