Chapter 25: Prison Shooting Spree

The guards in Tower One looked up as the teenager wearing the cowboy hat walked back into the entry room at the top floor. The D District Prison was divided into three towers, the first being the administrative wing, while the second and third were actual prisons. Naturally, one had to go through Tower One if one wanted to enter or leave the complex, as that was the only tower with an elevator.

The prison guards were surprised that the female prisoner who he had left with just minutes ago accompanied the kid, but they were not alarmed. Most of them went back to reading their newspapers or talking about the latest football scores, lounging around the security desks just behind the weapon detectors. The teenager, having already gone through the entry process, knew what to do, and set the heavy sport bag he was carrying on the conveyor belt to run through the X-ray scanner. He then stepped through the weapon detector, the girl he returned with waiting behind him to pass through as well.

A harsh wail from the detector caught the majority of the guards' attention, but they did not raise any weapons. The kid, they knew, carried several guns on him, so his setting off the detector didn't alarm them. One guard sighed and stood, taking out a metal detector and stepping over to the kid.

"Could you please remove any metallic items you might be carrying?" the guard asked, repeating the phrase he'd used hundreds of times before. "Any keys, loose change, personal sidearms . . . ."

The kid nodded, and opened his trenchcoat wide. The guard glanced down, expecting to see the twin revolvers the kid carried, and was not disappointed. However, he saw far more than just those revolvers, for in addition to the .357's, the kid wore a quartet of holstered Beretta 92FS handguns along the side of his body, two MP5K sub-machineguns on his hips, and a pair of AB-10 machine pistols below those in thigh holsters. A bandoleer of fragmentation hand grenades were positioned around the kid's waist, and in numerous pockets in his coat were magazines and speed loaders for his various weapons. Not visible to the guard were the special Calico M950 sub-machinguns resting in holsters on the back of the kid's bandoleer.

"Holy shit!" the guard managed to say as Irvine Kinneas whipped out the AB-10s. He fired a quick three-round burst at the man in front from both machine pistols, throwing the man back to the floor with blood flying from six bullet holes. As the man fell, the AB-10s rose and Irvine's arms crossed, pointing the machine pistols in opposite directions. He squeezed the triggers, sending a hail of bullets from both weapons in either direction. Guards began to stand up or raise their own sidearms when streams of automatic gunfire cut them down. Those not immediately killed by the initial shots dove for cover, though none made it to safety before Irvine's shots caught up with them.

However, one man managed to make it behind a desk and slap the emergency alarm button before succumbing to his wounds. Immediately, klaxons sounded throughout the building and the adjoining towers as the intruder alert was issued.

"Not good," Irvine commented, glancing back to Rinoa. In the brief firefight, the heavy bag Irvine had sent through the scanner had arrived, and he opened it. He tossed the girl her arm-mounted crossbow, as well as a Walther PPK, in case she needed the handgun, before shouldering the bag. Almost as an afterthought, Irvine quickly reloaded his AB-10s and holstered them, then reached into the bag. He kept his trusty rifle there, but didn't want to use it right away. Only if things got dicey would he switch to the Valiant. Instead, Irvine dug in and pulled out an assault rifle, a compact M4A1 carbine.

He shouldered the compact rifle, and slid a huge drum magazine into the weapon, then fitted a separate grenade launcher to the underside of the weapon. Irvine glanced back to Rinoa, who stood ready behind him.

"Squall's waiting for us," she said, and Irvine nodded. Now that he was committed to his course, he was not afraid. The sharpshooter moved the action on his compact rifle, and led the way.

The D District Prison's towers rose high above the sands of the Dingo Desert, and each tower was connected to the others by metallic bridges spanning the gaps. Irvine and Rinoa ran out of Tower One and onto the bridge leading to Tower Two, where Squall and the other SeeDs were being held. They ran across swiftly, the desert sun beating down on them and casting reflections off the gray metal of the narrow bridges, and made it halfway across before incident.

Out of both towers across from the first charged squads of Galbadian soldiers, clad in full armor. Irvine saw them coming, and leveled his weapon at the soldiers directly in front. Those men ahead of the group raised their own rifles, but went flying as Irvine launched a grenade into their midst while still on the run. And entire squad was either ripped apart by the grenade blast or hurled off the edge of the bridge, and the survivors retreated, falling back to the inside of the tower.

The soldiers from Tower Three, however, did not fall back. Taking cover behind the solid metal railing of the bridge, they opened fire on the two intruders. Rinoa returned fire with a quick pair of shots, before ducking behind the protecting wall of her own bridge's railing. Irvine also dove for cover, before moving down about ten feet and popping up. He squeezed the trigger on his rifle, sending a barrage of bullets at the Galbadians on the far bridge. Several soldiers fell, and the others ducked behind their covering wall. Irvine continued firing in staggered bursts, sidestepping down the bridge.

With Irvine keeping the Galbadians occupied with keeping their heads on their shoulders, Rinoa rose and followed the sharpshooter. She added fire from her handgun, though the smaller weapon was not as powerful or accurate as Irvine's assault rifle. She tried keeping her hands steady, but they still trembled as bullets flew around them. A Galbadian soldier rose from behind cover and fired at her, and she cried out as a bullet lodged in her left shoulder. She dropped behind cover, clutching the wound. Rinoa glanced down at the injury, her hand coming away bloody, but was surprised to see it wasn't as bad as she thought it would be.

"Rinoa!" Irvine shouted, firing another burst that emptied his weapon. He dropped down beside her, reloading his rifle.

"It's not bad," Rinoa quickly replied. "My junctions took most of the damage."

"You can junction?" Irvine asked, slapping a fresh drum magazine into the M4. He popped up and fired again. Another soldier cried out, clutching his chest as the 5.56mm rounds punched through, and collapsed over the railing. Irvine ducked back down for an instant, avoiding the counter, and tapped his chest. "Better than body armor, I'd say."

"Squall taught me," Rinoa explained, casting a quick curative spell on her injured shoulder. The flesh quickly reformed, the regenerating tissue pushing the lodged bullet out of her skin. She picked up the handgun again, but didn't use it immediately. Instead, she rose from behind cover and gestured forcefully toward the soldiers. Fire exploded from her hand and rocketed toward them, scattering several of the soldiers and blasting those who did not dodge aside quickly enough.

"Remind me not to get on your bad side," Irvine replied, ducking behind cover as more bullets struck his cover. He looked down the bridge, to see the Galbadian soldiers there crouched behind the entrance to Tower Two. One of them was fiddling with a control device, which Irvine knew immediately would be a bad thing, no matter what it was. He spun around, launching a three-round burst into the control room. None of the bullets actually hit the man, but they impacted around him, throwing up sparks as they struck control panels, and sent the soldier diving for cover.

However, he must have completed whatever he was doing, as the blast door leading into Tower Two began to close, sliding down.

"Rinoa!" Irvine shouted, and Rinoa saw what he meant. Irvine dropped the M4 behind him as he and Rinoa rose, running at full speed toward the descending door. Reaching behind him, Irvine snatched up the Calicos off his belt, pointing the weapon in his left hand toward the distant bridge and spraying cover fire at the remaining soldiers there, while pointing the other ahead.

The soldiers behind the door, realizing that Irvine was headed their way, stepped or leaned out from behind cover and opened fire with their rifles. Irvine grunted as he felt a powerful impact in his chest, but kept running. The bullet did not punch through the body armor he had donned beneath his vest.

Two more rounds struck Irvine in the chest before he countered with the Calico in his right hand. The machine pistol sprayed showers of bullets at the Galbadian soldiers, Irvine trying to manuever the weapon's muzzle to keep the Galbadian soldiers in his sights despite the jostling his running was doing to the weapon. Two of the soldiers fell with fatal wounds, clutching bullet-riddled chests, and several more were wounded, their arms blasted. Those not hit ducked behind cover as the door continued descending, hiding from the constant stream of 9mm rounds. The sharpshooter's legs pumped even more furiously as he rushed across the bridge, but after several seconds he skidded to a halt, then hit the deck as more bullets from the distant bridge reached out toward their position. The descending door was already too far down for them to make it inside Tower Two. Beside the sharpshooter, Rinoa crouched as well, holding her handgun tightly in hands that still trembled. She ducked a bit lower as another bullet ricocheted off the metal railing.

"Back to the first tower!" Irvine ordered, looking back toward Rinoa. "There has to be a master control somewhere in there that can open the door!" She nodded, and Irvine stood, leveling both Calicos at the distant enemy soldiers and emptying the magazines in their general direction. Together, the two scrambled back up the bridge, Irvine discarding the spent weapons and drawing his AB-10s. He fired a series of bursts at the ducking enemy soldiers, and at least one dropped, clutching his throat in a vain attempt to stem the damage three bullets had inflicted to it.

The Galbadians returned fire, their rounds bouncing and pinging off the metal. Irvine's replies were much more accurate, dropping another pair of enemy soldiers as he began to slow, covering Rinoa's retreat. The girl made it inside Tower One within moments, with Irvine two steps behind. The sharpshooter scanned the entrance, and spotted a staircase against the north wall, leading up to the next level. He dropped his spent AB-10s and reached into his pack, drawing a shotgun.

"Let's go!" Rinoa hissed, already rushing toward the staircase, and Irvine scrambled after her.

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"Where the hell is that Moomba?" one of the guards asked, escorting the quartet of Moombas doing food delivery on Level Seven. He and his partner were near the stairs, closing on Cell 7-B2. Behind the two bored MPs, a shadow deepened, but no one paid it any attention.

"Taking its time," the second replied. He drew his baton and slapped it across his left hand, grinning."If Captian Veek doesn't punish it, it'll be our job."

"Bah," the first said, shaking his head. "Veek always punishes. He'd beat dead bodies if they could feel pain. He won't pass up the opportunity to smack around a Moomba."

"Still, if he's busy . . . ." the second man added, laughing. The other guard began to laugh as well, but paused as he noticed a shadow looming up over them. He spun, whipping out his baton, but stopped as the source of the shadow looming over the duo became apparent.

"Shit! Stupid Moomba!" the guard hissed, seeing the Moomba standing in front of one of the lamps set into the wall near the floor. "Don't do that!" He brandished the baton and strode over to the tardy beast, his comrade joining him a second later. Behind the guards, the door to cell 7- B2 slid open.

"I'll teach you to be late, you ugly little-" he continued, but never finished the threat as a chain whip wrapped around his neck, the curved blade on the end whipping around to bury into the side of his head just above his mouth. The other guard's legs went out from under him thanks to a sweep of a leg, and as he fell back, Zell Dincht leaped onto his chest, a metal-plated fist leading into the guard's stomach. The man wheezed out a gasp of air as his chest was emptied of oxygen, and Zell sent an elbow cracking into the man's mouth. The guard's head dropped to the floor as consciousness flew from him.

Quistis untangled her whip from the mess that remained of her victim's head, and snapped the whip back up, catching it just beneath the blade. Behind her, Selphie twirled her nunchaku, unhappy she had been unable to get into the action. The Moombas had panicked during the brief battle, scattering around the wide chamber on all fours, excepting the one who had distracted the guards.

That Moomba made a quick, high-pitched yelp, which attracted the attention of the rest of the group. A loud growl, followed by what seemed like a mix between a purr and a bark attracted the rest of the creatures to the Moomba. They bounded back to the "speaking" creature, which quickly spoke to them in a strange mixture of growls, quiet roars, and whines. After several seconds, the remainder of the Moombas growled in unison and turned toward the watching SeeDs.

"Laguna!" one of them called in a high-pitched voice, startling the SeeDs.

"What's going on?" Selphie asked, excited by the mention of the mysterious soldier.

"Hell if I know," Zell added, but then was surprised as Quistis stepped toward the creatures. She crouched in front of the small orange beasts.

"Do you know where our friend is?" she asked, and the Moomba who had spoken nodded in an oddly human-like manner.

"Laguna!" it repeated, and was echoed by several other Moombas.

"Lock!" another growled, and a chorus of roars and growls answered the word. Then, the group of Moombas seemed to explode, four-foot-tall orange beasts scrambling around the SeeDs toward the stairs on all fours. Within seconds, they were gone from sight. Zell scratched his head, perplexed by the weird actions of the Moomba horde, and looked back to Quistis.

"What did you do?" Selphie asked, equally confused. Quistis rose, smiling.

"Blue magic," she replied with a shrug. "I said I could understand the magic of nonhumans, but that comes from an understanding of nonhuman creatures in general."

"So, what was that all about?" Zell asked, not getting what Quistis meant. "You knew what they were saying?"

"It was an educated guess," she replied. "I think they know something about Squall."

"You think they know where he is?" the martial artist asked, and Quistis nodded. "Then what are we waiting for! Let's follow 'em!"

Zell led the group toward the stairs the Moombas had rushed up, and then jerked as a klaxon boomed over speakers somewhere within the prison.

"Warning! Intruder alert! Repeat, intruder alert! All personnel report to security stations and prepare to repel intruders! The anti-magic field will be lifted and mechanized sentries will be activated. Lethal force authorized for any escapees who refuse to surrender!"

The SeeDs suddenly felt a surge of energy shoot through their muscles and sinews. Zell flexed one of his arms, and nodded as he saw the already impressive muscles on that arm tighten into bands of steel. Quistis and Selphie seemed to experience similar transitions, as the energy of their stocked magic hardened and enhanced their bodies.

"Back in business, baby!" Zell shouted with a thumbs up. That shout almost cost him his head as a quartet of Galbadian MPs rushed down the stairs, one leveling a shotgun at Zell's face. The man fired, and Zell threw himself backward, his back parallel to the floor. The buckshot flew overhead, and Zell snapped himself back upright.

"Hands up!" another MP shouted, raising his rifle.

Quistis' whip entangled the rifle, and she snapped the weapon out of the man's hands with effortless ease. A second snapping strike sent the whip into the man's chest, the blade tearing a bloody hole across his armor.

The man's comrades began to level their own firearms when a blast of lightning took one in the stomach and sent him sprawling at the base of the stairs. Selphie's nunchaku followed the blast of magic, whacking the other guard upside his head with shocking force. The man staggered, and Selphie spun, swinging her heavy nunchaku with all her deceptive strength. The iron bar came around at extremely high speeds, and smashed into the soldier's head so hard as to crush his helmet inward and smash his skull. The man went flying back and away to slam into the wall beside the stairs.

The guard who fired at Zell pumped his shotgun, but in that split second necessary to load the next shell, the brawling SeeD was already in front of the guard. Zell's left hand grabbed the barrel of the weapon - Zell grimaced away the burning heat from the discharged weapon's barrel - and pushed the shotgun out of line. His right hand rose in a powerful forward jab, smashing into the soldier's chest and pounding his armor inward. The man flew backward, losing his grip on his shotgun, to crash heavily into the base of the stairs. Zell raised the gun like a spear and threw it like one as well, the butt of the weapon driving into the stunned, prone soldier's mouth hard enough to break his jaw and render him unconscious.

"Hurry!" Quistis shouted, running past Zell and leaping over the unconcious soldier. "There's no time!" Zell and Selphie agreed, following Quistis up the stairs as the klaxons continued sounding.

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Irvine's shotgun kicked, and the buckshot blasted clean through the armor of the Galbadian MP perched on the landing. The man fell back, slumping against the wall, and Irvine dashed past the dying soldier, reloading his weapon frantically. Behind him, Rinoa kept her gaze up, the PPK pointing up through the stairwell, ready for any threats.

She spotted movement and was ready as another Galbadian leaned over the edge of the staircase one level above, pointing his rifle down. The compact handgun fired once, then twice, the first bullet deflecting off the soldier's shoulder guard, while the second struck the man in the throat. He fell back out of sight.

Irvine bounded up the stairs, sweeping his shotgun up and to the left as he did so, ready for any threats. He encountered no more enemy military police, and continued up past the dying soldier Rinoa had shot. He quickly moved up, stopping at the next landing, which led to the same floor as the control room. Holding his shotgun up one-handed, Irvine cracked the door open, then slid a pair of grenades off his belt. He edged the door open a bit more, and popped the pins on the weapons before tossing them inside. Irvine shut the door quickly, and heard several exclamations of surprise mixed with fear on the other side, followed by a pair of resounding explosions. The sharpshooter kicked in the door and swept the hallway, satisfied with seeing several shrapnel-riddled corpses strewn across the hallway. He waved Rinoa to follow him, and then rushed down the hall, shotgun raised.

Mere moments later, Irvine stood outside the door leading into the main control room, and once more edged the door open. He drew another pair of grenades off his belt, but even as he was about to pop the pins, the door slammed inward. The sharpshooter cursed and fired his shotgun at the door and the man obviously holding it shut. The buckshot struck the intervening metal, but did not punch through.

Thinking fast, Irvine dropped the grenades - minus their pins - at the base of the door and scrambled backward. Rinoa saw this and dove for cover in the doorway of a deserted office. The grenades detonated, the exploding shrapnel tearing into the door and blasting it partially open. Irvine then leaped forward, slamming into the door and forcing it the rest of the way open. He barreled into the control room, shotgun up, and spotted a nearby prison guard raising a pistol. Irvine's weapon barked and the guard's chest erupted in a shower of spewing blood.

Running on instinct alone, Irvine threw himself to the floor, just as a sub-machinegun erupted somewhere in front, spraying bullets wildly at him. He looked up as he fell, spotting another prison guard holding that particular weapon, and bringing the barrel down to line up and fire at the diving sharpshooter. Irvine's weapon rose faster than the guard's could descend, however, and another shotgun blast laid this man out flat.

Irvine hit the floor and rolled over onto his back, scanning the room for any other hostiles. He spotted no one, and as he finished rolling over, the guard who had been holding the door shut was recovering from the grenade blast and raising his pistol to fire at Irvine. Irvine pumped the action on his shotgun once more and fired, blowing apart the man's chest and face with another blast of buckshot. With that last kill, the control room was clear.

Rinoa was a step behind Irvine, sweeping the room with her pistol, and once she saw the room was secured, she hurried to one of the computer terminals. She tapped a few keys, then shook her head as she looked through the directory. Irvine scrambled to his feet and accessed a second terminal. He quickly determined that this one was not the one that controlled the doors, and moved on. Rinoa, meanwhile ran a quick check to see which terminal handled the door controls. Within a few seconds she had found it.

"Here!" she said, running across the room to a terminal on the north wall. She quickly tapped in a few commands, and highlighted the door controls. While the doorway to Tower Two facing the bridge from Tower One was locked down and unopenable, the remaining doors could be locked open. Rinoa did so, opening all the remaining bridge doors in all three towers. That done, she quickly looked around the terminal, looking for some way to disable it so the doors couldn't be closed. Irvine saw her checking, and quickly stepped in front of the terminal.

"Allow me," he said, and pumped another shell into his shotgun's chamber. He fired a blast into the terminal, and then a second into the monitor. Both blasts destroyed the device, the devastation ensuring the prison doors would remain open.

"We'll have to take the long way around," Irvine commented, pumping his shotgun's action to clear the chamber, before reloading the weapon. He quickly slid a series of shells into the shotgun, all the while moving back to the control room door. Rinoa was right behind him, reloading her PPK as well.

"Then we can't waste any time!" she responded, pushing roughly on his shoulder. Irvine shrugged, inserted the last shell into his weapon, and rushed out into the hallway, weapon up and ready.

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Something tugged on his leg. Squall raised his head slightly, and tried opening his eyes, but was too weak to even raise his eyelids, drained of strength and filled with pain across every inch of his body. Something scraped along his face, warm and wet, yet rough at the same time.

"Laguna!" a high-pitched voice called, though the significance of the name was lost to his barely conscious mind. Something large and soft bounced off his head, knocking it aside, causing the exhausted SeeD's head to loll around on his neck. He was batted a couple more times, and somewhere in his mind he wished it would stop so he could return to darkness, a respite from the pain that tightly wrapped his body.

"Laguna!" the voice repeated, and as he slowly began to become more aware of his surroundings, Squall recognized the importance of the name, though why he did was still lost to him. His arms ached, slumping in the manacles binding him to the wall, his body covered in sweat. Squall tasted something warm and salty in his mouth - he must have bitten his tongue during the prolonged period of agony, the warm red fluid spilling down over his chin.

"Laguna!" the voice called again, jolting Squall further into consciousness as his mind recognized the name of the mysterious soldier. He tried opening his eyes again, and they cracked apart, flooding his mind with hazy images of the torture room. Squall closed them immediately as a stinging pain erupted in his eyes - sweat had dripped down into his eyes from his forehead.

Squall opened his eyes as the soldier's name was called once more, and opened his raw, aching throat, damaged from the intense screams of agony.

"Laguna?" he asked, the sounds hurting his damaged throat. He found himself looking into the eyes of a small orange and red humanoid creature. A Moomba? Yes, it had to be, he realized, shaking his head. Squall immediately wished he hadn't, as the motion sent stabbing pains through his aching skull. However, as he finished shaking the cobwebs free, he did indeed realize that he was looking at a Moomba, which was perched on the shoulders of another of the creatures.

"Laguna!" the Moomba in front of him called, and hopped down off the second creature's shoulders. A third Moomba, standing near the control panel, joined in the call, hopping up and down.

"Free!" the creature that had served as a step-stool growled, and the Moomba beside the panel nodded, flicking a switch. Squall suddenly pitched forward, his hands and legs free of the manacles, and hit the floor, crashing heavily to the metal. The Moombas surrounded him, two of them hooking their huge paws underneath his armpits and lifting him up with surprising strength. They set Squall against the wall, where he tilted his head back, not understanding why the Moombas were treating him this way.

"Laguna!" one of them shouted.

"Laguna! Laguna!" a second called.

"Free!" called a third. "Escape!"

Escape? What was happening? Squall closed his eyes, and thought he heard the sounds of distant klaxons over far-off speakers. Something was happening, but he didn't know what.

"Laguna!" came another Moomba's call, and Squall wondered what it meant. Was Laguna here? Or did these creatures somehow know the soldier from Squall's dreams?

The answers eluded the SeeD, and he could do nothing but lay back against the wall, trying to regain his strength while listening to the distant alarms, a sound that filled him with hope that he might, just might, survive this hell.

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A grenade shell exploded in the grouped soldiers' midst, and more than a dozen were sent flying off the narrow metal bridge between Tower One and Three. Irvine advanced, running down the bridge, and raised the Valiant again as he spotted movement behind the smoke cloud. The weapon spat another grenade round at another squad of Galbadian soldiers, who scrambled and dove as the grenade fell among them. The grenade cleared a path through the military police, and Irvine and Rinoa bulled right through, Irvine pausing only to knock aside a soldier who was still standing with the butt of his rifle.

They had made good progress down the bridge, as the Galbadian response was still disorganized. They had to take the long way around to Tower Two, however, something that the Galbadian troops that were moving against them had taken advantage of. At first, they had tried to stop the pair from reaching the bridge, but a combination of Irvine's shotgun and Rinoa's spells had blasted clean through the defense inside Tower One. From there, they'd rushed out onto the bridge, relying on sheer speed and firepower to get them across and through the soldiers crossing that bridge. So far, the military police were still off-balance and were concerned more with hiding their heads and taking cover than trying to stop Irvine and Rinoa, but that would change soon.

Irvine and Rinoa burst through the last defense outside Tower Three, a barrage of ice and .50 Action Express rounds opening the route into the top level. The last of the guards dropped to the floor, and the pair stepped past their corpses, rushing to the door leading to the bridge between Three and Two. Irvine turned toward that door but threw himself backward, grabbing Rinoa and pulling her down with him, as a stream of bullets ripped through the air in front of them.

"Sentry robot!" Irvine hissed, opening his rifle's chambers and sliding in a pair of grenade shells. He snapped the chamber closed, and looked up as he heard a series of metallic footsteps, those of the sentry robot he'd spotted ahead. Irvine didn't remember the exact designation, but he recognized the weapon he'd seen, and knew its capabilities. It was a fairly standard Galbadian war machine, a blue-painted humanoid robot with a hovering engine pod on its back, similar to regular hoverfoils, and a pair of wing-like maeuvering vanes on its shoulders.

The robot had been standing in the middle of the door leading toward Tower Two, and ran into the control room on the top level, armored feet ringing off the metal floor. It spun toward the duo, its targeting software identifying them as enemies, and raised one arm. A machinegun barrel extended from the weapon's wrist as it sighted the duo, but the war machine was blasted off its feet by a powerful explosion, combined with a blast of electrical magic from Rinoa. It smashed into the ground heavily, engine damaged, torso partially melted, and one of its maneuvering vanes twisted badly. The weapon began to rise, however, and another grenade blasted it directly in the weapon's head. The head, where the weapon's sensor systems were located, was blasted inward, shrapnel from the grenade devastating the interior.

The war mecha continued to rise, however, and Irvine cursed, reaching into his coat and drawing a pair of heavy, dense shells. He loaded them into his Valiant rifle, and snapped the chambers closed. Irvine clutched the rifle tightly with both hands, and squeezed the trigger.

The rifle bucked viciously, as he'd been expecting, but the powerful armor-piercing shell blasted clean through the war machine's torso armor, shredding its insides. The weapon was blasted onto its back, and did not move, its power systems and computer core reduced to slag.

Irvine quickly moved toward the door leading toward Tower Two, and ejected the other AP shell. Rinoa was two steps behind him as he ran through the doorway back into the sunlight. Immediately, they both stopped and ducked back within the doorway as bullets from the tower ahead tore through the air around them. Irvine squinted in the light, and nodded.

"There's only a few," he told Rinoa. She nodded, then jerked back in surprise as another bullet deflected off the doorway just in front of her face. Irvine grimaced, then reached into his bag. He produced a long barrel, and the stock, chambers, trigger, and grip of a rifle, and quickly assembled them with practiced hands. Within moments the sharpshooter had assembled a powerful-looking sniper rifle, a Galbadian PSG-1, and affixed a scope to the top of the weapon. His rifle complete, Irvine leaned around the corner, and stilled his breath. He flicked off the safety with his thumb, and willed his hands to be still. Through his scope, he saw a quartet of soldiers crouching or standing in the doorway, firing staggered bursts to keep the intruders behind cover until reinforcements could arrive.

Irvine's sights settled over one of the soldier's triad of sensors, and the PSG-1 barked. A 7.62mm round blasted cleanly through his faceplate and between his eyes, and the MP fell to the floor, dead before he knew he was hit. The other soldiers wasted a split second as they reacted to the sudden death of their comrade, and in that second, Irvine's sights settled over another man's temple.

The rifle cracked again, and another soldier fell. Only two remained, and one opened his mouth to call for a retreat. A bullet went through his mouth before he could speak, tearing into the back of his throat and through his brain stem.

The last soldier began to duck back into cover when his right arm was blasted, the fourth shot from Irvine tearing apart his gun arm. The MP dropped his rifle and clutched at his marred limb, effectively out of the fight.

"Let's go!" Irvine shouted, standing and charging down the bridge. Rinoa followed, but scanned the other two bridges, keeping an eye out for incoming Galbadian soldiers. After a second, she was glad she had, as an entire platoon of Galbadian MPs could be seen running from Tower One toward Tower Two. Apparently, someone had reopened the locked door inside Tower Two.

"Irvine!" she shouted, and the sharpshooter looked in the direction she was pointing. He nodded grimly, knowing that if that group managed to get inside Tower Two then they wouldn't stand a chance of breaching the prison where Squall and the others were held. The sharpshooter spun, and his PSG-1 rose to his shoulder. The weapon cracked repeatedly, and enemy soldiers fell, but they both knew that they would not be able to stop them all.

"Run!" Rinoa shouted even as Irvine dropped another MP, and the sharpshooter nodded, reluctantly slinging his rifle and drawing his MP5Ks. He would need the firepower of the sub-machineguns inside the prison, if they ever managed to make it inside. Both of them ran on as hard as they could, trying to beat the Galbadian MPs to the inside of Tower Two.

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Zell's foot connected in a roundhouse kick that sent a guard flying over the metal railing and into the hole in the center of the chamber. He then ducked low, his head dropping inches below the arc of another MP's swinging baton, and the brawler's arms rose catching a second baton swung by another guard. He swept the captured weapon around to intercept the second guard's baton as it came back in, then launched a snap-kick to the chin that decked the second soldier. Zell then spun, one hand grasping the third soldier's wrist as he did so, and lifted the man off his feet. The military policeman's mouth opened wide as he was flung like a rag doll to smash heavily into the wall opposite the central chasm.

Selphie launched another blast of lightning magic, her spell ripping into and dropping another of the blue Galbadian war machines. Beside her, Quistis worked her own magic, fiery bursts throwing guards aside and forcing others to dive for cover. Amidst her explosive magic, Quistis spun on another of the blue robots, hovering overhead on its hoverfoil engine, and speared it with her Blue Magic, a barrage of magical projectiles "fired" from her left hand like a machinegun. The robot was cored right through its power supply, and the engine lost its structural integrity. The robot exploded in fireball.

The SeeDs had found the going up somewhat easy from Level Seven, only encountering small groups of guards. Then, on Level Twelve, right in front of the stairs Zell had assured them led to the interrogation room, the escaping mercenaries had run headlong into a small army, what had amounted to an entire platoon of military police and prison guards, and a quintet of blue, humanoid robots.

A pair of summoned Guardian Forces had led the way, breaking the formation of guards and soldiers, and the SeeDs had driven right in. Three of the robots had already fallen in the initial barrage, and Selphie was finishing the fourth and Quistis the fifth. Over half the guards lay dead or dying, and Zell leaped around the battlefield, blasting aside Galbadian soldiers and guards with each punch, kick, headbutt, or throw. His constant, brutal assault on the soldiers and guards had given the women all the time they needed to crush the robots, which were the real threat. Most of the soldiers still alive at that point had opted to simply flee, already awed and demoralized by the appearances of Ifrit and Quetzocotl.

Those who remained wished they had fled, as Zell caught one swinging soldier's arm and flipped the man over, smashing him hard to the metal floor. The blade of Quistis' whip dug deep into another guard's upper chest, drawing a fountain of crimson, while the man behind that guard was hurled off his feet by a blast of lightning from Selphie. A jab from Zell crumpled another guard's armor, and a quick hook shattered another's elbow. The man fell over, screaming as he clutched his blasted arm, and Zell soccer-kicked him across the room to smash heavily into a wall, where the man lay still, dead or unconscious. A blast of magic staggered the last guard standing before the stairs, and Selphie whacked him aside with a whipping iron bar of her nunchaku, and the SeeDs bounded up the stairs.

They found themselves in another circular room, with another staircase leading up, and a single door against the far wall. The hole leading down deeper into the prison through the center of the chamber was here as well, but positioned in the middle of the hole was a huge mechanical crane with a holding cell set beneath a control room mounted on the device. "Interrogation" was imprinted above the door across the room in blocky letters, and more importantly, the gaggle of Moombas, plus a lot more, were gathered outside the chamber. They seemed agitated, many of them leaping and shouting "Laguna!" over and over again, as the SeeDs approached. Quistis opened the door, and looked inside the interrogation room, before rushing in at the sight of Squall laying against the wall, half-dead from the torture. Zell and Selphie were a half-step behind her.

"Squall!" Zell shouted, standing over his fellow SeeD. Squall raised his head, and opened his eyes, looking up at his comrades. A slight smile etched itself on his face as Zell bent down, grasping one of Squall's arms and helping him to his feet.

"You okay?" Selphie asked, and Squall nodded weakly.

"It was hell," he muttered, standing shakily.

"Let me help," Quistis said, calling up the energies of a healing spell. Energy washed over Squall, and he found his strength returning as the pain ebbed away. Squall took a deep breath, and stood straight.

"Better?" Quistis asked, and Squall nodded, standing without any support.

"Thank you," he said to her, and Quistis nodded, glad she could help him. Zell reached over his shoulder and took out the gunblade he'd strapped to his back, and handed the weapon to squall. The SeeD took his weapon, and grasped the handle of the Revolver, glad once again to hold the slid weight of his weapon in his hands.

"You're not going to be escaping like that," Selphie commented, and Squall nodded. She had a point with his lack of clothes. Squall glanced around the room, and spotted the box Seifer had pointed out earlier. How convenient of Seifer!

Squall moved to the box, and opened it, taking out his stolen clothes. He quickly donned the muscle shirt, gloves, and stained leather jacket, still covered in dried Iguion blood, along with his pants and shirt.

"Lookin' good, Squall!" Selphie commented as Squall replaced his knives, belts, and scabbard. With all his gear back, Squall felt his strength returning. It took him several seconds before he realized that more than just his regular strength had returned, and he sensed the presence of Guardian Forces in the back of his mind. Apparently, they had only been suppressed, not stolen. Good.

"Let's get the hell out of here!" Zell commented, and Squall couldn't have agreed more. He led them out of the interrogation room, and as he stepped outside, was almost mobbed by the gaggle of Moombas and their chorus of "Laguna!" shouts. The creatures seemed ecstatic about his escape, he realized, and moments later, they dispersed, bounding down the stairs and deeper into the prison.

"Okay, now what?" Selphie asked.

"We need to escape, but I don't think I saw Ward leave the prison," Zell explained.

"Did you come here as Laguna?" Quistis asked Squall, and he shook his head, recalling his experience in Winhill.

"Sorry," he said, then looked around the chamber. "They brought me up using that device."

"You think it would go all the way down?" Selphie asked, running to the edge of the gap and peering over the railing. "I think it goes all the way to the bottom floor."

"That should be where the exit is," Squall added, joining her. "We can use the crane to go down, but I don't know how to operate it."

"I do!" Zell said, grinning. "I saw how to do it when I was Ward."

"You came here as Ward?" Squall asked, and the martial artist nodded.

"But the problem is," Zell explained, "You have to unlock the crane's controls from the control room upstairs, then operate the crane from inside the crane's control room. So, someone's gotta stay behind . . . ." Zell glanced around at the group and then nodded.

"I'll stay," he said, before Squall could volunteer himself. "I'm the only one who knows how to operate the controls," Zell added before Squall could object. "I'll have to hump it on the way down, but I can handle myself."

"You sure, Zell?" Selphie asked, suddenly worried, but the brawler simply grinned.

"Relax, I got this," he said. "Just get inside. I'll talk to you over the intercom." Zell then turned and ran toward the far stairs, and bounded up into the control room. Squall, Selphie, and Quistis entered the crane's control room, Squall standing near the control panel. After a few moments, Zell's voice crackled over a speaker hidden somewhere.

"Can you hear me?" he called.

"Hiya, Zell, loud and clear!" Selphie shouted.

"Alright, check the main control panel," Zell explained. "There should be a big red button."

"I see it," Squall answered, hand hovering over the control in question.

"Punch it," Zell ordered, and Squall did. Above the control panel, machinery whirred, and something clanked, followed by the crane's descent at a steady pace. "I set it for the first floor," Zell added. "I'll see you guys down there!" With that, Zell's voice went silent.

Three minutes later, the mechanical arm came to a stop. Squall poked his head out the door of the control room, and nodded, spotting a door just ahead. He led the trio out of the control room, weapon up and ready, keeping an eye out for guards as he slid the metal blast door open. He was expecting to be greeted by gunfire, shouts, or swinging batons, but instead found a long, empty corridor.

"Something's not right," Selphie commented. "If this is the exit, where are the guards?" Squall shrugged, and moved down the corridor, eyes open and alert. He stopped by the door at the end of the corridor, and tapped a control panel next to it. The door began to slide open, and Squall spotted movement. The SeeD dropped into a crouch as Quistis and Selphie readied their weapons behind him. Squall was caught off-guard as a wave of brown dust suddenly billowed forth out of the opening door, and fell back, waved his left hand in front of his face, while keeping his senses alert for an attack. However, nothing came, and as the dust dissipated, he saw a pile of dirt having slid through the doorway, blocking the exit.

"Dirt?" Selphie asked, confused.

"We're buried," Quistis realized. "The prison's underground."

"So, anyone going down and thinking they're escaping will just get further away from freedom?" Selphie asked. "Clever!"

"The exit must be upstairs, then," Squall mused. He turned back toward the arm. "With the controls unlocked we should be able to get up. We'll need to find Zell and tell him to secure the entrance upstairs-"

Squall paused as he heard a sound above. Quistis and Selphie heard it too, and they all recognized the all-too-familiar crack of automatic gunfire, from somewhere far above. And from the sounds in the upper levels, it seemed like there were dozens of weapons firing.

"Zell!" Selphie and Quistis shouted in unison, and Squall charged out into the arm's control room. The other two SeeDs rushed in after him, and he closed the door. Squall hit the controls, and cursed as the arm began its stately ascent. Judging from the gunfire, Zell was badly outnumbered by too many enemies for even a SeeD to defeat.

If they didn't get upstairs soon, Zell would be dead.

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The first and most important note about this chapter was that Irvine did use lots of real-world guns. I opted to arm Irvine with actual firearms as opposed to fantasy weapons to give FFVIII a much more realistic flavor. Therefore, Irvine's weapons were all real guns, with the exception of his Valiant. (as a side note, Laguna's sub-machinegun and handgun I mentioned in the fourth interlude are also real guns)

The title of this chapter came from the lobby scene in The Matrix, which actually went by a similar name, "Lobby Shooting Spree." It pretty well describes how this chapter progressed. And yes, the intro was taken straight from The Matrix.

Just in case you were curious, the guns Irvine used:

-AB-10: A machine pistol manufactured by Intratec. Popular among gangs and criminals. 9mm magazine, with 10, 20, 32, or 50 round capacity (Irvine used the 32 round magazines)

-H&K MP5K: The famous compact sub-machineguns Neo used in the lobby shooting spree scene from The Matrix, right after he decked the first guard. 9mm, 30 round magazine

-Calico M950: An unusual, cylinder-fed machine pistol. Magazine is located on the top of the weapon. 9mm, 50 round magazine. The weapon Irvine used was a compact version of the larger sub-machinegun. These guns were in Resident Evil: Code Veronica, mislabled as "MP-100's."

-M4 Carbine: One of the rifles of the United States military, this is a smaller, compact version of the classic M16 assault rifle, and is used primarily by special forces units like the Navy SEALs or Marine Force Recon. 5.56mm, 30 round magazine. (sadly, I'm not likely to get to shoot this baby except possibly on the firing range. ;;)

-Benelli M3: The shotgun Irvine used. A powerful 12-guage shotgun used by police forces. 6 shell capacity.

-Walther PPK: The classic Bond pistol. 9mm, seven round capacity.

-PSG-1: The sniper rifle made famous by Metal Gear Solid. Fires 7.62mm rounds and is semi-automatic.