Cowboy
Cowboy
By NightsDawne


Chapter 15: Red SeeD

Irvine followed Seifer down yet another hallway. "Anything lookin' like a control room yet?"

Seifer shook his helmeted head. "Fucking hell! It's a missile base! Why is so much of it devoted to things that have nothing to do with missiles?!"

"I dunno, employment crisis with military architects?" Irvine nearly ran into Seifer's back as his friend stopped to look down another crossing hall.

"Stop joking around and help me figure this out. You're the one who's been here before."

"I didn't come to see anything about missiles," Irvine pouted. "I came ta get shot inta space clear on the other side of the base."

Seifer flipped his visor up as if seeing things by the glare of flourescent lights would help him decide on a course. "This place is a Goddamn maze."

"How about we go back, report ta Quistis, and then we can all sneak in and look?" Irvine's query was met with a glare from Seifer. "Or not. Just pick, Seifer. Eenie, Meenie, Miney, or Moe?"

"Moe." Seifer flipped his visor down and turned right. Irvine strode after him, following him down a set of stairs.

"Hey, good call. We're probably gettin' a lot closer now."

Quistis looked at her watch, then at the building. Their prisoners were behaving themselves well enough, Raijin having pulled out his deck of Triple Triad cards to keep them entertained. Selphie bounced from one end of the truck they were using as cover to the other.

"Why's it taking so long?"

Quistis sighed, leaning against the truck. "I sent Seifer and Irvine in. Together. I'm afraid to speculate."

Selphie grinned. "Well, nothing's blown up yet, so Seifer has to be behaving himself."

Quistis glanced at the building again. "Give him time."

Seifer stopped again, Irvine clanking helmets with him from behind. "Ow."

"Shh." Seifer held up his hand.

"You gotta give me some warnin' when ya decide ta put on the brakes," complained Irvine quietly.

"Stop walking so close then. I said shh."

Irvine listened, the helmet muffling his hearing. Footsteps echoed from behind the wall next to them. He looked at Seifer, but it was hard to read his expression behind the visor. Seifer slid his machine gun off his shoulder and motioned for Irvine to move to the door just behind them in the hall while he stepped quietly towards the one just ahead. Irvine nodded, getting his machine gun ready and stepping back into position. Seifer held up three fingers, counting them down, then spun and kicked in the door. Irvine did the same.

They had entered two doors of the same room, covering opposite ends. Two Red SeeDs spun to face them, beyond them a group of a couple dozen Esthar prisoners, sitting on the floor with their hands behind their backs. "The hell are you doing?" challenged one of the SeeDs, raising his bo as he faced Seifer, the other falling into a defensive martial arts stance, eyes on Irvine.

"Relieving you of duty, asshole." Seifer sneered, but held his fire. Irvine swallowed, seeing the difficulty. Neither he nor Seifer were highly proficient with such innacurate weapons as Galbadian machine guns, and firing on the SeeDs endangered the prisoners behind them.

The SeeD snorted, coming to the same realization when the soldiers didn't fire. "You don't have the balls. Besides, you're on our side."

Irvine slowly sidestepped, trying to get a better angle, but the SeeD facing him only stepped back, closer to the prisoners. Irvine glanced to the side. A large Esthar soldier looked back at him, then gave a bare nod.

"Don't push me, I'm having a pisser of a day." Seifer motioned towards the SeeD he had covered with the muzzle of the gun. "Step away from the prisoners."

"Why should I?" countered the SeeD. "It seems we're at an impasse. However, if you put that gun down and surrender, I'll see to it that you only get a life sentance instead of an execution."

Seifer ground his teeth, frustration building. "Fuck you."

"That's not in the options, soldier."

Irvine readied himself for whatever the Esthar soldier had in mind and returned the nod, unsure of how much longer Seifer would be able to hold himself back from doing something stupid. He stepped forward. The martial artist smirked and stepped back again, almost in amongst the prisoners now. The Esthar soldier took his opportunity, kicking his foot out and up at the back of the SeeD's knee. The man staggered forward. Irvine dove forward, planting the muzzle of the gun in the martial artist's chest, squeezing the trigger in a short burst. The man fell, his eyes staring up at Irvine even as the life passed out of them. The other SeeD spun, giving Seifer his chance. He lunged forward, slamming the butt of his machine gun into the back of the SeeD's head, crumpling him to the ground. Clenching his jaw, he put a burst into the back of the man's head, the SeeD's body twitching and then going still.

"I thought you said these Red SeeD were good." Seifer flipped up the visor, shouldering the machine gun.

"We got lucky." Irvine followed suit, stepping into the group of prisoners to start untying their hands, beginning with the large soldier who had provided their break. "Thanks alot."

The Esthar soldier nodded. "No problem. I take it this means there's a truce?"

Irvine frowned in confusion, then looked down at the Galbadian uniform he wore. "Oh, that. We ain't with the GA."

Seifer crouched, helping another prisoner free, the man then turning to assist others. "We just needed uniforms to get in. We're with Balamb Garden." The words seemed to have an immediate relaxing effect on the Estharians.

"About time you guys got here," grinned the big man, rubbing his wrists.

"No time for chit chat, sorry," said Seifer, standing. "Where's the control room?"

"I can take you there. The name's Stetson." The big man held his hand out to Seifer.

Seifer gave it a shake. "Almasy and Kinneas. Let's go."

"Seifer, what do we do about them?" Irvine jerked a thumb back at the rest of the group.

Seifer rubbed his jaw. "If they take off they might set off an alert. Course we didn't run into hardly anybody on the way here."

"We'll be fine," replied one of the older men. "We can get out on our own. Quietly."

Irvine looked up, eyes widening as a klaxon sounded throughout the building. "What's that?"

"Missile launch. It sounds thirty seconds before the missiles go off," answered Stetson grimly.

"Shit!" Seifer turned, sprinting for the door. "Get your ass in gear and show us the way, Stetson!"

Quistis, Selphie, Fujin, and Raijin all jumped to their feet as the klaxon sounded, eyes widening.

"What's that? It can't be that Captain Seifer got caught, ya know?" Raijin tightened his grip on his naginata.

"LOOK!" Fujin threw her arm out, pointing at the missile silos. The doors eased open slowly, the white tips of the missiles rising into view.

Quistis swallowed, suddenly having more to worry about than Irvine's safety.

Irvine pelted down the corridor on the heels of Seifer and Stetson, the big man showing good speed for his size. "We won't make it in time!" he shouted back at the others.

"I'm not giving up!" Seifer had his machine gun in his hands. All three slid to a stop as they entered the control room, suddenly faced with five Red SeeD sitting at various panels. "AAAAAAAAAAH!" Seifer took advantage of the element of surprise, spraying the room with machine gun fire, sending the SeeDs diving for cover. Irvine spun to the side, firing a barrage of bullets and wishing he had his rifle and some scatter shot instead. Stetson ran toward the side of the room where the countdown flashed on a large display. Irvine caught a glimpse of the numbers. 8.. 7.. 6..

A bladed boomerang flew across the room, missing Irvine and Seifer by a several feet as it spun past. Irvine felt his knee suddenly give out and fell forward, looking down to see a steel crossbow bolt sticking out of his leg. He looked up again in time to see the SeeD reloading from the cover of a desk.

"PHOENIX!"

A slight flash drew Irvine's attention as he realized one of the SeeDs was summoning a GF. He threw up his hand quickly. "CARBUNCLE!" He didn't vanish into the protective GF void, a hole instead opening in the solid floor in front of him. A softly furred green head adorned with a glowing red jewel popped out of the hole. With a squeak of alarm, Carbuncle did a flip into the air, large kangaroo-like back legs propelling him upward. Rays of ruby light flashed from his jewel, showering Irvine and Seifer in reflective magic before the GF dove back into his void. It barely closed as a gigantic flaming bird appeared in front of the two. The phoenix screamed in rage and shot a wall of fire from its mouth. Irvine and Seifer dropped their heads down to shield themselves, heat searing their skin as the fire raged against the ruby glow of their protection. With a crackling of competing magic energies the fire rolled back, then flashed towards their enemies. A scream rose in the roar of the flames. The sound of electronic equipment exploding filled the room.

The other SeeDs took advantage of the break in machine gun fire to roll out of cover. Seifer dove as a spear rocketed toward him, rolling and clutching his shoulder where it sliced through the joint in his armor. Grimacing, he threw his hand out. "DIABLOS!" His form became ethereal, but didn't vanish. He had little experience with the space/time elemental, not having a relationship built up with him, and it would take several seconds before the GF could locate and answer him. He held his position without moving as a SeeD rushed him, slashing a sword through his body. Seifer felt nothing, the blow being taken by the GF even before he answered the call. Irvine turned his machine gun on the boomerang wielder as he drew his hand back to throw again, firing in a continuous burst as the man staggered backwards and fell against the wall, sliding down, leaving a streak of blood. Finally Diablos came, sucking both Seifer and Irvine into the protection of the void while he took their place. Bats blackened the room as they swarmed from nowhere, gathering into a large sphere. Like black ichor the elemental dripped down, taking on his demonic form, wings flinging out to the sides as he threw out a clawed hand and gathered it into a fist. Gravity within the room warped and twisted, doubling, tripling, quadrupling. The GF had matured since the time that Irvine had called on him to fight Seifer. Startled Red SeeDs had no chance to scream even as the force struck them, crushing bone and snapping joints. Diablos seemed to smirk, then threw his arms out, dissolving into a cloud of bats, their shrieks fading as he dropped Seifer and Irvine back into the room.

The Red SeeDs were decimated, lying moaning in pools of blood surrounded by twisted sparking panels. Irvine clutched at the bolt in his leg as the pain started coming through the adrenaline of a fight. He looked to the side and saw Seifer on his knees, blood dripping down from the arm that hung uselessly at his side. Hesitantly he looked to the other side. Stetson lay against the countdown panel, his neck nearly severed, hand frozen inches away from the emergency override switch. Irvine's head dropped. He didn't even raise it as the door was kicked in behind him.

"Oh my God!" Selphie's voice rang out over the crackling of destroyed equipment as she rushed over to Seifer, kneeling down to support him. Raijin and Fujin pushed their way around the two to disarm the three still-living Red SeeDs. Irvine felt a cool hand touch his face and looked up to see Quistis on her knees in front of him.

"Did we stop them?" he whispered. Quistis looked down, shaking her head. Irvine sank forward against her shoulder, fighting back tears.