Chapter 6
"You hear that?" Tifa looked back at Cloud, who jumped off the wall and looked forward. He pulled his sword out quickly; he nearly cut some of his hair off.
"That was a heavy weapon. A rocket launcher or the like" Cloud crouched down into his fighting stance. Aeris jumped awkwardly off the wall; she landed on her knees. With a groan she got to her feet and stumbled forward.
"How did we hear that before?" Aeris pulled the staff off her back. Cloud tilted his head to hear her; Tifa tightened her gloves while she looked at her. "I mean, the gunfire. How did we hear it? This place is like one huge crater. Sound can't travel through walls" Cloud shrugged his shoulders; his attention going forward again.
"It could act like a huge echo too. We can worry about that later. Let's mosey, big time" Cloud began jogging once more. Tifa rolled her eyes and slapped Aeris' shoulder.
"Good point, but he's right. Besides, why would someone shoot a gun just to draw attention to this place" Tifa finished getting her gloves fixed and ran behind Cloud. Thunder crashed like a symbol in the sky. Aeris gripped her staff harder and began to jog behind both of them. "Oh god" Tifa stopped suddenly and looked off to the left. She changed her direction and ran over towards a small building that was left.
"What is it?" Cloud stood still and watched Tifa running over. "What's going on now?" Cloud held the Ultimate Weapon in one hand and tapped it off the ground. Tifa stopped at the front of the building.
"Oh god guys, this person is dead...I think it was a person. It may be people. Oh my god, guys!" Tifa stopped near the building then stepped back away from the building. At the bottom of the building was a mass of humanity. It could have been pieces of numerous humans or just one mangled up; an arm and a leg stuck out from the mass but the rest seemed to be one huge mass. The whole area was washed in blood; pieces of brain matter were scattered in the sea of red. Aeris stopped behind Tifa and covered her mouth with her left hand. She spun around and looked down at the ground; gags emitting from her mouth. Cloud strolled over but the calm-ness in his step was gone.
"Shit. Shit. Alright, let's go! We gotta find whatever is doing this and kill it. Now" Cloud sprinted away towards the sound of the rocket launcher. Tifa balled her fists up.
"Damn it, he's right" With that, she was sprinting behind him once more. Aeris looked at the mass of humanity sprayed across the wall. Gasping for a breathe, she put her hand over her heart and held her head downwards. With that taken care of, she went running after the others. Cloud came to a stop; in the distance stood what seemed to be a man in a long black trenchcoat with a rocket launcher in his hand. Cloud grinned and dropped his sword downwards in front of him.
"Hey buddy! Hey, don't get alarmed" Cloud called out. The thunder shook the air above him; the clouds even shook from the force of it. What seemed to be a man turned around to face them. It's body was shaped like a human being: Two arms and two legs extended from the body. The resemblance to a man ended there. The body was huge; it carried at least 400 pounds and stood at least eight feet tall; the whole thing looked like a marble statue come to life. Cloud could now see the rocket launcher was not being carried but was actually at the end of the arm. The face appeared to have come from an abstract painting; it had more stitches than a needle-work project and seemed more stretched than bread dough. Cloud took a step backwards as Tifa and Aeris came up to his sides; their movement stopped at once.
"Found our-"
"Boom!" The word came out of the monster's mangled mouth like a death-call; the rocket came flying out of the launcher to achieve that death. Everyone jumped to the ground as the rocket whizzed by and flew into the crater wall in the distance.
"What is that thing?" Aeris screamed as she got to her feet. Cloud got to one knee and saw a very unsetting site; the monster running right towards them; it's huge booted feet smashing into the pavement, cracking it more than once. Cloud jumped to his feet and ran forward at the monster.
"Tifa, wait for an opening. Aeris, materia attack at first chance..." Cloud called out. As the monster neared, Cloud leapt into the air and held his sword up high. As he fell, so did the sword. The monster calmly held the rocket launcher up; the sword bounced off it without even denting it. As Cloud's feet hit the ground, the beast's huge hand smashed into his chest. Sword falling from his hand, Cloud bounced backwards off the ground. Tifa replaced Cloud in the monster's face; her fist flying at its face with great speed. With even greater speed the monster ducked down and grabbed Tifa around the waist. Tifa gasped for breathe as the monster grasped her tighter. She swung at the monster's face with her fists; two misses were followed by a direct right to the face. Tifa pulled her hand away and stared at it.
"You're like a rock...ahh!" She screamed as the hand crushed her body even more. She felt it release when Cloud slammed his sword right into the monster's left side. And while the blade cut into the trenchcoat, the body of the monster was cut-free. Tifa fell to the ground and instantly lunged back up and punched the rock-like jaw of the monster. It stumbled backwards a step then slammed its rocket launcher into Cloud's left shoulder and kept going until Cloud hit into Tifa. Both tumbled backwards and fell onto the ground.
"Fire 2!" Aeris called out as a bolt of materia-charged fire flung off her staff and hit the monster. It's growl caused her to take a step back, but she shook her head to regain her composure. After the fire died down, she could see that all she had down was burnt some of his jacket. The monster rushed forward at her; it's body hurtling like a boulder in a landslide. "Oh goodness..." She turned around and tried running away, but tripped after a step and meet the ground face-first. She pushed to her knees and spun her neck around. Seeing how close the monster was, Aeris spun her staff around and right into the monster's leg; the sudden-ness of it caused the monster to stumble forward. Aeris got to her feet and rammed the monster's knee with her whole body. Aeris stumbled back farther than the monster did. Aeris got to her feet and awaited another charge.
"Oh no you don't!" The Ultimate Weapon slammed into the monster's back. Cloud pulled the sword back and blocked the rocket launcher that was aimed at his head. Tifa ran up beside them and jump-kicked the monster in the upper-chest. Once again, the monster stumbled backwards but refused to fall.
"Lightning 2!" And the monster was hit with bolts of lightning flying off the Princess Guard in its back. The monster growled and turned towards her. "Come on big boy!" Aeris called out, wavering her left hand towards her. Cloud grinned and swung his sword at the monster's rocket launcher arm. The monster spun the other way; its huge palm smashed into Cloud's face as he swung. "How'd he know?" Aeris cried out.
"No time to wonder" Tifa grabbed the huge hand and used it to leap into the air. The soles of her boots grazed the monster's face. "Oh sh-" The monster flung its arm down and let her go flying in the air. Her palms hit the ground and she pushed off to her feet in one graceful move. Without wasting a second, she burst back towards her enemy. To the monster's surprise, Tifa rolled forward onto the ground and sprung, feet-first, at the monster. Her feet hit its chest at the exact moment Cloud slammed his shoulder into the monster's back. The monster just stood still; it was like two flies landed on it. Tifa rolled away from it and got to her feet. "This is crazy! It's like attacking a moving statue!" With that, Cloud lunged into the air and slammed his sword into the monster's left side. The monster tried to regain its balance but Tifa ran up and kicked the same spot that Cloud had hit. The monster once again stumbled a few steps.
"It won't fall...!" Cloud tried hard to keep the sword steady in his hands. Soon the girls were standing beside him; all their eyes glued on the monster. The monster roared loudly; its arms flung down to its sides.
"We got to find a weakness. It has to have one. Right?" Aeris took a step behind Cloud. The skies above them clouded over; darkness now covered the area as the sun was blocked out. Tifa cracked her right knuckles in her hand.
"Yeah, it has to...we better attack before it fires another rocket" Tifa crouched down into her fighting stance. Cloud ran forward; the sword over his head. "He never likes to plan!" Tifa screamed as she raced behind him. The monster held its rocket launcher up and growled. Cloud sprinted forward and slammed his sword into the launcher; the rocket flew out at that moment and harmlessly flew the other way. Cloud spun around and jumped in the air; his sword aimed right at the monster's neck. Instead of hitting the neck; he hit the monster's arm. Cloud planted his feet and drove the sword into the monster's arm even harder. The rocket launcher came swinging towards his body; but Tifa jumped into the blow; her arms raised up to block it. "Umph!" Came out of her mouth as she fell backwards onto the ground from the force of the attack.
"Tifa! Damnit; Aeris, hit it-" Cloud was interrupted when the monster moved its arm upwards; Cloud fell forward into a huge jumping knee from the monster. Cloud dropped his sword and groaned; that groan ended when the open palm slammed into his face and knocked him to the ground.
"Ice 2" Aeris screamed from the distance. The streams of ice hit the monster, who momentarily was frozen. "Yes! Found a-" The monster broke the ice off and glared at her. "Oh no!" Aeris took a step backwards as the monster roared and rushed towards her. She gulped and held her staff up with as much bravery as fear. "Come on...!" Aeris reared back and swung the staff at the beast. The monster did not slow down; it grabbed Aeris and kept running. Aeris tried yanking her arms free but in vain. "Let me go-!" Aeris cried out.
"Aeris!" Cloud got to his feet and went running towards them. Tifa shook the cob-webs out of her head and ran behind Cloud. The beast roared and threw Aeris towards the ground; her petite body bounced off the ground and rolled into the cliff side. The monster turned and calmly held its rocket launcher towards Cloud.
"Boom!" And then the rocket came flying towards him. Cloud and Tifa both stopped and stared; their bodies frozen in fear. Then, a silver light filled the darkness and the rocket exploded in front of them. Tifa grabbed Cloud and jumped to the ground as the explosion wave rushed over them. The monster looked upwards at the cliff above Aeris; she looked at the explosion and then upwards as well. Her green eyes went wide as she saw a human missile jumping off the mid-way point of the cliff.
"Phoenix!" Aeris called out. The teenager flipped his body over and rammed into the monster back-first. Finally, the monster's back hit the ground as Phoenix landed on top of it. He quickly rolled backwards and stood in front of Aeris. "Phoenix...how'd you get here?"
"I'm here with a search party from Junon. Well, I was..." Phoenix's staff appeared in his hand as he hunched down into his fight stance. "That thing is like cement" Aeris ran up beside him and nodded.
"Yeah, we've found that out...in fact, I think you hurt..." As she began to finish her sentence, the monster roared and got to its feet with ease. It then reared its head back and roared again. "I guess not" Aeris looked down on the ground; her staff was laying beside where the monster stood. Then, it rushed forward again. Phoenix reached over and pushed Aeris to the side.
"Move" Phoenix ran forwards towards the monster. As he neared it, he used his staff as a pole vault; he lunged over top of the monster. As he flew over top of the beast, he put his left hand down and fired a silver blast right into the back of its head. The monster staggered forward; Phoenix landed and instantly turned around. His staff disappeared as his wrists went twisting all around. Finally, he formed a diamond shape with his fingers. "Burning Attack!" The ball of energy flung off his hands and slammed into the beast; hurtling it back into the cliff wall.
"Keep firing. You're hurting it!" Aeris pulled her staff of the ground and rounded up behind Phoenix. "Fire 2" Aeris spun her staff around and sent a wave of fire onto it; the beast roared even louder. Phoenix held up both his hands.
"Get ready to run..." With that, balls of silver energy flung off his hands and at the monster. But instead of hitting the monster, they slammed right into it the man-made cliffs behind it. The blasts began to shake the cliffs. Phoenix bent down a bit as the blasts come off his hands faster.
"What? You're missing...wait..." Aeris smirked when it dawned on her. "Collapse the cliff onto him. Avalanche it on him. Ironic" Aeris took a step back and watched. The blasts dented into the cliff and began to shake the wall. The whole cliff caved in at once; the pieces of building began to cover the monster like snow covering a tree stump. Phoenix stopped blasting when the beast disappeared; the cliff now a sloppy hill of cement and broken glass.
"Well, isn't this a coincidence?" Tifa took her steps with ease. She stood right beside Aeris and stared at the landslide that covered up their enemy. "You know, we could of handled it" Tifa glared over at Phoenix; his mis-matched eyes were still locked onto the avalanche he created.
"I'm not certain. I'm assuming that is the monster that killed all the people who came here" Phoenix kept his eyes forward. Aeris tilted her head towards him and blinked.
"How'd you know about the lost group from Kalm?" Aeris tapped his leg with her staff and grinned at him. Phoenix finally turned his head towards them.
"Kalm? No, I'm talking about the search party I came with from Junon" Phoenix mentioned as he crossed his arms. Cloud walked up beside Phoenix and gave the new hillside a look.
"Well, look who showed up; must of missed us" Cloud grinned and smacked Phoenix's shoulder. Aeris' eyes went wide when she saw Phoenix smirk and rub his shoulder.
"Well, the thought had crossed my mind...I came here to see if I could find information about myself. Reeve had numerous files, but there is still a lot of information lacking about me" Phoenix faced the hill once again; his arms locked and crossed over his body.
"So you took my advice, then? Good...now what was this about a party from Junon?" Cloud questioned.
"Yeah, so Kalm isn't the only city sending people here?" Tifa tapped her foot a few times.
"I assume not. I only came for the ride; I do not even recall talking to any of the men in the group. I assume their purpose was to scout out a location to set up a base" Phoenix explained. Aeris looked over at Tifa then gave Cloud a quick glance.
"You guys ok? Feel alright? That thing threw you two around more than me" Aeris asked with a touch of concern. Cloud let out a laugh.
"I'll be fine; just need some rest. Tifa, you gonna be good?" Cloud turned his attention towards her; she muttered something under her breathe and rubbed her arm. "Can you repeat that? I didn't hear you?" Cloud asked again.
"I'll be ok...so you gonna leave now Phoenix?" Tifa spat out; her brown eyes wanting to look at anything but him. But that is where they were stuck; dead on him. Aeris grabbed at his right arm and looked up.
"Oh, come on, stick around! I've been dying to talk to you!" Aeris pleaded. Tifa bite her lip and turned away from him now.
"I bet he got stuff to deal with..." Tifa huffed out.
"I suppose I can spend some time with you; dark is coming and I think it would be safe to wait until morning to search" Phoenix answered. Aeris rested her staff against her body and clapped happily. Cloud let out yet another laugh and looked at the hillside.
"Well, since it looks like a storm is coming anyways, let's go...shit..." Cloud looked down at the ground. "We left all the gear back at the entrance of the city" Cloud kicked a rock away.
"Scout team brought plenty of supplies. I bet some survived the attacks...in any case, I believe it would be wise if we left this area" Phoenix noted. Everyone nodded agreement and turned away from the hillside. A few moments later, when they were out of range, the hillside began to shift ever-so-slightly.
"This is the place..." Ray walked inside the boarded-up building. There were no lights on; the only light that entered the building snuck through the cracks of the boards. The old floorboards moaned as Ray and Billy walked across them. In the darkness, both could make out a figure standing there. "Overton...that you?" Ray called out.
"You two are bumbling fools. Reeve is still alive" The voice came through the darkness like a knife.
"Well, hell, he had that kid!" Billy spurted out. Overton stepped forward; his expense loafers gliding across the floorboards.
"Put him on a leash Raymond. The kid is gone. He went to Midgar. Hopefully, he will not return. Even if he does, it will not be for a few days. So my advice to you two is to kill Reeve before the next town meeting. Which is in a week. So again; my advice is to kill him soon. Or else-"
"Hold on a second! Or else what? If you got people who are gonna kill us, why not kill Reeve yourself!" Billy screamed as he stepped forward towards Overton.
"Shut the fuck up Billy!" Ray screamed and grabbed Billy's right shoulder; Billy shrugged him off and stomped his foot."Keep your mouth shut-"
"Oh fuck him Ray! He just wants someone to blame when we kill Reeve! If he had his people do it-"
"They would know it came from me. As opposed to hiring you two out and having you do it. You both want out of Junon. I am offering the means to that. And in return, you will do something I want done. If you'd like to be buried in here however..." Overton snapped his fingers. From the darkness came four men; armed with assault rifles. Two guns were aimed at each of them. Ray walked in front of Billy and pushed him back with one hand.
"Alright...listen Overton, we're gonna take care of this. I promise; I assure you!" Ray pleaded. Billy gulped and balled his fists up.
"I hope you do boys. This is the last time we will be speaking. If you succeed, you will receive payment. If you fail...punishment will be served" With that, Overton and his guards went back into the darkness. Billy went forward and put his arm in the air.
"Yeah, well-"
"Shut up!" Billy grabbed him and covered his mouth. "Listen to me. Keep your mouth shut. And let's go! We got to do this so we can get the hell out of here!"
"Hey, you can go to sleep now" Cloud yawned as he walked out of the tent. He walked over to where a old house had been; now it was a pile of rubble. Phoenix stood in a crouch position on top of the pile; he looked like a giant frog with a silver head.
"Very well" Phoenix jumped off the pile with grace and landed next to Cloud in a crotch position. He stood up in one easy manner. "I have a hunch that monster is not left over from the old experiments"
"Well, I'd thought about it myself. Pretty odd that we found one super-monster out here. One that seems to be designed to stop people like us from looking around"
"Especially in a confined area. It is also the only monster I've seen since I've been back here. And I do not recall any the last time I was here. Anything else odd about it?" Phoenix crossed his arms and looked around the area.
"Well, he had a rocket launcher for one. I'm not sure how much of the fight you saw, but he seemed to learn our tactics as we fought. A couple times, he blocked an attack that he had no right to. But Boomer did-"
"Boomer?"
"Well, I'm sick of calling him monster. So he's Boomer"
"Very well. So he was adjusting to you as you fought him. I saw very little of the fight; I did hear the missile fire. When I returned, I saw you battling it. I attacked when I could do the most damage" Phoenix stopped his neck; his gaze was set forward into the darkness.
"Jumping at him may not have been smart; he was built like a truck" Cloud chuckled. Phoenix looked over at him; his eyes and lips were set in stone; a soft stone but stone none-the-less.
"I was unaware of that. I felt like I rammed into a tree" Phoenix let out a nervous chuckle; the type of nervousness exhibited when a boy asks a girl out for the first time. Cloud grinned and smacked his shoulder.
"Glad you showed up though. We were having a hard time with Boomer...you know, your sister really wants to talk to you" Cloud switched gears; he knew Aeris wanted nothing more than to talk to her brother. And while they had spoken a few times while they set up the camp, they did not share a nice conversation. The wind gently pushed the dark clouds through the night sky; no stars were out dancing tonight.
"I wish to speak to her. I'm just not sure of what to say...I lack in these situations" The teen confessed. He crossed his hands and held his jacket to his body. His head went from looking forward to looking down.
"Look Phoenix, sometimes it's hard to talk to someone. Aeris has never had the chance to talk to another Cetra. Plus, you're her brother...her dad was killed when she was weeks old. And I know her mom didn't raise her. So she never had any blood relatives around. So this is new to her too" Cloud explained. He held his tongue and watched the boy; he knew it was a good deal of information to absorb at once. Phoenix looked up; the emotionless son of Sephiroth had vanished. And Cloud could see why Aeris wanted to know her brother; his eyes glazed over and his lip trembling from nerves.
"Perhaps she will not want a brother after she talks with me-"
"Nonsense! You know how much she talks about you? Trust me here; you cannot disappoint her!" Cloud chimed confidently. Phoenix's nerves were gone; that glazed look a thing of the past.
"Very well, I'll take your word on it. I need to rest now" Phoenix turned away from Cloud and walked towards the tent.
"Hey, thanks kid...we'd never been able to beat Boomer without you back there" Cloud called out. Phoenix stopped at the entrance to the tent and turned around. Cloud leaned against the rubble pile and looked out at the dead streets of Midgar.
"Thank you" By the time Cloud turned back to see Phoenix, he was in the tent. Cloud grinned and looked back out at the dead city.
"Welcome" He muttered under his breath and watched the nothingness that occurred.
