BROTHERS IN ARMS
by Digintegrated - Hunter Bill
Disclaimer : all related indicia belongs to the people at Squaresoft, except for ONE item that I claim as mine. Find which one! ;-) Don't worry I don't want to claim the others!
-~-
CHAPTER 5
TRIPLE FRONT LINE
-~-
"Heh, I got you!"
Selphie had tried unsuccessfully to cast various elemental spells upon Trauma. The Tornado spell, operative and efficient, really delighted her. Barrett and Irvine, front-lined, were dodging the robot's arms swinging as they could and hadn't slowed down their shots. They didn't understand why Selphie limited herself to use magic while Ultimecia prevented them to do so, but the sight of the Tornado particularly amazed them.
"How did you do that?" Irvine asked between two gunshots.
"Er... remember the monster at the staircase? The Sphinxaur? Well, after its death, I felt like something...", Selphie replied.
"Explain that later!", Barrett broke in with a stern tone. "From now on, go on with your draughts... Mmpff!"
Barrett had just taken a serious arm punch from Trauma.
"Wait there, you pile of nuts and bolts!!!"
The giant shot a burst with his machine gun arm on the robot. It could stand shots very easily, which rendered the gunners' work harder, but that burst was a burst too much. The robot's left arm was so much damaged after Barrett's assault and became inactive. Selphie added some more with a second Tornado, which almost threw their enemy off balance.
Irvine, however, had stopped shooting.
"Irvine? What on earth are you doing?", Barrett shouted.
The sniper had another idea in his mind. He checked his belt, took around twenty bullets, then started to load them one after one, with infinite precautions. But as he was about to load the last one, the robot opened his body and pointed out of it a canon, then used it against the group. Thirty shots or so later, Selphie and Barrett were in a dreadful state.
~~
Tri Point was observing Quistis, Cid and Zell as they were going down the spiral staircase leading to it. Its red stings, positioned around his head in an equilateral triangle, were pointing towards the team. Quistis asked the spearman:
"Tell me, Cid... you've just made use of a materia, right?"
"Indeed, I... Oh yeah, our magic! This one was not activated after we came into the Castle.". He checked his spear again, a bit closer. Three out of the eight materia were faintly shining.
"So our magic would come back?", he then said. "How is it possible?"
"Well, we're going there or not?". Zell had already reached the bottom of the staircase and taken his fighting stand. For him, it was going now... or now. Quistis didn't want to make him wait, so she came down too, followed by Cid. He was hardly downstairs when Zell jumped, bounced upon a crate and gave a well-placed kick on Tri Point. Cid wanted to be sure his materia were working properly and tried a Fire spell. The creature felt a bit stifled under the heat. Quistis threw her whip and lashed the monster's head. It oddly looked as if it appreciated the lash. It was true: its three stings were unleashing sparks that quickly became electric arcs, running in the triangle made by the red points. A few seconds later, Tri Point cast a lightning chain upon the fighters.
"So this is it. Watch out when it uses electric attacks.", Cid said.
The spearman was a bit off-balanced. The electric shock made his cigarette fall.
Quistis attempted a Fira. The spell could hit the monster, who immediately retaliated with his lightning bolts. The young woman could hardly stand the shock.
"Miss Quistis!". Cid, followed by Zell, rushed to Quistis. She could still stand, although she was remarkably rocked by Tri Point's attack.
"I have an idea. We're going to use its own weapon to make it backfire.", she said. "Cid, do you have a rope?"
"I got one for your service, Miss."
"Good. Could you lend your gloves to Zell?"
"Why for?"
"You'll understand later. So?"
Cid took off his gloves and passed them to Zell. After the young man put them on, Quistis exposed her plan.
~~
Krysta was making life difficult for Squall and Cloud. Its crystalline body was as hard as rock and gave him a natural protection against physical attacks. Tifa was close to exhaustion. Rinoa was dodging Krysta's claws swinging as she could, but the girl had already taken too much.
Nevertheless, as for Selphie and Cid, Rinoa had "felt" that some of her magic was operative anew. She concentrated and tried to fire a Meltdown upon the monster. An enormous energy ball took form between her hands. Squall and Cloud noticed it and ran behind their team mate. Soon after, a wave of heat went through Krysta who turned purple. The spell had worked.
Squall was surprised but didn't want to waste his time asking questions. He rushed towards the monster and made his Gunblade explode over the crystal body, which started to bear dangerous cracks. Cloud, willing to be useful, tried a Wall on All. The swordsman was greatly disappointed to see that nothing happened first, but suddenly, big coloured prisms surrounded the four fighters.
"How?", the creature said. "How is it possible?"
Cloud took advantage of its surprise to deal it a well-placed blow with his sword. Having regained a bit of her strength, Tifa used her Somersault kick, after which came immediately a Rough Divide from Squall. After all these flares, the monster was not feeling good at all.
"Wait a moment...", it finally said. "ULTIMA!"
This word usually sounded like a funeral bell when the fighters heard it. Only this time, they were not feeling that dreadful, and they were right: when the emerald green magical flare took form, it came deflected by the four protective Walls. The fighters got out of it, wounded, but alive.
After Krysta had used this Ultima as a kamikaze assault, it froze, fell upon the balcony and exploded into a myriad of crystal bits, as sharp as razor blades. The four people hurried and crouched. A few seconds later, nothing remained from the monster... nothing but a small glowing green-coloured prism. Squall got back up and took a closer look to the prism. He had already seen one like this in the Lunatic Pandora...
"What is that?", Cloud asked.
Rinoa and Tifa were also curious to know what this mysterious item was. Squall remembered... this artefact was the same as the one Quistis had found in Lunatic Pandora. The fighter, who also mastered the Blue Magic arts, had watched it with interest before assimilating it. Since then, she was able to cast particularly devastating Raybombs, even more powerful than X-ATM092 could have done during their first mission in Dollet...
"It's a Power Generator", the young man answered. "This item is very rare and looks very powerful. We have to keep it with care, it could be useful for us..."
~~
"Hey, you bunch of scrap iron! If you want to have a worthy opponent, you'd better have a confrontation with me!"
That was Irvine, taunting Trauma. The elite gunner was ready to shoot. Trauma too. The robot used its cannon first. Irvine had no problem in dodging the burst, but he got hurt, head on, by the right arm of the robot.
"Ouch!... Shouldn't have done this, man!", Irvine shouted victoriously.
Each time the robot was throwing its arms towards Selphie, Barrett or Irvine, he had to take some time to regain balance, and even more time because of his seriously damaged left arm. Irvine had noticed this and was about to take advantage of this weakness. He faced the robot and shot all of the bullets he had loaded before. It was Air Ammo. A hurricane surrounded the enemy who whirled, lost his left arm, fell down the ground and exploded.
A big heap of cinders, still smoking, was on the painted clock, on the floor.
"Oh my!", Barrett exclaimed. "Congratulations, Mr Fearless Shooter."
"Yeah...", Irvine approved. "But Selphie deserves to be thanked first... If she hadn't tried her Tornadoes, I would never have got the idea to take the suitable Ammo against that monster."
"You're right. Thanks for giving us a hand, Selphie.", the giant resumed.
The girl blushed.
"Er... you're welcome!", she answered.
"By the way, could you tell me more about our magic coming back?"
Selphie thought, then explained:
"To my opinion, Ultimecia isn't sealing our all of our magic on her own. She uses her minions to do this. Each time we kill one of them, the seal is broken, until all of them are out. Eden didn't actually told us about it..."
Hearing the name of Eden, made Barrett become puzzled. It was not his usual behaviour. He was not the kind of man who thinks, but he was more and more concerned about this Guardian Force.
"Er... something's wrong?", Selphie asked.
"No, no, nothing...", Barrett continued. "It was just about your Force, it... the big blue and white bird..."
"Well?"
"I have already heard her voice somewhere... but where?"
~~
Tri Point remained there, motionless, floating at the bottom of the stairs. Neither Zell nor Cid nor Quistis had stopped focusing their attention upon the creature. The two men were awaiting for Quistis' signal to take action.
"Now!"
Zell rushed like a rocket. He jumped, bounced and landed right upon Tri Point's reptilian head. Quistis made her whip turn and lash to ensnare the sting on the right. At the same time, Cid threw his rope to Zell who caught it and tied it around the sting on the left. This move was hard to do, since the creature started to shake. The puncher regained balance, gripped the upper sting and forced it to point upwards. On the floor, Quistis was pulling to the right, Cid to the left of the monster. Zell taunted it and gave him a Heel Drop on his head. Tri Point then attempted a chained lightning attack, but since its stings were moved apart, it couldn't manage to concentrate energy between them. At the time, it was no more standing the tension that the three people were exerting on its stings. It tried another electric jolt. Its stings were unleashing small bolts of thunder that Zell, thanks to Cid's gloves, could not feel. The SeeD sent another Heel Drop to the creature, then went back to the floor.
Everything was going as Quistis had foreseen: moving the stings apart were making Tri Point's electric attacks useless. The monster had completely discharged itself. Each of the three friends sent a Fire spell to finish it off.
Tri Point exploded, desegregated, then quietness came back in the cellar.
Quistis was wounded by the electric shocks from their enemy, now dead. Cid went to her.
"Are you all right?"
"Wait a minute...", she said. "There is something behind that wall."
She showed them that wall, which was facing the last stair. The bricks looked as if they were assembled recently, as they were several layers of mortar missing between them. Quistis concentrated for a while. Her eyes became whitish. She looked straight to the wall and cast Laser Eyes. Two lasers sprang from her eyes and struck the wall and made it collapse.
Behind the mess of bricks was an alcove. Inside the alcove, the three could see a shelf upon which a thick, leather-bound book. With the back of her hand, Quistis wiped the dust that was accumulated on it then read the title, which turned out to be very interesting for her:
BLUE MAGIC SPELLS
Author's note : it was hard for me to find ideas (e.g. New Ammo, Spell Book) to prevent myself from sticking to the PSX games too much. I hope I'll find more and more to spruce the story up.
Time to say hello to:
The guys who didn't understand why I kept writing BGU: go and read "The Lone Angel" to know what BGU is about. Thanks to you, I'll remember to say "Balamb Garden" instead. :-)
Steven and Angel: I'm glad you liked it. I really have the intention to go on.
Gemini83: one word: thanks. Your fic on FF7 also rocks too. Go on like this!
Lady Aliena / Mandy : thanks for your review! I hope you didn't find the time long between my two instalments. Indeed I took particular care in portraying the people, as well as I try to be as accurate as possible in my descriptions.
To you all, I have some to tell you. Did you enjoy this? Then if you have the time, feel free to explain why. You surely liked it for some reason. Same applies if you didn't like it. I accept flames only if they are wisely formulated. See you next instalment!
~~ Digintegrated Hunter Bill ~~