Chapter 29
Harrison's submarine avoided a large whale and slowly made its way towards what Sifan saw as a huge hemispherical-shaped glass on the seabed. As the submarine approached nearer, Sifan was amazed that inside the large hemispherical glass structure, was actually a city bustling with activity. There were huge, tall and pointed buildings on crooked streets with lost of people walking around and riding chocobos. Sifan noticed that the seabed suddenly cracked open a few feet in front of them. Then he realized that it was actually a mechanically operated slide door. Soon, Harrison's submarine moved into it and the door closed over it. After sinking for sometime, the sub proceeded forward and then reappeared at the Aquadia city dock.
Sifan walked out of the sub using the ladder and jumped on to the platform near the water where the sub was floating. Harrison followed and Sifan thanked him and left promptly, after picking up a small map of the city from the tourist information counter near the exit of the dock. Then he walked out into the open and he was surprised when he saw clouds in the sky above him. He just stared at it when a passer-by stopped near him.
"First time to Aquadia?" the passer-by asked him.
Sifan nodded.
"Well.... I bet you're probably wondering what's an underwater city doing with a sky and clouds..."
"Yeah..."
"Actually there IS no sky or clouds, it's this technology Shin-Ra made called Makotech Illusionary Technology...MIT for short..."
"ok..."
"So...well...the dome up there covering Aquadia is actually a kinda television screen."
"You mean...it's nice weather all the time...?"
"Yeah well...sometimes...it rains...they have pores all over the dome to make water fall..."
"Oh.... ok...thanks for the info..."
"That will be 100 gils."
"WHAT!?"
Sifan stared at the passer-by, "Hey...no way I am paying you for the sky and the clouds..."
"Look..." the passer-by said, "Knowledge is priceless...and I gave you the knowledge that the sky-"
He stopped. Sifan Leonhart's gunblade was out, pointed at his chest.
"Er...well..." the passer-by mumbled, "I'll let ya have it for free...see ya...."
With that, he ran away as Sifan sheathed his gunblade and took a look at the ground.
The spacing between the large buildings was not particularly very large and there were urchins and all sorts of people scurrying around. Most of the buildings were large Shin-Ra offices. Some of them, especially the smaller ones, were shops that sold everything from materia to potions. The air had the smell of salt and the 'sun' was shining very brightly. Then across the street where Sifan had arrived, he noticed an Inn. Beside it was dark red door, which read 'Materia hunters required...good pay...'
Sifan decided to check that out later and he hurried across the street past an urchin and entered the inn. Sifan thought at first that 500 gils per night was too much but he decided to pay.
[I am going materia hunting anyway...]
He took his room keys and hurried away to it. As soon as he was inside he plopped on the bed and stared at the well-lit ceiling. He took a quick nap and then washed himself in the lavatory. He loaded his gunblade and then sighed.
[Two materia...fire and wind...what the hell am I gonna do with two...?]
He shrugged and left the inn and entered the door which had wanted a materia hunter. Inside was a small hallway at the end of which sat a stout-looking lady with a paper and a quill. Alongside the wall were several mean looking and some ordinary-looking people of all ages seated in a row. Most of them were turned down by the stout lady except for a few who proceeded out of the place, with a small black ticket in their hands. Sifan waited his turn and soon, he found himself in front of the plump lady.
She looked at him from the top of her eyes, "say son, you're too good looking for this job, you sure you want it...?"
Sifan nodded, "yeah...I'll get you your stuff by evening..."
The lady smiled, "Hmm...let's see...physique? ... Pass...Weapon?...ok... pass... materia?...not ok..."
"Well-" Sifan began but the lady cut in, "We'll let ya borrow some materia son...jus as long as you bring more of 'em back..."
"Here..." she said tossing a few shining stones across her desk, "Take em'..."
Sifan promptly threw them into his pocket as the lady fished through a few papers and asked Sifan to sign them. He did so quickly.
"Ok...kid...I need some advance money..." the lady mumbled, "Just in case you try running away with the materia..."
Sifan pulled out all the money he had and dumped it on the table. The lady grinned and swept it into the drawer, "Don't worry kid...we'll give it back twice or thrice the amount.... depends on the materia ya bring back..."
Sifan nodded as she pulled out another paper, "Here...choose yer hunting terrain..."
Sifan's eyes moved down the paper and his eyes fell on the last choice.
*************************
Another droplet of sweat dropped from Professor Lorenz's face and fell on the keyboard. He wiped his face anxiously while glancing sideways at the see-through glass into a chamber that was completely filled with dense white smoke.
"I can't fail now..." Lorenz muttered to himself as he crazily tapped away on his keyboard, "This is the last bit of life stream left...I cant go back all the way to the northern crater to get it again..."
His laboratory had never been messier. Papers and notes were thrown everywhere among fallen microscopes and floppy disks. Explosions and all sorts of chemicals blackened the white walls. All this bore proof to the fact that Lorenz had sleeplessly been working his head off the previous night.
Then with a final tap on the 'enter' key, Lorenz ran to the see-through glass and stuck his face to it, trying to see if anything was happening inside. The smoke was still looming and he couldn't see a thing. But he waited patiently muttering something under his breath now and then. When he heard a loud beep, he reached to the side and took the canister containing the red lifestream and inserted it into a hole. The red life stream began to disappear gradually as if something inside was drinking it.
"Yes..." Lorenz cried to himself, "Hamilton's body should be undergoing transmutation right now..."
The canister soon became empty. Lorenz then ran back to his computer, pressed a few more keys, and came rushing back immediately. The empty canister started to slowly fill again...but this time by green life stream. Once it was filled completely, Lorenz pulled it out and kissed it. He then took a marker and wrote across the canister, "Hamilton."
He then placed the canister in one of his lock-ups and returned to his observation. The smoke soon cleared and in the middle lay the unconscious human form of the red lifestream. Lorenz smiled and slid open the door to the chamber and rushed to the body. After looking at the body's face, he cried in excitement, "Yes! I did it! I am a goddamn GENIUS!"
He dragged the body outside and slumped it into a semi-cylindrical tub of liquid nitrogen and closed it immediately.
He then jumped to his desk and began to write voraciously in his diary.
"Today. I actually put the life stream resurrection theory to test. Unfortunately, it didn't really work. I almost abandoned the idea but then I ran across the thought of using a hybrid of both the lifestream resurrection and the lifestream transmutation theory. I carried it out immediately and the results were perfect. I have also made a new structure analysis of the lifestream. Each lifestreams contains three seamlessly integrated strands that basically are, the alpha strand, the beta strand and the gamma strand. I have discovered that the alpha strand represents physical appearance, the beta strand the person's feelings and the gamma strand represents his memory."
Lorenz sat in his chair and thought for some time, nibbling the back end of his pencil and then he jumped back to his diary again, "This could might as well mean that if I can manipulate the length of the alpha, beta, and gamma strands...I can manipulate physical appearance, emotions, and the memory of a person...in other words...I can be God..."
Lorenz smiled another time, "but...manipulating the strands is impossible...unless...I had...something so powerful that it can influence life stream properties...something very unholy..."
**********************
Sifan Leonhart walked back into the Aquadia dock and saw a submarine, which had light blue letters on its front saying, "Materia Hunters Inc."
[What a stupid name...] Sifan thought as he walked to the submarine in front of which a man was standing sleepily.
"Hunting ticket?" he moaned in a barely audible voice.
Sifan showed him the black ticket the lady had given him and he stepped aside to let Sifan enter. The submarine was very small and not quite the elite type either. The compartment however, was medium-sized with all sorts of people sitting cross-legged across the scattered chairs on the raggedly carpeted floor. Sifan looked around and saw an empty chair a few feet away. It was the only one. He rushed across the room and sat on it with a heave of relief.
The submarine's door closed and it whirred to life, ready to move. But before he could sit back, a familiar voice sounded behind him.
"Er...Seef...I was using that chair..."
Sifan almost fell back with shock when Phillona caught his chair from the back.
He turned around and gazed at the beautiful girl in front of him. She just raised her eyebrow when Sifan coughed, "Gak! What are you doing here?"
"Same thing you're doing..."
"I didn't see you at the materia hunting office place or whatever..."
"I am a regular...so I don't have to do all that stuff..." she said.
[She...hasn't smiled yet....]
"Er...good luck then..." Sifan said, still not getting up from the chair.
"Well, actually..." she said, "I am coming with you..."
"NO!" Sifan cried, "Uh...I mean...no..."
"Hey..." she replied, "You don't have a cure materia if I am right..."
"I have potions...."
"How many?"
"Er, two..."
A vague smile appeared on her face, "Two...?"
Sifan didn't reply. He pulled a chair that had been vacated during his conversation with Phillona. He reached out for it and pulled it near him, "Sit down..."
"So..." she said, "Can I tag along, Seef...?"
"Give me one good reason..." Sifan mumbled, "...why I should take you with me...?"
"Well..." she said sitting near him, "How about my materia? Cure, Time, Shiva and Bahamut...?"
"You're coming with me alright..." Sifan agreed immediately, "Can I have Bahamut?"
"Here..." she said taking a red materia from her glove and placing it in Sifan's hand, "What did they give you at the materia hunter office...?"
"They gave me a clumsy fire materia, a barrier materia, and a deathblow materia..."
"Hmm...." she said as the passengers got down at their hunting terrains.
Neither Sifan nor Phillona spoke for a while.
"Er...did Avatar say anything?" Sifan asked, rubbing the back of his neck.
"Yeah..." she said slowly, "He told me to make sure you don't get lost..."
"How very thoughtful of him..." Sifan said sarcastically, "You're baby-sitting me...."
Phillona smiled, "Hmm...lone wolf-sitting actually..."
"Very funny..."
The last passenger left the submarine at a hunting terrain stop, leaving the two of them alone. Suddenly, an alarmed look came over Phillona's face, "Wait a second...where are we going...?"
"To our hunting terrain..."
"Yeah.... but there's no one else...I mean...there are always about 4 or 5 hunters for every terrain...unless..." Phillona gasped, "Unless you chose the last one on the list..."
"Yeah, I did.... so...?" Sifan said, "I mean.... even that lady was reluctant to offer me this hunting terrain...."
Phillona swallowed, "Please...Don't tell me we're going materia hunting inside...t-the..."
Sifan completed the sentence for Phillona, "...inside the Omega caves...."
*************************
-------------------___________________-
Note from author: sorry for the short chapter guys...anyway...PLEASE REVIEW! I don't care,...abuse me if u want...jus review!
Harrison's submarine avoided a large whale and slowly made its way towards what Sifan saw as a huge hemispherical-shaped glass on the seabed. As the submarine approached nearer, Sifan was amazed that inside the large hemispherical glass structure, was actually a city bustling with activity. There were huge, tall and pointed buildings on crooked streets with lost of people walking around and riding chocobos. Sifan noticed that the seabed suddenly cracked open a few feet in front of them. Then he realized that it was actually a mechanically operated slide door. Soon, Harrison's submarine moved into it and the door closed over it. After sinking for sometime, the sub proceeded forward and then reappeared at the Aquadia city dock.
Sifan walked out of the sub using the ladder and jumped on to the platform near the water where the sub was floating. Harrison followed and Sifan thanked him and left promptly, after picking up a small map of the city from the tourist information counter near the exit of the dock. Then he walked out into the open and he was surprised when he saw clouds in the sky above him. He just stared at it when a passer-by stopped near him.
"First time to Aquadia?" the passer-by asked him.
Sifan nodded.
"Well.... I bet you're probably wondering what's an underwater city doing with a sky and clouds..."
"Yeah..."
"Actually there IS no sky or clouds, it's this technology Shin-Ra made called Makotech Illusionary Technology...MIT for short..."
"ok..."
"So...well...the dome up there covering Aquadia is actually a kinda television screen."
"You mean...it's nice weather all the time...?"
"Yeah well...sometimes...it rains...they have pores all over the dome to make water fall..."
"Oh.... ok...thanks for the info..."
"That will be 100 gils."
"WHAT!?"
Sifan stared at the passer-by, "Hey...no way I am paying you for the sky and the clouds..."
"Look..." the passer-by said, "Knowledge is priceless...and I gave you the knowledge that the sky-"
He stopped. Sifan Leonhart's gunblade was out, pointed at his chest.
"Er...well..." the passer-by mumbled, "I'll let ya have it for free...see ya...."
With that, he ran away as Sifan sheathed his gunblade and took a look at the ground.
The spacing between the large buildings was not particularly very large and there were urchins and all sorts of people scurrying around. Most of the buildings were large Shin-Ra offices. Some of them, especially the smaller ones, were shops that sold everything from materia to potions. The air had the smell of salt and the 'sun' was shining very brightly. Then across the street where Sifan had arrived, he noticed an Inn. Beside it was dark red door, which read 'Materia hunters required...good pay...'
Sifan decided to check that out later and he hurried across the street past an urchin and entered the inn. Sifan thought at first that 500 gils per night was too much but he decided to pay.
[I am going materia hunting anyway...]
He took his room keys and hurried away to it. As soon as he was inside he plopped on the bed and stared at the well-lit ceiling. He took a quick nap and then washed himself in the lavatory. He loaded his gunblade and then sighed.
[Two materia...fire and wind...what the hell am I gonna do with two...?]
He shrugged and left the inn and entered the door which had wanted a materia hunter. Inside was a small hallway at the end of which sat a stout-looking lady with a paper and a quill. Alongside the wall were several mean looking and some ordinary-looking people of all ages seated in a row. Most of them were turned down by the stout lady except for a few who proceeded out of the place, with a small black ticket in their hands. Sifan waited his turn and soon, he found himself in front of the plump lady.
She looked at him from the top of her eyes, "say son, you're too good looking for this job, you sure you want it...?"
Sifan nodded, "yeah...I'll get you your stuff by evening..."
The lady smiled, "Hmm...let's see...physique? ... Pass...Weapon?...ok... pass... materia?...not ok..."
"Well-" Sifan began but the lady cut in, "We'll let ya borrow some materia son...jus as long as you bring more of 'em back..."
"Here..." she said tossing a few shining stones across her desk, "Take em'..."
Sifan promptly threw them into his pocket as the lady fished through a few papers and asked Sifan to sign them. He did so quickly.
"Ok...kid...I need some advance money..." the lady mumbled, "Just in case you try running away with the materia..."
Sifan pulled out all the money he had and dumped it on the table. The lady grinned and swept it into the drawer, "Don't worry kid...we'll give it back twice or thrice the amount.... depends on the materia ya bring back..."
Sifan nodded as she pulled out another paper, "Here...choose yer hunting terrain..."
Sifan's eyes moved down the paper and his eyes fell on the last choice.
*************************
Another droplet of sweat dropped from Professor Lorenz's face and fell on the keyboard. He wiped his face anxiously while glancing sideways at the see-through glass into a chamber that was completely filled with dense white smoke.
"I can't fail now..." Lorenz muttered to himself as he crazily tapped away on his keyboard, "This is the last bit of life stream left...I cant go back all the way to the northern crater to get it again..."
His laboratory had never been messier. Papers and notes were thrown everywhere among fallen microscopes and floppy disks. Explosions and all sorts of chemicals blackened the white walls. All this bore proof to the fact that Lorenz had sleeplessly been working his head off the previous night.
Then with a final tap on the 'enter' key, Lorenz ran to the see-through glass and stuck his face to it, trying to see if anything was happening inside. The smoke was still looming and he couldn't see a thing. But he waited patiently muttering something under his breath now and then. When he heard a loud beep, he reached to the side and took the canister containing the red lifestream and inserted it into a hole. The red life stream began to disappear gradually as if something inside was drinking it.
"Yes..." Lorenz cried to himself, "Hamilton's body should be undergoing transmutation right now..."
The canister soon became empty. Lorenz then ran back to his computer, pressed a few more keys, and came rushing back immediately. The empty canister started to slowly fill again...but this time by green life stream. Once it was filled completely, Lorenz pulled it out and kissed it. He then took a marker and wrote across the canister, "Hamilton."
He then placed the canister in one of his lock-ups and returned to his observation. The smoke soon cleared and in the middle lay the unconscious human form of the red lifestream. Lorenz smiled and slid open the door to the chamber and rushed to the body. After looking at the body's face, he cried in excitement, "Yes! I did it! I am a goddamn GENIUS!"
He dragged the body outside and slumped it into a semi-cylindrical tub of liquid nitrogen and closed it immediately.
He then jumped to his desk and began to write voraciously in his diary.
"Today. I actually put the life stream resurrection theory to test. Unfortunately, it didn't really work. I almost abandoned the idea but then I ran across the thought of using a hybrid of both the lifestream resurrection and the lifestream transmutation theory. I carried it out immediately and the results were perfect. I have also made a new structure analysis of the lifestream. Each lifestreams contains three seamlessly integrated strands that basically are, the alpha strand, the beta strand and the gamma strand. I have discovered that the alpha strand represents physical appearance, the beta strand the person's feelings and the gamma strand represents his memory."
Lorenz sat in his chair and thought for some time, nibbling the back end of his pencil and then he jumped back to his diary again, "This could might as well mean that if I can manipulate the length of the alpha, beta, and gamma strands...I can manipulate physical appearance, emotions, and the memory of a person...in other words...I can be God..."
Lorenz smiled another time, "but...manipulating the strands is impossible...unless...I had...something so powerful that it can influence life stream properties...something very unholy..."
**********************
Sifan Leonhart walked back into the Aquadia dock and saw a submarine, which had light blue letters on its front saying, "Materia Hunters Inc."
[What a stupid name...] Sifan thought as he walked to the submarine in front of which a man was standing sleepily.
"Hunting ticket?" he moaned in a barely audible voice.
Sifan showed him the black ticket the lady had given him and he stepped aside to let Sifan enter. The submarine was very small and not quite the elite type either. The compartment however, was medium-sized with all sorts of people sitting cross-legged across the scattered chairs on the raggedly carpeted floor. Sifan looked around and saw an empty chair a few feet away. It was the only one. He rushed across the room and sat on it with a heave of relief.
The submarine's door closed and it whirred to life, ready to move. But before he could sit back, a familiar voice sounded behind him.
"Er...Seef...I was using that chair..."
Sifan almost fell back with shock when Phillona caught his chair from the back.
He turned around and gazed at the beautiful girl in front of him. She just raised her eyebrow when Sifan coughed, "Gak! What are you doing here?"
"Same thing you're doing..."
"I didn't see you at the materia hunting office place or whatever..."
"I am a regular...so I don't have to do all that stuff..." she said.
[She...hasn't smiled yet....]
"Er...good luck then..." Sifan said, still not getting up from the chair.
"Well, actually..." she said, "I am coming with you..."
"NO!" Sifan cried, "Uh...I mean...no..."
"Hey..." she replied, "You don't have a cure materia if I am right..."
"I have potions...."
"How many?"
"Er, two..."
A vague smile appeared on her face, "Two...?"
Sifan didn't reply. He pulled a chair that had been vacated during his conversation with Phillona. He reached out for it and pulled it near him, "Sit down..."
"So..." she said, "Can I tag along, Seef...?"
"Give me one good reason..." Sifan mumbled, "...why I should take you with me...?"
"Well..." she said sitting near him, "How about my materia? Cure, Time, Shiva and Bahamut...?"
"You're coming with me alright..." Sifan agreed immediately, "Can I have Bahamut?"
"Here..." she said taking a red materia from her glove and placing it in Sifan's hand, "What did they give you at the materia hunter office...?"
"They gave me a clumsy fire materia, a barrier materia, and a deathblow materia..."
"Hmm...." she said as the passengers got down at their hunting terrains.
Neither Sifan nor Phillona spoke for a while.
"Er...did Avatar say anything?" Sifan asked, rubbing the back of his neck.
"Yeah..." she said slowly, "He told me to make sure you don't get lost..."
"How very thoughtful of him..." Sifan said sarcastically, "You're baby-sitting me...."
Phillona smiled, "Hmm...lone wolf-sitting actually..."
"Very funny..."
The last passenger left the submarine at a hunting terrain stop, leaving the two of them alone. Suddenly, an alarmed look came over Phillona's face, "Wait a second...where are we going...?"
"To our hunting terrain..."
"Yeah.... but there's no one else...I mean...there are always about 4 or 5 hunters for every terrain...unless..." Phillona gasped, "Unless you chose the last one on the list..."
"Yeah, I did.... so...?" Sifan said, "I mean.... even that lady was reluctant to offer me this hunting terrain...."
Phillona swallowed, "Please...Don't tell me we're going materia hunting inside...t-the..."
Sifan completed the sentence for Phillona, "...inside the Omega caves...."
*************************
-------------------___________________-
Note from author: sorry for the short chapter guys...anyway...PLEASE REVIEW! I don't care,...abuse me if u want...jus review!