DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN FF7 OR ANY OF ITS CHARACTERS
Chapter Nine
Cloud awoke with a headache from where he'd been struck on his temple. He found himself face-down on a cold floor. Willing his exhausted, reluctant muscles to move, he rolled over and got into a sitting position. He was in one of the confinement cells on the 67th floor. Yuffie was lying on the bed, either asleep or still under the effects of the drug. Cloud reached out with his foot to kick the side of the bed, hoping to jolt her awake. It succeeded. Yuffie's eyes snapped open and focussed on Cloud.
"Cloud!" she exclaimed, a bright red colour coming to her cheeks for some reason. "What are you doing here? Heh - where are we?"
Cloud really couldn't be bothered answering. He just wanted to go to bed and sleep for a week, but he forced himself to reply to the young ninja's question, "We're in the Shinra building, Yuffie, in the prison cells on the 67th floor."
"They captured you too, huh? Where's Vinnie?"
"If you mean Vincent, he's here too," said Cloud. "He and I were trying to get you and Barret out of here, but Hojo caught us."
"That's the part I don't get!" Yuffie complained. "Isn't Hojo like, dead?"
"We thought so. Evidently we were wrong."
"Yeah, well, whatever. Where's Tifa?"
Cloud frowned, "How am I supposed to know? You and Barret were meant to be staying with her."
"When the troops showed up, we took Tifa and Marlene to the old underground hideout at the Seventh Heaven," said Yuffie. "It wasn't completely destroyed when the Plate fell, remember? They're probably still there."
"As long as Hojo doesn't find them, that's as good a place as any," said Cloud.
"Yeah, I guess. When are we gonna get out of here?" asked the girl, stretching her arms restlessly. "I wanna kick some Hojo butt!"
Cloud shrugged, "These rooms are inescapable from the inside."
"Come on, leader man!" she cajoled. "You're always supposed to have a plan up your sleeve. What we gonna do?"
"My PHS has been taken from me," Cloud realised. "Do you still have yours?"
"Yup," said Yuffie. "Hid it in one of my pockets. Who shall I call?"
"Call Red or Cid. They're near Midgar, trying to fix the Highwind," he said. "Tell them to get here as soon as they can."
Yuffie called Cid's number and held the PHS to her ear. A frown crossed her face, "This piece of junk's not working! I'm not getting a signal!"
"These walls must be designed to block any kind of communication equipment," Cloud said.
"Oh, really, ya think?" she retorted sarcastically.
"Yuffie - that kind of attitude doesn't help," he sighed.
"Hey, leave it out, you're not my dad!" she complained. "Then again, he'd just tell me to be quiet and leave him in peace. Anything would be an improvement on that."
She fell into an unhappy silence and Cloud sat on the bed beside her. He had to formulate a plan. He had to think of a way out of there before it was too late. Hmm. . .if they took apart Yuffie's PHS, could they wire up the components in some way as to manually override the electronic door lock and get out? Maybe. . .if Cid or somebody else who knew electronics was here, but Cloud could barely wire a plug, and Yuffie's knowledge of electronics covered which buttons to press to turn on her electric blanket or shower. The situation seemed hopeless. . . Just as Cloud allowed negativity to spread over him like a blanket, there came an odd tapping sound on the door. He frowned. The sound repeated itself. Somebody must be outside. Was it one of the guards, knocking on the door to annoy the prisoners, to relieve his own boredom?
"Can you hear me?" came a muffled voice from outside.
"Yeah!" Cloud shouted back.
"Get to the other side of the room."
"Huh? Why?"
"Don't argue with me, dammit, just do it!"
The voice had an impatient, lazy tone that Cloud thought he recognised. Who could it be? It wasn't Cid or Red, and nobody else knew where they were. He grabbed Yuffie's arm and the two of them retreated to the other side of the room. They heard a beeping sound like a countdown and then. . . . . .the door exploded inwards. Shards and splinters went flying. Yuffie squealed in surprise and Cloud threw himself over her to protect her from the hail of shrapnel. It subsided and both of them looked up to see what had happened. Three people stood in the doorway, their faces obscured by the smoke from the explosion.
"Hang on," came a female voice. "Aren't they the enemy? Aren't we supposed to be fighting them?"
"Elena," a male voice sighed. "You talk too much."
Reno of the Turks walked into the room, his Electro Rod held carelessly at his side, and nodded to Cloud, saying sarcastically, "Hello, Cloud. Nice place you got here. You should invite us round sometime."
"Turks?" said Yuffie uncertainly. "Cloud, aren't they the enemy?"
"I'm not sure," said Cloud. "Reno, why are you rescuing us? Assuming that's what you're doing?"
"Not exactly. Rude and I found a batch of C4 and we decided it might be fun to try them out on some high security doors - " Reno began, when Elena kicked him in the shin.
"Grow up!" she exclaimed. "Tell them the truth."
"Oh, all right," Reno grumbled. "We were watching on the security monitors and we saw you being taken down here. The general consensus of opinion was that we should come down and get you out. You could say that since you destroyed Meteor, we owed you a favour. Or you could say we're just nice, charitable, helpful, citizens."
"Don't you work for the Shinra?" asked Yuffie, eyeing him suspiciously. "How do we know this isn't a trap and you're not going to turn us over to Hojo at any minute?"
"Dear girl, the Shinra no longer exist," Reno sighed in a world- weary way. "Even though we worked for the same company, Hojo and I have had our - differences. Our only loyalty now is to the Midgar police force, which we happen to be the leaders of. Our only duty is the safety of the Midgar population. Besides, why would we bother handing you over to Hojo when you're already in his cells? Of course, if you'd prefer to STAY here. . ."
"No, no, just asking," said Yuffie quickly, getting to her feet and hurrying to the door.
Rude stood outside in the corridor on guard.
"Hey, Baldy!" Yuffie giggled cheekily.
". . ." the stoic man replied. "Tell Reno to hurry."
"Reno, Baldy says hurry up!" Yuffie yelled back into the cell.
Cloud and Reno emerged from the cell together, neither one totally comfortable in the other's presence, yet for the moment united against a common enemy. Another explosion went off, and they turned to see Elena pushing her way through the rubble into the adjacent cell. Soon she appeared with Barret and Vincent close behind.
"Yo, Cloud!" Barret yelled. "What's goin' on? Why we bein' rescued by the Shinra?"
"They're not Shinra any more," said Cloud. "We really don't have time to explain, but I think we can trust them. They rescued us anyway, and we have to thank them for that."
"Oh stop it, Cloud, you're making me blush," said Reno.
Cloud ignored him, "I suggest we get back to the Highwind pronto, picking up Tifa and Marlene on the way, then plan our next move."
"The Highwind?" said Reno. "Oh, that's the name of that rust bucket you guys cruise around in, isn't it?"
"A word of advice," said Vincent to the Turk leader. "Never describe the Highwind as a 'rust bucket' when Cid is around."
"Why, what's he going to do, throw his false teeth at me?" Reno leered.
Yuffie giggled. Rude sighed, looking restless, "We should move on."
"Right," Cloud said. "We'll take the express elevator down, and then work our way to Sector 7 to where the Seventh Heaven used to be. There are seven of us now, so we should be able to fight off any soldiers we come across. Now move out!"
Reno rolled his eyes, "That's not how you say it!"
They hurried away from the prison section and to the elevators. Luckily there were no guards in sight, and they took the elevator down to the ground floor.
"Why are we going to the Seventh Heaven?" asked Elena.
"That's where Tifa is," said Cloud. "She's been poisoned by Hojo. It's a long story."
Rude turned to Reno and said, "Those letters?"
Reno nodded, "Probably."
"Wait a minute," said Cloud. "Are you saying you got anonymous letters from Hojo too?"
"Yeah," said Elena. "I thought mine was from Reno, trying to play a trick on me, so I just threw it away."
"So did I," said Rude.
Reno grinned, "Well, I knew mine wasn't from me. I've yet to get drunk enough to actually mail things to myself. As a policeman I generally don't open anonymous mail. It's too risky. I forwarded it to Elena."
"That explains why I got another one the next day," she said, glaring at him.
They got to the bottom floor and hurried out of the Shinra building. Two or three soldiers gave chase, but soon ran for cover when Vincent turned to fire the Death Penalty. The seven of them jogged along the road in the direction of Sector 7. If the alert hadn't been sounded, it soon would be.
"What does Hojo want with us?" asked Cloud as they were running down the road. "I heard him say something about 'experimentation' just before they knocked me out and threw me in that cell."
"Dunno," said Reno. "I do know he's obsessed with breeding The Perfect Soldier, so that probably has something to do with it."
"There is nothing Hojo can do to me that will be any worse than what he has already done," said Vincent.
"He could kill ya," Barret suggested.
"Technically he already has, as I am no longer truly alive," Vincent said.
"Hojo's a seriously whacked-out old loony!" Yuffie exclaimed. "Even worse than my dad, and that's saying something."
Cloud addressed the Turks, "What do you guys know about these new super- soldiers of Hojo's?"
"More dangerous than Rude with a hangover," said Reno flippantly. "Seriously though, I think he ships them in from some overseas growing facility. Don't know exactly where it is - probably an old Mako reactor."
"We think it's the one in Nibelheim," said Cloud.
"I know that these genetically modified soldiers don't have fully developed brains," said Elena. "I don't mean they're dumb, they can still use tactics and outsmart you. What I mean is they don't have any real decision-making abilities. Hojo needs to keep a direct psychic link of some kind to control them. I guess he engineered them that way so they couldn't turn on him."
"How do you know all that?" asked Reno.
Elena glared at him, "Unlike you two, I don't spend all my spare time getting wasted in some pub."
"A psychic link to the soldiers?" Cloud asked, trying to get Elena's attention.
"What do you mean, ALL our spare time?" Reno interrupted him.
"Come on, you and Rude are never out of that place in Sector 2!" she accused.
"'Never out'?" he laughed. "We're not in there just now, are we?"
"Could you two stop it for ten seconds!" Cloud yelled. "Now, Elena, what were you saying about a psychic link?"
"Oh," she blushed, embarrassed at the sudden attention Cloud was showing her. "I don't know that much about it. I read it in some old lab reports of Hojo's that we unearthed while cleaning out the Shinra building to use as our HQ. Hojo has some kind of transmitter implanted in his brain that allows him to control the super soldiers."
"Transmitter?" said Vincent. "If we can shut it down somehow. . ."
"Right," said Barret. "He won' be able to use those damn silver giants any more!"
"Shutting it down won't be easy though," Elena said. "Unless you plan on physically removing it from his head, we'd have to know the exact frequency at which it operates in order to disrupt the signal."
"That's your ten seconds up," said Reno, checking his watch. "Can we start arguing again?"
". . .shut up," said Rude, moving to hit Reno over the head.
"All right, all right," Reno grumbled, after ducking to avoid the blow. "Sheesh, doesn't anyone have a sense of humour around here?"
"We're at Sector 7," said Vincent, as they passed under an old ruined arch with the words 'Sector 7' still visible overhead.
"Right," said Cloud. "There's the Seventh Heaven, or what's left of it. Here's what we'll do. Barret, Vincent, Yuffie, Elena, you all have long range weaponry so you stay outside on guard. Reno, Rude, you come inside with me and we'll get them out."
He led the two senior Turks into the ruined bar, and pressed the button that activated the secret elevator next to the pinball machine.
". . .!" said Rude.
"So THAT'S where you were hiding from us all that time," said Reno. "I must have drunk in this bar a million times and I never even suspected."
They took the elevator down. Cloud panicked at first when he couldn't see anyone in the room below, but then he saw Tifa and Marlene lying in the corner of the room, covered by blankets to keep them warm. He walked over. Tifa looked twice as pale and sickly as when he'd last seen her. The sight of her in this condition strengthened his resolve to keep going, to find an antidote and defeat Hojo at all costs.
"Okay," he said. "Rude, we're probably the strongest, so we'll take Tifa. Reno, you can carry Marlene."
For once Reno had no sarcastic remark to make. The sight of the two extremely ill patients seemed to have had an effect on him, and he picked up the little girl gently, cradling her in his arms.
"I - I wonder what it would be like to have a child of my own," he said softly, brushing Marlene's hair from in front of her eyes.
He walked over to the elevator and waited for the other two. Rude whispered to Cloud, "That's the most serious I've ever seen him get. He must be upset."
"Of course he is," said Cloud. "I am. Aren't you?"
". . ." said the bald Turk. "I don't really do emotions, sorry."
They picked up Tifa and carried her to the elevator, going back up to the bar. The four in the street outside looked over as they emerged from the building. Barret ran over to take Marlene, while Vincent produced a stretcher he'd found in the nearby Item Shop. They lay Tifa down on this, and Cloud and Rude began carrying her.
"Where now?" said Barret.
"Out of Midgar as quickly as possible, and back to the Highwind," said Cloud.
Unfortunately during the time it had taken them to get to Sector 7 to rescue the girls, Hojo's soldiers had managed to catch up with them. Reno, Elena, Vincent and Yuffie, as the only ones not encumbered by carrying a sick person, formed a protective barrier in front of the others. The first soldiers attacked as they reached the old train station. There had to be ten or so, soon reduced to eight as Vincent took out two with an excellent long-range shot. Elena flung a grenade at the remaining bunch, killing two, and Yuffie finished off a third with her shuriken. The surviving three came charging forward, but Reno dispatched them with the Electro Rod.
"Piece of cake," said Reno, calmly slotting his Rod back into its holder attached to his side.
They hurried onwards, and had reached the outskirts of the city when their path was blocked by not two, but THREE of the eight-foot-tall genetic super soldiers.
"Oh &%*$," said Reno. "Cloud, Rude, stay back and take cover!"
"DROP YOUR WEAPONS," the lead soldier intoned. "YOU WILL BE TREATED AS PRISONERS IF YOU SURRENDER NOW."
"You wish!" Yuffie exclaimed, throwing her Conformer with all her strength at the lead soldier.
It bounced off his armour and fell to the ground, not arcing back as Yuffie had intended.
"Oh *£$&," she groaned, now unarmed.
Vincent shot the lead soldier with the Death Penalty, knocking him off balance. Elena primed and threw two grenades, knocking all three soldiers backwards but failing to harm them in any way. From a grounded position, they fired at her. Reno tackled Elena to the ground, taking her out of the line of fire. Vincent reloaded and fired once more, but the soldiers got to their feet undamaged. They began to stride forward ominously, firing their weapons, forcing Vincent to backflip over a wall to avoid being hit. Yuffie scurried to join him. Barret carefully shifted Marlene into his human arm, and began firing with his Missing Score. The steady stream of bullets kept one of the soldiers off balance, but the other two continued their slow, steady progress forward. Reno and Elena ran back to join the others under cover.
"What are we gonna do?" screamed Yuffie. "They aren't taking any damage!"
"Limit Breaks work best," said Cloud. "We need to use our Limit Breaks!"
He left the stretcher with Rude and leapt forward to use OmniSlash. The awesome power of his Limit Break was too much for the armour of the first soldier, slicing cleanly through, killing the creature inside. Now only two remained, but Cloud's Limit Gauge was empty.
"Somebody else use a Limit Break!" he urged. "Quickly!"
Reno took the initiative, attacking the second soldier with his Level 4 Limit Break, 1,000,000 Volts. A huge electrical pulse spat from the tip of his Electro Rod, effectively frying the second soldier, leaving a few crisped and melted chunks of metal on the ground. The last soldier continued towards them.
"Uh - I don't have a Limit Break ready!" said Barret.
"Nor do I," said Vincent.
". . ." added Rude.
"Mine isn't ready either!" Yuffie exclaimed. "And besides, my weapon is over there!"
"I'm out of grenades," Elena groaned.
They retreated back another few yards as the soldier got too close for comfort.
"Look!" yelled Barret, pointing behind them.
A whole squadron of Hojo's troops, led by six or more super soldiers, was hurrying in their direction from Sector 7.
"Dammit!" Reno yelled. "We just need to get past this one guy, and we're home free!"
"There's no way we can do that," said Vincent. "We have no more Limit Breaks."
None of them knew what to do. The third soldier continued to advance. The army behind them was getting closer. There seemed to be no escape.
Chapter Nine
Cloud awoke with a headache from where he'd been struck on his temple. He found himself face-down on a cold floor. Willing his exhausted, reluctant muscles to move, he rolled over and got into a sitting position. He was in one of the confinement cells on the 67th floor. Yuffie was lying on the bed, either asleep or still under the effects of the drug. Cloud reached out with his foot to kick the side of the bed, hoping to jolt her awake. It succeeded. Yuffie's eyes snapped open and focussed on Cloud.
"Cloud!" she exclaimed, a bright red colour coming to her cheeks for some reason. "What are you doing here? Heh - where are we?"
Cloud really couldn't be bothered answering. He just wanted to go to bed and sleep for a week, but he forced himself to reply to the young ninja's question, "We're in the Shinra building, Yuffie, in the prison cells on the 67th floor."
"They captured you too, huh? Where's Vinnie?"
"If you mean Vincent, he's here too," said Cloud. "He and I were trying to get you and Barret out of here, but Hojo caught us."
"That's the part I don't get!" Yuffie complained. "Isn't Hojo like, dead?"
"We thought so. Evidently we were wrong."
"Yeah, well, whatever. Where's Tifa?"
Cloud frowned, "How am I supposed to know? You and Barret were meant to be staying with her."
"When the troops showed up, we took Tifa and Marlene to the old underground hideout at the Seventh Heaven," said Yuffie. "It wasn't completely destroyed when the Plate fell, remember? They're probably still there."
"As long as Hojo doesn't find them, that's as good a place as any," said Cloud.
"Yeah, I guess. When are we gonna get out of here?" asked the girl, stretching her arms restlessly. "I wanna kick some Hojo butt!"
Cloud shrugged, "These rooms are inescapable from the inside."
"Come on, leader man!" she cajoled. "You're always supposed to have a plan up your sleeve. What we gonna do?"
"My PHS has been taken from me," Cloud realised. "Do you still have yours?"
"Yup," said Yuffie. "Hid it in one of my pockets. Who shall I call?"
"Call Red or Cid. They're near Midgar, trying to fix the Highwind," he said. "Tell them to get here as soon as they can."
Yuffie called Cid's number and held the PHS to her ear. A frown crossed her face, "This piece of junk's not working! I'm not getting a signal!"
"These walls must be designed to block any kind of communication equipment," Cloud said.
"Oh, really, ya think?" she retorted sarcastically.
"Yuffie - that kind of attitude doesn't help," he sighed.
"Hey, leave it out, you're not my dad!" she complained. "Then again, he'd just tell me to be quiet and leave him in peace. Anything would be an improvement on that."
She fell into an unhappy silence and Cloud sat on the bed beside her. He had to formulate a plan. He had to think of a way out of there before it was too late. Hmm. . .if they took apart Yuffie's PHS, could they wire up the components in some way as to manually override the electronic door lock and get out? Maybe. . .if Cid or somebody else who knew electronics was here, but Cloud could barely wire a plug, and Yuffie's knowledge of electronics covered which buttons to press to turn on her electric blanket or shower. The situation seemed hopeless. . . Just as Cloud allowed negativity to spread over him like a blanket, there came an odd tapping sound on the door. He frowned. The sound repeated itself. Somebody must be outside. Was it one of the guards, knocking on the door to annoy the prisoners, to relieve his own boredom?
"Can you hear me?" came a muffled voice from outside.
"Yeah!" Cloud shouted back.
"Get to the other side of the room."
"Huh? Why?"
"Don't argue with me, dammit, just do it!"
The voice had an impatient, lazy tone that Cloud thought he recognised. Who could it be? It wasn't Cid or Red, and nobody else knew where they were. He grabbed Yuffie's arm and the two of them retreated to the other side of the room. They heard a beeping sound like a countdown and then. . . . . .the door exploded inwards. Shards and splinters went flying. Yuffie squealed in surprise and Cloud threw himself over her to protect her from the hail of shrapnel. It subsided and both of them looked up to see what had happened. Three people stood in the doorway, their faces obscured by the smoke from the explosion.
"Hang on," came a female voice. "Aren't they the enemy? Aren't we supposed to be fighting them?"
"Elena," a male voice sighed. "You talk too much."
Reno of the Turks walked into the room, his Electro Rod held carelessly at his side, and nodded to Cloud, saying sarcastically, "Hello, Cloud. Nice place you got here. You should invite us round sometime."
"Turks?" said Yuffie uncertainly. "Cloud, aren't they the enemy?"
"I'm not sure," said Cloud. "Reno, why are you rescuing us? Assuming that's what you're doing?"
"Not exactly. Rude and I found a batch of C4 and we decided it might be fun to try them out on some high security doors - " Reno began, when Elena kicked him in the shin.
"Grow up!" she exclaimed. "Tell them the truth."
"Oh, all right," Reno grumbled. "We were watching on the security monitors and we saw you being taken down here. The general consensus of opinion was that we should come down and get you out. You could say that since you destroyed Meteor, we owed you a favour. Or you could say we're just nice, charitable, helpful, citizens."
"Don't you work for the Shinra?" asked Yuffie, eyeing him suspiciously. "How do we know this isn't a trap and you're not going to turn us over to Hojo at any minute?"
"Dear girl, the Shinra no longer exist," Reno sighed in a world- weary way. "Even though we worked for the same company, Hojo and I have had our - differences. Our only loyalty now is to the Midgar police force, which we happen to be the leaders of. Our only duty is the safety of the Midgar population. Besides, why would we bother handing you over to Hojo when you're already in his cells? Of course, if you'd prefer to STAY here. . ."
"No, no, just asking," said Yuffie quickly, getting to her feet and hurrying to the door.
Rude stood outside in the corridor on guard.
"Hey, Baldy!" Yuffie giggled cheekily.
". . ." the stoic man replied. "Tell Reno to hurry."
"Reno, Baldy says hurry up!" Yuffie yelled back into the cell.
Cloud and Reno emerged from the cell together, neither one totally comfortable in the other's presence, yet for the moment united against a common enemy. Another explosion went off, and they turned to see Elena pushing her way through the rubble into the adjacent cell. Soon she appeared with Barret and Vincent close behind.
"Yo, Cloud!" Barret yelled. "What's goin' on? Why we bein' rescued by the Shinra?"
"They're not Shinra any more," said Cloud. "We really don't have time to explain, but I think we can trust them. They rescued us anyway, and we have to thank them for that."
"Oh stop it, Cloud, you're making me blush," said Reno.
Cloud ignored him, "I suggest we get back to the Highwind pronto, picking up Tifa and Marlene on the way, then plan our next move."
"The Highwind?" said Reno. "Oh, that's the name of that rust bucket you guys cruise around in, isn't it?"
"A word of advice," said Vincent to the Turk leader. "Never describe the Highwind as a 'rust bucket' when Cid is around."
"Why, what's he going to do, throw his false teeth at me?" Reno leered.
Yuffie giggled. Rude sighed, looking restless, "We should move on."
"Right," Cloud said. "We'll take the express elevator down, and then work our way to Sector 7 to where the Seventh Heaven used to be. There are seven of us now, so we should be able to fight off any soldiers we come across. Now move out!"
Reno rolled his eyes, "That's not how you say it!"
They hurried away from the prison section and to the elevators. Luckily there were no guards in sight, and they took the elevator down to the ground floor.
"Why are we going to the Seventh Heaven?" asked Elena.
"That's where Tifa is," said Cloud. "She's been poisoned by Hojo. It's a long story."
Rude turned to Reno and said, "Those letters?"
Reno nodded, "Probably."
"Wait a minute," said Cloud. "Are you saying you got anonymous letters from Hojo too?"
"Yeah," said Elena. "I thought mine was from Reno, trying to play a trick on me, so I just threw it away."
"So did I," said Rude.
Reno grinned, "Well, I knew mine wasn't from me. I've yet to get drunk enough to actually mail things to myself. As a policeman I generally don't open anonymous mail. It's too risky. I forwarded it to Elena."
"That explains why I got another one the next day," she said, glaring at him.
They got to the bottom floor and hurried out of the Shinra building. Two or three soldiers gave chase, but soon ran for cover when Vincent turned to fire the Death Penalty. The seven of them jogged along the road in the direction of Sector 7. If the alert hadn't been sounded, it soon would be.
"What does Hojo want with us?" asked Cloud as they were running down the road. "I heard him say something about 'experimentation' just before they knocked me out and threw me in that cell."
"Dunno," said Reno. "I do know he's obsessed with breeding The Perfect Soldier, so that probably has something to do with it."
"There is nothing Hojo can do to me that will be any worse than what he has already done," said Vincent.
"He could kill ya," Barret suggested.
"Technically he already has, as I am no longer truly alive," Vincent said.
"Hojo's a seriously whacked-out old loony!" Yuffie exclaimed. "Even worse than my dad, and that's saying something."
Cloud addressed the Turks, "What do you guys know about these new super- soldiers of Hojo's?"
"More dangerous than Rude with a hangover," said Reno flippantly. "Seriously though, I think he ships them in from some overseas growing facility. Don't know exactly where it is - probably an old Mako reactor."
"We think it's the one in Nibelheim," said Cloud.
"I know that these genetically modified soldiers don't have fully developed brains," said Elena. "I don't mean they're dumb, they can still use tactics and outsmart you. What I mean is they don't have any real decision-making abilities. Hojo needs to keep a direct psychic link of some kind to control them. I guess he engineered them that way so they couldn't turn on him."
"How do you know all that?" asked Reno.
Elena glared at him, "Unlike you two, I don't spend all my spare time getting wasted in some pub."
"A psychic link to the soldiers?" Cloud asked, trying to get Elena's attention.
"What do you mean, ALL our spare time?" Reno interrupted him.
"Come on, you and Rude are never out of that place in Sector 2!" she accused.
"'Never out'?" he laughed. "We're not in there just now, are we?"
"Could you two stop it for ten seconds!" Cloud yelled. "Now, Elena, what were you saying about a psychic link?"
"Oh," she blushed, embarrassed at the sudden attention Cloud was showing her. "I don't know that much about it. I read it in some old lab reports of Hojo's that we unearthed while cleaning out the Shinra building to use as our HQ. Hojo has some kind of transmitter implanted in his brain that allows him to control the super soldiers."
"Transmitter?" said Vincent. "If we can shut it down somehow. . ."
"Right," said Barret. "He won' be able to use those damn silver giants any more!"
"Shutting it down won't be easy though," Elena said. "Unless you plan on physically removing it from his head, we'd have to know the exact frequency at which it operates in order to disrupt the signal."
"That's your ten seconds up," said Reno, checking his watch. "Can we start arguing again?"
". . .shut up," said Rude, moving to hit Reno over the head.
"All right, all right," Reno grumbled, after ducking to avoid the blow. "Sheesh, doesn't anyone have a sense of humour around here?"
"We're at Sector 7," said Vincent, as they passed under an old ruined arch with the words 'Sector 7' still visible overhead.
"Right," said Cloud. "There's the Seventh Heaven, or what's left of it. Here's what we'll do. Barret, Vincent, Yuffie, Elena, you all have long range weaponry so you stay outside on guard. Reno, Rude, you come inside with me and we'll get them out."
He led the two senior Turks into the ruined bar, and pressed the button that activated the secret elevator next to the pinball machine.
". . .!" said Rude.
"So THAT'S where you were hiding from us all that time," said Reno. "I must have drunk in this bar a million times and I never even suspected."
They took the elevator down. Cloud panicked at first when he couldn't see anyone in the room below, but then he saw Tifa and Marlene lying in the corner of the room, covered by blankets to keep them warm. He walked over. Tifa looked twice as pale and sickly as when he'd last seen her. The sight of her in this condition strengthened his resolve to keep going, to find an antidote and defeat Hojo at all costs.
"Okay," he said. "Rude, we're probably the strongest, so we'll take Tifa. Reno, you can carry Marlene."
For once Reno had no sarcastic remark to make. The sight of the two extremely ill patients seemed to have had an effect on him, and he picked up the little girl gently, cradling her in his arms.
"I - I wonder what it would be like to have a child of my own," he said softly, brushing Marlene's hair from in front of her eyes.
He walked over to the elevator and waited for the other two. Rude whispered to Cloud, "That's the most serious I've ever seen him get. He must be upset."
"Of course he is," said Cloud. "I am. Aren't you?"
". . ." said the bald Turk. "I don't really do emotions, sorry."
They picked up Tifa and carried her to the elevator, going back up to the bar. The four in the street outside looked over as they emerged from the building. Barret ran over to take Marlene, while Vincent produced a stretcher he'd found in the nearby Item Shop. They lay Tifa down on this, and Cloud and Rude began carrying her.
"Where now?" said Barret.
"Out of Midgar as quickly as possible, and back to the Highwind," said Cloud.
Unfortunately during the time it had taken them to get to Sector 7 to rescue the girls, Hojo's soldiers had managed to catch up with them. Reno, Elena, Vincent and Yuffie, as the only ones not encumbered by carrying a sick person, formed a protective barrier in front of the others. The first soldiers attacked as they reached the old train station. There had to be ten or so, soon reduced to eight as Vincent took out two with an excellent long-range shot. Elena flung a grenade at the remaining bunch, killing two, and Yuffie finished off a third with her shuriken. The surviving three came charging forward, but Reno dispatched them with the Electro Rod.
"Piece of cake," said Reno, calmly slotting his Rod back into its holder attached to his side.
They hurried onwards, and had reached the outskirts of the city when their path was blocked by not two, but THREE of the eight-foot-tall genetic super soldiers.
"Oh &%*$," said Reno. "Cloud, Rude, stay back and take cover!"
"DROP YOUR WEAPONS," the lead soldier intoned. "YOU WILL BE TREATED AS PRISONERS IF YOU SURRENDER NOW."
"You wish!" Yuffie exclaimed, throwing her Conformer with all her strength at the lead soldier.
It bounced off his armour and fell to the ground, not arcing back as Yuffie had intended.
"Oh *£$&," she groaned, now unarmed.
Vincent shot the lead soldier with the Death Penalty, knocking him off balance. Elena primed and threw two grenades, knocking all three soldiers backwards but failing to harm them in any way. From a grounded position, they fired at her. Reno tackled Elena to the ground, taking her out of the line of fire. Vincent reloaded and fired once more, but the soldiers got to their feet undamaged. They began to stride forward ominously, firing their weapons, forcing Vincent to backflip over a wall to avoid being hit. Yuffie scurried to join him. Barret carefully shifted Marlene into his human arm, and began firing with his Missing Score. The steady stream of bullets kept one of the soldiers off balance, but the other two continued their slow, steady progress forward. Reno and Elena ran back to join the others under cover.
"What are we gonna do?" screamed Yuffie. "They aren't taking any damage!"
"Limit Breaks work best," said Cloud. "We need to use our Limit Breaks!"
He left the stretcher with Rude and leapt forward to use OmniSlash. The awesome power of his Limit Break was too much for the armour of the first soldier, slicing cleanly through, killing the creature inside. Now only two remained, but Cloud's Limit Gauge was empty.
"Somebody else use a Limit Break!" he urged. "Quickly!"
Reno took the initiative, attacking the second soldier with his Level 4 Limit Break, 1,000,000 Volts. A huge electrical pulse spat from the tip of his Electro Rod, effectively frying the second soldier, leaving a few crisped and melted chunks of metal on the ground. The last soldier continued towards them.
"Uh - I don't have a Limit Break ready!" said Barret.
"Nor do I," said Vincent.
". . ." added Rude.
"Mine isn't ready either!" Yuffie exclaimed. "And besides, my weapon is over there!"
"I'm out of grenades," Elena groaned.
They retreated back another few yards as the soldier got too close for comfort.
"Look!" yelled Barret, pointing behind them.
A whole squadron of Hojo's troops, led by six or more super soldiers, was hurrying in their direction from Sector 7.
"Dammit!" Reno yelled. "We just need to get past this one guy, and we're home free!"
"There's no way we can do that," said Vincent. "We have no more Limit Breaks."
None of them knew what to do. The third soldier continued to advance. The army behind them was getting closer. There seemed to be no escape.