Ki vs. Materia Round 2

Cloud watched Gohan as he took his first step forward after the white light had removed Vincent and Nanaki from the scene. He hoped with all of his might that he wouldn't have to fight the boy. A sudden burst of well aimed energy dispelled all of those hopes. He was going to be in for shit.

Starting by casting Haste and Wall on himself and Slow on Gohan, Cloud mentally prepared himself for the biggest battle of his life. Thankfully, the time spells in combination with Cloud's Speed Plus materia had lessened the gap between his speed and Gohan's, but he still had all hell as the boy threw punch after kick after punch of well trained blows at him. It was enough to see what was coming, but there was no way Cloud could keep up this pace long, and they both knew it.

Desperately, Cloud jumped back, risking enough time to cast at least one Knights of the Round. If he didn't get one in, he was in deep trouble. Still, the jump hadn't been enough, Gohan charged forward and added his velocity to the attack.

Getting the wind knocked out of him by a hit like a bus, Cloud stumbled backward, but he couldn't afford to waste any time. He instinctively turned to shorter spells that took less casting time, like Stop.

Cloud didn't have time to be surprised with the impossible outcome as Gohan continued his charge forward. It wasn't that the spell had missed or been protected against, there was definitely a change in Gohan's speed. The Stop spell had only been powerful enough to slow Gohan down to a normal speed. Normal for Cloud that is. This was impossible! Cloud dodged to the side, but immediately had to deal with a sweep that Gohan changed his forward motion into. Where ever this boy had learned to fight meant business. This kid didn't miss anything. Blocking a kick aimed at the middle of his back and a second aimed the other way at his head, Cloud took advantage of a brief pause between blows. Casting Reflect on himself, Cloud threw himself forward and rolled through a small space between giant chunks of metal to give himself some distance and, hopefully, some time.

Reacting on instinct as well, Gohan fired a small ki blast, nothing that would deplete his energy too much, just ahead of Cloud where he would roll into its path. Cloud had been hoping for something of the sort. The fresh Reflect spell would ricochet the blast back at it's creator giving Cloud the time he needed. In the milliseconds before the blast even reached Cloud, he started casting Knights of the Round. He needed that to not only keep him in tip top physical condition, but also replenish his slowly dwindling MP supply.

Letting a sigh of relief slip past his lips as the cave-like enclosure diminished to darkness, Cloud sat back and let the feel of his HP returning to him occupy his thoughts temporarily.

*~*~*~*

What was Cloud thinking? Why was he drawing his sword?? What was happening???!! It wasn't fair!! Gohan didn't want to fight Cloud!!!

If you don't, he'll kill you. Then, it's only a matter of time before he reaches Earth and kills your family too.

NO! Cloud wouldn't do that!

Why not? Why do you think he wanted to know where you came from? Do you believe him over Vegeta? Vegeta said Cloud couldn't be trusted. He saw the facts. Cloud is indeed in league with Hojo. It's only a matter of time before he gets to your father. It pains me to think of what he'll do to those friends of yours like Krillin and Bulma. After all, what could they do against him if he already beat Vegeta once? And when he was in Super Saijin 2 at that.

NO! Gohan wanted to hide, wanted to run far away from the kind voice that encased his mind in its alluring melody.

Pain. Gohan felt the pain of steal biting into his flesh. He was forced to open his eyes and see the blood dripping from Cloud's ivory blade. It was his blood. Why? Why was Cloud attacking him?? Vaguely, he remembered firing a ki blast at Cloud, but it was so fuzzy in his memory that he may have just dreamed it up.

That's right. You didn't touch him yet. This must have been his plan all along. He'd get you alone and then kill you.

NO!! It couldn't be true!

Another burst of pain streaked through Gohan's body.

Are going to let him kill you? Mr. Piccolo would be most displeased.

No, not Mr. Piccolo. He could take care of himself.

But can he? Does he stand a chance against these people who defeated one of the most powerful Super Saijins the world has ever known?

Gohan pushed the thought out of his mind. There was no way Piccolo would fight as foolishly as Vegeta had. He could win!

Believe what you will, but when he looks into your eyes for the last time and whispers your name you will have to deal with the fact that it was all your fault and that you could have avoided it.

A vision suddenly burst inside of Gohan's head like a ki blast from Cell. Piccolo was fighting that beautiful creature, Nanaki. He was also fighting six others at the same time, the entire rest of Cloud's party had ganged up on him. Still Piccolo was fighting strong. One Makkansappo eliminate the small ninja girl, Yuffie, but in seconds, angels descended from the sky at the wave of Aeris's hand, and the short haired girl was on her feet again. The next ki blast that Piccolo released yielded nothing. A bright ball of emerald light flew from Tifa's hands and expanded to completely envelope the Namek before exploding in a thousand glittering specks of dust. Falling to his knees, Piccolo looked up in time to see a great six winged dragon high in the sky above him. He barely had enough time to fire a countering Makkansappo beam into the path of the blast the dragon released from its mouth. Before he could rise to his feet again, Piccolo was covered in a bombardment of well aimed missles from the airship Highwind. Thankfully, that didn't seem to have much effect, and Piccolo managed to sneak in a powerful series of ki blasts at Nanaki who had leaped for him with fangs barred. But within moments, the canine was back on his feet and yellow fire began to swirl about him. Leaping to the side to avoid the steady stream of bullets from Barret's gun arm, Piccolo was too late to counter Nanaki's next attack. The field around the fighters faded to a black night sky, in moments the thousands of stars swirled into a mass of light above Nanaki's head and streaked toward the defenseless Piccolo. He never had a chance. As he collapsed forward onto the ground that was reappearing from the dense blackness, the other fighters wasted no time. While Barret pumped bullets into Piccolo's fallen corpse, a great mass of fire and electricity exploded. Before the form of the great Namek warrior was incinerated, hoarsely spoken words escaped its lips, "Gohan, why did you let this happen?"

"NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!"

*~*~*~*

It was a much needed break and the start of a chain reaction that Cloud hoped would lead to another victory, but it was cut short as Gohan let a blood curdling scream that nearly split Cloud's ear drums. Something had been the last straw because as the summon finished and the scenery once again became visible, Cloud was dumbfounded. Gohan seemed unphased by the attack and threw even more deadly force and accuracy into the string of blows that followed. And if that wasn't enough, the Stop spell was starting to wear off too.

This time, Cloud wasn't as lucky as before. He no longer was given the slight pauses between attacks to use any kind of magic, and Gohan was beginning to learn all of the SOLDIER moves that he was using. Before long, Gohan would be countering the attacks before Cloud could dish them out.

The world went dim for a moment, but was brought back into painful clarity as Cloud felt a bone crushing kick follow the first one that had struck his face land in the middle of his back. Gohan had just gained the upper hand. Cloud felt his body being bounced about like a rag doll, thrown back and forth by blow after blow. Was this what it felt like when he used Omni-Slash? But, that was his Limit Break and this boy could do it as a normal attack.

Cloud thanked the Planet as he felt a single opening and let his various counter materia do their tricks. A single sword slash preceded the vital summon that Cloud needed more than anything. As he felt his HP raising again, Cloud realized how hopeless this situation was. That time he'd almost reached 0, and if he did that, he'd lose the ability to counter with Knights of the Round. That was something he couldn't afford. It would spell defeat almost instantly. As the second summon finished, Cloud prepared for the worst. He could only hope his little pattern would hold out until Gohan's HP dwindled to nothing. That was his only chance.

Flying free of the summon's embrace as it vanished, Gohan wasted no time. He was still coming as strong as ever, and now he was able to put into practice all of the things he'd learned so far. Cloud found his Shinra Cold Chain countered with a Zack Slash and his uppercut combo countered with a Cold Front. The boy was performing all of the techniques Cloud had spent years learning with perfection! This fight was insanity!!!!

And then, the unthinkable happened.

In an effort to deflect one of Gohan's punches, Cloud felt Ulitma Weapon receive the full force of the blow at an angle. Cloud could only watch in horror as it clattered from his hands, scattering the materia that was knocked from it in a rain of sparkling marbles.

Gohan immediately flew to position himself between Cloud and the fallen weapon. There was nothing the man could do but stare into those glazed eyes and wait for the inevitable defeat.

Note: OH NO!! CLOUD!!!! THIS CAN'T BE THE END!!! Can it?