I woke up early the next day and went out to walk around. I eventually made my way down to the beach where I looked out into the ocean and though about what I was going to do. I was going to have to cross the ocean and that meant transportation. Unfortunately I was somewhat lacking in this area and did not know how to fix this problem. Aeris had told me to trust Lance; he was a pilot so maybe he would know a way. I walked back up into town and walked up the long set of stairs to the house shared by Lance and Priscilla. I knocked on the door and hoped that it wasn't too early for him. I heard some mumbling from inside and stumbling about. Finally the door opened and Lance peered out. It looked like he had just gotten up. "Hu, wha...o Zack its just you. You wanna come in, Priscilla's out and I think there's something to eat around here." I thanked him and walked into the house. It was nice and cozy with a bunk bed over to one side. He motioned towards a chair. "You can sit down if you want," he said.
"Thank you Lance but if it's too early I really can come back later."
"No, no," he replied, "I'm usually up earlier than this, its just that the whole escape and freefall crash kind of put it out of me." He grinned and I saw that he just joking.
I laughed and then got serious, "You're probably wondering why I'm here?"
"The thought had crossed my mind," he said as he dug through a cabinet and pulled out a loaf of bread.
"I need your help Lance," I said, "I need to know how to get transportation across the ocean." He had sliced the bread into four pieces and was placing them in a toaster.
"I guess saving your butt wasn't enough hu? Well if you want to get across the ocean I'd go up to the city. It's the base of the Shinra Military and it usually has a cargo ship docked there that you could stowaway on."
"I need something better than that," I said. "I really need something that can travel fast and that I have control of." The toast popped and he began to spread butter on them.
He looked up thoughtfully, "I think you're looking for a plane then, they can go a lot faster than any helicopter and I think I know where we can find one to suit your purpose."
He handed me a plate with two pieces of toast on it, "What do you mean by 'we'," I asked.
"I mean that I'm coming with you," he replied, "here I'm a danger to the whole village. If Shinra finds me here they'll destroy everything. Besides, you're not going to be going anywhere in a plane without a pilot, and who's the only pilot around who you can trust? It's me, and besides, you saved my life back at the crash and this is the least I can do to repay you."
I could see that his mind was made up and Aeris had told me to trust him, so we began preparations to leave. We left strict instructions with gramps to not tell anyone that we had been here. Priscilla didn't take it very well; she wanted to come with her brother. Luckily he managed to persuade her to stay, but this still didn't keep her from crying. We were in his house again making our final preparations when I noticed he had no weapon. "Lance," I said.
"Ya, what," he replied as he rummaged through his knapsack.
"This is the Shinra we're going up against, shouldn't you have a weapon?" I asked.
"O yes, I almost forgot! Thanks Zack," he walked over to a chest and opened it. He pulled out a fake bottom and hefted a light machine gun. "This was my fathers before he died in the war. Shinra's forbidden the carrying of weapons by civilians, but that doesn't stop me. This is a totally modified T-4X Death Claw. It was originally a medium assault weapon that used conventional ammo. I took it and replaced the old system with a new pulse ammo kit, which I stole from a Shinra armory. This baby can pump out more laser energy than most heavy Shinra cannons, and it all fits under my jacket." With this he put the gun underneath his flight jacket.
"Wow," I said, "not bad. What do you have in the way of materia?"
He took out a leather bag and began to attach the little orbs to his weapon. "I have a Mastered Lightning, a Manipulate at level2, and a Comet materia that I received from my father, it has never been used but is supposed to be very powerful."
"Then I guess we're set, lets go say goodbye and then we'll leave."
We walked out of the house and down the stairs. Gramps was waiting for us in the road, "It was good to see you again Lance, and it was a pleasure meeting you Zack. Before you leave I do have a present for you." We looked anxiously as he pulled two bracelets out of a bag at his waist.
"What are these?" I asked.
"These are Carbon Bangles, they're gifts from the weapon shop owner. He says that he wishes you good luck and that this armor should help you."
I took the armor and slipped it onto my arm, and instantly I felt stronger. It was as if my body was actually tougher and more solid in its construction. "Thank him for us will you gramps," I asked him.
"Of course," he said, "and by the way, your Carbon Bangle has two linked Materia slots and one separate one just in case you get more materia."
We thanked him again and walked out of town towards the huge door that led up to the main city. As we approached it a guard stepped out and stood in our way.
"No civilians are allowed up this lift without authorization so the two of you will need to step back," he ordered.
"Wait a sec," replied Lance, "how do you know we don't have authorization and how do you know we're civilians. For all you know we might be undercover military operatives who have top-secret information for President Rufus and because of you're bungling he might not get it in time!"
The guard was looking really uncomfortable now, "are you Shinra agents with secret information?" he asked nervously.
Lance laughed, "No, but it just goes to show you that you need to be more careful when judging people!"
The guard was glaring at us now and fingering his radio and gun. I stepped in, "Excuse me sir, but my friend and I would really appreciate it if you let us up." I flashed twenty gil in front of his face.
"Of course sir," he accepted the money. "Step right on." He pressed a button on the wall and the door opened. We walked in and stepped onto a large lift while the guard continued to glare menacingly at Lance. Lance pulled a lever on the control panel and we started to move up.
"You shouldn't have done that Lance," I said.
"Why, I was just having some fun," he replied.
"You're fun could have gotten us killed, that guard could have called for backup and then we'd be dealing with an entire garrison right now instead of sneaking into Junon."
He lowered his head and glared at the floor. "I mean it Lance, you were the one that wanted to come, we're on a mission right now and we need to be careful." He brightened at the word mission.
"What kind of mission?" he asked curiously.
"We my friend, are going to help a friend of mine to save the world," I said.
Lance burst out laughing, "We're going to save the world?! How do you plan on doing that?"
"My friend tells me what to do," I replied, suddenly realizing where this conversation was going to go.
"And who is your friend and why isn't he here?" he asked.
I cringed at this question. "Well," I said, "you probably won't believe me but my friend is a girl named Aeris and she isn't here because she's dead." He blinked and I waited for the hysterical laughter to begin.
He shook his head and sighed, "you are one crazy guy and you're probably going to get me killed, but I can see that you're serious. So if you think that a dead girl is telling you save the world, well then by all means follow her directions. By the way, where has this Aeris girl told you to go after you get across the ocean?"
Lance had really surprised me with his maturity and it took me a moment to reply, "it's a large canyon to the far Southeast."
"Sounds like Cosmo Canyon to me," he said. "Once we get a plane we'll head there." The elevator stopped and we walked off, "Now all we need is a way of getting a plane."
We walked around a curve in the corridor and walked outside. I found myself standing on the huge airfield I had seen from the air. Soldiers and Robot Guards were walking all over the place.
"How are we going to get a plane here?" I asked.
"We'll think of something," Lance replied with more assurance than I think he had.
As he said this the world grew totally silent. The graveyard of an abandoned church at midnight could not have been more quite. And like that the world was torn apart by a light so bright that it felt like my eyelids were being burned off. An ear-piercing screech sliced through the air and flung me to the ground.
When I finally got up I saw many of the Robot Guards twitching on the ground while the human soldiers ran around shouting things in their radios. A hand grabbed my arm and pulled me up to a standing position. It was only Lance. "What was that?!" I yelled over the ringing in my ears.
"Don't know but it came from the north. It doesn't matter cause this'll give us the chance we need." We ran across the airport towards a metal hanger at the far end. We walked up to it and found a steel door with the name Formula written on top.
Lance pulled out his machine gun and blew away the lock on the door before opening it. Inside was a large blue aircraft that I guessed to be the Formula. "This," Lance said, "is the most perfect machine ever made. It was my design and I helped to build it. Its called the AF-7 Formula, named after a bird like creature that lives around this area. It is one of the fastest planes ever made and has vertical takeoff ability. With a weapons load that rivals that of many heavy bombers it is the best aircraft Shinra has ever developed, and now its ours." He ran over to the wall while I got into the gunners seat.
"You sound like a salesman!" I yelled at him with a grin on my face. He laughed and flipped a switch on the wall. The roof of the hanger began to fold back on itself, revealing the sky above. My breath caught in my throat as I looked out at the sky because deep red light was now pouring into the hanger. Lance ran back and got into the pilots seat. The canopy closed and he turned the airplane on and made some preflight checks. I put on my headset in time to hear his question, "What do you think is causing the red light?"
"I don't know," I replied, "maybe we'll see when we get out of here."
The fighter started up with a whir and began to rise right out of the hanger. When we were above the hanger I began to look around for what was going on.
"What the heck is that!" yelled Lance through the comm-link. I looked up and saw a ball of burning rock in the sky above us. "It looks like a meteor or something," he said, a little calmer now.
"Maybe I'm not so crazy now," I said a little sarcastically.
"Listen man," Lance replied, "After this I'll do anything your dead lady friend wants, just so long as that Thing doesn't crash into the planet."
I grinned, "I'm sure that she's happy to hear it Lance."
With that we flew off towards the new continent and Cosmo Canyon, our plane disappearing below the horizon.