Chapter 9
Rinoa and Squall waved goodbye as the Ragnarok slowly lifted into the sky. They had promised to come see Sifan the next day as they were too busy too spend time with him. Initially, they had wanted Sifan to take a leave from his first day of SeeD but after what Quistis had told him about the Garden committee, he decided not to risk anything. Soon the Airship cruised out of the presidential residence's view.
The weather that had been agreeable all along began to turn its color. There were rumors of a thunderstorm near the Galbadian plains, but from the clouds that were starting to loom in the sky, it seemed like they were going to have one too. A huge thunder deafened the Ragnarok's occupants as it slowly veered around in the direction of the island of balamb.
Avatar sat dreamily behind the Pilot's seat in the cockpit, thinking of Tania. Since Tania was not a SeeD and was still a normal classman, she had to be in garden premises early. So she had left on the first trip the Ragnarok made to balamb after the party in Esthar. She had promised him lunch together the next day, hoping she could link up with Sifan in the process. Avatar, however, unaware of the intentions of the girl he had fallen for, was whistling romantic tunes he knew from the album of the 'wild chocobos' rock band.
Relafen sat the last seat, with his legs on the headrest of the seat before him, polishing his gunblade in his usual smug manner. Sifan stood behind Nida and watched him pilot the Ragnarok.
"Say..." Sifan broke the silence, "Can't we...uh...turbo warp?"
Nida shrugged, "Well, we could if we want to, but I've never really tried anything like that...without technical assistance..."
"Aw C'mon Nida..." Avatar said, "You know how to do it, right? Besides, you've been flying this thing for almost two decades."
Lighting struck a tree on the ground ahead of them and split it into two, as rain started to pour down heavily, almost thrashing the Ragnarok's exterior like metal bullets.
"The weather's not too friendly today, is it?" Sifan said looking at his watch, which showed 2 A.M.
"This is not good...." Nida said, "We haven't had a storm like this in years..."
Relafen got up, satisfied with the burnish on his gunblade, "So why don't we just turbo warp our goddamn asses to some nearby landing space..."
Nida opened a small control panel, which read, 'Turbo warp'. He punched in a few co-ordinates and sighed, "Yeah...I really can't see a thing. Its raining giant buckets."
Another thunder boomed across the hazy horizon. Sifan nodded in agreement, "Turbo warping somewhere safe is better than crashing into some mountain at 400 mph..."
"Alright..." Nida said, "here we-"
Before Nida's finger touched the 'confirm' button, a lightning bolt hammered the tail of the Ragnarok causing it to whirl frantically. Sifan shot out his right hand and grabbed a nearby seat and managed to secure himself as Avatar and Nida, with their seat belts on, received a hard jolt. Relafen, however, was unlucky enough to have forgotten his seat belt. The force, with which the Airship spun around, sent him flying backwards, flat against the cockpit door. His right elbow hit the steel hard, the shock causing him to trigger the gunblade in his hand. The bullet barely missed Sifan's face and crunched in to the turbo warp control panel.
The Ragnarok's engines were still on and the exhaust was pouting out flames. Sifan's eyes fell on the small screen on the turbo warp control panel. The co-ordinates display was going crazy, flashing all sorts of digits and symbols endlessly. Amidst the hassle of the Ragnarok still swirling wildly, Nida reached over to the control panel to close it but he received an electric shock as Relafen's bullet had revealed the circuitry. Before he knew it, the confirm button turned green and Ragnarok's turbo warp device started to zap rays wildly. To make matters worse, the Ragnarok 's left tail smashed into a mountain and was in flames, too strong to be wiped out by the raindrops.
"Shit..." Nida screamed, "The left tail is just above the fuel carrier...WE better get the hell outta here. Sifan, Relafen and Avatar...take a jet pack on the wall of the corridor, outside the door and head to the emergency exit, FAST! I'll follow you as soon as I put the emergency chutes on..."
The three of them didn't waste any time. They rushed outside and grabbed a jetpack each. They helped each other with the buckling of the straps as the Ragnarok continuously shook, almost knocking them off their feet.
"The emergency exit is just ahead...." Avatar said, "Follow me...."
Sifan looked back at Nida, frantically trying to get things in order. He had managed to activate the emergency chutes and the Ragnarok stayed wobbly but un-accelerated. Sifan wished him luck and hurried to the emergency exit. Avatar smashed open the emergency exit as an avalanche of wind and water lashed against their faces. Relafen jumped outside, activating the jetpack flare as soon as he was in the air. Avatar followed and turned around hovering in the air, "Sifan...jump out dammit!"
[I hope Nida 'll make it...]
Sifan sighed and jumped out.
The three of them stayed in the air, waiting for Nida. Suddenly, the turbo warp gun went berserk again and began to shoot rays, opening up bright blue rectangular portals everywhere it shot. As if to target the three SeeDs, the wind harshly changed direction. It blew the chutes to the right, turning the Ragnarok's head straight towards Sifan, Relafen and Avatar.
"Damn!" Relafen screamed. Before they could steer themselves out of danger, rays from the turbo-warp gun shot through the rain and engulfed all three of them, blinding them with it's dazzling blue light.
Sifan felt his body freeze without sensation, his head becoming unsteady. He felt his jetpack die out with a flicker. The next thing he knew, a strange sense of falling came over him, like he fell into a pit of perpetuity. All around him, there was only darkness, but he kept falling. He didn't see Relafen or Avatar. He tried to move, but his nerves didn't seem to respond to his brain, the numbness spreading to his neck. As he continued to fall, his consciousness began to fade away and everything went pitch black.
**************
Sifan Leonhart opened his eyes; his head feeling like someone had put a knife through it.
"Ow...." He said clutching his head, "w-what h-happened...?"
Avatar Fenis' feet crunched the pieces of twig lying near Sifan.
"We got turbo warped to some forest...that's all..." he said pulling Sifan to his feet.
"Ugh...God, my head..." Sifan said looking at the trees packed so densely that they hardly seemed to allow even air to enter. Avatar Fenis stood near him, dusting himself and pulling a leaf out of his hair. Sifan looked at his coat, it was torn at a few places, seemingly from scraping against trees.
"Hey...I think we fell from quite a height..." Sifan said looking at the broken jetpack lying on the ground, "How come we didn't even break a cartilage?"
"Beats me..." Avatar replied looking at the scratches on his elbow, "Maybe the trees broke our fall...I don't know..."
"Where the hell is Relafen...?" Sifan said looking around, "Not that I care...but heck, he did fall with us..."
"Take a look at that..." Avatar said pointing to small piece of Relafen's trench coat stuck on a thorn, "The guy scrammed outta here faster than light I guess. He wasn't there when I came to."
"Let's get outta here..." Sifan said, wiping away beads of sweat.
"Looks like this is a forest near the cetra region... what a fine place to get warped to..." Avatar said as they made their way across the forest, pushing and cutting the branches and the green outgrowths with their swords.
After a few minutes of unenthusiastically hacking away the forest plant life, they finally came to a path leading out of the forest. They heaved a sigh relief and sheathed their weapons and walked out of the forest into the clear air. There were no clouds at all. There were only stars and millions of them, glittering along with the radiance of the full white moon.
"Well, will you look at THAT?" Avatar said, "The weather's playing nice now, huh?"
"Hey..." Sifan said, "What about Nida..."
Avatar frowned, "Let's just hope he's alright buddy."
Sifan nodded, "yeah..."
A cold gust of wind blew across the wide land, making them shiver. There were many forests, like the one they had come out of, scattered as far as they could see. A little far away was a sandy beach, the smell of seawater reaching their senses. Just then, Avatar froze.
"What-"
"Shhh...." Avatar said, "listen..."
Sifan tried to listen but all he heard was the wind ranting and raving. He tried again, but only the same results reoccurred.
"Move!" Avatar screamed and tackled Sifan to the ground as he felt something rush past his face with a menacing growl. The beast turned around and crouched on the ground to attack as Sifan and Avatar drew out their blades.
It was too dark to see the beast clearly but Sifan saw its hide. It was dark brown; it's teeth revealed by the moonlight. It leapt in the air and slapped Sifan right across the face; it's claws drawing blood from his skin. Sifan knelt down, the pain callously throbbing in his cheek.
"Hey, you ok?" Avatar said, taking a potion from his pocket.
"Yeah. But that animal isn't going to be..." Sifan replied. He was tired, frustrated and to make it worse, the beast had given him a bloody scratch. His temple tightened and so did his jaw. Avatar Fenis knew what this meant. The poor beast was going to get Renzokukened to nothingness.
Sifan stood up raising his gunblade, removing the safety lock with his thumb. Squall had spent an entire night staying up, and teaching Sifan the Renzokuken. He had said that limit breaks could only be triggered with a sense of exhaustion, fury and pain. All the three ingredients were more than present with Sifan at that moment. He leapt into the air and landed on the beast with a whirlwind of wild and fierce slashes, triggering his gunblade, every time he felt his sword making contact. The beast let out a yelp as Sifan's blade disemboweled him, literally. Sifan flipped backwards in to the air and got ready to start his limit break special, when Avatar placed his hand on his shoulder, "Hey...he's dead...you Renzokukened the living hell out of him..."
Sifan looked at the beast lying dead on the ground. He lowered his gunblade, panting, as Avatar healed Sifan with the potion.
"Poor thing..." Avatar said, walking up to the beast, "His Early morning snack proved fatal..."
Sifan looked at his watch. 3 A.M. Avatar put his sword in its holder behind his back. His eyes lit up and he pointed to something behind Sifan, "Look..."
Sifan turned around and saw a light at a distance, "Finally...civilization."
After walking a fair bit, they came to a village. They walked through its entrance and noticed there were small cottages made of adamantine roofs scattered around the area. There was a huge glowing well in the middle and a water tower at one corner. There didn't seem to be anyone around.
"Hey, check that out..." Sifan said pointing to the gleaming well.
"Wow..." Avatar said scratching his head, "I don't think it's water in there..."
Sifan's curiosity got the better of him, "Hey... let's go and check it out..."
Avatar didn't move.
"C'mon..." Sifan repeated.
Sifan looked at Avatar, surprised. He was standing still. Too still. With a pale look on his face, his eyes were on Sifan's chest. He slowly stuttered, "S-Sifan...l-look..."
Sifan looked down at his chest. A chill went down his spine, almost freezing it. He swallowed hard. A small red laser dot stood in the middle of his chest. Sifan had heard Irvine talk about it all too often. They were his favorite. Sniper rifles.......
"A-Avatar..." Sifan said raising his hands in the air, "Where the hell are we?"
"Well...I haven't heard of this p-place..." Avatar said nervously, "but a board back there said 'Mideel'..."
****************
Rinoa and Squall waved goodbye as the Ragnarok slowly lifted into the sky. They had promised to come see Sifan the next day as they were too busy too spend time with him. Initially, they had wanted Sifan to take a leave from his first day of SeeD but after what Quistis had told him about the Garden committee, he decided not to risk anything. Soon the Airship cruised out of the presidential residence's view.
The weather that had been agreeable all along began to turn its color. There were rumors of a thunderstorm near the Galbadian plains, but from the clouds that were starting to loom in the sky, it seemed like they were going to have one too. A huge thunder deafened the Ragnarok's occupants as it slowly veered around in the direction of the island of balamb.
Avatar sat dreamily behind the Pilot's seat in the cockpit, thinking of Tania. Since Tania was not a SeeD and was still a normal classman, she had to be in garden premises early. So she had left on the first trip the Ragnarok made to balamb after the party in Esthar. She had promised him lunch together the next day, hoping she could link up with Sifan in the process. Avatar, however, unaware of the intentions of the girl he had fallen for, was whistling romantic tunes he knew from the album of the 'wild chocobos' rock band.
Relafen sat the last seat, with his legs on the headrest of the seat before him, polishing his gunblade in his usual smug manner. Sifan stood behind Nida and watched him pilot the Ragnarok.
"Say..." Sifan broke the silence, "Can't we...uh...turbo warp?"
Nida shrugged, "Well, we could if we want to, but I've never really tried anything like that...without technical assistance..."
"Aw C'mon Nida..." Avatar said, "You know how to do it, right? Besides, you've been flying this thing for almost two decades."
Lighting struck a tree on the ground ahead of them and split it into two, as rain started to pour down heavily, almost thrashing the Ragnarok's exterior like metal bullets.
"The weather's not too friendly today, is it?" Sifan said looking at his watch, which showed 2 A.M.
"This is not good...." Nida said, "We haven't had a storm like this in years..."
Relafen got up, satisfied with the burnish on his gunblade, "So why don't we just turbo warp our goddamn asses to some nearby landing space..."
Nida opened a small control panel, which read, 'Turbo warp'. He punched in a few co-ordinates and sighed, "Yeah...I really can't see a thing. Its raining giant buckets."
Another thunder boomed across the hazy horizon. Sifan nodded in agreement, "Turbo warping somewhere safe is better than crashing into some mountain at 400 mph..."
"Alright..." Nida said, "here we-"
Before Nida's finger touched the 'confirm' button, a lightning bolt hammered the tail of the Ragnarok causing it to whirl frantically. Sifan shot out his right hand and grabbed a nearby seat and managed to secure himself as Avatar and Nida, with their seat belts on, received a hard jolt. Relafen, however, was unlucky enough to have forgotten his seat belt. The force, with which the Airship spun around, sent him flying backwards, flat against the cockpit door. His right elbow hit the steel hard, the shock causing him to trigger the gunblade in his hand. The bullet barely missed Sifan's face and crunched in to the turbo warp control panel.
The Ragnarok's engines were still on and the exhaust was pouting out flames. Sifan's eyes fell on the small screen on the turbo warp control panel. The co-ordinates display was going crazy, flashing all sorts of digits and symbols endlessly. Amidst the hassle of the Ragnarok still swirling wildly, Nida reached over to the control panel to close it but he received an electric shock as Relafen's bullet had revealed the circuitry. Before he knew it, the confirm button turned green and Ragnarok's turbo warp device started to zap rays wildly. To make matters worse, the Ragnarok 's left tail smashed into a mountain and was in flames, too strong to be wiped out by the raindrops.
"Shit..." Nida screamed, "The left tail is just above the fuel carrier...WE better get the hell outta here. Sifan, Relafen and Avatar...take a jet pack on the wall of the corridor, outside the door and head to the emergency exit, FAST! I'll follow you as soon as I put the emergency chutes on..."
The three of them didn't waste any time. They rushed outside and grabbed a jetpack each. They helped each other with the buckling of the straps as the Ragnarok continuously shook, almost knocking them off their feet.
"The emergency exit is just ahead...." Avatar said, "Follow me...."
Sifan looked back at Nida, frantically trying to get things in order. He had managed to activate the emergency chutes and the Ragnarok stayed wobbly but un-accelerated. Sifan wished him luck and hurried to the emergency exit. Avatar smashed open the emergency exit as an avalanche of wind and water lashed against their faces. Relafen jumped outside, activating the jetpack flare as soon as he was in the air. Avatar followed and turned around hovering in the air, "Sifan...jump out dammit!"
[I hope Nida 'll make it...]
Sifan sighed and jumped out.
The three of them stayed in the air, waiting for Nida. Suddenly, the turbo warp gun went berserk again and began to shoot rays, opening up bright blue rectangular portals everywhere it shot. As if to target the three SeeDs, the wind harshly changed direction. It blew the chutes to the right, turning the Ragnarok's head straight towards Sifan, Relafen and Avatar.
"Damn!" Relafen screamed. Before they could steer themselves out of danger, rays from the turbo-warp gun shot through the rain and engulfed all three of them, blinding them with it's dazzling blue light.
Sifan felt his body freeze without sensation, his head becoming unsteady. He felt his jetpack die out with a flicker. The next thing he knew, a strange sense of falling came over him, like he fell into a pit of perpetuity. All around him, there was only darkness, but he kept falling. He didn't see Relafen or Avatar. He tried to move, but his nerves didn't seem to respond to his brain, the numbness spreading to his neck. As he continued to fall, his consciousness began to fade away and everything went pitch black.
**************
Sifan Leonhart opened his eyes; his head feeling like someone had put a knife through it.
"Ow...." He said clutching his head, "w-what h-happened...?"
Avatar Fenis' feet crunched the pieces of twig lying near Sifan.
"We got turbo warped to some forest...that's all..." he said pulling Sifan to his feet.
"Ugh...God, my head..." Sifan said looking at the trees packed so densely that they hardly seemed to allow even air to enter. Avatar Fenis stood near him, dusting himself and pulling a leaf out of his hair. Sifan looked at his coat, it was torn at a few places, seemingly from scraping against trees.
"Hey...I think we fell from quite a height..." Sifan said looking at the broken jetpack lying on the ground, "How come we didn't even break a cartilage?"
"Beats me..." Avatar replied looking at the scratches on his elbow, "Maybe the trees broke our fall...I don't know..."
"Where the hell is Relafen...?" Sifan said looking around, "Not that I care...but heck, he did fall with us..."
"Take a look at that..." Avatar said pointing to small piece of Relafen's trench coat stuck on a thorn, "The guy scrammed outta here faster than light I guess. He wasn't there when I came to."
"Let's get outta here..." Sifan said, wiping away beads of sweat.
"Looks like this is a forest near the cetra region... what a fine place to get warped to..." Avatar said as they made their way across the forest, pushing and cutting the branches and the green outgrowths with their swords.
After a few minutes of unenthusiastically hacking away the forest plant life, they finally came to a path leading out of the forest. They heaved a sigh relief and sheathed their weapons and walked out of the forest into the clear air. There were no clouds at all. There were only stars and millions of them, glittering along with the radiance of the full white moon.
"Well, will you look at THAT?" Avatar said, "The weather's playing nice now, huh?"
"Hey..." Sifan said, "What about Nida..."
Avatar frowned, "Let's just hope he's alright buddy."
Sifan nodded, "yeah..."
A cold gust of wind blew across the wide land, making them shiver. There were many forests, like the one they had come out of, scattered as far as they could see. A little far away was a sandy beach, the smell of seawater reaching their senses. Just then, Avatar froze.
"What-"
"Shhh...." Avatar said, "listen..."
Sifan tried to listen but all he heard was the wind ranting and raving. He tried again, but only the same results reoccurred.
"Move!" Avatar screamed and tackled Sifan to the ground as he felt something rush past his face with a menacing growl. The beast turned around and crouched on the ground to attack as Sifan and Avatar drew out their blades.
It was too dark to see the beast clearly but Sifan saw its hide. It was dark brown; it's teeth revealed by the moonlight. It leapt in the air and slapped Sifan right across the face; it's claws drawing blood from his skin. Sifan knelt down, the pain callously throbbing in his cheek.
"Hey, you ok?" Avatar said, taking a potion from his pocket.
"Yeah. But that animal isn't going to be..." Sifan replied. He was tired, frustrated and to make it worse, the beast had given him a bloody scratch. His temple tightened and so did his jaw. Avatar Fenis knew what this meant. The poor beast was going to get Renzokukened to nothingness.
Sifan stood up raising his gunblade, removing the safety lock with his thumb. Squall had spent an entire night staying up, and teaching Sifan the Renzokuken. He had said that limit breaks could only be triggered with a sense of exhaustion, fury and pain. All the three ingredients were more than present with Sifan at that moment. He leapt into the air and landed on the beast with a whirlwind of wild and fierce slashes, triggering his gunblade, every time he felt his sword making contact. The beast let out a yelp as Sifan's blade disemboweled him, literally. Sifan flipped backwards in to the air and got ready to start his limit break special, when Avatar placed his hand on his shoulder, "Hey...he's dead...you Renzokukened the living hell out of him..."
Sifan looked at the beast lying dead on the ground. He lowered his gunblade, panting, as Avatar healed Sifan with the potion.
"Poor thing..." Avatar said, walking up to the beast, "His Early morning snack proved fatal..."
Sifan looked at his watch. 3 A.M. Avatar put his sword in its holder behind his back. His eyes lit up and he pointed to something behind Sifan, "Look..."
Sifan turned around and saw a light at a distance, "Finally...civilization."
After walking a fair bit, they came to a village. They walked through its entrance and noticed there were small cottages made of adamantine roofs scattered around the area. There was a huge glowing well in the middle and a water tower at one corner. There didn't seem to be anyone around.
"Hey, check that out..." Sifan said pointing to the gleaming well.
"Wow..." Avatar said scratching his head, "I don't think it's water in there..."
Sifan's curiosity got the better of him, "Hey... let's go and check it out..."
Avatar didn't move.
"C'mon..." Sifan repeated.
Sifan looked at Avatar, surprised. He was standing still. Too still. With a pale look on his face, his eyes were on Sifan's chest. He slowly stuttered, "S-Sifan...l-look..."
Sifan looked down at his chest. A chill went down his spine, almost freezing it. He swallowed hard. A small red laser dot stood in the middle of his chest. Sifan had heard Irvine talk about it all too often. They were his favorite. Sniper rifles.......
"A-Avatar..." Sifan said raising his hands in the air, "Where the hell are we?"
"Well...I haven't heard of this p-place..." Avatar said nervously, "but a board back there said 'Mideel'..."
****************