Final Fantasy 7
Emerald Princess of Vernea
Chapter Fourteen
Corneo jumped excitedly at the top of his bed, looking thrilled to be with the company of what he thought was a beautiful blonde girl. He was rearing to go and seemed very keen on Cloud, not suspecting for a minute that the 'girl' he had chosen was actually a man.
Cloud stood nervously at the far end of the room, as far away from the bed as possible and growing increasingly uncomfortable with the situation. He had never thought for one minute that Corneo would have chosen him for that night, and Cloud didn't know how to act. He knew he had to extract the required information from him, but there were only two ways he could do that. One would be to reveal himself and demand the information at sword point, but then he could call his guards and Cloud would be caught. Or he could do the more sickening idea – flatter Corneo and build up his ego, until he was ready to tell Cloud anything that he asked. Neither way was particularly inviting, but the second was the only option that would leave Cloud physically intact, even if his pride was not.
"Ahh, we're finally alone..." Corneo said dreamily as he ogled Cloud from across the room. Cloud looked away from him, not wanting to meet his hungry gaze. "All right, pussycat... Come to daddy!!"
Cloud turned pale with nausea and refused to look at Corneo. Corneo was sick, really sick, and made Cloud completely sick to his stomach. He couldn't believe Tifa and Aeris had forced him into this situation, and would like to kill them once this was all over.
"Woo-hoo!" Corneo cheered again. He crawled over his bed to get a little closer to Cloud. "Don't be shy. We're all alone now..."
Cloud still refused to look at Corneo, thinking that because they were alone was why he was nervous. Corneo was a very sick-minded person, and Cloud didn't feel very safe being in the same room as him. He tried to remind himself that he did have a job to do here, and whether he was going to get paid extra from Barret or Tifa or not, he still had to keep up the pretence. So he plucked up all of his courage and slowly walked round the side of the bed towards Corneo, trying to keep at a safe distance so Corneo couldn't grab him. Although Corneo was too smitten then to notice how Cloud was edging away from him.
"You're so cute, I never get tired of looking at you," he said to Cloud. He leaned in a little closer. "Do you... like me, too?"
It occurred to Cloud to say 'no', but he still remembered that he had to get information from him about what he had to do with the man in Sector 7. He didn't particularly want to flatter Corneo, but he could tell it was the only way to get information from him.
"Of course!" Cloud replied, raising his voice a little so he sounded more feminine. He felt like a complete idiot having to do so, but the more information he could get from Corneo, the better. It seemed to work though, for the grin that spread on Corneo's face seemed to be very happy and excited.
As Corneo grinned happily, Cloud felt increasingly uncomfortable. "You sure do know how to make a guy feel good!" Corneo exclaimed. He moved on the bed again, and leaned in even closer to Cloud, almost seeming nervous. "Then, wh... what do you want to DO?"
Run was what Cloud wanted to do, or at least push Corneo away from him. He knew the perfect line that would really inflate Corneo's ego, but he didn't want to say it. He swallowed hard.
"Whatever YOU want, daddy." He went pale as soon as he said it, feeling completely sick and humiliated. He wished he had his sword with him so he could just force the information from Corneo, but unfortunately Aeris had it right then from when he had changed.
"Oh, man!" Corneo shouted. He jumped up on the bed, unable to contain his excitement and eagerness anymore. "I can't stand it! All right, then... Give me a kiss!! A KISS!!"
Cloud shook his head. "Nope, can't do that..." he replied.
Corneo fell onto the edge of the bed, staring at Cloud in dismay. "Why? WHY? WHY?" he asked.
Slowly Cloud turned away, and took a few steps away from Corneo.
"Because... Because I'm gonna have to use that mouth of yours to give me some information!!"
With that Cloud jumped up and spun round, unable to stand Corneo's cheesy lines and advances any further, and he was not prepared to go any further than this. He pulled the dress off and threw it harshly onto the floor along with the cheesy blond wig, finally revealing his true identity. Corneo's eyes opened wide and he leaped back into the corner on his bed, finally realising that the 'girl' he had chosen was not really a girl, but rather a man.
"A man!?" he shouted in horror. He narrowed his eyes and glared at Cloud angrily. "You tricked me!! Somebody get in here NOW!!"
"Unfortunately, no one'll be comin' to help," came a female voice.
Cloud and Corneo turned as the door to the bedroom opened and Tifa and Aeris both ran in, back in their normal outfits. Corneo's guards had taken them, but it was nothing to them to fight them off and come to help Cloud. Aeris was carrying Cloud's sword, and as they entered she and Tifa both threw it to Cloud. Cloud caught it easily and held it firmly in his hand. Corneo saw the length and width of the blade and shrunk back in his bed, looking from Cloud to the two girls, completely horrified and confused.
"You're the ones from before!" he yelled, speaking to Aeris and Tifa. "Wh... What the hell's going on?"
"Shut up!" Tifa ordered harshly. "We're asking the questions now..."
She and her crew all gathered around the side of Corneo's bed, cornering him into the corner of his own bedchamber. Corneo flinched back and shrunk into the corner, afraid of the three who had trapped him. Tifa stood firmly with her hands on her hips, glaring at Corneo.
"What did your assistants find out?" Tifa asked of Corneo, who shook his head. "Talk! If you don't tell us..." She glanced at Cloud.
Cloud nodded and stepped up to the bed. Sinisterly he put on foot on the bed and rested his arm on his knee, looking at Corneo in such a way that made him feel very uncomfortable. Cloud then grinned slyly.
"...I'll chop them off," he said, finishing Tifa's threat.
Corneo stared and blinked for a moment, a little too dense to grasp what he meant. Then his jaw hung open, and his eyes fell onto Cloud's monstrously long sword with its razor sharp blade. He jumped up in fear, shaking his head vigorously.
"No! Not that!" he pleaded fearfully.
"So... talk," said Tifa.
Corneo nearly shook his head again, but then remembered the length of Cloud's sword. He stuttered nervously as he spoke. "...I made 'em find out where the man with the gun-arm was," he stammered, his whole body shaking. "But that's what I was ordered to do."
Tifa tilted her head. "By who?"
"No--!" Corneo yelled, his face pale and shivering. "If I told you that, I'd be killed!"
"Talk!" demanded Tifa. "If you don't tell us..." she glanced at Aeris, who did the same as Cloud and leaned forward menacingly on the end of Corneo's bed.
"...I'll rip them off," Aeris finished.
Again Corneo jumped back, feeling more afraid than ever. "Waaaaaaaaaaah--!" he wailed. He pressed himself against the wall in his desperation, but there was nowhere for him to go. "It was Heidegger of Shinra! Heidegger the head of Public Safety Maintenance!"
"The head of Public Safety Maintenance!?" Cloud exclaimed.
"Did you say the Shinra!?" Tifa roared, snarling at the name. She glowered at Corneo, her brown eyes raging. "What are the up to!? Talk! If you don't tell us..." She joined Cloud and Aeris in their dominating stance on the bed, and grinned evilly. "...I'll smash them."
Don Corneo swallowed hard and looked into the determined faces of the three standing in front of him. Their expressions were set and steady, without a single flicker of humour or doubt in them. He could tell that they meant every word of their threats.
"...You're serious, aren't you..." he said. The expressions of the three didn't change, and Corneo struggled to swallow the lump in his throat. "Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy..." He took a deep breath and looked up at the three. "I'm not fooling around here either, you know," he added. "Shinra's trying to crush a small rebel group called AVALANCHE and want to infiltrate their hideout. And they're going to crush them... literally. By breaking the support holding up the plate above them."
Tifa jerked violently. "Break the support!?" she cried.
"You know what's going to happen?" asked Corneo, relaxing a little. "The plate'll go PING and everything's gonna go BAMM!! I heard their hideout's in the Sector 7 slums... I'm just glad it's not here in Sector 6."
Tifa stepped back away from the bed, one hand over her mouth in shock as she found herself unable to believe what she was hearing. She knew that Shinra was ruthless – they had let another of their reactors explode just to get rid of AVALANCHE, but she never thought for one moment that they would go even further and kill dozens of people, just to get rid of them. And it wasn't just the people in the slums who would be killed – it would be the people on top of the plate as well. So many people would die at Shinra's hands. Tifa shook her head in disbelief.
"They're going to wipe out the Sector 7 slums!?" she exclaimed. She turned to Cloud, her face desperate. "Cloud, will you come with me to Sector 7?"
Cloud nodded. "Of course, Tifa."
Tifa smiled with relief. She looked at Aeris, who also nodded. The three then headed for the door to head for Sector 7, but as they began to leave Corneo jumped up on his bed.
"Just a second!" he called.
Cloud stopped and turned back to him. "Shut up!"
"No, wait, it'll only take a second," Corneo insisted.
Cloud looked at Aeris and Tifa. He then sighed and looked back at Corneo, his hands on his hips as he waited for Corneo's next lame speech.
"How do you think scum like me feels when they babble on about the truth?" Corneo asked.
Cloud tilted his head at the question. "They're pretty much given up on life," he replied.
Corneo grinned. "Buzzzzz! Wrong!" he shouted.
He reached out and pulled on a lever propped up beside his bed. As he did a large hatch suddenly opened up in the floor beneath Cloud's feet, revealing a gaping hole in the floor. With nothing holding him up he fell down into the darkness, quickly followed by Aeris and Tifa, who screamed as they fell.
Once they had disappeared, Corneo stood up on his bed and began to dance to himself, celebrating his victory over them.
Up in Shinra Headquarters, Heidegger, the head of Public Safety Maintenance, was busy making his way leisurely towards the President's office at the top of the building. He was fairly large but strong and not flabby, and was dressed in a smart green suit. His face was large and rough, with a thick beard and heavy eyebrows. He had a cold and cruel expression on his face, giving the impression that he, like many of the people who worked for Shinra, was not a particularly caring person.
As he walked into President Shinra's office, he saw the president sat behind his large desk at the far end of the room, waiting patiently for Heidegger to arrive. At the other end of the desk and looking edgy was Reeve, another Shinra employee. Reeve was different to Heidegger in that he had a less cruel expression, and looked uncomfortably and nervous, although Heidegger ignored this.
"How are the preparations going?" President Shinra asked as Heidegger walked into the office and towards the desk.
"Ha, ha, ha!!" Heidegger laughed, his voice deep and coarse. "Smoothly, very smoothly! I assigned the Turks to this."
"President!" Reeve exclaimed, looking at the President with a flash of anxiety. President Shinra looked back at him. "Are we really going to do this? Simply destroy a group with only a few members?"
President Shinra narrowed his eyes. "What's the problem, Reeve? You want out?" He got up out of his chair and began to walk round towards Reeve and Heidegger. Reeve turned away from the desk, seeming hesitant.
"...No," he answered finally. He looked up. "But, as head of the Urban Development Department, I have been involved in the building and running of Midgar. That's why..."
"Reeve, you should flush those personal problems in the morning!" Heidegger advised him sarcastically. Reeve turned and glared at Heidegger, clearly disliking him.
"The Mayor's against this anyway..." Reeve added pitifully.
In response Heidegger turned away and shrugged. "Mayor?" he repeated, his voice filled with disgust. "He just sits in this building all day feeding his face! You call that a Mayor?" He turned and saluted President Shinra. "Now if you'll excuse me sir!"
Heidegger then turned away and laughed as he walked out of the office. Reeve began to run after him in protest, but stopped as Heidegger disappeared out of the door. He stared blankly for a few moments, until President Shinra walked up to him.
"You're tired," the president said to him. "Why don't you take a couple of days off and go somewhere?"
Reeve looked at the President in surprise and blinked. The president looked back at him with a stern and steady expression. Then, seeing that he wasn't going to get anywhere arguing with the President, he walked out, leaving the president alone in his office. President Shinra walked forward.
"We'll destroy Sector 7 and report that AVALANCHE did it. Then we'll send in the rescue operation care of Shinra Inc... Heh, heh, heh. ...This is perfect."
Deep in the sewers that ran beneath Midgar, a hatch opened up in the ceiling. Moments later Cloud, Tifa and Aeris appeared and fell down towards the sewer, landing with heavy thuds on the damp concrete ground.
Cloud groaned as a sharp pain ran up his back, coming from where his sword had landed on him after the fall. He could hear the sound of running water in the background, as well as feel small traces of it beneath him and running through his hands. When he opened his eyes he saw Tifa lying near him, her back to him as she lay still for a few moments. Cloud slowly climbed to his feet, his sword falling to the ground behind him as it rolled off his back, and crawled to Tifa.
"You all right?" he asked her.
The young woman blinked and turned her head to look up at him. She gladly took Cloud's hand as he offered it to her, and Cloud pulled her up to her feet. Once she was standing she began to brush off all the damp dirt that had stuck to her skin and clothes.
"Man! This is terrible!" she exclaimed, and ran her fingers through her hair.
Aeris was also on the ground a few metres away after she had rolled across the ground, and Cloud went to her. He slipped one hand under her head and helped her to sit up.
"You all right?" he asked.
Slowly Aeris nodded. "Yeah," she replied, standing up and also brushing herself off. Her staff was lying on the ground beside her, and she picked it up and began to remove the gunk that had fallen on it. "Well, the worst is over..." she said.
As she spoke a loud roar echoed through the tunnel, and the ground shook.
Aeris shrugged. "Maybe not..." she added.
Another loud roar rang throughout the sewer, reverberating off the walls around them. Soon there came the sound of heavy footsteps followed by the sound of something dragging heavily across the floor. With each step the sounds became louder, and the ground shook more violently as they grew closer. The group of three looked to the corner head of them, which turned off into another sewer tunnel. As they watched something began to emerge from the corner, climbing up over the rails and across the walls towards them.
It was a sewer monster – another monster that had been born and grown in the sewers of Midgar. It was incredibly large and heavy with sickly green- blue skin that was patterned with many other colours that were probably caused by mutation. The Mako that leaked from the reactors had probably caused this mutation, and also corrupted the rest of the monster. Its arms were large and bulky, and so long that they dragged across the floor when it walked, hence the shuffling sounds. Its body was almost square shaped, with its muscles flat but bulky. Its head was also roughly square shaped, with a mouth full of razor sharp teeth that were disgustingly yellow from years of neglect. As it crawled around the corner it jumped down from the path and into the tunnel groove where Cloud, Tifa and Aeris stood, with their weapons at the ready for battle.
"Ugh!" Tifa groaned, curling her lip in disgust. "What is that thing?"
Cloud raised his sword. "It doesn't matter," he said. "We need to get to Sector 7. Let's kill it."
Tifa and Aeris both looked at him, before slowly nodding their heads and raising their own weapons in preparation for battle.
The beast in front of them roared loudly, beating its large arms against its chest. It then began to walk forward towards them. It had very poor eyesight that was its only weakness, but it had very good hearing and used the sound of their heartbeats in order to guide in the direction of the group. Cloud began the attack first and ran towards the beast.
As Cloud began to attack the monster, Tifa turned to Aeris. She pulled out one green ball of materia that was attached to her gauntlet and passed it to her – the Ice Materia that Barret had previously had. Aeris took it gladly and placed it in a materia slot on the side of her staff. They then turned to the monster and ran in to join Cloud in his fight.
At that particular moment Cloud was pressed against the wall of the tunnel with the monster looming over him, with his sword raised in front of him to impale the monster if it tried to attack him. The monster stepped forward on its large flat feet towards him, towering above Cloud by a good few feet. He looked down at Cloud through his narrow eyes, twitching his ears and focusing on the faint sounds Cloud didn't even know he was making.
The giant beast reached out and swung out with one of its giant arms. Cloud hurriedly dodged out of the way, jumping to his right and rolling to the ground on the other side of the monster. The monster's fist slammed into the concrete wall of the tunnel with such force that the wall broke and shattered, sending large chunks of old concrete flying into the tunnel.
Cloud looked up just in time to see a large piece of broken rock falling towards him. He quickly rolled out of the way just as the rock crashed onto the floor where he had been lying a second before, and smaller rocks fell around him. The sound of Aeris's scream then caught his ears, and he looked up.
Aeris and Tifa were both on the other side of the beast, who was now facing them now his attention was shifted to their movements. Tifa ran forward to the monster and began to punch it hard with her fists – a series of powerful punches enhanced by the firmness of her gloves. The monster took a step back before swinging his arm again to hit her, but Tifa was very swift and managed to jump back just in time, avoiding the blow.
Then it was Aeris's turn to attack. She held her staff out in front of her, and the green ball of materia inserted in one of the handles began to glow and shimmer brightly. Aeris then released her hold on the staff, and it magically floated in the air in front of her. The woman then raised her arms above her, and glow of the materia intensified. A flash of white appeared in their air around the monster, and a thin blanket of ice began to form around it. For a second or two the monster froze, encased in the ice. Eventually the ice began to crack and burst apart, releasing the monster once more.
The monster looked down and shook its body thoroughly, removing the last of the ice shards from its body. It then glared at Aeris, catching her movements as she took hold of her staff again. He bared his teeth and swiped his fist at her. He missed Aeris purely by a mere centimetre as she jumped back, where she fell against the wall and onto the dirty floor of the sewer.
She looked up to see the monster towering over her with a large boulder of concrete in its hands, which it had pulled from the broken wall. The monster threw the boulder down at her, and Aeris quickly scrambled to her feet and out of the way. The boulder smashed into the wall and caused the tunnel to shake violently, making Aeris fall to the floor once again.
The monster lifted his head high and roared angrily, infuriated with the way he kept missing his targets. He hit his chest hard with his fists before rolling them angrily around his head in a circular motion towards Aeris and Tifa, who stared back blankly. Cloud stared as well. He then looked up as a faint sound came from behind him, and he slowly turned his head to look behind him. He then opened his eyes wide.
A wall of water was beginning to rise up behind him, formed from the sewer water that had previously been lying dormant and untouched. The monster, being a creature that lived in the sewers, was causing the water to rise up into a large tsunami behind them. It rose taller and taller, ready to drop down at any moment.
"Tifa! Aeris!" Cloud called over the monster. "Get out of the way! Tsunami!"
He dashed to the side of the tunnel and jumped up, grabbing the edge of the path above, where he quickly pulled himself up and out of the way. He made it only just in time, for as he reached the top the tsunami toppled over and tumbled into the tunnel, heading straight for the monster, as well as Tifa and Aeris. Tifa grabbed hold of Aeris as she sat up and pulled her roughly towards a large groove in the wall beside them.
The water slammed down and began to sweep into the tunnel, thick and fast, towards the monster as it stood in the middle of the tunnel, roaring loudly. The water hit it from behind and smothered it completely.
Tifa and Aeris watched fearfully from their groove in the wall as the water flowed past them, sending sprays through the air that fell on them and soaked their hair. For a moment they could only see the dirty green-blue water, but as they watched another flash of darker green-blue zipped past them.
The wall of water flowing past them suddenly broke as the sewer beast's hand burst through and grabbed hold of the edge of the groove, desperately trying to hold on. Moments later another hand burst through and grabbed hold of the wall as well, and Aeris screamed. She screamed again as the monster's head then appeared, teeth bared, ready to swipe them.
Tifa quickly stood up and walked to the monster as it reached for them. She looked at the monster's ugly face, before jumping up and kicking it hard in the face.
The kick was enough to make the monster lose his grip. His hands slipped from the wall and disappeared into the water once more, vanishing forever.
When the flow of water subsided Tifa and Aeris clambered out of their hideaway, and Cloud jumped down from the path and back into the tunnel. The monster had gone, destroyed in its own water flow. The water level was now back to normal, if not a little dirtier than before, but at least the three were safe.
Tifa didn't seem to enthusiastic however. "It's too late..." she said, her voice quiet. "Marlene... Barret... the people of the Slums."
"Don't give up hope," Aeris told her sternly, taking her hand in her own. "Never give up hope. It's not easy to destroy the pillar, right?"
"......Yeah......" Tifa muttered. She thought for a moment, before she lifted her head with a smile on her face. "You're right! We still have time."
With that the group turned and began to head off into the maze of sewers that an beneath Midgar, praying with each step that they would make it in time before the plate fell and killed everyone in Sector 7, including Barret, Marlene and the rest of AVALANCHE.
