Cloud woke up and got up from the floor, while Tifa was still fast asleep on the bed. They were still in the prison cell and as Cloud looked around, he found to his amazement and surprise that the door in the cell was open.
"The door's open? When did it open?" asked Cloud, surprised.
Cloud quickly ran out the room and he found to his great surprise that the guard outside the three rooms was dead.
He was covered in deep, bloody wounds and gouges that ran down from his head to his feet, blood was splattered everywhere, and his wounds were so deep that even his bones were showing beneath the tattered flesh.
Feeling sick, Cloud also saw that the steel walls had deep, huge slashes through them, as though they had been sliced as easily as warm butter.
They were many cracks and holes in the walls too. Cloud stared in amazement, horror and disbelief, feeling a nasty chill of fear down his spine.
"What happened?" gasped Cloud, surprised and stunned.
With a big gulp, he ran back into the room where Tifa was still sleeping.
"Tifa, wake up!" shouted Cloud.
Tifa awoke, yawning sleepily and looked up at Cloud, and she was suddenly alert when she saw the horrified expression on Cloud's face.
"What's wrong?" asked Tifa, concerned.
"Something's wrong. Very wrong. Take a look outside," replied Cloud.
They both ran out of the room and they ran to the dead guard. Tifa's eyes widened in surprise as she gasped in horror, and Cloud could tell that she was as horrified, sickened, and terrified as he was.
"Oh my god. What happened?" asked Tifa, surprised.
"I don't know what happened here, but this could be our chance to escape. He should have the key on him," said Cloud.
Cloud reluctantly searched the blood-filled pockets and quickly took the key from the dead guard.
"Tifa, you go and help Aeris. I'll help Barret and Red XIII," said Cloud.
Tifa nodded, took a key and opened the left cell and ran into the room to help Aeris, while Cloud opened the right cell with the other key and he ran into the room to help Barret and Red XIII.
They both stared at him in astonishment when he ran into the cell, both of them startled.
"Barret, Red XIII, come with me. Something's wrong," said Cloud, quickly.
"What the hell's going on, Cloud? What the heck are ya doing in here? How did ya get in? Why is the door open?" asked Barret, bewildered and suspicious.
"There's no time to explain. Just come on," replied Cloud, shortly and urgently.
They all ran out the room towards the dead guard. Barret and Red XIII could see as easily as Cloud and Tifa that the dead guard was covered with bloody, horrible wounds.
They both stared at the sight before them, their eyes wide and their mouths open in shock.
"What the hell's going on!? Who the heck could have done this!?" shouted Barret, alarmed.
Red XIII looked very grim.
"There is no possible way that a mere human could have ever done this. I'll go on ahead to scout the area," said Red XIII, and he ran along the 67th floor.
Barret turned to face Cloud.
"This is sure looking pretty bad. If there is an enemy like this in the building, then we don't know what the hell to expect here. I guess we had best try and find out what the hell happened in this place. I can handle a group of enemies by myself, so I'll stay back here. You go with the girls and follow Red XIII, but make sure that you're prepared for anything. I'll clean up back here, so you guys just go ahead. And don't get caught by Shinra," warned Barret.
Cloud nodded, walked into the other cell and walked over to Tifa and Aeris who were both talking about what had just happened.
Aeris looked shocked at the news, while Tifa turned to face Cloud when he had come in. Cloud walked up to them.
"All right you two, come with me. We are going to follow Red XIII, and try to figure out what happened here," explained Cloud. They both nodded.
"Okay Cloud, but what do we do afterwards?" asked Aeris, curiously.
"I don't know yet, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Chances are that nobody is around anymore, but keep your weapons poised, and do not be afraid to use them. Whatever did this could still be lurking here," warned Cloud.
"Come on, let's follow Red XIII," said Tifa.
Cloud, Tifa and Aeris walked out the room and they followed Red XIII to the Science Department, while Barret hurled the dead guard's bloody remains and limbs into one of the cells and locked it up with the keys, threw the keys away afterwards and bounded after the others.
Red XIII bounded down the hallway, wrinkling his nose and sneezing. What on earth could leave such a horrible stench? It smelled of death, decay, fear, and anger, all rolled up into one sharp, bitter smell.
He had seen and experienced his fair share of brutal battles, but even they were nothing compared to this.
Shinra's strongest and most elite First Class SOLDIERS had all been killed and tossed aside like they were no more than rag dolls, seeing their dead remains lie scattered all over the floor, which was now a deep, crimson red, as their blood had spread all over the floor.
The trail went right, and Red XIII went into Hojo's lower laboratory area. Cloud noticed immediately, in horror, that the 'Jenova' cage was completely trashed.
The door of the cage now lay in a twisted, mangled heap of metal, halfway across the room, marked again by several deep slash marks.
The purple fluid that had kept Jenova in stasis was all over the floor in a bright puddle that made Cloud's head spin dizzily, mixed along with the blood of the lab assistant who laid not too far from the wreckage, dead and covered with many horrible, bloody wounds.
"(Did it get away? Jenova? Is that what did this?)" thought Cloud, horrified.
Staring thoughtfully at the wreckage, Red XIII seemed to be busy pondering the very same thing.
"Jenova…Looks like it went to the upper floor using the elevator floor for the specimens. I do think that Jenova went up too, but judging by the fact that the creature was headless, I'm guessing that someone…or something…helped it. And I'm guessing the one who helped it was the one who caused all this destruction," explained Red XIII.
Red XIII quickly led the others up the elevator to the lab area on the next floor, where the carnage only got even worse.
More and more of the First Class, Second Class and the Third Class commanders lay dead in piles at every few feet, with looks of unbelieving horror glued to their pale, mangled faces.
Cloud would have bet anything that the entire building looked and smelled like a flaming morgue.
Red XIII suddenly hissed and dropped into a fighting stance. The others all prepared their weapons and watched the encroaching shadows, bewildered when nothing seemed to stir.
"Red XIII, what's wrong?" asked Aeris, bewildered.
"The smell that I am receiving is that of some of my tribe. But they have been altered and mutated by Hojo. I can smell the Jenova cells in them! Better be prepared. We should be perfectly capable of taking these creatures down. They're too weak to cause this much destruction, but we better be on the lookout," said Red XIII.
The group formed a cross formation so that none of them had their backs exposed. Silently they moved in unison towards the walls and suddenly a loud roar sounded.
Fixing the direction of the sound the group broke formation and stood in a line. Crouched before them were three lion like creatures.
Only now their manes were of dark fur, their faces covered in scars from numerous incisions and decaying strips of flesh hung from their mouths.
Red XIII howled a war cry and dived at one of the creatures. Slashing his deadly razor sharp claws across one of the creatures, Red XIII soon split the thing in half with his claws, killing it instantly.
Cloud unleashed his sword and charged at another creature that had leapt towards him. The pair of them crossed mid-air. The creature had cut Cloud deep; Cloud had cut the creature deeper, killing it instantly.
As Cloud clutched the wound in his chest he watched the other creature, the long tear opened, and split the dead creature into two pieces.
The final creature, meanwhile, had rounded on Aeris and Tifa, who had both long since decided to team up against the creature.
Aeris gracefully spun towards the left side of the creature and brought her staff down upon the centre of its skull, and as the creature stumbled, Tifa jumped into the air and slammed the heel of her foot into the spine of the lion-like beast.
The creature had been hit a lot and was now merely limping on its legs, but Tifa decided to finish it off, just in case it posed any more threat.
Running up to the creature, she grabbed hold of its neck, and pushed them both towards the floor.
Using the force of the motion, she twisted at the creature's throat with all her strength and it soon snapped, killing the creature instantly. Carefully, she hauled herself from the floor and faced the group.
"Let's keep moving, in case any more of them arrive," said Tifa. All of them nodded and continued along the path.
However, Cloud dropped to one knee at the door to the stairwell and groaned, pulling his hand from his side they noticed the wound.
Aeris lay him down and carefully lifted his shirt.
"Does anyone have a Restore Materia?" asked Aeris.
Tifa tossed one towards her, which Aeris gracefully caught, deciding to use the Materia this time instead of unnecessarily using up her own healing abilities.
Applying this Materia to her staff, Aeris brought up the waves of green light and used her abilities. The green energy felt great to Cloud and the pain began to diminish.
The others though watched as the wound began to close, and finally be totally clean with no mark left upon his body whatsoever.
Tifa, along with everyone else, was amazed.
"I heard that the Restore spells merely granted more energy, and that for deep cuts, you must use a traditional approach, so how come you managed that?" asked Tifa, curiously. Aeris just shrugged.
"I've always been strong magically, plus I study and read carefully about the subject of Materia. Every Materia has a simple spell that anyone can pull off, however, they also have extremely well hidden, more powerful spells, that only someone with true knowledge of Materia can access," explained Aeris.
"Amazing, I doubt that Shinra had been prepared for an attack from a group so few in number that possesses such great skills," said Tifa. Cloud got up and he shook his head.
"You are a martial artist, and yet here you are ignoring the one rule that governs any form of combat. The number one rule of combat is that you should never ever underestimate your opponent. Maybe the Shinra did anticipate it. They might have a lot of elite martial artists and soldiers that we haven't seen or encountered before, understand? So we'd still better be careful," said Cloud. Tifa nodded.
"You're right. Come on, let's go," said Tifa.
The trail led even further upstairs to the floor beneath the president's office, where more office workers lay dead where they had stood probably no more than an hour ago.
The entire building was deathly still and silent, not a thing even dared to stir. The only sound Cloud heard was his own heart beating in fear and tension inside his chest. More than once, Cloud caught himself holding his breath and tensing, as if expecting a heavy blow from behind at any moment.
They quickly walked upstairs to the 68th floor and they went along the 68th floor and they came to the stairs. They then went up the stairs to the 69th floor and they went to another set of stairs, which led to the 70th floor.
More people were lying dead on the floor and there was still a long trail of blood along the floor.
Cloud, Tifa, Aeris and Red XIII walked up the stairs to the 70th floor. Cloud, Tifa and Aeris followed Red XIII up the stairway to the 70th floor and Cloud quickly burst through the doors into the president's office with his sword raised and held tightly in his hand, ready for any sudden attack.
None came, but an even bigger shock did.
President Shinra was still on his throne-like chair, but he was slumped onto his desk and had a very long, sharp sword stabbed in his back.
President Shinra was dead.
Then suddenly, Barret arrived and ran into the room, aiming his gun-arm as if excepting an attack, and then he also spotted President Shinra's dead, mutated and bloody body, and stared with shock and amazement, lowering his gun-arm.
"He's dead. The leader of Shinra Incorporated himself is dead. I don't believe it. The bastard is actually dead," said Barret, in disbelief, stunned.
But Cloud wasn't staring at the dead president, or taking any notice of Barret's words. He was staring at the long sword that was stabbed in the President's back.
He had seen that sword before.
Cloud instantly recognised the sword, and he knew exactly who the owner of that sword was.
Cloud stared at the sword with disbelief and shock, now starting to tremble uncontrollably with fear and horror, his heart beating wildly inside his chest in terror as his eyes widened in fear and realisation.
"(It…it can't be him. It can't be. He's dead. I saw him die)," thought Cloud, horrified, and panicking.
Cloud turned around to the others who all looked bewildered and stunned, but Cloud saw that Tifa looked just as horrified as he was, and knew that the same thought must have occurred to her as well.
"Then this sword must be…!" gasped Tifa, suddenly, realising the same thing as Cloud.
"Sephiroth's!! Sephiroth must have done this!" shouted Cloud, shocked, and terrified.
Everyone gasped in surprise.
Barret turned to face Cloud, staring at him sharply.
"Sephiroth? Isn't that lunatic supposed to be dead or something?" asked Barret, surprised.
"Sephiroth is still alive?" gasped Tifa, in disbelief.
Cloud nodded and gulped, he really didn't want to believe it, but he knew that there was just simply no way could not be Sephiroth.
Only Sephiroth was strong enough to use that sword, the Masumane, and only he could burst into the Shinra building and slaughter all those people without even breaking a sweat, and without even the slightest bit of remorse.
"Looks like it. Only Sephiroth can use that sword," replied Cloud, who was still in shock, and did not want to believe that Sephiroth was back.
Not after what happened the last time he saw Sephiroth…five years ago…
"Who cares who did it? This is the end of Shinra now!" declared Barret, excited.
"Barret, SHUT UP! You don't know what you're talking about! Sephiroth is many thousands of times more evil and deadly than Shinra!" snapped Cloud, angrily.
But just then, Aeris suddenly spotted Palmer hiding behind one of the pillars in the room, and gasped in surprise, making everyone else notice Palmer.
Palmer yelped in fear and he tried to run past them, but Cloud and Barret quickly caught him by the arms, and Palmer couldn't move.
"P-Please…p-please don't kill me, begged Palmer, terrified, his eyes wide with terror, and his fat, round face was absolutely lived with fear.
"What happened?" demanded Cloud, roughly.
"I-It was him. S-Sephiroth came," replied Palmer, shakily.
"But that's impossible! Sephiroth is dead!" shouted Cloud, still not ready to face the cold truth.
"Oh no, he's far from dead. Sephiroth is alive. He came in here himself, and he assassinated the president," said Palmer.
"Did you see Sephiroth?" asked Cloud.
"Yeah, I saw him with my own eyes," said Palmer.
"Did you really saw him?" asked Cloud, suspiciously.
"Hey, would I lie to you at a time like this? And I heard his voice too. He was saying something about not letting us have the Promised Land," explained Palmer, trembling.
"So does that mean that the Promised Land really does exist after all, and that Sephiroth's here to save it from Shinra?" asked Tifa.
"So does that mean he's a good guy then? That he's on our side?" asked Barret.
Cloud snarled in anger and he gave Barret a very nasty look as his fists clenched.
"Save the Promised Land!? A good guy!? Not likely! No way! It's not that simple! I know him! Sephiroth's mission is different! He's not on our side, believe me! I've seen and known him before! He's pure evil! He's only trying to stop Shinra from finding the Promised Land, because if he doesn't, it will interfere with his own evil plans!" snapped Cloud.
While they were distracted, Palmer quickly took the opportunity to escape, and managed to break free from their grasp, and ran frantically outside where a Shinra helicopter was arriving and landing.
A man with blond hair, dressed in a posh white suit, was suddenly getting out of the helicopter, and Palmer was explaining to him about what had just happened.
Barret's eyes widened in surprise, and he cursed angrily as he realised who the man was.
"Damn it! Rufus! I forgot all about him!" shouted Barret.
"Who's that?" asked Tifa.
"Vice president Rufus. The president's goddamn no-good monster of a son," replied Barret.
"I wonder what kind of person Rufus is," said Tifa.
"I don't know. But I've heard that no one has ever seen him bleed or cry," said Aeris.
"I heard that he's been assigned to the big city of Junon, far away from here, for a long time," said Barret.
"I only know his name," said Red XIII, shortly.
***************************************************************
Meanwhile, Palmer was beginning to Rufus explain about what had happened in the building.
Rufus Shinra was twenty-three years old, had blond hair and he wore a posh white suit that was not a bit out of place and he also wore posh black shoes. He had blue eyes, which were the colour of icicles and their expression was often as cold as them too. He wore posh black gloves and he was now the President and ruler of Shinra, which meant of course that he was now the ruler of the entire world. Rufus, however, was even more ruthless and cruel than even his father.
"Palmer, what happened? Where's my father?" asked Rufus, his voice and face devoid of all emotion.
"R-Rufus, your father…he's…he's dead. Sephiroth killed him," gasped Palmer, shaking in fear, completely terrified.
Rufus showed no emotion at all, not caring in the least.
"And did you actually see Sephiroth just now, Palmer?" asked Rufus, coolly.
"It was Sephiroth! I saw Sephiroth! And he said some stuff too! A lot of stuff!" said Palmer.
"Some stuff?" repeated Rufus, coldly, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah! He said stuff like about not letting us have the Promised Land. And AVALANCHE is here too!" said Palmer.
"Sephiroth said that?" asked Rufus, sharply.
"That's what I said! It was Sephiroth! He said Shinra's not getting the Promised Land," said Palmer.
"And AVALANCHE was here too?" asked Rufus.
"Yeah, they tried to steal the Ancient," replied Palmer.
"Where is Sephiroth? Is he still here?" asked Rufus.
"No, he…he disappeared. AVALANCHE is after me," gasped Palmer, looking behind his shoulder in fear, shaking and trembling more than ever.
Rufus frowned at him, disgusted by his cowardice.
"Get into the helicopter, Palmer. I'll take care of these hoodlums myself," said Rufus, sharply.
****************************************************************
Meanwhile, Cloud, Tifa, Aeris, Barret and Red XIII all ran outside and ran to Rufus and Palmer. Palmer was still explaining about what had just happened and about President Shinra's death. Rufus didn't seem to be upset at all.
In fact, by the look on his face, he couldn't care less.
Palmer ran away into the helicopter in fear when Cloud and the others arrived, but Rufus just stood and stared at them, without any fear, compassion or any emotion at all.
"So…who are you guys then? AVALANCHE…right?" asked Rufus, coldly.
"Damn straight! And don't you forget it!" snapped Barret, waving his fist angrily.
"I'm Cloud Strife. Former SOLDIER, first class, freelance mercenary," replied Cloud.
"I'm Barret Wallace! I'm the leader of AVALANCHE!" shouted Barret, raising his fist even more menacingly.
"I'm Tifa Lockhart, and I'm also from AVALANCHE," said Tifa, shortly.
"I'm Aeris Gainsborough, and I'm a flower girl from the slums of Midgar," said Aeris, quietly, not even daring to look Rufus in the face. It was his eyes. They were as cold and empty as glaciers.
"I am Red XIII, lion warrior and research specimen," said Red XIII, quietly. Rufus raised an eyebrow.
"Wow…what a ridiculous crew. Only one of you has any form of military experience, and another one of you is just a civilian. Just goes to show how incompetent the once glorious Shinra has become under the rule of my father. Well, I do applaud your courage, though. It does take a lot of guts to invade the Shinra Headquarters. Oh, how rude of me, allow me to introduce myself. I am Rufus Shinra. The new President of Shinra Incorporated," said Rufus.
"You're only President because ya old man died! And good riddance!" shouted Barret.
If Barret had been hoping to get Rufus angry, he would have been dreadfully disappointed. Rufus simply nodded, still as calm and casual as ever.
"Yes indeed, I must say that I agree with you on both counts. You must the leader of AVALANCHE. What a pity. If it hadn't been for you, Reno wouldn't have had to destroy Sector 7," said Rufus, coolly.
"Now wait just a minute! You're the ones who were scheming to blow up Sector 7 in the first place! You Shinra's are all alike!" snapped Tifa, angrily.
"For your information, I don't know what my father had ordered, but I had nothing to do with it," said Rufus, sharply.
"Bullshit! You were probably the one who ordered it to be done! And you're only president because ya old man bit the dust!" roared Barret.
"Yes, quite true. That's right. But I am still the new president of Shinra nonetheless. I'll even let you hear my new appointment speech. My old man tried to control the world with money, and that worked for him. Everyone thought he ran Shinra rather well. Or at least…that's how it seemed like from the outside. It was the perfect cover up. The population all thought that Shinra would protect them. Work at Shinra, get your pay, and if a terrorist attacks, the Shinra army will help you. It all looks perfect on the outside. But it costs far too much, you see. So I prefer to do things differently. I will control the world…with fear," explained Rufus.
He paused for a moment, looking around at them coldly, and then continued.
"It wastes far too much money to do it like my old man. A little fear will control the minds of the common people. There's no need to waste any money on pathetic creatures like them," explained Rufus, calmly.
Rufus laughed coldly for a moment and stopped moments later. Tifa glared at him, angrily.
"You like to make speeches. Just like your father. You're cold, did you know that!? How can you laugh like that, at a time like this, knowing that your own father is dead! Don't you even care!?" yelled Tifa, angrily.
Rufus looked at Tifa and then looked through the big, smashed window at President's Shinra's lifeless body, the Masumane sword still placed firmly in his back.
Rufus simply laughed coldly, and he turned back to Tifa.
"No, I don't care. I honestly don't give a damn about my father's death. And why should I? My father's death just means that I'll become the president of Shinra…and besides, my father was weak and had pitiful morals. If anything, I should thank Sephiroth. Thanks to him, I have finally become the ruler of the world, the wealthiest man on the entire Planet," said Rufus, sharply and coldly.
Cloud glared at Rufus, but Rufus just simply glanced at Cloud and raised an eyebrow, as cool and casual as ever. How Rufus could be so calm was beyond Cloud, but he supposed that it didn't matter now.
"As the new president of Shinra Incorporated, I officially place all of you under arrest. I'm afraid I have no other choice, but to have you all killed and executed," said Rufus, coolly.
Cloud quickly turned to face Barret, having realised that Sephiroth's attack on Shinra tonight linked back to the incident with Sephiroth five years ago.
"Get out of this building with Aeris!" ordered Cloud.
"What?" said Barret, surprised and taken aback.
"I'll explain later, Barret! This is the real crisis for the Planet!" shouted Cloud.
"The hell's that supposed to mean?" asked Barret, both bewildered and suspicious.
"Cloud, what are you going to do?" asked Aeris, anxiously.
"I'll tell you later! Just take my word for it now! I'll go right after I take care of Rufus!" shouted Cloud.
"Alright, Cloud. I don't know what the hell this is all about, but fine," said Barret, nodding, then he quickly ran off and the others followed him.
Tifa, Barret, Red XIII and Aeris all quickly made their way down to the 69th floor. Aeris suddenly stopped, looking worried, and the others turned to face her.
"Aeris, what the heck are you doing!?" yelled Barret.
"Cloud…I've just thought of something" said Aeris, uncertainly, not sure whether she should just leave Cloud by himself or not.
Tifa walked up to her, and nodded in understanding.
"Cloud doesn't want you to be in danger, Aeris. So I'll wait here for Cloud instead. I have to stay here. Cloud might need some help. You three get to the elevator now. Get out of this building," said Tifa.
"Alright, but be careful," said Aeris, and she ran off, while Barret and Red XIII followed her and Tifa stayed behind.
They reached the elevator and walked inside. Aeris pressed the button and the elevator started going down.
"Would you mind telling me what that the heck that was all about back there?" asked Barret.
"Tifa wants to stay. I can hardly stop her," said Aeris, shrugging.
Suddenly, without warning, a robot called the Hundred Gunner suddenly attacked them.
It had four wheels and two guns. It shot the glass from the elevator so it could attack them. It was on an elevator opposite them, its guns pointing straight at them.
"Damn it! Aeris, you got any bright ideas?" asked Barret.
"Yeah, don't fall off the edge of the elevator," replied Aeris.
Barret snorted in response.
Green light burst from the ground at Red XIII'S feet as a bolt of lightning appeared from the sky and struck the Hundred Gunner, stunning it a bit and slightly damaging its circuitry.
Without warning, the Hundred Gunner suddenly fired many bullets from its guns, straight at Red XIII as the bullets smashed through the elevator.
Red XIII quickly managed to leap up and dodge most of the bullets in time, but some of them still hit him and injured him severely, as Red XIII fell to the floor of the elevator, in pain from his bullet wounds.
Green light burst from the ground at Aeris's feet, as many flames appeared out of nowhere and struck the Hundred Gunner, but the flames seemed to have little effect on it.
Green light then burst from the ground at Barret's feet as many icicles appeared out of nowhere and struck the Hundred Gunner, piercing some of its armour.
Despite his wounds, red light suddenly burst from Red XIII's feet as he ran very quickly up to the Hundred Gunner, and he rammed into it hard, going straight through the middle of it, leaving a hole in it and damaging a lot of its circuitry.
One of the Hundred Gunner's arms suddenly exploded into pieces because of this, weakening the Hundred Gunner. Red XIII leaped back to the other elevator with Aeris and Barret, and then he suddenly collapsed from his wounds.
Seeing this, red light suddenly burst from the ground at Aeris' feet. She quickly spun her staff around quickly, several times, and she suddenly fully healed all of Red XIII'S bullet wounds with some magical energy.
Red XIII stared at her in surprise for a moment, never having seen these healing abilities of hers before, and was surprised that she trusted him now, but relieved in both aspects nonetheless.
Red XIII quickly got up and attacked, green light bursting from his feet as a bolt of lightning appeared out of the sky and struck the Hundred Gunner, damaging even more of its circuitry and weakening it.
The Hundred Gunner suddenly fired a lot of bullets from its remaining gun at Red XIII, Barret and Aeris. Barret shielded himself from the bullets using his gun-arm, the bullets just bouncing off it, while Red XIII quickly managed to dodge the bullets this time, and Aeris quickly blocked the bullets with her quarterstaff.
Green light then burst from the ground at Aeris's feet, as flames appeared out of nowhere, and struck the Hundred Gunner hard, destroying parts of its circuitry, and slowly burning up the rest of the circuitry inside it, severely weakening it.
Red light burst from the ground at Barret's feet as he charged up his gun, and fired a ball of blue energy at the Hundred Gunner, which took all the ammunition out of its gun.
The Hundred Gunner could no longer use its remaining gun, therefore the Hundred Gunner was now helpless and could no longer attack.
Aeris quickly reached for a Materia on her quarterstaff, green light bursting from the ground at her feet as the Materia glowed brightly. Flames appeared out of nowhere and struck the Hundred Gunner, burning some of its armour.
Green light burst from the ground at Red XIII'S feet as a bolt of lightning appeared out of the sky and struck the Hundred Gunner, stunning it for a long while, as the Hundred Gunner was almost destroyed.
Green light burst from the ground at Barret's feet as several icicles appeared out of nowhere and struck the Hundred Gunner, piercing and damaging more of its battered armour.
Green light burst from the ground at Red XIII'S feet as a bolt of lightning appeared from the sky and struck the Hundred Gunner, taking out a lot of its armour, and severely damaging it, as the Hundred Gunner was about to explode.
Aeris quickly reached for a Materia on her quarterstaff and grasped it as it glowed brightly, green light bursting from the ground beneath Aeris' feet. Flames appeared out of nowhere and struck the Hundred Gunner, going right through the hole in the middle of it and destroying all the circuitry inside, and setting the inside and the outside of it on fire.
The Hundred Gunner exploded, wiping out the elevator that it was on, and its burning remains fell with a crash to the ground at the bottom of the huge building, just in front of the main entrance.
Suddenly, another robot flew and hovered opposite them. It was a flying robot with helicopter-like propellers on the top of it and it had some guns on it as well.
It was called the Heli Gunner.
"Damn Shinra. Always making my life harder, ain't ya?" muttered Barret, with a snort.
The Heli Gunner fired its guns at Red XIII, but Red XIII just managed to dodge all the bullets in time as they thudded into the side of their elevator.
Green light burst from the ground at Barret's feet as several icicles appeared out of nowhere and struck the Heli Gunner, but it managed to break the icicles into pieces with its propellers, and therefore, it wasn't damaged.
Green light burst from the ground at Red XIII'S feet as a bolt of lightning appeared out of the sky and struck the Heli Gunner, giving it a big electric shot and damaging it badly.
Aeris quickly reached for her Materia once again as it glowed brightly, green light bursting from the ground at Aeris' feet. Flames appeared out of nowhere and struck the Heli Gunner, but they didn't seem to have much effect.
The Heli Gunner fired its guns at all of them, many bullets flying through the air towards each of them. Red XIII, Barret and Aeris managed to dodge and block some of them, but some other bullets hit them and shot them, giving them each a few bullet wounds, and they fell to the floor in pain and agony, all of them bleeding badly.
Although in pain, Aeris slowly got up, and red light burst from the ground at her feet as she quickly spun her staff around several times and she fully healed all of her wounds, Red XIII'S wounds, and Barret's wounds, so they were no longer wounded and were not hurt.
Green light burst from the ground at Red XIII'S feet as a bolt of lightning appeared from the sky and struck the Heli Gunner, blasting some of its guns off to pieces, and destroying a lot of its circuitry, weakening it badly.
The Heli Gunner fired its guns at Aeris, who wasn't able to avoid being shot this time. Some of the bullets hit Aeris and injured her badly, as she fell to the floor of the elevator.
Barret quickly reached for a Materia on his gun-arm and grasped it, green light bursting from the ground at his feet as it shone brightly. Icicles appeared out of nowhere and struck the Heli Gunner, piercing its armour and stabbing through it, severely damaging it, and nearly destroying it.
Green light burst from the ground at Red XIII'S feet as a bolt of lightning appeared from the sky and struck the Heli Gunner hard, giving it a huge electric shot and destroying all of its circuitry and armour.
The Heli Gunner suddenly exploded and was reduced to pieces, while Aeris healed her bullet wounds with her potions, helped by Red XIII and Barret, and she was soon fully healed and alright. Red XIII, Barret and Aeris were now all safe from harm in the elevator.