The Last of an Elite
Chapter Forty: Plain Stinking Luck
By InterfaceLeader
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Elena opened the door to her apartment, rubbing her head with her free hand. She was glad to be home after the long mission in the North and the lonely day at the office. Visions of bubble baths, heart-warming romance novels and hot chocolate floated through her mind.
Her hallway had been trashed.
She gaped at the torn curtains, smashed bottles and broken furniture. What had happened? Had she been burgled? But homes on the upperplate just didn't get burgled!
She proceeded cautiously through the rooms, taking in the open fridge with water pooling on the floor, the books scattered across the floor with pages spilt everywhere. It wasn't until she reached the bedroom that she got her first clue to what had happened.
In letters a foot high someone had scrawled the word bastard across one pale blue wall in lipstick. Elena stared at it blankly, then turned her eyes to the bed.
"Ewww, gross!"
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The two commander guards flanking Rude were taken out extremely quickly. Rude - already tired from the previous battle - was hard pressed to keep himself from being killed. His only goal was to draw the battle out for as long as possible and he found himself relying on Barrier spells and Cure2 to keep the unending onslaught of powerful attacks from completely defeating him.
It was an extra powerful attack from Cloud that sent him flying backwards along the rusty metal walkway. Sliding to a halt and finding himself gazing at the clear blue sky above, he decided that if the auto-pilot wasn't fixed by now it wasn't his fault. Flicking his hand towards his pocket he patched into the control room.
".......they got us."
Cloud, Cid and Tifa all raced past him into the rocket. Rude continued to stare at the sky, lacking even the energy to cast cure.
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".......they got us." Rude's voice echoed through the Ground Control Room. The engineers groaned, and Palmer started to cry as he thought of Scarlet's fury. Reno wished he had just one useable cigarette left. Heck, he'd settle for a dog-end.
"I want to hear what's going on inside."
Palmer wiped his nose on the back of his hand and pressed a few buttons. There was a burst of static, and then Cid's voice came crackling through the speakers.
"Humans who used to only roam around on the ground are able to fly now! And finally, we're about to go into outer space."
"They're going to steal my rocket!" Palmer wailed. "They mustn't! I worked so hard on it!"
"Science is a 'Power' created and developed by humans. And science just might be what saves this planet. I was able to earn my living thanks to science. So to me, there's nothing greater!"
"Great. Now he remembers who was payin' his wages." Reno slumped back against the wall. "Heidegger is gonna kill me for this…"
"Now quit your worrying 'bout what Shinra's gonna do!" Cid's voice sounded clear and strong "I don't want to regret not have -"
"Sir?" Another voice cut across Cid's. "The auto-pilot has been repaired."
"It's too late" Palmer sobbed. "They're already aboard!"
"…" Reno stared at the control panel in front of Palmer. Couldn't auto-pilots override the manual controls? In which case…
"Fire the rocket!"
"What!? But Avalanche's on there!" Palmer turned wide wet eyes towards him.
"Don't argue, just do it!" Reno snapped impatiently. "We'll show 'em whose boss of this planet!"
Palmer blinked, and then sudden realisation caught him and a beaming smile spread across his countenance. Turning back to the control panel he pushed another few buttons, and from outside there came the sudden roar of the powerful rocket engines springing to life.
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Rude was taken completely by surprise when the engines started. The walkway he was lying on started vibrating crazily and he clutched the rail desperately. Looking over the edge he found himself staring almost directly into a white-hot furnace glowing so brightly his sunglasses were useless against it's brilliance. With spots dancing in front of his eyes he pulled away and started to crawl as fast as he could along the metal platform, away from the rocket.
The vibrating was getting stronger, the walkway swayed like a leaf in a gale. The noise was incredible, so loud it ceased to be heard and was simply felt. Heat surged up and around the rocket in a burning wave, and Rude hastily stuffed a fire-2 materia into a defence slot to avoid being burned. Praying silently to all the God's he could think of he started climbing down the ladder.
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Reno ran out of the Ground Control Room to watch the launch, joined immediately by the engineers and Palmer. The power was building steadily, and the rocket itself was nearly hidden by the heat and smoke. Crowds of towns people stood around staring at the spectacle, forcing themselves forward against the wind. Tree branches whipped back, leaves torn violently from them. Chairs, wires, wheels and gates were all ripped from their shoring and thrown into the air. The rocket itself was shaking so hard it looked like it was going to fall apart.
"Ha! Take that you whacked out planet loving weirdo freaks!" Reno cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled into the whirlwind of power. "Dismiss Shinra will ya? Think we're just gonna let you run off with seven billion Gils worth of rocket huh? You are going down Avalanche! - Well, up actually… "
"It's so exciting!" Palmer babbled earnestly by his side. "I thought Avalanche would stop the launch and Scarlet would be really really mad! Hey hey! We have lift off!"
The rocket started to rise into the air, slowly at first but speeding up. Smoke blasted across the town and for a moment no one could see a thing. As it cleared, they looked up to see the bright flame of the rocket arcing into the blue sky. The townspeople let out a cheer. They may have had to wait for it, but the launch had fulfilled all their expectations.
"Goodbye Avalanche!" Reno waved to the rocket, feeling more cheerful than he had done in a long time.
"I gotta say" Palmer continued. "I thought we'd have to cancel it when Avalanche went aboard! It's a good thing you remembered there was an escape pod so they could get off in time!"
"Yep, my quick thinking saved the day agai - escape pod?"
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Rude lurched sideways into a wall and grabbed it for support. He was covered in soot, his normally immaculate suit was charred and smoking, and one lens in his sunglasses had cracked. Taking a deep breath to recover his composure, he brushed himself off as best he could, and made his way towards the ground control room.
He was a little surprised to see a solemn group of engineers and guards gathered in a circle outside. Pushing his way through he was even more surprised to see Reno screaming obscenities in the centre whilst throttling Palmer. He tapped his partner on the shoulder, causing the redhead to swing round furiously, dropping Palmer and brandishing his electro-mag rod.
"……" Rude looked at him blankly through his one good lens. He wasn't sure who was in a worse state, him or his the near hysterical Reno. "What's wrong?"
"What wrong!? What's wrong!? They won't die! None of them! What am I meant do!?" Reno smashed his electro-mag rod into a wall, sending sparks flying everywhere. The circle of engineers and guards drew back prudently. "I drop a goddamn sector on them, I fight them, I fire them into space to be blown up in a goddamn meteor and they practically laugh at me as they steal everything we own! Don't they realise how much trouble they're getting me into? Don't they know what Heidegger's like!? They think they're so hot with their bloody summon materia, but they couldn't beat me without it! Bunch of selfish freaks!"
"Reno - " Rude attempted to break into the rant.
"Oh sure they're trying to save the Planet because they're so damn good! The only reason they're against Shinra at all is because they're a bunch of failures who couldn't make it to the top! Who do they think they're kidding? They're just lucky is all! That's the only reason they're not pancakes right now!"
"Reno - "
"Goddamn swinging wires and escape pods! Luck! Plain stinking luck!"
"Reno!" Rude grabbed the Turk by his shoulders and shook him. Reno stopped short and stared at the taller Turk, noticing for the first time his friends dishevelled state.
"You look like hell."
"…… A rocket launched from under me ……" Rude let go of Reno's shoulders. They looked at each other blankly.
"You know what we need?" Reno eventually broke the silence.
"… what?"
"A holiday. Where d'ya want to go?"
"……………"
"How 'bout Wutai? I'm sure I can find some crappy easy mission to take us there."
"………okay." Rude nodded.
"Okay, great. Wutai it is. Let's go."
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A/N: It's been a long time. Apologies for the wait. Hope this chapter lives up to expectations, and I hope you're all pleased I decided to include the Wutai sub quest ^_~
Thank you for all your reviews, they're the only thing that has kept me up to speed on this massive project! I had no idea it was going to wind up so long ^_^ Not too much more though!