The Forgotten
Chapter 18: Departure and the Grand Dragons.
At the far reaches of the world, a forgotten island, home to the Forgotten. The island was relatively small, covered with snow many inches deep. At the northern side of the island was a huge metallic door in the ground, covered by a thin layer of snow. The door had obviously been opened recently. A shadowy figure appeared in the snowstorm, slowly approaching the metal door in the ground. As it got closer it was revealed to be a huge black furred beast, large fangs protruding from its mouth. The beast resembled the legendary Abominable Snowman. The furry animal made its way to the huge metallic door, stopping in the middle before the huge door lowered itself into the ground. At the bottom of the hole now created in the floor was a hidden lab; this was the home to The Forgotten.
"Ah, Shank, you have returned." Called a voice from behind a heard of strange creatures. The group began to create a pathway leading to a winged demon named Staan, who sat on a wooden chair.
"Master, the reports are in," informed the beast known as Shank. "Shinra. No longer exist."
"What?" bellowed the furious demon, rising from his seat, his wings spreading as he bawled his fists. The creatures seemed to shrink as their 'Master' did this.
"They where disbanded twenty years ago." Finished Shank, closing his eyes as if expecting his 'Masters' fury to be unleashed on him. But it never came.
"Is that all?"
"Well, reports say an organisation much like The Shinra run the world now." Stammered the terrified beast.
"Interesting. This organisation. Do they have a name?" asked the curious leader.
"Ranish Master."
"Well, if this Ranish are like the Shinra, then they must pay for what the Shinra did to us."
----
Stratus sat alone in his room, the cold floor beneath him numbing his bare feet. He was quite cold, seeing as he had no shirt on and was only wearing his knee length shorts. However he had learned to block out the feeling during his training. He sat thinking, thinking of his life. Not long ago he had been living a normal life, helping his mother and father in their shop, training with both his parents and Baby-sitting for his little sister, just like every other normal teenager. Now however, he was fighting for the freedom of the planet. All because of a girl, a girl he could not stop thinking about. Why did he feel the need to help her in the first place, because she was cute? Or was it something else? Whatever it was he hoped he would find out soon. He stirred from his thoughts as the girl occupying his thought entered his small room.
"Hey." She chirped, sitting next to her friend.
"Hi." He called back.
"Is something bothering you?" she asked puzzled, something seemed to be wrong with these days.
"Not really."
"Come on! You can tell me!" she blurted out.
"It's nothing, just. Wondering how I ended up here, fighting." He confessed, lowering his head.
"You don't want to fight do you? It's my fault really; I should never have let you help me. You didn't even know me and wanted to help, but you didn't really did you?"
"What? No, I wanted to help. I just didn't think. I dunno. I guess I'm confused." Blurted Stratus, not taking a breath.
"You don't really care about freeing the world of Ranish do you?" she asked, almost knowing the answer.
"Not really." Confessed the teen again.
"Then why?"
"For you. I wanted to help you." He didn't really know where this was going but he needed to tell her everything. He never really had a problem with Ranish after all; they never did anything to him.
"Me? Why?" She didn't really have to ask of course, it was obvious.
"Your. I find you. Attractive. I just wanted to go with you, and then maybe I could. You know." He stopped, not wanting to continue. His cheeks flaming red, it was such a stupid thing to do. Every man would do the same in his position though, damn hormones.
"You wanted to? Wait. Do you like me, like that?" she asked. He turned to face the girl; her eyes showered her puzzled thoughts. Damn this was hard. Why was it so complicated?
"At first, I just found you attractive. But then I started to like you more, so, yeah. I do." He finally finished, his eyes locked with hers, trying to read her thoughts. However she didn't move, she just stayed still. Like a statue.
"Oh." Was all she could say after a few minutes.
"Oh? Is that all you can say?" he asked slightly annoyed, but not.
"I'm sorry. You don't have to come tomorrow, if you don't want to, just go home." She said sadly standing, she went to leave finding she couldn't, as he had grabbed her wrist. With a gentle pull she fell into his lap, her lips a centimetre from his. He stared into her eyes, as did she. He could feel her breath on his lips, daring him to close the gap. Did she want this too? Only one way to find out. With that he pushed his lips to hers in a gentle kiss. Her eyes widened in shock and then shut, giving in to him. After a moment he released her, she opened her eyes.
"Does that mean you'll stay?" she asked, still in shock from his actions.
"Yes, if you'll have me. I may not have wanted to rid the world of Ranish before, but I do now. An enemy of yours is an enemy of mine." He answered.
"Then it's settled." She cheered, flinging her arms around him in a tight hug. As she pulled away he pulled her back into another kiss, this one more passionate.
----
The sun lit up the horizon as our group of heroes readied themselves for another trek across the lands to Junon. Gale, Stratus, Vincent, Red XIII, Yuffie and Lance stood at the bottom of the huge mountain, awaiting the arrival of the Bounty Hunter Blain.
"He better hurry up or I'm going to die of old age!" scoffed Stratus, showing his impatience. Gale chuckled and put an arm around him.
"Be patient," Blain, Luna and an unknown female dressed in black spandex's interrupted her speech. The female was almost as tall as Blain, long black hair tied in a ponytail that was wrapped around her neck. Strapped to her belt was a handle that held no visible weapon.
"You all ready?" asked Blain upon arrival. Everyone nodded as Stratus spoke up:
"Who's the Chick?"
"The 'Chick' is Jenna Maelster, and who might you be?" asked the female now known as Jenna Maelster.
"I'm Stratus Strife." Replied Stratus, posing.
"Idiot." Mumbled Lance, only a few heard as Luna walked up to him and gave him a tight hug.
"You better come back." She whispered into his ear, before kissing his cheek and stepping back.
"Don't worry, I will."
With that the group said their last goodbyes and headed out into the large desert that stood between them and their destination. Junon.
----
The group had made it across the desert and took up camp not far from their destination. It was mid-day and most of the group had already gone to bed, getting some rest before the night invasion, only Stratus, Gale and Lance remained.
"So Lance, you really like that Luna girl?" question Gale, getting bored with the silence.
"Yeah, she's really nice." He commented, gazing into the fire that illuminated his face.
"That's great, I'm happy for you."
"So how far you got?" blurted out Stratus, a stupid grin on his face.
"Stratus!" yelled Gale, hitting his arm. Lance smiled and let out a small chuckle.
"I don't think that's any of your business Stratus."
"Whatever." He replied, rubbing his arm.
"What you think of Jenna?" asked Lance, there was something about her that he didn't like. He just couldn't quite place it.
"She seems nice," Replied Gale. "I haven't really talked to her though."
"Nice? I don't trust her." Said Stratus, joining in on the conversation.
"For once we agree on something." Agreed Lance, hardly believing he just said that.
"You two are just paranoid."
"About what?" came a voice from the tents, the group looked up to see Jenna. She was dressed in a long T-shirt that probably belonged to an Ex- boyfriend and shorts.
"Err. Nothing." Replied Gale.
"Care to join us?" offered Lance, trying to change the subject. Jenna smirked and just walked off.
"Weird? Think she heard us?" questioned Gale. It was either that or she is very rude.
"Maybe."
----
Stratus woke with a gasp sweat pouring of his face. A nightmare? He hadn't had one of them in years. He looked at the sleeping girl beside him. She was as beautiful as always, snuggling up to her pillow. To his other side was Lance, if only he wasn't here. He rose to his feet and stepped out of the tent. Blain was standing alone gazing at the horizon. He approached the silent man slowly.
"Bout' time you woke up." Grunted Blain, not turning to face the teenager.
"Hey!" moaned Stratus, still half asleep.
"You ready for today?"
"I just got up!" protested Stratus, rubbing his tired eyes.
"This is what I was afraid off. Whinny little kids like you getting in my way!" yelled Blain, facing Stratus for the first time.
"Whinny! Give me a break old man!" yelled Stratus, stepping forward slightly.
"You should really," he was stopped as Stratus's eyes widened. "What?"
"Look behind you." Whispered Stratus. Pointing behind Blain. Blain turned to see a herd of Grand Dragons slowly approaching.
"This isn't good, wake the others. Quick!" yelled Blain, pushing past Stratus to wake his comrades. Stratus followed. He ran to his tent first, grabbing his Buster sword from the tent and waking Lance and Gale in the process. He returned to find Vincent, Yuffie, Red XIII and Jenna waiting with Blain for the arrival of the army of Dragons.
"The others?" asked Yuffie, who had turned to face him.
"Getting ready." He replied, taking stand next to his elder.
Moments later the two teens in question appeared, battle gear on and ready for a fight. The group waited patiently for the herd to reach them, silently praying they hadn't seen them and where just passing.
"Everyone ready?" asked Blain, raising his sword into position. The group replied by raising their own weapons and preparing for the intense battle.
The Dragons swooped down upon our heroes, swinging their claws and firing huge waves of fire at the land, turning the grass to ashes. Stratus rolled to the side as one of the Dragons stomped at him. After successfully dodging he brought his sword down into the paw, in response the Dragon roared in pain until Stratus removed the huge sword, turned it to its side and slicing through it's neck. The body of the huge Grand Dragon slumped to the ground with a thud, its head no longer attached to its body. Stratus turned sharply, running to face of with another legendary beast.
Gale and Yuffie stood back to back, surrounded by three Grand Dragons. With a nod from Yuffie, Gale ducked as Yuffie threw her Conformer at an angle, the boomerang spun, stunning all three Dragons. Gale followed up with her own Boomerang, which she had named Freedom. Yuffie quickly charged at the stunned Dragon to her left, flipping onto its back and jamming the end of her Conformer into its head, sending the beast to the ground. Gale grabbed her throwing knives and tossed them into the eye of the Dragon in front of her, blinding it.
"Gale!" yelled Yuffie, noticing the other Dragon charging its Flame attack. Gale turned sharply; using her mastered Ice Materia to gather a long icicle and threw it at the attacking Dragon. Killing it instantly. Yuffie quickly finished off the blind Dragon with Bolt of lightning.
The former Bounty Hunter Blain sliced away at one of the scaled beasts, before dodging its Flamethrower attack and running underneath it, raising his long Katana to slice through it. The beast's insides poured out behind him as he cut it in half. He pivoted, pulling out two Uzi's from his belt behind his back and unloading on another Dragon.
Lance stumbled back, bringing his Shotgun in front of him as a Dragon neared him. Bang. Its head shot back as the bullet pierced its scull and it collapsed to the floor. Noticing another to his side, he tuned and shot, one more down. Then another. And another. Hearing Gale yell he turned to see a Dragon closing in on Stratus.
"Duck!" he yelled, throwing a grenade from his belt at the beast. He quickly raised his gun into the air and shot. Perfect. The bullet hit the grenade and it exploded as Stratus ducked, killing the Dragon.
"Hey! Thanks!" yelled Stratus, dusting himself off. He nodded in response and went back to killing the attacking Grand Dragons.
The furry beast known as RedXIII ran, his huge hind legs giving him great speed as a huge Dragon chased him, he skidded to a halt, turning as he did. He counted in his mind, then charged forward diving underneath the beast and using his Enemy Skill Materia to burn its belly with Flamethrower, its own attack. The Beast roared and collapsed onto his raised legs. With his great strength he pushed, flipping the Dragon onto its back. To finish it off he sprang to his feet, gathering a ball of energy in his mouth before releasing it upon the Dragon, disintegrating it (A/N: Cosmos Memory).
Vincent kept himself at bay, using his trusted Death Penalty to pick of the Dragons. His bullets hitting them square between the eyes. After taking down at least ten of the beats he found himself cornered by two of the scaly fiends. To his surprise, before he could fire a single shot a whip of sorts entangled the legs of the beasts. Although instead of rope, it was purple energy. The beasts stumbled and fell flat on their faces. The wielder of the whip, who was revealed to be Jenna Maelster, flipped between the heads and brought down two draggers into their heads.
"Your welcome." She cheered, happy with herself. Vincent didn't say anything, just pointed behind her. She turned to find herself cornered by a lot more than two, more like twenty. The rest of the group had been gathered her also.
"This isn't good." Yuffie commented.
Just as the Dragons began to prepare their Flamethrower attacks, a huge burst of flames shot up from the ground, toasting the Dragons before they could even charge their attacks. Everyone looked shocked, apart from Vincent and Stratus. Vincent held his usual composure. Although inside surprised by the incredibly powerful attack, he did not show it.
"Who?" stuttered Gale, half relieved and half surprised at what had happened. Whoever did that must be one powerful fighter. She hoped he was friendly.
"That takes care of that!" beamed Stratus, clapping his hands together.
"You did that?" asked Gale, snot believing him.
"Yeah, mastered Contain Materia, Flare is a very nice attack." He boasted, a stupid grin on his face.
"I never knew you had such a powerful attack boy." Muttered Blain. He hated this the most, this boy was able to master his Contain Materia when he, the great Bounty Hunter wasn't.
"Yeah, I did it when I was young. My father gave me his after he mastered his own."
"Your father mastered it also?" he asked. Not another one!
"Yeah, you do know who my father is don't you?"
"No." he replied bluntly, he didn't really care after all.
"The one and only Cloud Strife. The man that defeated the former Soldier Elite Sephiroth." Stratus was loving this, Blain was such an asshole anyway, why not make fun of him.
"Cloud Strife? You must be kidding me! I've never even heard of him! Besides, Sephiroth died along time ago. Around Twenty Fire years ago to be precise!" grunted Blain. Stupid kid!
"Actually you're wrong Blain. But lets not get into this, we must prepare for today." Commented RedXIII, placing himself between Stratus and Blain.
"I'm not wrong!" he began but was interrupted by Red once again:
"I said let's not get into this, we have more important things to attend to."
With that the group began to prepare for their attack on Junon, unaware that they were walking into a trap.
----
Chapter 18: Departure and the Grand Dragons.
At the far reaches of the world, a forgotten island, home to the Forgotten. The island was relatively small, covered with snow many inches deep. At the northern side of the island was a huge metallic door in the ground, covered by a thin layer of snow. The door had obviously been opened recently. A shadowy figure appeared in the snowstorm, slowly approaching the metal door in the ground. As it got closer it was revealed to be a huge black furred beast, large fangs protruding from its mouth. The beast resembled the legendary Abominable Snowman. The furry animal made its way to the huge metallic door, stopping in the middle before the huge door lowered itself into the ground. At the bottom of the hole now created in the floor was a hidden lab; this was the home to The Forgotten.
"Ah, Shank, you have returned." Called a voice from behind a heard of strange creatures. The group began to create a pathway leading to a winged demon named Staan, who sat on a wooden chair.
"Master, the reports are in," informed the beast known as Shank. "Shinra. No longer exist."
"What?" bellowed the furious demon, rising from his seat, his wings spreading as he bawled his fists. The creatures seemed to shrink as their 'Master' did this.
"They where disbanded twenty years ago." Finished Shank, closing his eyes as if expecting his 'Masters' fury to be unleashed on him. But it never came.
"Is that all?"
"Well, reports say an organisation much like The Shinra run the world now." Stammered the terrified beast.
"Interesting. This organisation. Do they have a name?" asked the curious leader.
"Ranish Master."
"Well, if this Ranish are like the Shinra, then they must pay for what the Shinra did to us."
----
Stratus sat alone in his room, the cold floor beneath him numbing his bare feet. He was quite cold, seeing as he had no shirt on and was only wearing his knee length shorts. However he had learned to block out the feeling during his training. He sat thinking, thinking of his life. Not long ago he had been living a normal life, helping his mother and father in their shop, training with both his parents and Baby-sitting for his little sister, just like every other normal teenager. Now however, he was fighting for the freedom of the planet. All because of a girl, a girl he could not stop thinking about. Why did he feel the need to help her in the first place, because she was cute? Or was it something else? Whatever it was he hoped he would find out soon. He stirred from his thoughts as the girl occupying his thought entered his small room.
"Hey." She chirped, sitting next to her friend.
"Hi." He called back.
"Is something bothering you?" she asked puzzled, something seemed to be wrong with these days.
"Not really."
"Come on! You can tell me!" she blurted out.
"It's nothing, just. Wondering how I ended up here, fighting." He confessed, lowering his head.
"You don't want to fight do you? It's my fault really; I should never have let you help me. You didn't even know me and wanted to help, but you didn't really did you?"
"What? No, I wanted to help. I just didn't think. I dunno. I guess I'm confused." Blurted Stratus, not taking a breath.
"You don't really care about freeing the world of Ranish do you?" she asked, almost knowing the answer.
"Not really." Confessed the teen again.
"Then why?"
"For you. I wanted to help you." He didn't really know where this was going but he needed to tell her everything. He never really had a problem with Ranish after all; they never did anything to him.
"Me? Why?" She didn't really have to ask of course, it was obvious.
"Your. I find you. Attractive. I just wanted to go with you, and then maybe I could. You know." He stopped, not wanting to continue. His cheeks flaming red, it was such a stupid thing to do. Every man would do the same in his position though, damn hormones.
"You wanted to? Wait. Do you like me, like that?" she asked. He turned to face the girl; her eyes showered her puzzled thoughts. Damn this was hard. Why was it so complicated?
"At first, I just found you attractive. But then I started to like you more, so, yeah. I do." He finally finished, his eyes locked with hers, trying to read her thoughts. However she didn't move, she just stayed still. Like a statue.
"Oh." Was all she could say after a few minutes.
"Oh? Is that all you can say?" he asked slightly annoyed, but not.
"I'm sorry. You don't have to come tomorrow, if you don't want to, just go home." She said sadly standing, she went to leave finding she couldn't, as he had grabbed her wrist. With a gentle pull she fell into his lap, her lips a centimetre from his. He stared into her eyes, as did she. He could feel her breath on his lips, daring him to close the gap. Did she want this too? Only one way to find out. With that he pushed his lips to hers in a gentle kiss. Her eyes widened in shock and then shut, giving in to him. After a moment he released her, she opened her eyes.
"Does that mean you'll stay?" she asked, still in shock from his actions.
"Yes, if you'll have me. I may not have wanted to rid the world of Ranish before, but I do now. An enemy of yours is an enemy of mine." He answered.
"Then it's settled." She cheered, flinging her arms around him in a tight hug. As she pulled away he pulled her back into another kiss, this one more passionate.
----
The sun lit up the horizon as our group of heroes readied themselves for another trek across the lands to Junon. Gale, Stratus, Vincent, Red XIII, Yuffie and Lance stood at the bottom of the huge mountain, awaiting the arrival of the Bounty Hunter Blain.
"He better hurry up or I'm going to die of old age!" scoffed Stratus, showing his impatience. Gale chuckled and put an arm around him.
"Be patient," Blain, Luna and an unknown female dressed in black spandex's interrupted her speech. The female was almost as tall as Blain, long black hair tied in a ponytail that was wrapped around her neck. Strapped to her belt was a handle that held no visible weapon.
"You all ready?" asked Blain upon arrival. Everyone nodded as Stratus spoke up:
"Who's the Chick?"
"The 'Chick' is Jenna Maelster, and who might you be?" asked the female now known as Jenna Maelster.
"I'm Stratus Strife." Replied Stratus, posing.
"Idiot." Mumbled Lance, only a few heard as Luna walked up to him and gave him a tight hug.
"You better come back." She whispered into his ear, before kissing his cheek and stepping back.
"Don't worry, I will."
With that the group said their last goodbyes and headed out into the large desert that stood between them and their destination. Junon.
----
The group had made it across the desert and took up camp not far from their destination. It was mid-day and most of the group had already gone to bed, getting some rest before the night invasion, only Stratus, Gale and Lance remained.
"So Lance, you really like that Luna girl?" question Gale, getting bored with the silence.
"Yeah, she's really nice." He commented, gazing into the fire that illuminated his face.
"That's great, I'm happy for you."
"So how far you got?" blurted out Stratus, a stupid grin on his face.
"Stratus!" yelled Gale, hitting his arm. Lance smiled and let out a small chuckle.
"I don't think that's any of your business Stratus."
"Whatever." He replied, rubbing his arm.
"What you think of Jenna?" asked Lance, there was something about her that he didn't like. He just couldn't quite place it.
"She seems nice," Replied Gale. "I haven't really talked to her though."
"Nice? I don't trust her." Said Stratus, joining in on the conversation.
"For once we agree on something." Agreed Lance, hardly believing he just said that.
"You two are just paranoid."
"About what?" came a voice from the tents, the group looked up to see Jenna. She was dressed in a long T-shirt that probably belonged to an Ex- boyfriend and shorts.
"Err. Nothing." Replied Gale.
"Care to join us?" offered Lance, trying to change the subject. Jenna smirked and just walked off.
"Weird? Think she heard us?" questioned Gale. It was either that or she is very rude.
"Maybe."
----
Stratus woke with a gasp sweat pouring of his face. A nightmare? He hadn't had one of them in years. He looked at the sleeping girl beside him. She was as beautiful as always, snuggling up to her pillow. To his other side was Lance, if only he wasn't here. He rose to his feet and stepped out of the tent. Blain was standing alone gazing at the horizon. He approached the silent man slowly.
"Bout' time you woke up." Grunted Blain, not turning to face the teenager.
"Hey!" moaned Stratus, still half asleep.
"You ready for today?"
"I just got up!" protested Stratus, rubbing his tired eyes.
"This is what I was afraid off. Whinny little kids like you getting in my way!" yelled Blain, facing Stratus for the first time.
"Whinny! Give me a break old man!" yelled Stratus, stepping forward slightly.
"You should really," he was stopped as Stratus's eyes widened. "What?"
"Look behind you." Whispered Stratus. Pointing behind Blain. Blain turned to see a herd of Grand Dragons slowly approaching.
"This isn't good, wake the others. Quick!" yelled Blain, pushing past Stratus to wake his comrades. Stratus followed. He ran to his tent first, grabbing his Buster sword from the tent and waking Lance and Gale in the process. He returned to find Vincent, Yuffie, Red XIII and Jenna waiting with Blain for the arrival of the army of Dragons.
"The others?" asked Yuffie, who had turned to face him.
"Getting ready." He replied, taking stand next to his elder.
Moments later the two teens in question appeared, battle gear on and ready for a fight. The group waited patiently for the herd to reach them, silently praying they hadn't seen them and where just passing.
"Everyone ready?" asked Blain, raising his sword into position. The group replied by raising their own weapons and preparing for the intense battle.
The Dragons swooped down upon our heroes, swinging their claws and firing huge waves of fire at the land, turning the grass to ashes. Stratus rolled to the side as one of the Dragons stomped at him. After successfully dodging he brought his sword down into the paw, in response the Dragon roared in pain until Stratus removed the huge sword, turned it to its side and slicing through it's neck. The body of the huge Grand Dragon slumped to the ground with a thud, its head no longer attached to its body. Stratus turned sharply, running to face of with another legendary beast.
Gale and Yuffie stood back to back, surrounded by three Grand Dragons. With a nod from Yuffie, Gale ducked as Yuffie threw her Conformer at an angle, the boomerang spun, stunning all three Dragons. Gale followed up with her own Boomerang, which she had named Freedom. Yuffie quickly charged at the stunned Dragon to her left, flipping onto its back and jamming the end of her Conformer into its head, sending the beast to the ground. Gale grabbed her throwing knives and tossed them into the eye of the Dragon in front of her, blinding it.
"Gale!" yelled Yuffie, noticing the other Dragon charging its Flame attack. Gale turned sharply; using her mastered Ice Materia to gather a long icicle and threw it at the attacking Dragon. Killing it instantly. Yuffie quickly finished off the blind Dragon with Bolt of lightning.
The former Bounty Hunter Blain sliced away at one of the scaled beasts, before dodging its Flamethrower attack and running underneath it, raising his long Katana to slice through it. The beast's insides poured out behind him as he cut it in half. He pivoted, pulling out two Uzi's from his belt behind his back and unloading on another Dragon.
Lance stumbled back, bringing his Shotgun in front of him as a Dragon neared him. Bang. Its head shot back as the bullet pierced its scull and it collapsed to the floor. Noticing another to his side, he tuned and shot, one more down. Then another. And another. Hearing Gale yell he turned to see a Dragon closing in on Stratus.
"Duck!" he yelled, throwing a grenade from his belt at the beast. He quickly raised his gun into the air and shot. Perfect. The bullet hit the grenade and it exploded as Stratus ducked, killing the Dragon.
"Hey! Thanks!" yelled Stratus, dusting himself off. He nodded in response and went back to killing the attacking Grand Dragons.
The furry beast known as RedXIII ran, his huge hind legs giving him great speed as a huge Dragon chased him, he skidded to a halt, turning as he did. He counted in his mind, then charged forward diving underneath the beast and using his Enemy Skill Materia to burn its belly with Flamethrower, its own attack. The Beast roared and collapsed onto his raised legs. With his great strength he pushed, flipping the Dragon onto its back. To finish it off he sprang to his feet, gathering a ball of energy in his mouth before releasing it upon the Dragon, disintegrating it (A/N: Cosmos Memory).
Vincent kept himself at bay, using his trusted Death Penalty to pick of the Dragons. His bullets hitting them square between the eyes. After taking down at least ten of the beats he found himself cornered by two of the scaly fiends. To his surprise, before he could fire a single shot a whip of sorts entangled the legs of the beasts. Although instead of rope, it was purple energy. The beasts stumbled and fell flat on their faces. The wielder of the whip, who was revealed to be Jenna Maelster, flipped between the heads and brought down two draggers into their heads.
"Your welcome." She cheered, happy with herself. Vincent didn't say anything, just pointed behind her. She turned to find herself cornered by a lot more than two, more like twenty. The rest of the group had been gathered her also.
"This isn't good." Yuffie commented.
Just as the Dragons began to prepare their Flamethrower attacks, a huge burst of flames shot up from the ground, toasting the Dragons before they could even charge their attacks. Everyone looked shocked, apart from Vincent and Stratus. Vincent held his usual composure. Although inside surprised by the incredibly powerful attack, he did not show it.
"Who?" stuttered Gale, half relieved and half surprised at what had happened. Whoever did that must be one powerful fighter. She hoped he was friendly.
"That takes care of that!" beamed Stratus, clapping his hands together.
"You did that?" asked Gale, snot believing him.
"Yeah, mastered Contain Materia, Flare is a very nice attack." He boasted, a stupid grin on his face.
"I never knew you had such a powerful attack boy." Muttered Blain. He hated this the most, this boy was able to master his Contain Materia when he, the great Bounty Hunter wasn't.
"Yeah, I did it when I was young. My father gave me his after he mastered his own."
"Your father mastered it also?" he asked. Not another one!
"Yeah, you do know who my father is don't you?"
"No." he replied bluntly, he didn't really care after all.
"The one and only Cloud Strife. The man that defeated the former Soldier Elite Sephiroth." Stratus was loving this, Blain was such an asshole anyway, why not make fun of him.
"Cloud Strife? You must be kidding me! I've never even heard of him! Besides, Sephiroth died along time ago. Around Twenty Fire years ago to be precise!" grunted Blain. Stupid kid!
"Actually you're wrong Blain. But lets not get into this, we must prepare for today." Commented RedXIII, placing himself between Stratus and Blain.
"I'm not wrong!" he began but was interrupted by Red once again:
"I said let's not get into this, we have more important things to attend to."
With that the group began to prepare for their attack on Junon, unaware that they were walking into a trap.
----
