Fantasy Thunder Chapter Six: Zeta
By Blue Dragon
They took on five at once!? I can't believe it! Zeta will finish them, though.
The situation was pretty awkward. Everyone struggled out of the pile with questioning looks and glances around at unfamiliar faces.
"DON'T ANYONE SAY ANYTHING! LET US ALL BECOME ORGANIZED AND PROPERLY INTRODUCED!" Oren yelled in a booming voice. No one spoke and all attention was fixed on the "Dictator"
"I am afraid you will have no time for that"
Dozens of heads turned simultaneously and looked at the dark wall, the source of the noise. Alpha, Beta, and Gamma reappeared from the spot.
"Remember us, Oren? Gamma's all better. Alpha recovered from his minor looks incident. And not even all of you can take on three of us."
"Where going to whip you all!" Gamma said in an unusually cheery voice.
"I want revenge on the spiky one and friends" Alpha said, causing Cloud to tense up at the mention of his name.
A burst echoed from a break behind the three. Two men in the exact same outfits with the exact same black hair and sunglasses dropped down.
Alpha, Beta, and Gamma turned to see. . .
"Hello there--"
"--fools" Delta finished for Epsilon.
"Delta, Epsilon, this is our job, get out of here!" Gamma yelled in childish worry.
"Pyros will be angry. Lets just--"
"--all finish them off" this time Epsilon finished for Delta.
"Fine" Alpha spoke for the three.
Alpha suddenly jumped to the exit of the room. Beta jumped to the main entrance. Gamma jumped next to the left of the large eastern corridor to the east wing, Delta on the opposite side of the corridor entrance, and Epsilon to the large entrance of the western wing.
The jumps were extremely long, high and fast, and those that had not seen them in action before felt their jaws drop.
"Everyone! Pull out whatever weapon you have! Those weaponless fall back behind your allies. Cloud and friends, you and the Turks block off Alpha. Tidus, I know this is new to you, but have Yuna support the party with white magic. Focus on Delta. Squall, you and your allies fight Beta. Zidane, take your close allies and get Gamma. Seifer, this may be hard, but fight with Squall and the others. Epsilon is extremely powerful. Jessica and I will fight him, and when you all have killed or seriously injured a target, assist the group most in need, which will probably be us. Fight, show no mercy, do not kill unless necessary, and finally, good luck!"
The most disturbing thing about this was that instead of attempting to attack the party and delay organization, Pyros' warriors watched and smiled as if purposely giving them a small advantage.
***
No one really asked any questions. They heard Oren's orders, were hesitant to follow them, but Cloud withdrew his sword and charged towards Alpha who he knew was an enemy. The others withdrew weapons and followed, save Barret.
"Marlene, stay under that table, okay?"
The frightened girl nodded her head and immediately complied. Hiding under the large mahogany table.
Reno looked at Rude and Elena, analyzing the situation over his dark glasses.
"Well fellow Turks, it seems we have found ourselves in a situation that not only seems strange, suspicious, and sudden, but also involved with the aid of Cloud and his fellow bumpkins, not to mention the fact that we have no reason to fight. Do we help?"
Both Elena and Rude shook their heads, showing their views taken directly from the standpoint of the leader himself.
"Besides" added Elena. "What reason do we have to--"
A large rock rumbled from the stone ceiling and sent a chunk into the middle of the group, which they promptly jumped and dodged.
"Holy!" The stone could have easily crushed the three.
"You awake over there?" Alpha yelled blowing his smoldering hands.
"On second thought, lets show them some Turk pride."
Reno withdrew his gun, while Reno his nightstick, and Elena put another firearm in her left hand, but left the right for support casting. They fell in behind the charging group of Cloud and his allies.
"Hey who told you to come?" asked Yuffie, looking back.
"Stuff it, ninja" Reno wasn't in the mood for questioning, and Yuffie didn't seem to be in the mood for witty response.
Reeve fumbled around in his coat for his special 9mm SOCOM, just in case the IRS got a little carried away.
The crowed of fighters stopped and assembled, while Alpha just waited for them, smiling his ever-cocky smile. Cloud, Reno, Yuffie, Cid, Red, and Tifa all assembled around him approximately twenty feet away. Behind them for supporting projectile fire came Elena, Rude, Vincent, Barret, and Reeve.
Alpha gave a bored yawn.
"If you losers are ready, I would like to--" He materialized a blade of red. "--start killing you off one by one"
With that Cloud and Cid charged in first, weapons held high. With a mighty slash, he sliced the air and somehow pushed them back.
"That might have come relatively close. . . if I were dead"
Everyone with a firearm shot rounds at the warrior, who did something amazing. Afterimages and swivels of him appeared and disappeared as he dodged each and every bullet.
"Quit dodgin' ya coward!" Barret yelled.
Alpha swiveled out of the way and stopped dodging. The bullets bounced off of him, making sparks. Everyone stopped to reload. Tifa jumped up behind him and began pummeling from the back, sending Alpha straight to the floor. Yuffie aimed a sherukin at his head and it embedded itself there, leaving bloodstains of purple streaming everywhere.
"Purple blood?" Tifa asked.
The firearms team shot more rounds to be on the safe side.
The team was hopeful for the enemy to stay down when he started twitching.
"What the hell?" Cid asked, the cigar falling from his mouth.
Alpha jumped up and removed the sherukin, the blood seeming to disappear.
"A little illusion I created. I wanted to make you think you were winning. . . "
Alpha turned towards Cloud.
"How about I chop you off, first?"
"Shut up!" Cloud readied his sword and charged back. This foe wasn't invincible. Everyone, summon anything and everything!
Everyone, including the Turks, dropped their weapons and concentrated. With a flash, they all disappeared. Bahamut, Bahamut Neo, Bahamut Zero, Shiva, Ifrit, Ramuh, Leviathan, the Chocobo and his friend the Mog, Odin, quite a few other summons, and everyone's favorite royal knights took their place. With a massive shock, they all spewed forward and attacked, almost destroying the very air around them with the violent wave that blew chunks clear out of the castle and destroyed many things within a hundred feet. The fighters around that were preoccupied temporarily glanced in amazement.
Everyone reappeared.
"It seems we may have a minor victory"
Vincent pointed to the severely injured Alpha, on the ground, burnt, and bruised.
"D-damn you! I can still--" he fell to the ground when he tried to get back up. "Ouch. . . " he lapsed into unconsciousness.
"We did it!" Cloud exclaimed briefly.
***
Squall wasn't having much luck with Beta, none at all. Fortunately he had the aid of his friends to keep him on his toes. He had narrowly dodged a Firaga spell, and didn't seem as strong as he had been before, probably due to some lingering pain or injury.
Zell hesitated to use his ultimate move, the terrain and size of Gaia was different than his own planet, therefore he had no way of knowing if he would over calculate or even under calculate his movement.
"Mach kick!" he tried to do his fastest move, which Beta dodged narrowly with a thrust of his abdomen.
"You call that a mach kick? This is a mach kick!"
Zell's reflexes reacted just in time for the warrior who wasn't on his toes to get the side of Zell's shoulders, which sent him flying back almost right into Selphie and Rinoa, who were hanging back and casting spells.
Rinoa, Selphie, and Irvine stood at medium range, casting offensive and defensive spells, Irvine with supporting fire that was somehow dodged by a lighting fast opponent, Quistis a little closer attempting to get behind the opponent, while Squall and Zell would attack him head on, which was a strategy that was slowly starting to fail.
Squall and Zell moved forward quickly, careful not to slip on the marble floor. Beta turned to face them, a fatal mistake. Quistis cracked the end of her whip on his back, which had no effect. The importance, though, was that seemingly out of nowhere Seifer came with his Hyperion ablaze, slashing downwards.
"Woah!" the assaulted clutched his back. To the horror of the fighters, his clothes were not even torn. However, he clutched his chest and began panting.
"You. . . are only lucky that I was slightly injured by your friend. If he hadn't have gotten me back there, you would all be. . . dead"
The others stopped the assault.
"It doesn't look like you can even stand" Irvine prepared to put his Exeter back in the holster.
Beta went down to his knees.
"Just give me a second. . . " a blaze shown in his eyes as he began to power up.
"Wait a minute!" Squall put his gunblade back into position.
"NO!" the bearer of Lion Heart charged in a desperate attempt to stop Beta from doing what he hoped he wouldn't. He was trying to blow them all away. Unfortunately, the distance was too great and he didn't seem to have much power left.
SHHHHINNK
There was a metallic sound as Cloud descended from an unknown position, cleaving his sword into the head of the opponent.
"Ahh! Darn it!" Although the blow didn't even come close to killing him, it knocked the already weakened man into the ground unconscious, shattering the floor around him.
Squall looked up in gratitude.
"Thank you. . . "
"Cloud. And you are?"
"Squall. And Irvine, Rinoa, Zell, Quistis, Selphie, and.Seifer"
"I see. I'd introduce my allies, but they're a little busy at the moment"
Cloud was referring to the fact that his allies were rushing to aid Zidane and his team against the much healthier Gamma, who seemed to be having the time of her life.
Zell looked at Cloud.
"You look kind of like that guy from Final Fantasy VII. Clay Stripe."
"Clay Stripe?" Cloud loosened the grip on the Ultima Weapon and gave Zell a questioning glance.
"Don't mind him, he has no sense of reality" Squall commented.
"Hey!"
"Do you have any idea what's happening?" Quistis shifted the direction of the conversation.
"Not a clue. Do you think he needs help?" Cloud pointed upwards to Oren and Jessica, who were engaged with Zeta, who was beating them up pretty badly.
"Ahh!" Everyone except Cloud gave out a yelp. They were engaged in an aerial battle and seemed to be smashed into the ceiling over and over again.
"They can fly?" asked Selphie.
"I noticed that too. We can't help him from down here" Cloud said.
"And bullets don't help" the cowboy.
"We could help you friends"
It was when Seifer made that comment that everyone save Cloud and Squall were reminded of his presence.
"Wait a minute!" yelled Zell. "What the hell's he doin' here?"
"He should be in jail" said Quistis.
"Or dead" Selphie added.
"Or in hell" Irvine made a comment.
"Or-" Zell prepared to start the cycle over.
"I aid you in battle with no complaints, and the first comment I get is 'get out of here Seifer'? I thought that it didn't matter since we were all fighting for our lives."
"Funny you should say that. You don't care about anyone but yourself" said Zell.
Jessica was smashed by Zeta into the ground in the middle of the group, breaking the marble considerably.
"Jessica!" Seifer ran to her and crouched by her side.
"Are you okay? Speak!"
She was motionless for a second, but then started moving. Seifer thought she was fine until he saw the side of her face covered with purple blood.
"Purple blood?"
"It's Zatach blood. I'll be fine. Just let me--ouch!"
She fell back to the ground when she tried to stand back up.
"You shouldn't move"
"Seifer, I need rest, I can't fight. I'll give you the ability to fly just for a while, but it won't last"
"Fly? How?"
"Just think it when I give it to you. . . never mind, I already did"
"I can fly?"
"Yes, just--" she suddenly fell back and didn't come back up.
"Jessica? Dammit"
Seifer felt his feet wobble and noticed he was hovering, while the others looked at him wide eyed.
***
The tiles of the poor king's beautiful hall ripped apart in parallel streaks and flamed up towards Gamma, who simply stepped in between and looked horribly bored.
This isn't working! I could use Grand Lethal a million times and she'd just keep moving out of the way!
"You know, this isn't any fun. I expected to have a workout; you couldn't hurt me if I was asleep. And you're friend's coming down right about. . . "
She sidestepped Freya's jump attack, and then put up a hand to deflect Steiner and Beatrix's combined Shock.
"You see what I mean? I wanted to have fun. . . "
She flipped over Amarant's explosive shell.
"But instead. . . "
She stepped seemingly through Eiko and Dagger's combined Holy spell.
"I'm stuck with you rejects. . . "
"Me getting tired" Quina miserably failed her last attempt to eat the opponent and the Qu fell on his/her back in immense fatigue.
"Ultima!" The little mage finally reeled out his Ultima spell, which surrounded the unsuspecting Gamma in a wide ray of black light, which spewed plumes of darkness that consumed her and thrashed until the spell subsided. When it was over she looked like she had been through a hurricane.
"Good going, Vivi!" Zidane gave Vivi a weak thumbs up sign, who had been the only one to land a blow.
"That's it! Forget this! No more play, I'm killing you all now!"
She glowed a bright color that deeply reminded Zidane of Necron's Grand Cross.
"Scatter!"
It was too late. Light scattered and Zidane and his allies went flying in all directions. When the fireworks ended, everyone within the area was sprawled on their backs or stomachs, struggling to stand. Once again, Zidane stood alone.
"You" Gamma walked cockily to Zidane and grabbed his neck lightly at first, and then increased the pressure.
"I don't like you. I'm tired of seeing you alive"
Zidane would have said Screw you if he could breath.
THHWWAACK!
A sherukin hit her in the back of the head and she let go of the Terran's neck just enough for him to bite.
"Ahhh!" she dropped him abruptly.
"What are you doin' over there?" Barret pointed an accusing gun-arm at Gamma.
"What am I doing? That beast bit me!"
She was answered with rounds from Vincent, Rude, Reeve, Barret, and Elena that she had to dance to dodge.
"Damn you all to hell!"
"I think I like you guys!" Zidane pointed his Ultima Weapon at the new arrivals.
Elena cast helpful Curagas on the downed fighters, helping the party greatly.
"Hey, we can talk about this right? I'm strong, but I don't think I can take all of you at once!"
"Gamma! You're shoe's untied!" Zidane yelled.
"What!" she kneeled to tie them to discover she had no shoelaces, and looked up to see the smirking Zidane with his weapon held high.
"Nighty night!"
SLAM!
The much weaker warrior fell in a daze.
"She's not that tough! All I had to do was get a good hit on her and."
Most people were giving Zidane dirty looks.
"How cheap" said Yuffie, recovering her thrown sherukin.
Reno raised an eyebrow as if to say: 'you should talk'
***
Delta didn't play. Delta showed no mercy. Delta was much stronger.
"Die"
He engulfed the party in a black light. Tidus felt the air slammed out of his lungs as he went down with the rest of his friends.
Yuna wished she could still summon.
"Why did we get the tough one?" Tidus would have said if he could stand.
Delta looked as if he were going to attack again, and then the Onion Knight, the Caladbolg, the Spirit Lance, Godhand, Nirvana, and the World Champion all left the hands of their respective owners and floated above the ground.
"How well can you fist fight?"
Tidus felt himself go back to his feet and charge blindly, and for some reason Delta allowed him to advance. When he punched, he knew he had made a fatal mistake.
"Ahh!" he felt as if he had been punching a machina cannon. He might have even broken his hand just by punching this guy.
"What are you made of?"
"None of your concern. You won't live long enough for the information to be of any use."
Wakka repeated the mistake and tried to shove an elbow into him from behind, but met the same fate as his friend.
"You all are pretty boring. How about I.yes! You'll love this"
Yuna floated off of the floor and into the hands of Delta, who clutched his hands around her throat.
She struggled to take his hand off, but to no avail.
"No!" Tidus ran forward, but some sort of invisible wall blocked him.
"Why?!"
"Because of all you took from us, Tidus and friends. Feel my pain. Try to save your girl or she will die"
"Let her go!"
He responded by tightening his grip until Yuna focused more on escaping his grip than trying to pry off his hand.
Her guardian's were powerless to stop him.
"Are you going to save her? Are you going to let her die?"
"Quiet!" Tidus rammed himself over and over, crushing himself on the force field.
"The clock is ticking, Tidus" his grip became tighter until Yuna's face became red, and then blue.
"Well.?"
"Darn it!" he rammed himself into the wall over and over, but to no avail. Was this how it was to end? With the one he loved most dead? Was he to follow? They had just been united! It couldn't end like this!
Delta dropped her and she was motionless on the ground.
"Now she's dead, and its all your fault"
"Ultima!" Kuja burst in through the window and flew in his trance-like state, red fur glowing, his tail standing on end. The blackness enveloped him and he fell on his back.
"Who the.?"
"Quiet! Flare Star!" This time Kuja's move was dodged.
"She's not dead, my friend. This nobody was lying to make you suffer. He would have killed you first."
Lulu's weapon clattered to the ground after Delta wad fallen, and she grabbed it and began to aid Kuja in his Ultima spells.
Tidus, with newfound energy took his Caladbolg that had clattered to the ground and ran at full force.
"Blitz Ace!" he let out and amazing sword combo, and a final blow to the head that had impressed even the opponent.
"That didn't --" Delta looked at his arm that was bleeding and hanging limply. "But how!? You can't be that strong!"
"Don't mess with my emotions!" Tidus stabbed Delta through the chest.
"You CAN'T be that strong? What have I triggered?"
He amazingly pulled himself forward and further impaled himself on Tidus's sword just to get close, and then slammed him to the ground. He removed the sword from his body and dropped it.
"Watch it--"
Lulu cast a Flare spell that hit him directly, the unearthly flames flaring up and consuming him temporarily from under.
"Darn it! Will you stop that? You can't--"
Wakka release Auroch's Reels on the man that never got a chance to speak.
"I've been silent too long. Don't mess wid Yuna!" Wakka landed smoothly back on the ground.
"You won't get far. I'm not hurt that badly" Delta smiled a cocky smile.
"Lion Heart!" Squall landed and large combo with equal power to Tidus' but not as much acrobatic skill involved. Squall only needed the strength of his Lion Heart.
"No way.I'm the strongest" Delta fell to the ground and didn't get up.
"And stay down!" Tidus flipped his sword and slashed it to the right.
"Nice combo. I'm Tidus" Tidus held out his hand to Squall.
"Yours wasn't bad either. I'm Squall. Squall Leonhart." Squall offered his hand after slashing to the left, right, then balancing his blade on his shoulder.
***
Oren looked at Seifer and gave him a nod. The two had pinned down Epsilon in an aerial dogfight.
"How about the finishing touch?"
Seifer charged up his gunblade for Fire Cross, Epsilon was almost out. Oren materialized a blade of blue attached to his hand.
"This is the Altron, Epsilon. You've seen it before. I will crush you with it."
". . . Your friends are good. The got Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta. But you're not getting me!"
A figure crashed through the top of the ceiling and landed, so to speak, in the air next to the weak Epsilon, whose golden hair cascaded to the ground, also so to speak.
He stocked the locks once.
"Crap!"
"I see you're glad to see me, Oren. You know me." He threw Seifer a poisonous look. "You and Seifer here are done like dinner. Equally screwed. You might have had more of a chance if your girlfriend wasn't so weak."
"Cram it!" Seifer and Oren yelled in unison.
Oren gave Seifer a weird look.
"I think he meant me"
"Uh. . . yeah. I knew that. I was just, um, testing you!" Seifer was acting very un-Seifer like due to the awkwardness of the situation the new arrival had presented.
"For those who don't know, Seifer, I am Zeta"
"How does he know my name?"
"You don't want to know"
"Seeing you alive makes me sick!" Zeta yelled, helping Epsilon up in mid- air.
He's dressed like that Epsilon guy. Seifer noticed silently.
"Hey, Jessica is kind of cute though. Maybe I'll have some fun with her when I kill you. Oops! Did I say that aloud?" Zeta said in a voice that made it clear he had intended to speak out.
"Zeta, you're really pushing it."
"I don't think you're in any position to be making threats. Seeing you alive makes me sick"
"I already know, Zeta"
"I was talking to Seifer"
"Huh?" Seifer looked dumbfounded. "You seem to really have something against us personally. Tell us why already!"
"I'm not even going to answer that, scum. Now that's enough talk for now. I hope you enjoyed your last conversation, Oren. There is nowhere to run, and you have weaklings helping you. I will finally avenge Omega!"
Zeta withdrew his blade.
"Seifer, get behind him! I will keep him occupied!"
Oren and Zeta clashed blades.
"Get them, Zeta" Epsilon passed out and fell to the ground.
"Oh, you're strength isn't as high as it used to be. That fake power you inherited from Omega when you killed him is deteriorating" Zeta said, his face inches away from Oren as they held their blades together.
"I didn't kill Omega! I wish he were here to vouch for me!"
"Fool. If he could be here then you wouldn't need him to vouch for anything."
They withdrew and went into a dance of parrying, blocking, striking and thrusting. Oren seemed to have the advantage. He looked like he could go on forever, and Zeta was beginning to sweat. Seifer couldn't get behind Zeta because he wouldn't keep his back in the same direction long enough.
I wish he hadn't given me those directions out loud. Seifer thought to himself. He felt himself wobbling. Jessica was regaining consciousness.
"Then how else did you get his power, Oren? How else? Killing someone is the only way."
"Why would I kill him?"
"I just mentioned it. To get his power."
"Listen, I would have no reason to handle that power if it would deteriorate."
"Quiet. You know you planned on killing Pyros and us. Even after the loss of our beautiful planet, your thoughts were only evil"
"I'm tired of talking to you! There's no reasoning with you pig heads!" In his rage, Oren made a sloppy move, giving Zeta just enough opening to slam him to the ground.
"Damn it. . . " Oren felt like he couldn't get up.
"That's your weakness, isn't it. You should have known I was talking to get you to do that." Zeta held his sword high preparing to kill his prey. "Talking is my strength!"
Before he could release the blade, Seifer slammed the titan in the back with his gunblade, and he went down.
"It's your weakness too, Zeta-boy"
"You da man, Seifer"
Seifer helped Oren to his feet.
"Ahh!" Jessica regained consciousness below, and Seifer began to fall. Oren caught him, and lowered him to the ground.
"There. I returned the favor."
The tired fighters limped, walked, ran, stumbled, skipped, were carried, and hobbled over to Oren's position in the middle.
Oren waved his hands and brought the fallen warriors in a bubble.
"They won't be able to fight for months. We're a quarter of the way to winning this battle. Good job"
Zeta couldn't move, but the bearer of the Altron knew he was conscious.
"Zeta! Tell Pyros that Oren's force did this to you and your friends. Tell him we will not be easily defeated, that we will win!" A blue portal appeared and the fallen bodies were swallowed and taken back to wherever they came from.
"Great job!" Oren yelled for all to hear. "You defeated the first six, but they are not the strongest. We have to introduce each other, revive some friends, and get more aid. Now, before we were so rudely interrupted, let me provide you all with an explanation.
The words following the congratulations were among the most shocking the fighters had ever heard. They were in for quite a thrill.
_____________________________________________________________________
AN: I know! I know! I suck. Sorry about that long wait. My knee hurts like crazy. Even though that doesn't affect my typing, I just got lazy. I will be more frequent than this, I promise. Thank you for staying with me, readers. One more thing, I recently remembered to allow anonymous reviews, so bring them in if you're an author who couldn't. Thanks to BlooodyVixen for pointing that out.
By Blue Dragon
They took on five at once!? I can't believe it! Zeta will finish them, though.
The situation was pretty awkward. Everyone struggled out of the pile with questioning looks and glances around at unfamiliar faces.
"DON'T ANYONE SAY ANYTHING! LET US ALL BECOME ORGANIZED AND PROPERLY INTRODUCED!" Oren yelled in a booming voice. No one spoke and all attention was fixed on the "Dictator"
"I am afraid you will have no time for that"
Dozens of heads turned simultaneously and looked at the dark wall, the source of the noise. Alpha, Beta, and Gamma reappeared from the spot.
"Remember us, Oren? Gamma's all better. Alpha recovered from his minor looks incident. And not even all of you can take on three of us."
"Where going to whip you all!" Gamma said in an unusually cheery voice.
"I want revenge on the spiky one and friends" Alpha said, causing Cloud to tense up at the mention of his name.
A burst echoed from a break behind the three. Two men in the exact same outfits with the exact same black hair and sunglasses dropped down.
Alpha, Beta, and Gamma turned to see. . .
"Hello there--"
"--fools" Delta finished for Epsilon.
"Delta, Epsilon, this is our job, get out of here!" Gamma yelled in childish worry.
"Pyros will be angry. Lets just--"
"--all finish them off" this time Epsilon finished for Delta.
"Fine" Alpha spoke for the three.
Alpha suddenly jumped to the exit of the room. Beta jumped to the main entrance. Gamma jumped next to the left of the large eastern corridor to the east wing, Delta on the opposite side of the corridor entrance, and Epsilon to the large entrance of the western wing.
The jumps were extremely long, high and fast, and those that had not seen them in action before felt their jaws drop.
"Everyone! Pull out whatever weapon you have! Those weaponless fall back behind your allies. Cloud and friends, you and the Turks block off Alpha. Tidus, I know this is new to you, but have Yuna support the party with white magic. Focus on Delta. Squall, you and your allies fight Beta. Zidane, take your close allies and get Gamma. Seifer, this may be hard, but fight with Squall and the others. Epsilon is extremely powerful. Jessica and I will fight him, and when you all have killed or seriously injured a target, assist the group most in need, which will probably be us. Fight, show no mercy, do not kill unless necessary, and finally, good luck!"
The most disturbing thing about this was that instead of attempting to attack the party and delay organization, Pyros' warriors watched and smiled as if purposely giving them a small advantage.
***
No one really asked any questions. They heard Oren's orders, were hesitant to follow them, but Cloud withdrew his sword and charged towards Alpha who he knew was an enemy. The others withdrew weapons and followed, save Barret.
"Marlene, stay under that table, okay?"
The frightened girl nodded her head and immediately complied. Hiding under the large mahogany table.
Reno looked at Rude and Elena, analyzing the situation over his dark glasses.
"Well fellow Turks, it seems we have found ourselves in a situation that not only seems strange, suspicious, and sudden, but also involved with the aid of Cloud and his fellow bumpkins, not to mention the fact that we have no reason to fight. Do we help?"
Both Elena and Rude shook their heads, showing their views taken directly from the standpoint of the leader himself.
"Besides" added Elena. "What reason do we have to--"
A large rock rumbled from the stone ceiling and sent a chunk into the middle of the group, which they promptly jumped and dodged.
"Holy!" The stone could have easily crushed the three.
"You awake over there?" Alpha yelled blowing his smoldering hands.
"On second thought, lets show them some Turk pride."
Reno withdrew his gun, while Reno his nightstick, and Elena put another firearm in her left hand, but left the right for support casting. They fell in behind the charging group of Cloud and his allies.
"Hey who told you to come?" asked Yuffie, looking back.
"Stuff it, ninja" Reno wasn't in the mood for questioning, and Yuffie didn't seem to be in the mood for witty response.
Reeve fumbled around in his coat for his special 9mm SOCOM, just in case the IRS got a little carried away.
The crowed of fighters stopped and assembled, while Alpha just waited for them, smiling his ever-cocky smile. Cloud, Reno, Yuffie, Cid, Red, and Tifa all assembled around him approximately twenty feet away. Behind them for supporting projectile fire came Elena, Rude, Vincent, Barret, and Reeve.
Alpha gave a bored yawn.
"If you losers are ready, I would like to--" He materialized a blade of red. "--start killing you off one by one"
With that Cloud and Cid charged in first, weapons held high. With a mighty slash, he sliced the air and somehow pushed them back.
"That might have come relatively close. . . if I were dead"
Everyone with a firearm shot rounds at the warrior, who did something amazing. Afterimages and swivels of him appeared and disappeared as he dodged each and every bullet.
"Quit dodgin' ya coward!" Barret yelled.
Alpha swiveled out of the way and stopped dodging. The bullets bounced off of him, making sparks. Everyone stopped to reload. Tifa jumped up behind him and began pummeling from the back, sending Alpha straight to the floor. Yuffie aimed a sherukin at his head and it embedded itself there, leaving bloodstains of purple streaming everywhere.
"Purple blood?" Tifa asked.
The firearms team shot more rounds to be on the safe side.
The team was hopeful for the enemy to stay down when he started twitching.
"What the hell?" Cid asked, the cigar falling from his mouth.
Alpha jumped up and removed the sherukin, the blood seeming to disappear.
"A little illusion I created. I wanted to make you think you were winning. . . "
Alpha turned towards Cloud.
"How about I chop you off, first?"
"Shut up!" Cloud readied his sword and charged back. This foe wasn't invincible. Everyone, summon anything and everything!
Everyone, including the Turks, dropped their weapons and concentrated. With a flash, they all disappeared. Bahamut, Bahamut Neo, Bahamut Zero, Shiva, Ifrit, Ramuh, Leviathan, the Chocobo and his friend the Mog, Odin, quite a few other summons, and everyone's favorite royal knights took their place. With a massive shock, they all spewed forward and attacked, almost destroying the very air around them with the violent wave that blew chunks clear out of the castle and destroyed many things within a hundred feet. The fighters around that were preoccupied temporarily glanced in amazement.
Everyone reappeared.
"It seems we may have a minor victory"
Vincent pointed to the severely injured Alpha, on the ground, burnt, and bruised.
"D-damn you! I can still--" he fell to the ground when he tried to get back up. "Ouch. . . " he lapsed into unconsciousness.
"We did it!" Cloud exclaimed briefly.
***
Squall wasn't having much luck with Beta, none at all. Fortunately he had the aid of his friends to keep him on his toes. He had narrowly dodged a Firaga spell, and didn't seem as strong as he had been before, probably due to some lingering pain or injury.
Zell hesitated to use his ultimate move, the terrain and size of Gaia was different than his own planet, therefore he had no way of knowing if he would over calculate or even under calculate his movement.
"Mach kick!" he tried to do his fastest move, which Beta dodged narrowly with a thrust of his abdomen.
"You call that a mach kick? This is a mach kick!"
Zell's reflexes reacted just in time for the warrior who wasn't on his toes to get the side of Zell's shoulders, which sent him flying back almost right into Selphie and Rinoa, who were hanging back and casting spells.
Rinoa, Selphie, and Irvine stood at medium range, casting offensive and defensive spells, Irvine with supporting fire that was somehow dodged by a lighting fast opponent, Quistis a little closer attempting to get behind the opponent, while Squall and Zell would attack him head on, which was a strategy that was slowly starting to fail.
Squall and Zell moved forward quickly, careful not to slip on the marble floor. Beta turned to face them, a fatal mistake. Quistis cracked the end of her whip on his back, which had no effect. The importance, though, was that seemingly out of nowhere Seifer came with his Hyperion ablaze, slashing downwards.
"Woah!" the assaulted clutched his back. To the horror of the fighters, his clothes were not even torn. However, he clutched his chest and began panting.
"You. . . are only lucky that I was slightly injured by your friend. If he hadn't have gotten me back there, you would all be. . . dead"
The others stopped the assault.
"It doesn't look like you can even stand" Irvine prepared to put his Exeter back in the holster.
Beta went down to his knees.
"Just give me a second. . . " a blaze shown in his eyes as he began to power up.
"Wait a minute!" Squall put his gunblade back into position.
"NO!" the bearer of Lion Heart charged in a desperate attempt to stop Beta from doing what he hoped he wouldn't. He was trying to blow them all away. Unfortunately, the distance was too great and he didn't seem to have much power left.
SHHHHINNK
There was a metallic sound as Cloud descended from an unknown position, cleaving his sword into the head of the opponent.
"Ahh! Darn it!" Although the blow didn't even come close to killing him, it knocked the already weakened man into the ground unconscious, shattering the floor around him.
Squall looked up in gratitude.
"Thank you. . . "
"Cloud. And you are?"
"Squall. And Irvine, Rinoa, Zell, Quistis, Selphie, and.Seifer"
"I see. I'd introduce my allies, but they're a little busy at the moment"
Cloud was referring to the fact that his allies were rushing to aid Zidane and his team against the much healthier Gamma, who seemed to be having the time of her life.
Zell looked at Cloud.
"You look kind of like that guy from Final Fantasy VII. Clay Stripe."
"Clay Stripe?" Cloud loosened the grip on the Ultima Weapon and gave Zell a questioning glance.
"Don't mind him, he has no sense of reality" Squall commented.
"Hey!"
"Do you have any idea what's happening?" Quistis shifted the direction of the conversation.
"Not a clue. Do you think he needs help?" Cloud pointed upwards to Oren and Jessica, who were engaged with Zeta, who was beating them up pretty badly.
"Ahh!" Everyone except Cloud gave out a yelp. They were engaged in an aerial battle and seemed to be smashed into the ceiling over and over again.
"They can fly?" asked Selphie.
"I noticed that too. We can't help him from down here" Cloud said.
"And bullets don't help" the cowboy.
"We could help you friends"
It was when Seifer made that comment that everyone save Cloud and Squall were reminded of his presence.
"Wait a minute!" yelled Zell. "What the hell's he doin' here?"
"He should be in jail" said Quistis.
"Or dead" Selphie added.
"Or in hell" Irvine made a comment.
"Or-" Zell prepared to start the cycle over.
"I aid you in battle with no complaints, and the first comment I get is 'get out of here Seifer'? I thought that it didn't matter since we were all fighting for our lives."
"Funny you should say that. You don't care about anyone but yourself" said Zell.
Jessica was smashed by Zeta into the ground in the middle of the group, breaking the marble considerably.
"Jessica!" Seifer ran to her and crouched by her side.
"Are you okay? Speak!"
She was motionless for a second, but then started moving. Seifer thought she was fine until he saw the side of her face covered with purple blood.
"Purple blood?"
"It's Zatach blood. I'll be fine. Just let me--ouch!"
She fell back to the ground when she tried to stand back up.
"You shouldn't move"
"Seifer, I need rest, I can't fight. I'll give you the ability to fly just for a while, but it won't last"
"Fly? How?"
"Just think it when I give it to you. . . never mind, I already did"
"I can fly?"
"Yes, just--" she suddenly fell back and didn't come back up.
"Jessica? Dammit"
Seifer felt his feet wobble and noticed he was hovering, while the others looked at him wide eyed.
***
The tiles of the poor king's beautiful hall ripped apart in parallel streaks and flamed up towards Gamma, who simply stepped in between and looked horribly bored.
This isn't working! I could use Grand Lethal a million times and she'd just keep moving out of the way!
"You know, this isn't any fun. I expected to have a workout; you couldn't hurt me if I was asleep. And you're friend's coming down right about. . . "
She sidestepped Freya's jump attack, and then put up a hand to deflect Steiner and Beatrix's combined Shock.
"You see what I mean? I wanted to have fun. . . "
She flipped over Amarant's explosive shell.
"But instead. . . "
She stepped seemingly through Eiko and Dagger's combined Holy spell.
"I'm stuck with you rejects. . . "
"Me getting tired" Quina miserably failed her last attempt to eat the opponent and the Qu fell on his/her back in immense fatigue.
"Ultima!" The little mage finally reeled out his Ultima spell, which surrounded the unsuspecting Gamma in a wide ray of black light, which spewed plumes of darkness that consumed her and thrashed until the spell subsided. When it was over she looked like she had been through a hurricane.
"Good going, Vivi!" Zidane gave Vivi a weak thumbs up sign, who had been the only one to land a blow.
"That's it! Forget this! No more play, I'm killing you all now!"
She glowed a bright color that deeply reminded Zidane of Necron's Grand Cross.
"Scatter!"
It was too late. Light scattered and Zidane and his allies went flying in all directions. When the fireworks ended, everyone within the area was sprawled on their backs or stomachs, struggling to stand. Once again, Zidane stood alone.
"You" Gamma walked cockily to Zidane and grabbed his neck lightly at first, and then increased the pressure.
"I don't like you. I'm tired of seeing you alive"
Zidane would have said Screw you if he could breath.
THHWWAACK!
A sherukin hit her in the back of the head and she let go of the Terran's neck just enough for him to bite.
"Ahhh!" she dropped him abruptly.
"What are you doin' over there?" Barret pointed an accusing gun-arm at Gamma.
"What am I doing? That beast bit me!"
She was answered with rounds from Vincent, Rude, Reeve, Barret, and Elena that she had to dance to dodge.
"Damn you all to hell!"
"I think I like you guys!" Zidane pointed his Ultima Weapon at the new arrivals.
Elena cast helpful Curagas on the downed fighters, helping the party greatly.
"Hey, we can talk about this right? I'm strong, but I don't think I can take all of you at once!"
"Gamma! You're shoe's untied!" Zidane yelled.
"What!" she kneeled to tie them to discover she had no shoelaces, and looked up to see the smirking Zidane with his weapon held high.
"Nighty night!"
SLAM!
The much weaker warrior fell in a daze.
"She's not that tough! All I had to do was get a good hit on her and."
Most people were giving Zidane dirty looks.
"How cheap" said Yuffie, recovering her thrown sherukin.
Reno raised an eyebrow as if to say: 'you should talk'
***
Delta didn't play. Delta showed no mercy. Delta was much stronger.
"Die"
He engulfed the party in a black light. Tidus felt the air slammed out of his lungs as he went down with the rest of his friends.
Yuna wished she could still summon.
"Why did we get the tough one?" Tidus would have said if he could stand.
Delta looked as if he were going to attack again, and then the Onion Knight, the Caladbolg, the Spirit Lance, Godhand, Nirvana, and the World Champion all left the hands of their respective owners and floated above the ground.
"How well can you fist fight?"
Tidus felt himself go back to his feet and charge blindly, and for some reason Delta allowed him to advance. When he punched, he knew he had made a fatal mistake.
"Ahh!" he felt as if he had been punching a machina cannon. He might have even broken his hand just by punching this guy.
"What are you made of?"
"None of your concern. You won't live long enough for the information to be of any use."
Wakka repeated the mistake and tried to shove an elbow into him from behind, but met the same fate as his friend.
"You all are pretty boring. How about I.yes! You'll love this"
Yuna floated off of the floor and into the hands of Delta, who clutched his hands around her throat.
She struggled to take his hand off, but to no avail.
"No!" Tidus ran forward, but some sort of invisible wall blocked him.
"Why?!"
"Because of all you took from us, Tidus and friends. Feel my pain. Try to save your girl or she will die"
"Let her go!"
He responded by tightening his grip until Yuna focused more on escaping his grip than trying to pry off his hand.
Her guardian's were powerless to stop him.
"Are you going to save her? Are you going to let her die?"
"Quiet!" Tidus rammed himself over and over, crushing himself on the force field.
"The clock is ticking, Tidus" his grip became tighter until Yuna's face became red, and then blue.
"Well.?"
"Darn it!" he rammed himself into the wall over and over, but to no avail. Was this how it was to end? With the one he loved most dead? Was he to follow? They had just been united! It couldn't end like this!
Delta dropped her and she was motionless on the ground.
"Now she's dead, and its all your fault"
"Ultima!" Kuja burst in through the window and flew in his trance-like state, red fur glowing, his tail standing on end. The blackness enveloped him and he fell on his back.
"Who the.?"
"Quiet! Flare Star!" This time Kuja's move was dodged.
"She's not dead, my friend. This nobody was lying to make you suffer. He would have killed you first."
Lulu's weapon clattered to the ground after Delta wad fallen, and she grabbed it and began to aid Kuja in his Ultima spells.
Tidus, with newfound energy took his Caladbolg that had clattered to the ground and ran at full force.
"Blitz Ace!" he let out and amazing sword combo, and a final blow to the head that had impressed even the opponent.
"That didn't --" Delta looked at his arm that was bleeding and hanging limply. "But how!? You can't be that strong!"
"Don't mess with my emotions!" Tidus stabbed Delta through the chest.
"You CAN'T be that strong? What have I triggered?"
He amazingly pulled himself forward and further impaled himself on Tidus's sword just to get close, and then slammed him to the ground. He removed the sword from his body and dropped it.
"Watch it--"
Lulu cast a Flare spell that hit him directly, the unearthly flames flaring up and consuming him temporarily from under.
"Darn it! Will you stop that? You can't--"
Wakka release Auroch's Reels on the man that never got a chance to speak.
"I've been silent too long. Don't mess wid Yuna!" Wakka landed smoothly back on the ground.
"You won't get far. I'm not hurt that badly" Delta smiled a cocky smile.
"Lion Heart!" Squall landed and large combo with equal power to Tidus' but not as much acrobatic skill involved. Squall only needed the strength of his Lion Heart.
"No way.I'm the strongest" Delta fell to the ground and didn't get up.
"And stay down!" Tidus flipped his sword and slashed it to the right.
"Nice combo. I'm Tidus" Tidus held out his hand to Squall.
"Yours wasn't bad either. I'm Squall. Squall Leonhart." Squall offered his hand after slashing to the left, right, then balancing his blade on his shoulder.
***
Oren looked at Seifer and gave him a nod. The two had pinned down Epsilon in an aerial dogfight.
"How about the finishing touch?"
Seifer charged up his gunblade for Fire Cross, Epsilon was almost out. Oren materialized a blade of blue attached to his hand.
"This is the Altron, Epsilon. You've seen it before. I will crush you with it."
". . . Your friends are good. The got Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta. But you're not getting me!"
A figure crashed through the top of the ceiling and landed, so to speak, in the air next to the weak Epsilon, whose golden hair cascaded to the ground, also so to speak.
He stocked the locks once.
"Crap!"
"I see you're glad to see me, Oren. You know me." He threw Seifer a poisonous look. "You and Seifer here are done like dinner. Equally screwed. You might have had more of a chance if your girlfriend wasn't so weak."
"Cram it!" Seifer and Oren yelled in unison.
Oren gave Seifer a weird look.
"I think he meant me"
"Uh. . . yeah. I knew that. I was just, um, testing you!" Seifer was acting very un-Seifer like due to the awkwardness of the situation the new arrival had presented.
"For those who don't know, Seifer, I am Zeta"
"How does he know my name?"
"You don't want to know"
"Seeing you alive makes me sick!" Zeta yelled, helping Epsilon up in mid- air.
He's dressed like that Epsilon guy. Seifer noticed silently.
"Hey, Jessica is kind of cute though. Maybe I'll have some fun with her when I kill you. Oops! Did I say that aloud?" Zeta said in a voice that made it clear he had intended to speak out.
"Zeta, you're really pushing it."
"I don't think you're in any position to be making threats. Seeing you alive makes me sick"
"I already know, Zeta"
"I was talking to Seifer"
"Huh?" Seifer looked dumbfounded. "You seem to really have something against us personally. Tell us why already!"
"I'm not even going to answer that, scum. Now that's enough talk for now. I hope you enjoyed your last conversation, Oren. There is nowhere to run, and you have weaklings helping you. I will finally avenge Omega!"
Zeta withdrew his blade.
"Seifer, get behind him! I will keep him occupied!"
Oren and Zeta clashed blades.
"Get them, Zeta" Epsilon passed out and fell to the ground.
"Oh, you're strength isn't as high as it used to be. That fake power you inherited from Omega when you killed him is deteriorating" Zeta said, his face inches away from Oren as they held their blades together.
"I didn't kill Omega! I wish he were here to vouch for me!"
"Fool. If he could be here then you wouldn't need him to vouch for anything."
They withdrew and went into a dance of parrying, blocking, striking and thrusting. Oren seemed to have the advantage. He looked like he could go on forever, and Zeta was beginning to sweat. Seifer couldn't get behind Zeta because he wouldn't keep his back in the same direction long enough.
I wish he hadn't given me those directions out loud. Seifer thought to himself. He felt himself wobbling. Jessica was regaining consciousness.
"Then how else did you get his power, Oren? How else? Killing someone is the only way."
"Why would I kill him?"
"I just mentioned it. To get his power."
"Listen, I would have no reason to handle that power if it would deteriorate."
"Quiet. You know you planned on killing Pyros and us. Even after the loss of our beautiful planet, your thoughts were only evil"
"I'm tired of talking to you! There's no reasoning with you pig heads!" In his rage, Oren made a sloppy move, giving Zeta just enough opening to slam him to the ground.
"Damn it. . . " Oren felt like he couldn't get up.
"That's your weakness, isn't it. You should have known I was talking to get you to do that." Zeta held his sword high preparing to kill his prey. "Talking is my strength!"
Before he could release the blade, Seifer slammed the titan in the back with his gunblade, and he went down.
"It's your weakness too, Zeta-boy"
"You da man, Seifer"
Seifer helped Oren to his feet.
"Ahh!" Jessica regained consciousness below, and Seifer began to fall. Oren caught him, and lowered him to the ground.
"There. I returned the favor."
The tired fighters limped, walked, ran, stumbled, skipped, were carried, and hobbled over to Oren's position in the middle.
Oren waved his hands and brought the fallen warriors in a bubble.
"They won't be able to fight for months. We're a quarter of the way to winning this battle. Good job"
Zeta couldn't move, but the bearer of the Altron knew he was conscious.
"Zeta! Tell Pyros that Oren's force did this to you and your friends. Tell him we will not be easily defeated, that we will win!" A blue portal appeared and the fallen bodies were swallowed and taken back to wherever they came from.
"Great job!" Oren yelled for all to hear. "You defeated the first six, but they are not the strongest. We have to introduce each other, revive some friends, and get more aid. Now, before we were so rudely interrupted, let me provide you all with an explanation.
The words following the congratulations were among the most shocking the fighters had ever heard. They were in for quite a thrill.
_____________________________________________________________________
AN: I know! I know! I suck. Sorry about that long wait. My knee hurts like crazy. Even though that doesn't affect my typing, I just got lazy. I will be more frequent than this, I promise. Thank you for staying with me, readers. One more thing, I recently remembered to allow anonymous reviews, so bring them in if you're an author who couldn't. Thanks to BlooodyVixen for pointing that out.