As soon as our shuttle landed, I could feel it rocking beneath us. I could hear the hands of the citizens pounding on its metal exoskeleton, begging to be let aboard. They shouted, cried, and pleaded for entrance to the Durandal. Anything to get away from the monsters that now haunted the streets of the Kukai Foundation. I understood their logic, but as the shuttle bounced under another rocking heave from the masses of people, I knew there had to be order before someone was killed. I left MOMO at chaos' side, and I threw open the metal sliding doors. Immediately I was accosted by a wave of people. I braced myself against them, and they stopped.
"Stay calm!" I ordered. My division of the police force had not been formed for crowd control and riots, but even fighting terrorists had taught me a thing or two about people in a panic. The first few people in front of me stopped shoving, seeing the cyborg in front of them. Then, next to me, Jr. appeared, and that seemed to calm the crowd a bit.
"Good thinking," Jr. muttered under his breath, his eyes flicking up to me, as I stood braced against the crowd. I nodded, and I began making a path for the others to follow through the solid mass of people.
"Just stay calm," I repeated, looking at the frightened faces before me. I raised my voice in order to be heard. "There's plenty of room left on the shuttle. We are here to help with the evacuations. You're safe here, so there's no need to-" Before I could say 'panic,' a woman screamed near the end of the crowd. Her scream incited everyone to run toward the shuttle in a mad dash. I braced myself again, feeling the bodies of the frightened people bump past me. From behind, I heard a girl shout. I turned.
"Hey!" MOMO called as a large man almost ran into her. Person after person slammed into her and myself, and I reached out to her. In an instant, I had her up on my shoulders, away from the jostling bodies of the terrified citizens. She breathed a heavy sigh of relief and leaned forward onto my head. "Thank you, Ziggy," she told me.
"Are you all right?" I asked. She nodded, then gasped. I saw her finger shoot out to our left.
"Ziggy, there's a little boy over there! He might be hurt!" I didn't need any further coaxing. I made my way through the throngs of people, shoving when necessary. When I reached the boy, I could see that he was no more than six years old, and there was a drop of blood running from his hairline.
"MOMO, you hop down and take care of him, and I'll shield the two of you. Do you have nanospray with you?"
"I think so," MOMO said, climbing down from atop my shoulders. I stood behind the two of them and faced the oncoming crowd. I took the blows of the panicking people, and I could hear MOMO applying the nanospray to the boy's wounds. Then, slowly, the force of the crowd seemed to ebb, and I no longer needed to shield the children. It seemed that the shuttles had been working double-time in order to cart all of the citizens to the Durandal, and most of them had already made it to their destinations. Through the thinning crowd, I could see Shion, chaos, KOS-MOS and Jr. making their way over to us. MOMO stood, signifying she had done all that she could for the boy.
"Is that better?" She asked him. He nodded, then looked to the both of us.
"Thank you," he said, and ran off in the direction of the shuttle. As Shion approached, I saw a smile lighting her face.
"That was brave of you, Ziggy," she said. I nodded, taking my gaze to the ground, unsure of how to respond. chaos opened his mouth to speak, when a haggard man ran up to Jr., his breath shallow. After a few moments of catching his second wind, the man looked pleadingly at the heir to the Kukai Foundation.
"Little Master," he wheezed, in the 27th Sector... There are still people trapped in there. I tried to go back for them, but the fire-" He stopped, coughing dangerously. I quickly scanned for his vital signs, and it seemed that everything was working correctly, save for the smoke in his lungs. I gave the man a look of gravity.
"You should report to the Durandal at once. They have medical assistants standing by."
"I can't just leave all those people," he told me. Had had to admire his bravery, but his health was far more important.
"Don't worry about them," Shion said suddenly. "We're here to help with the evacuation, and we'll do everything we can to help." Her face lit up with an encouraging smile, and the man coughed again.
"There are 13 people still trapped in the 27th Sector. Can you really rescue all of them by yourselves?"
"We can do our best," Jr. assured him. "Now get on the damned shuttle." The man complied instantly. "Come on, you heard the man," Jr. egged us on, heading out of the dock area. As the other trotted off, I knelt next to MOMO.
"MOMO," I began, taking her shoulder in my hand, "it would be safest if you were to stay here. From what the man has said, there are fires in the 27th District. I don't want you to-"
"No, I'm going to help!" MOMO insisted. I stared at her uneasily, then caved.
"Just stay close," I muttered, following the others at a quickened pace. MOMO nodded cheerfully and jogged to keep up. We moved past the denizens of the city that were moving in the opposite direction, making it hard to reach our destination. But we reached the 27th District in apt time, only to look upon a scene of horror.
Fire. There was fire everywhere, from the roofs of the buildings to debris smoldering in the streets. The roar of the blazes filled my sensors, and the acrid smell of smoke permeated the air. I knew that none of us could stand the lung-filling smoke for too long, MOMO least of all. I suggested that we all wear cloth over our mouths and noses, and it was soon agreed upon. It was also agreed upon that no one would return until rescuing every single person unaccounted for. KOS-MOS and Shion went dashing off toward the inn, chaos ran into the bar, whereas Jr. took immediately down the street. MOMO and I followed.
The Gnosis were close. I could hear them roaring, snarling from their hiding places. No doubt feeding on some poor victim. I grabbed MOMO's hand to keep her from falling behind as I increased my pace. Jr. had broken away from the main road and had disappeared into the billowing smoke. I kept MOMO close. I knew where I was headed, guided by the screams of a woman in the darkened air. Then, as the smoke parted before us, I could see her. It was the woman who ran the laundering establishment.
"Ma'am," I called, skidding to a stop next to her. "You have to leave the city. All citizens must evacuate to the Durandal." As she turned to me, I saw tears rolling down her face.
"My boy!" She cried. "My boy is still in there!" Her quaking finger pointed to the burning second floor of her building. "I tried to go in after him, but the door was too hot..." she trailed off, and her eyes glistened with fresh tears. "Oh, God, my boy is in there!" I released MOMO's hand and guided her to stand next to the crying woman.
"Stay here. I'm going in to find the boy," I told her. MOMO's eyebrows furrowed.
"I said that I was going to help you Ziggy. I want to help!" She stared with her round, golden eyes, pleading.
"No," I insisted, "you could be hurt. I don't want to risk it."
"Ziggy, I'm coming with you!" Her voice raised in volume, and now her eyes began to mist over. "I want to help!"
"MOMO-"
From inside the building, I heard a voice crying out as the roar of the flames increased. MOMO's face burned red, but her eyes stared and begged. No, she wasn't begging. She was persisting. I should have said no, but I couldn't. As much as I knew the danger she would be in, I just couldn't hurt her by saying no. Finally, I gave in, and made a short motion for MOMO to follow me. I knew I was making a mistake. I was risking her life, not only my own. I kicked the door open, and it fell to the ground in front of us with a loud clatter. On my right, a window exploded in a shower of glass shards. I shielded MOMO briefly, then flew up the stairs, keeping the Realian girl at my side.
"Help me!" I could hear the boy shouting from inside his room. MOMO's ears perked up as we neared the door, and she flew down the corridor to the left. " MOMO!!" I called after her. She had dashed into a different room. I told her to stay close! What is she was hurt? What about the boy? With a roar of frustration, I smashed the door in front of me with my foot. The boy sat underneath the open window, his face blackened and tear-stained. I stepped in and reached out my hand.
"Come with me! Hurry!" I called. He complied with celerity, and I scooped him up into my arms. We emerged into the hallway, and I looked right and left for MOMO. She was nowhere to be seen. "MOMO!" I shouted. Nothing, "MOMO!" With the sound of a door closing, she galloped down the hallway, a small bundle in her arms.
"I'm okay, Ziggy! We have to get out of here before the fire burns through a support beam!"
"Okay, let's go, MOMO," I said. We were down the stairs and out the door, followed by nothing but the rush of smoke and heat of flames. I shifted the boy's weight to one arm and grabbed the mother with my other hand as we ran past her. There was no time for talk. The fires were burning at an alarming rate, and I only hoped that the others had managed to rescue anyone. When MOMO and I had returned to the spot where we had all split up, I was rewarded with the sight of all the missing citizens along with all of our teammates. I reunited the mother with her son, who was soon covered in kisses. I leaned against a lamp pole and exhaled deeply. What a run.
I saw MOMO approach a man with shoulder-length blonde hair who seemed extremely preoccupied about something. When MOMO tapped him on the back, he spun around with an unnatural quickness.
"What is it little girl? I have very important things to worry about!" The man shouted. MOMO held out the bundle she had been carrying.
"I'm sorry, Mr. King, but isn't this your cat?" A tiny, furry head poked out of the bundle of clothes that MOMO had in her arms. The cat stared at the man and purred. His face lit up with a smile.
"Francois!" He shouted, scooping the cat up in his arms. "Oh, thank you, little girl! Thank you!" He planted kisses on the cat's head, and I grimaced. MOMO sauntered up to me, a grin on her face. I patted one of her pigtails as she approached.
"I heard the cat mewing when we were looking for that little boy. I couldn't just leave him..."
"I understand," I said quietly. "I was just afraid." MOMO's eyes widened.
"Ziggy was afraid of something?" She asked. I nodded.
"I was afraid that I would fail my mission," I said. I had meant that in failing my mission, MOMO would have been injured, or worse, killed. But she didn't seem to take it in the same way that I had meant it. Her face grew dim and sad, her eyes migrating to the ground. When she looked back up, pain struck through my chest. She was going to cry.
"I understand, Ziggy," she told me in a quiet voice. Then she turned on heel and ran to Jr.'s side. Millions of thoughts passed through my head at once, but most of them asked "what." What had I done? What did I say? What was wrong? What could I do? I wanted to go to her, to correct the mistake that I had committed. But the glaring look that blazed from Jr.'s eyes stopped me in my tracks. Then, as the final blow, I saw MOMO's hand move to Jr.'s shoulder as an act of needed consolation. She had chosen Jr. to protect her. I had lost. My shoulders slumped, and I fell back against the lamp pole once more.
I watched as the people we had rescued gave their thanks and moved to the shuttles. The woman and her boy came to thank me, and I told them to think nothing of it. All I wanted to think about was MOMO, and what I had done wrong. I had lost her, and I wanted her back. I wanted her trust, but most of all, I wanted her to be happy. Jr. couldn't possibly make her happy..... Could he?
"I think we should head back as well," chaos said, stretching slightly. Many head nods, and we agreed. And we would have been all too happy to return to the Durandal if it hadn't been for the gargantuan Gnosis standing in our path.
-----------------------
AN: I know I took a couple of plot liberties with this chapter, but I felt that there needed to be more to the rescue part of the game. So, behold! ... I sure hope there are still people reading this... I fear that I'll only continue this story if people really want me to. Anyway, enjoy the new chapter!
"Stay calm!" I ordered. My division of the police force had not been formed for crowd control and riots, but even fighting terrorists had taught me a thing or two about people in a panic. The first few people in front of me stopped shoving, seeing the cyborg in front of them. Then, next to me, Jr. appeared, and that seemed to calm the crowd a bit.
"Good thinking," Jr. muttered under his breath, his eyes flicking up to me, as I stood braced against the crowd. I nodded, and I began making a path for the others to follow through the solid mass of people.
"Just stay calm," I repeated, looking at the frightened faces before me. I raised my voice in order to be heard. "There's plenty of room left on the shuttle. We are here to help with the evacuations. You're safe here, so there's no need to-" Before I could say 'panic,' a woman screamed near the end of the crowd. Her scream incited everyone to run toward the shuttle in a mad dash. I braced myself again, feeling the bodies of the frightened people bump past me. From behind, I heard a girl shout. I turned.
"Hey!" MOMO called as a large man almost ran into her. Person after person slammed into her and myself, and I reached out to her. In an instant, I had her up on my shoulders, away from the jostling bodies of the terrified citizens. She breathed a heavy sigh of relief and leaned forward onto my head. "Thank you, Ziggy," she told me.
"Are you all right?" I asked. She nodded, then gasped. I saw her finger shoot out to our left.
"Ziggy, there's a little boy over there! He might be hurt!" I didn't need any further coaxing. I made my way through the throngs of people, shoving when necessary. When I reached the boy, I could see that he was no more than six years old, and there was a drop of blood running from his hairline.
"MOMO, you hop down and take care of him, and I'll shield the two of you. Do you have nanospray with you?"
"I think so," MOMO said, climbing down from atop my shoulders. I stood behind the two of them and faced the oncoming crowd. I took the blows of the panicking people, and I could hear MOMO applying the nanospray to the boy's wounds. Then, slowly, the force of the crowd seemed to ebb, and I no longer needed to shield the children. It seemed that the shuttles had been working double-time in order to cart all of the citizens to the Durandal, and most of them had already made it to their destinations. Through the thinning crowd, I could see Shion, chaos, KOS-MOS and Jr. making their way over to us. MOMO stood, signifying she had done all that she could for the boy.
"Is that better?" She asked him. He nodded, then looked to the both of us.
"Thank you," he said, and ran off in the direction of the shuttle. As Shion approached, I saw a smile lighting her face.
"That was brave of you, Ziggy," she said. I nodded, taking my gaze to the ground, unsure of how to respond. chaos opened his mouth to speak, when a haggard man ran up to Jr., his breath shallow. After a few moments of catching his second wind, the man looked pleadingly at the heir to the Kukai Foundation.
"Little Master," he wheezed, in the 27th Sector... There are still people trapped in there. I tried to go back for them, but the fire-" He stopped, coughing dangerously. I quickly scanned for his vital signs, and it seemed that everything was working correctly, save for the smoke in his lungs. I gave the man a look of gravity.
"You should report to the Durandal at once. They have medical assistants standing by."
"I can't just leave all those people," he told me. Had had to admire his bravery, but his health was far more important.
"Don't worry about them," Shion said suddenly. "We're here to help with the evacuation, and we'll do everything we can to help." Her face lit up with an encouraging smile, and the man coughed again.
"There are 13 people still trapped in the 27th Sector. Can you really rescue all of them by yourselves?"
"We can do our best," Jr. assured him. "Now get on the damned shuttle." The man complied instantly. "Come on, you heard the man," Jr. egged us on, heading out of the dock area. As the other trotted off, I knelt next to MOMO.
"MOMO," I began, taking her shoulder in my hand, "it would be safest if you were to stay here. From what the man has said, there are fires in the 27th District. I don't want you to-"
"No, I'm going to help!" MOMO insisted. I stared at her uneasily, then caved.
"Just stay close," I muttered, following the others at a quickened pace. MOMO nodded cheerfully and jogged to keep up. We moved past the denizens of the city that were moving in the opposite direction, making it hard to reach our destination. But we reached the 27th District in apt time, only to look upon a scene of horror.
Fire. There was fire everywhere, from the roofs of the buildings to debris smoldering in the streets. The roar of the blazes filled my sensors, and the acrid smell of smoke permeated the air. I knew that none of us could stand the lung-filling smoke for too long, MOMO least of all. I suggested that we all wear cloth over our mouths and noses, and it was soon agreed upon. It was also agreed upon that no one would return until rescuing every single person unaccounted for. KOS-MOS and Shion went dashing off toward the inn, chaos ran into the bar, whereas Jr. took immediately down the street. MOMO and I followed.
The Gnosis were close. I could hear them roaring, snarling from their hiding places. No doubt feeding on some poor victim. I grabbed MOMO's hand to keep her from falling behind as I increased my pace. Jr. had broken away from the main road and had disappeared into the billowing smoke. I kept MOMO close. I knew where I was headed, guided by the screams of a woman in the darkened air. Then, as the smoke parted before us, I could see her. It was the woman who ran the laundering establishment.
"Ma'am," I called, skidding to a stop next to her. "You have to leave the city. All citizens must evacuate to the Durandal." As she turned to me, I saw tears rolling down her face.
"My boy!" She cried. "My boy is still in there!" Her quaking finger pointed to the burning second floor of her building. "I tried to go in after him, but the door was too hot..." she trailed off, and her eyes glistened with fresh tears. "Oh, God, my boy is in there!" I released MOMO's hand and guided her to stand next to the crying woman.
"Stay here. I'm going in to find the boy," I told her. MOMO's eyebrows furrowed.
"I said that I was going to help you Ziggy. I want to help!" She stared with her round, golden eyes, pleading.
"No," I insisted, "you could be hurt. I don't want to risk it."
"Ziggy, I'm coming with you!" Her voice raised in volume, and now her eyes began to mist over. "I want to help!"
"MOMO-"
From inside the building, I heard a voice crying out as the roar of the flames increased. MOMO's face burned red, but her eyes stared and begged. No, she wasn't begging. She was persisting. I should have said no, but I couldn't. As much as I knew the danger she would be in, I just couldn't hurt her by saying no. Finally, I gave in, and made a short motion for MOMO to follow me. I knew I was making a mistake. I was risking her life, not only my own. I kicked the door open, and it fell to the ground in front of us with a loud clatter. On my right, a window exploded in a shower of glass shards. I shielded MOMO briefly, then flew up the stairs, keeping the Realian girl at my side.
"Help me!" I could hear the boy shouting from inside his room. MOMO's ears perked up as we neared the door, and she flew down the corridor to the left. " MOMO!!" I called after her. She had dashed into a different room. I told her to stay close! What is she was hurt? What about the boy? With a roar of frustration, I smashed the door in front of me with my foot. The boy sat underneath the open window, his face blackened and tear-stained. I stepped in and reached out my hand.
"Come with me! Hurry!" I called. He complied with celerity, and I scooped him up into my arms. We emerged into the hallway, and I looked right and left for MOMO. She was nowhere to be seen. "MOMO!" I shouted. Nothing, "MOMO!" With the sound of a door closing, she galloped down the hallway, a small bundle in her arms.
"I'm okay, Ziggy! We have to get out of here before the fire burns through a support beam!"
"Okay, let's go, MOMO," I said. We were down the stairs and out the door, followed by nothing but the rush of smoke and heat of flames. I shifted the boy's weight to one arm and grabbed the mother with my other hand as we ran past her. There was no time for talk. The fires were burning at an alarming rate, and I only hoped that the others had managed to rescue anyone. When MOMO and I had returned to the spot where we had all split up, I was rewarded with the sight of all the missing citizens along with all of our teammates. I reunited the mother with her son, who was soon covered in kisses. I leaned against a lamp pole and exhaled deeply. What a run.
I saw MOMO approach a man with shoulder-length blonde hair who seemed extremely preoccupied about something. When MOMO tapped him on the back, he spun around with an unnatural quickness.
"What is it little girl? I have very important things to worry about!" The man shouted. MOMO held out the bundle she had been carrying.
"I'm sorry, Mr. King, but isn't this your cat?" A tiny, furry head poked out of the bundle of clothes that MOMO had in her arms. The cat stared at the man and purred. His face lit up with a smile.
"Francois!" He shouted, scooping the cat up in his arms. "Oh, thank you, little girl! Thank you!" He planted kisses on the cat's head, and I grimaced. MOMO sauntered up to me, a grin on her face. I patted one of her pigtails as she approached.
"I heard the cat mewing when we were looking for that little boy. I couldn't just leave him..."
"I understand," I said quietly. "I was just afraid." MOMO's eyes widened.
"Ziggy was afraid of something?" She asked. I nodded.
"I was afraid that I would fail my mission," I said. I had meant that in failing my mission, MOMO would have been injured, or worse, killed. But she didn't seem to take it in the same way that I had meant it. Her face grew dim and sad, her eyes migrating to the ground. When she looked back up, pain struck through my chest. She was going to cry.
"I understand, Ziggy," she told me in a quiet voice. Then she turned on heel and ran to Jr.'s side. Millions of thoughts passed through my head at once, but most of them asked "what." What had I done? What did I say? What was wrong? What could I do? I wanted to go to her, to correct the mistake that I had committed. But the glaring look that blazed from Jr.'s eyes stopped me in my tracks. Then, as the final blow, I saw MOMO's hand move to Jr.'s shoulder as an act of needed consolation. She had chosen Jr. to protect her. I had lost. My shoulders slumped, and I fell back against the lamp pole once more.
I watched as the people we had rescued gave their thanks and moved to the shuttles. The woman and her boy came to thank me, and I told them to think nothing of it. All I wanted to think about was MOMO, and what I had done wrong. I had lost her, and I wanted her back. I wanted her trust, but most of all, I wanted her to be happy. Jr. couldn't possibly make her happy..... Could he?
"I think we should head back as well," chaos said, stretching slightly. Many head nods, and we agreed. And we would have been all too happy to return to the Durandal if it hadn't been for the gargantuan Gnosis standing in our path.
-----------------------
AN: I know I took a couple of plot liberties with this chapter, but I felt that there needed to be more to the rescue part of the game. So, behold! ... I sure hope there are still people reading this... I fear that I'll only continue this story if people really want me to. Anyway, enjoy the new chapter!