DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN FF7 OR ANY OF ITS CHARACTERS
Chapter Seven
Cloud, Vincent and Red went down to the bottom deck, ready to disembark, as Cid piloted the ship over Junon, towards Midgar. Vincent, who had until now been silently brooding in the corner, suddenly jerked upright as if he had been stung, and yelled, "Take cover!"
Cloud and Red looked at him, confused, "From what?"
"I don't know," said Vincent, taking cover behind a heavy metal stanchion. "Chaos is warning me about something. Sometimes he can sense danger before it happens."
The other two exchanged glances, wondering if Vincent had finally cracked. They decided, however, it was better to be safe than sorry, and ducked behind a heavy piece of machinery. Not a moment too soon either, as the ship was suddenly shaken by a series of violent crashes and explosions. From the flight deck they could distantly hear Cid yelling, "What the %&$£!?!?!?!?!"
With a violent crash the metal pillar Vincent was sheltering behind was ripped loose from the ship and went tumbling over the side. There was an even bigger explosion and the ship began wobbling from side to side in an alarming manner. Cloud grabbed Red's front paw before the huge lion could be sent flying off the ship, hanging on to a metal strut with his other hand. Another heavy piece of metal was torn from its holdings, and only his inhuman reflexes allowed Vincent to roll to the side in time to avoid being crushed. Eventually the explosions decreased in number and finally died away, allowing the Highwind to continue its increasingly shaky progress towards Midgar. Unfortunately, just as the city could be seen on the horizon, there was another powerful explosion and the Highwind began nose-diving towards the ground.
"CRASH POSITIONS!!!!!" Cid was heard to scream from the bridge.
Cloud and the others braced themselves for impact as Cid tried to bring the ship on to a more even keel. He succeeded only partially, but did enough to turn the ship's near-vertical descent into a lazy kind of swallow dive before it hit the ground. The three on the lower deck were tossed about like rag- dolls by the bone-shuddering impact, somehow managing to avoid any serious injury before the ship scraped along the ground and came to a graceless halt. Vincent was on his feet first, brushing down his cloak and keeping his pain from showing on his face.
"Everyone OK?" said Cloud, rubbing his shoulder from where he'd landed on it.
Red nodded, "I think my bones are all intact. What happened?"
"Not sure," said Cloud. "We'd better go up and ask Cid, he'd have had a better view. We might also have to stop him from killing himself over the damage to his ship."
The staircase that led from the lower deck to the bridge was almost entirely blocked by fallen machinery and twisted metal, but they picked and fought their way through, and found Cid leaning over the ship's engine, swearing and cursing at the top of his voice and hitting various things with a heavy metal spanner.
"Cid?" Cloud asked. "What's the damage?"
"You guys are OK!" Cid exclaimed. "Thank God for that. As for the damage, near total, kid. This engine will never run again. The rest of the ship looks not too bad - just structural damage - but we won't be flying anywhere in this baby for a while. At least not until she gets a new engine."
"What HAPPENED back there?" asked Red.
Cid kicked the dead engine angrily, "It was just as we were flying over Junon. All their anti-aircraft guns began firing. We were pretty lucky to come out of it with as little damage as we've sustained."
"But - but why would the Junon airbase want to attack us?" asked Cloud. "They're just a trading port now. They only kept the anti aircraft guns because demolishing them would have been too expensive."
"I think I know why," said Red.
"Hojo. . ." Vincent hissed.
"I thought he was in Midgar," said Cid.
"He must have sent some of his soldiers to Junon," said Cloud. "Knowing that it would be in our flight path from Cosmo Canyon. I wish now I'd never tried to call Reeve on the PHS. Because of that Hojo knew we were coming and he was ready for us."
"What do we do now?" asked Vincent.
"Well, I'm stayin' here to try and repair the ship," said Cid. "The back-up engine is old and slow but it might work for a few hours. I'm going to fix all the major systems that have been damaged, so I can at least take off again if I have to."
"I too will stay here, and continue with my research," said Red.
"Okay," said Cloud. "Vincent, I think you and I had better go and try to find Barret and/or Yuffie."
"What about Hojo?" asked Vincent.
"He'll be too well guarded for two of us to try and take on," said Cloud. "That's why I want to find the others first."
"Right. Good luck," said Cid.
He stood and surveyed his wrecked ship with a pained expression on his face, wondering where to begin his repairs, while Red ambled over to a quiet corner to continue his reading, and Cloud and Vincent left the ship to begin the long trek to Midgar, just visible in the distance.
It took them several hours, interspersed by battles against various monsters, to reach the outskirts of Midgar. The huge gates that had once encircled the city were gone, torn down on Reeve's command, so the two of them were able to enter the city without difficulty.
"We're in Sector 5," said Cloud. "The hospital where we left Tifa is in Sector 3. It shouldn't take us too long to get there."
It didn't take them long to figure out that something was wrong in the streets of Midgar. The eerie silence of the empty streets, and the sound of doors and windows being slammed shut and locked as they walked past, were beginning to make them edgy. Well, Cloud anyway. Vincent seemed to be his usual impassive self, glancing about with emotionlessness bordering on indifference. It wasn't until they reached the outskirts of Sector 5, having made their way through streets and shopping malls that were totally silent and deserted, that they saw some signs of life. Unfortunately, it wasn't friendly. The six ordinary human soldiers in the by-now familiar silver uniform appeared to be on some sort of patrol route, circling a small area of the city, looking about intently and keeping their guns cocked and ready to fire.
"I wonder what they're doing," said Cloud.
"They seem to be searching for somebody," said Vincent. "Cloud, this is worrying. It appears Hojo's men have taken over the whole city, or at least Sector 5. We don't know how powerful he is, how many troops he has, how well trained they are. . .I could go on."
"You're right, but we do know one thing," Cloud said.
"And that is?"
"He's trying to kill us and our friends. That means we have to stop him, whatever it takes."
"I don't think the two of us alone. . ."
"I know!" Cloud replied. "That's why we're here, we're trying to find Barret and Yuffie. With four of us we might be able to rescue Tifa and Reeve and get them back to the Highwind."
"And then what?" asked Vincent morosely. "You know it can't fly any more."
"Well, hopefully Cid can repair it sufficiently that we can get to a safe haven somewhere," said Cloud.
"Like where? Hojo has sent men to Cosmo Canyon, Nibelheim, Junon and Midgar that we know of. Who's to say he hasn't got troops taking over everywhere?"
"I'm sure Fort Condor and Wutai will still be safe," said Cloud. "They'll fight to the last. Either of those places will welcome us. If not - well, there's always Round Island. Nobody apart from us even knows it exists."
"True, but we can't survive for long there," said Vincent. "And Tifa and Marlene will die soon."
"You think I don't know that?" asked Cloud sharply. "Honestly, you're so depressing to be around sometimes. We've been taken by surprise so it will take some time to formulate a good plan. Right now our priority is to find the others."
"I fail to see how we can stop Hojo."
"Well, I know one thing that's in our favour," said Cloud. "Brilliant as his mind undoubtedly is, Hojo is no military strategist. His way of winning a fight is simply to throw in as many troops as possible. That could work to our advantage if we plan cleverly enough. Hey, it will be just like the old days when we were in AVALANCHE!"
"I was never really in AVALANCHE," said Vincent, then shrugged. "Very well. Although suggesting we could win this defies all logic, I'll go along with it because we simply don't have any other options. We can't surrender because Hojo would just have us killed. We could hide but he'd find us eventually. We have to fight!"
"That's the spirit!" Cloud agreed. "All right, first thing to do is to find out what these guys are so interested in."
They crept forward, keeping to the meagre cover provided by parked cars and low walls, steadily approaching the patrol route of the six soldiers.
"I see someone!" one of the grunts suddenly yelled.
Cloud and Vincent instantly dropped to the ground and grabbed their weapons, thinking they had been spotted. However there was no sudden rush of footsteps or firing of weapons in their direction. They slowly raised themselves to a kneeling position and peered over the low brick wall in front of them. A man, dressed in civilian clothes, was fleeing from behind the cover of a dumpster, firing a handgun at the soldiers.
"He's armed!" one of them shouted. "Drop him!"
The six soldiers raised their weapons and fired. The man, hit by at least three bullets, was spun around on the spot and collapsed in the middle of the road, a pool of blood slowly spreading on to the tarmac. The soldiers surrounded his corpse and began searching him.
"Here's his ID card, sir," one of them said, handing something to the soldier who appeared to be in charge.
"All right," said the senior grunt. "Find his house and kill his family."
The other soldiers looked up, "Sir?!"
"Professor Hojo's orders!" the senior grunt snapped. "You know he won't tolerate anyone rebelling against him! Now move out!"
The grunts grumbled amongst themselves and began approaching a small, red-brick house with a nicely-tended garden in front. Cloud felt Vincent stir beside him.
"More innocents," the raven-haired man muttered so low Cloud couldn't make him out.
"What did you say?" Cloud asked, but Vincent had already got to his feet and was cocking the Death Penalty.
"I'll draw their fire," said Vincent. "You run around and attack from behind that tree over there."
Cloud hurried off as the six soldiers were nearly at the house. Vincent's first shot took out the senior grunt, sending him flying into two of the others. The remaining three whirled round in surprise, frantically looking around to see who had fired. Vincent had ducked back behind the wall and they couldn't see him. With the senior grunt dead, one of the others took over.
"You two, search to the left. You two to the right. I'll cover you," were his orders. "It's probably just another civilian. A civilian who's a good shot though, so be careful!"
Splitting up made them harder for Vincent to hit, but he was an expert marksman so it wasn't that much of a problem. Reappearing over the top of the wall, he fired at the second-in-command soldier, hitting him squarely in the chest, killing him instantly. Take out the leader and the rest would falter. It was a good tactic, Vincent knew. During the Meteor crisis, his party had very nearly lost its way when Cloud was taken from them. Fortunately Tifa and then Cid had been able to take over on a temporary basis and keep things going. None of the remaining four silver grunts appeared to have the desire or ability to take over as leader, and they began to panic. Two ducked behind a van, and the other two settled for running away. Unfortunately for them, they found themselves running straight towards Cloud's hiding place. He emerged swinging Ultima Weapon, dispatching them immediately. The remaining two grunts, caught between two foes, lost their heads and charged towards where Vincent was hurriedly reloading his Death Penalty. He shot one and ducked behind the wall to avoid weapon fire from the other. A swishing sound and a meaty thunk told him Cloud had taken out the last enemy. Wiping sweat from their faces, the two of them walked towards each other and Cloud said, "Good shooting. That wasn't so hard."
"It will get harder. Especially if we meet any of those genetically modified super soldiers."
They searched the bodies of the grunts, finding nothing of value save for a keycard pass in the inside pocket of the senior grunt.
"This might be useful," said Cloud. "It'll give us access to wherever they report to after 'work'. It might enable us to get closer to Hojo."
"Hojo. . ." Vincent growled.
"Anyway, we'd better move," Cloud decided. "When this motley crew doesn't report back to base, there'll be somebody - more likely quite a lot of somebodies - sent to find out why."
They hurried away from the scene, making their way in the direction of Sector 3 once more. It was when they began walking in the darkness below the remains of the plate above Sector 4 that Vincent started to get uneasy. He twitched and fidgeted in a most uncharacteristic manner.
"What's up?" asked Cloud eventually.
"I sense an attack is imminent," said Vincent. "Well, I don't, Chaos does. Can I suggest we take cover?"
Cloud decided to trust his friend's premonition, and they hid behind some shrubs. Since the end of Shinra Inc. and the destruction of the Mako reactors, plants and flowers had begun growing again in Midgar. The Spirit energy that had for so long been sucked up to sate the Shinras' lust for power was now being used for its intended purpose: the nurturing of life. Before long Vincent's prediction was shown to be correct, as a squad of fifty or more soldiers were seen marching up the road.
"Halt!" their leader yelled.
They stopped.
"Private 3452, why do you keep straying out of formation?!" the leader demanded.
"It's the prisoners, sir," a man in the back replied nervously. "They keep crowding me."
"Lemme go, you buncha Shinra-lovin' jackasses!!" yelled a familiar voice.
The other soldiers stepped aside so that their commander could get through. Cloud and Vincent got their first view of the prisoners.
Barret and Yuffie, struggling furiously with their arms tied behind their backs, had been captured by Hojo's men.
Chapter Seven
Cloud, Vincent and Red went down to the bottom deck, ready to disembark, as Cid piloted the ship over Junon, towards Midgar. Vincent, who had until now been silently brooding in the corner, suddenly jerked upright as if he had been stung, and yelled, "Take cover!"
Cloud and Red looked at him, confused, "From what?"
"I don't know," said Vincent, taking cover behind a heavy metal stanchion. "Chaos is warning me about something. Sometimes he can sense danger before it happens."
The other two exchanged glances, wondering if Vincent had finally cracked. They decided, however, it was better to be safe than sorry, and ducked behind a heavy piece of machinery. Not a moment too soon either, as the ship was suddenly shaken by a series of violent crashes and explosions. From the flight deck they could distantly hear Cid yelling, "What the %&$£!?!?!?!?!"
With a violent crash the metal pillar Vincent was sheltering behind was ripped loose from the ship and went tumbling over the side. There was an even bigger explosion and the ship began wobbling from side to side in an alarming manner. Cloud grabbed Red's front paw before the huge lion could be sent flying off the ship, hanging on to a metal strut with his other hand. Another heavy piece of metal was torn from its holdings, and only his inhuman reflexes allowed Vincent to roll to the side in time to avoid being crushed. Eventually the explosions decreased in number and finally died away, allowing the Highwind to continue its increasingly shaky progress towards Midgar. Unfortunately, just as the city could be seen on the horizon, there was another powerful explosion and the Highwind began nose-diving towards the ground.
"CRASH POSITIONS!!!!!" Cid was heard to scream from the bridge.
Cloud and the others braced themselves for impact as Cid tried to bring the ship on to a more even keel. He succeeded only partially, but did enough to turn the ship's near-vertical descent into a lazy kind of swallow dive before it hit the ground. The three on the lower deck were tossed about like rag- dolls by the bone-shuddering impact, somehow managing to avoid any serious injury before the ship scraped along the ground and came to a graceless halt. Vincent was on his feet first, brushing down his cloak and keeping his pain from showing on his face.
"Everyone OK?" said Cloud, rubbing his shoulder from where he'd landed on it.
Red nodded, "I think my bones are all intact. What happened?"
"Not sure," said Cloud. "We'd better go up and ask Cid, he'd have had a better view. We might also have to stop him from killing himself over the damage to his ship."
The staircase that led from the lower deck to the bridge was almost entirely blocked by fallen machinery and twisted metal, but they picked and fought their way through, and found Cid leaning over the ship's engine, swearing and cursing at the top of his voice and hitting various things with a heavy metal spanner.
"Cid?" Cloud asked. "What's the damage?"
"You guys are OK!" Cid exclaimed. "Thank God for that. As for the damage, near total, kid. This engine will never run again. The rest of the ship looks not too bad - just structural damage - but we won't be flying anywhere in this baby for a while. At least not until she gets a new engine."
"What HAPPENED back there?" asked Red.
Cid kicked the dead engine angrily, "It was just as we were flying over Junon. All their anti-aircraft guns began firing. We were pretty lucky to come out of it with as little damage as we've sustained."
"But - but why would the Junon airbase want to attack us?" asked Cloud. "They're just a trading port now. They only kept the anti aircraft guns because demolishing them would have been too expensive."
"I think I know why," said Red.
"Hojo. . ." Vincent hissed.
"I thought he was in Midgar," said Cid.
"He must have sent some of his soldiers to Junon," said Cloud. "Knowing that it would be in our flight path from Cosmo Canyon. I wish now I'd never tried to call Reeve on the PHS. Because of that Hojo knew we were coming and he was ready for us."
"What do we do now?" asked Vincent.
"Well, I'm stayin' here to try and repair the ship," said Cid. "The back-up engine is old and slow but it might work for a few hours. I'm going to fix all the major systems that have been damaged, so I can at least take off again if I have to."
"I too will stay here, and continue with my research," said Red.
"Okay," said Cloud. "Vincent, I think you and I had better go and try to find Barret and/or Yuffie."
"What about Hojo?" asked Vincent.
"He'll be too well guarded for two of us to try and take on," said Cloud. "That's why I want to find the others first."
"Right. Good luck," said Cid.
He stood and surveyed his wrecked ship with a pained expression on his face, wondering where to begin his repairs, while Red ambled over to a quiet corner to continue his reading, and Cloud and Vincent left the ship to begin the long trek to Midgar, just visible in the distance.
It took them several hours, interspersed by battles against various monsters, to reach the outskirts of Midgar. The huge gates that had once encircled the city were gone, torn down on Reeve's command, so the two of them were able to enter the city without difficulty.
"We're in Sector 5," said Cloud. "The hospital where we left Tifa is in Sector 3. It shouldn't take us too long to get there."
It didn't take them long to figure out that something was wrong in the streets of Midgar. The eerie silence of the empty streets, and the sound of doors and windows being slammed shut and locked as they walked past, were beginning to make them edgy. Well, Cloud anyway. Vincent seemed to be his usual impassive self, glancing about with emotionlessness bordering on indifference. It wasn't until they reached the outskirts of Sector 5, having made their way through streets and shopping malls that were totally silent and deserted, that they saw some signs of life. Unfortunately, it wasn't friendly. The six ordinary human soldiers in the by-now familiar silver uniform appeared to be on some sort of patrol route, circling a small area of the city, looking about intently and keeping their guns cocked and ready to fire.
"I wonder what they're doing," said Cloud.
"They seem to be searching for somebody," said Vincent. "Cloud, this is worrying. It appears Hojo's men have taken over the whole city, or at least Sector 5. We don't know how powerful he is, how many troops he has, how well trained they are. . .I could go on."
"You're right, but we do know one thing," Cloud said.
"And that is?"
"He's trying to kill us and our friends. That means we have to stop him, whatever it takes."
"I don't think the two of us alone. . ."
"I know!" Cloud replied. "That's why we're here, we're trying to find Barret and Yuffie. With four of us we might be able to rescue Tifa and Reeve and get them back to the Highwind."
"And then what?" asked Vincent morosely. "You know it can't fly any more."
"Well, hopefully Cid can repair it sufficiently that we can get to a safe haven somewhere," said Cloud.
"Like where? Hojo has sent men to Cosmo Canyon, Nibelheim, Junon and Midgar that we know of. Who's to say he hasn't got troops taking over everywhere?"
"I'm sure Fort Condor and Wutai will still be safe," said Cloud. "They'll fight to the last. Either of those places will welcome us. If not - well, there's always Round Island. Nobody apart from us even knows it exists."
"True, but we can't survive for long there," said Vincent. "And Tifa and Marlene will die soon."
"You think I don't know that?" asked Cloud sharply. "Honestly, you're so depressing to be around sometimes. We've been taken by surprise so it will take some time to formulate a good plan. Right now our priority is to find the others."
"I fail to see how we can stop Hojo."
"Well, I know one thing that's in our favour," said Cloud. "Brilliant as his mind undoubtedly is, Hojo is no military strategist. His way of winning a fight is simply to throw in as many troops as possible. That could work to our advantage if we plan cleverly enough. Hey, it will be just like the old days when we were in AVALANCHE!"
"I was never really in AVALANCHE," said Vincent, then shrugged. "Very well. Although suggesting we could win this defies all logic, I'll go along with it because we simply don't have any other options. We can't surrender because Hojo would just have us killed. We could hide but he'd find us eventually. We have to fight!"
"That's the spirit!" Cloud agreed. "All right, first thing to do is to find out what these guys are so interested in."
They crept forward, keeping to the meagre cover provided by parked cars and low walls, steadily approaching the patrol route of the six soldiers.
"I see someone!" one of the grunts suddenly yelled.
Cloud and Vincent instantly dropped to the ground and grabbed their weapons, thinking they had been spotted. However there was no sudden rush of footsteps or firing of weapons in their direction. They slowly raised themselves to a kneeling position and peered over the low brick wall in front of them. A man, dressed in civilian clothes, was fleeing from behind the cover of a dumpster, firing a handgun at the soldiers.
"He's armed!" one of them shouted. "Drop him!"
The six soldiers raised their weapons and fired. The man, hit by at least three bullets, was spun around on the spot and collapsed in the middle of the road, a pool of blood slowly spreading on to the tarmac. The soldiers surrounded his corpse and began searching him.
"Here's his ID card, sir," one of them said, handing something to the soldier who appeared to be in charge.
"All right," said the senior grunt. "Find his house and kill his family."
The other soldiers looked up, "Sir?!"
"Professor Hojo's orders!" the senior grunt snapped. "You know he won't tolerate anyone rebelling against him! Now move out!"
The grunts grumbled amongst themselves and began approaching a small, red-brick house with a nicely-tended garden in front. Cloud felt Vincent stir beside him.
"More innocents," the raven-haired man muttered so low Cloud couldn't make him out.
"What did you say?" Cloud asked, but Vincent had already got to his feet and was cocking the Death Penalty.
"I'll draw their fire," said Vincent. "You run around and attack from behind that tree over there."
Cloud hurried off as the six soldiers were nearly at the house. Vincent's first shot took out the senior grunt, sending him flying into two of the others. The remaining three whirled round in surprise, frantically looking around to see who had fired. Vincent had ducked back behind the wall and they couldn't see him. With the senior grunt dead, one of the others took over.
"You two, search to the left. You two to the right. I'll cover you," were his orders. "It's probably just another civilian. A civilian who's a good shot though, so be careful!"
Splitting up made them harder for Vincent to hit, but he was an expert marksman so it wasn't that much of a problem. Reappearing over the top of the wall, he fired at the second-in-command soldier, hitting him squarely in the chest, killing him instantly. Take out the leader and the rest would falter. It was a good tactic, Vincent knew. During the Meteor crisis, his party had very nearly lost its way when Cloud was taken from them. Fortunately Tifa and then Cid had been able to take over on a temporary basis and keep things going. None of the remaining four silver grunts appeared to have the desire or ability to take over as leader, and they began to panic. Two ducked behind a van, and the other two settled for running away. Unfortunately for them, they found themselves running straight towards Cloud's hiding place. He emerged swinging Ultima Weapon, dispatching them immediately. The remaining two grunts, caught between two foes, lost their heads and charged towards where Vincent was hurriedly reloading his Death Penalty. He shot one and ducked behind the wall to avoid weapon fire from the other. A swishing sound and a meaty thunk told him Cloud had taken out the last enemy. Wiping sweat from their faces, the two of them walked towards each other and Cloud said, "Good shooting. That wasn't so hard."
"It will get harder. Especially if we meet any of those genetically modified super soldiers."
They searched the bodies of the grunts, finding nothing of value save for a keycard pass in the inside pocket of the senior grunt.
"This might be useful," said Cloud. "It'll give us access to wherever they report to after 'work'. It might enable us to get closer to Hojo."
"Hojo. . ." Vincent growled.
"Anyway, we'd better move," Cloud decided. "When this motley crew doesn't report back to base, there'll be somebody - more likely quite a lot of somebodies - sent to find out why."
They hurried away from the scene, making their way in the direction of Sector 3 once more. It was when they began walking in the darkness below the remains of the plate above Sector 4 that Vincent started to get uneasy. He twitched and fidgeted in a most uncharacteristic manner.
"What's up?" asked Cloud eventually.
"I sense an attack is imminent," said Vincent. "Well, I don't, Chaos does. Can I suggest we take cover?"
Cloud decided to trust his friend's premonition, and they hid behind some shrubs. Since the end of Shinra Inc. and the destruction of the Mako reactors, plants and flowers had begun growing again in Midgar. The Spirit energy that had for so long been sucked up to sate the Shinras' lust for power was now being used for its intended purpose: the nurturing of life. Before long Vincent's prediction was shown to be correct, as a squad of fifty or more soldiers were seen marching up the road.
"Halt!" their leader yelled.
They stopped.
"Private 3452, why do you keep straying out of formation?!" the leader demanded.
"It's the prisoners, sir," a man in the back replied nervously. "They keep crowding me."
"Lemme go, you buncha Shinra-lovin' jackasses!!" yelled a familiar voice.
The other soldiers stepped aside so that their commander could get through. Cloud and Vincent got their first view of the prisoners.
Barret and Yuffie, struggling furiously with their arms tied behind their backs, had been captured by Hojo's men.