"EYYYYAHHHHHHHHHHH!" the black dragon screeched as it sent a burst of blue fire towards a group of running soldiers, sending them flying from the momentum of the crash, burning them all. The dragon clambered forward and roared again.
"Mr. President! We need to get you to safety now!" spoke one of the soldiers as he got to the man who stood behind a vehicle, getting his weapon ready. The man looked up from what he was doing and said, "I can't, I can't leave the city like this." He locked the barrel and slung his weapon over his shoulders. "I'm not running away from something like this. I have to defend the city."
"But sir!"
"Call for reinforcement, soldier!" commanded a voice from within the vehicle and out strode a dark-skinned man, armed with his a razor-sharp blade protruding from both arms.
"Yes sir!" the soldier said and hurried off towards another direction, shouting something into his cell-phone just as a blue fireball hurtled passed his head a few inches before crashing into a building, destroying it. The soldier was so frightened, he dropped the cell-phone and ran off, screaming.
Shaking his head, Laguna looked around his city, watching the smoke rising from behind burning buildings and cracked roads when minutes ago it had been calm and serene with many people walking around. Now, dead bodies lay everywhere and building structures were horribly damaged beyond help, all because of a malevolent dragon.
But he, Laguna Loire, President of Esthar, is not gonna go down without giving it a fight. His grip on his machine-gun grew. The fiery fighting spirit within him burned with determination.
"Where's Ward?" he asked.
The sounds of another vehicle arriving at the scene answered him. The vehicle skidded into a stop a few meters away from where Laguna and Kiros as it paused in mid-air. The door slid open to reveal a giant man in his old sailor clothes.
"Ward here," spoke the man as he clambered out, dragging an anchor with him. The heavy weight of the anchor did not bother the man at all due to the long years of training.
"Looks like the old group is here now," said Laguna, who was dressed in his casual clothes, not looking any bit like the old soldier he once was. However, the machine-gun slung on his shoulders showed that he still had not forgotten the way of the wars.
Nodding to his friends, he called, "Let's go fight the dragon!"
They nodded and the three of them hurried towards where the black dragon stood on one of the skyways, breathing blue fire everywhere. Flames started burning as buildings and roads caught the fire, creating a huge inferno surrounding the dragon. Satisfied with its demolition job, the black dragon screamed a triumphant cry, the blaze reflecting in its sapphire-blue eyes as it flapped its silver-gray wings, getting ready to fly.
"Hold it! I'm not letting you off for destroying this city!" shouted Laguna as he started shooting at the dragon. Gunfire filled the air as bullets whizzed towards the dragon. But to the creature, it was nothing as the bullets just rebounded off its thick, scaly hide and lay in a useless pile around the dragon. The dragon snorted, black smoke emitting from its nose as its red tongue slithered forth.
"No way…" Laguna took a step back, his machine-gun trailing smoke at its end.
"The dragon is impervious to normal bullets, it seems," said Kiros. "At any rate, my Katal wouldn't even work on it. Yours too, Ward." The giant nodded his head in agreement.
"Then I'll use this," said Laguna, taking out a hand grenade from one of his pockets. He pulled the key-pin and tossed the grenade at the dragon before emptying a few clips of ammo at it.
"Go!" he yelled and the trio went for cover behind Ward's vehicle. Just as they got behind it, an explosion went off, and they heard the dragon screamed in surprise mixed with pain. The ground they stood on vibrated faintly from the force of the explosion.
"You got spare?" grunted Ward, dragging his anchor close.
"Let's see…" Laguna checked his pockets, and produced two more hand grenades. "My last few." He handed each one to his friends.
"Don't you need it?" asked Kiros.
Just then, then heard a heavy thud, and the ground they were on shook. A huge shadow covered them, and they heard the heavy breathing of the black dragon above them.
"Great…it's found us," Laguna said quietly. He slowly aimed his machine-gun upwards before turning to his two friends. "When I start shooting, you guys run."
"We're not leaving you behind," said Kiros. Ward shook his head too.
"We run, you run," Ward said.
"I'm grateful to have you guys as my best friends. But you still have to take a President's orders, right?" Laguna asked. "So, listen-"
"We. Don't. Care," Kiros and Ward said at the same time. Laguna looked at his friends' determined faces. He gave up trying to convince them to run. He shook his head and formulated an escape plan.
"…Fine. On the count of three, I shoot, you throw the bombs, and we run, okay? So…one…two…"
Before Laguna made it to three, they heard the sounds of shooting from mid-air. That meant only one thing.
Squall and co. has arrived.
The trio looked up just as they saw the Ragnarok zoomed in onto the battle scene. The black dragon looked up and breathed another blue fireball at the incoming airship but missed as the Ragnarok swerved smoothly to the side, evading it nicely. The fireball shattered one of the floors in the buildings in a huge crash, sending shards of broken glass raining down on one side of the road.
The enraged dragon screamed once more as shooting resumed from the Ragnarok's side. Bullets hailed towards the dragon and the vehicle where Laguna took shelter as the airship fly past above to the left.
Then Laguna heard the dragon roared furiously before thundering away after the Ragnarok. He heard the heavy beating of wings and looked up from behind a badly damaged side window to see the dragon taking off after the Ragnarok.
"Oh no you don't!" Laguna quickly grabbed the remaining grenades from his friends and pulling off the clips with his teeth, he then threw both of the bombs towards the dragon.
At the same time, the Ragnarok made a U-turn and and launched a missile, the white torpedo sparking off with a whizzing blast of fire from the end, towards the dragon too.
Two bombs and a missile…OH NO!
"RUN!" yelled Laguna at his two friends. Two dark figures were running away from behind the vehicle, and he ran to join his friends just as he felt the ground beneath him quaked and the dragon's surprised cry piercing the silence before it realized what was happening.
KAAABOOOOOOOOOMMMM!
* * *
"Oh, Hyne…" Quistis murmured under her breath as she watched the mushroom cloud from the explosion forming from where the dragon was, enveloping nearby buildings in thick black smoke and creating a huge impact where explosion went off.
"What? What happened to the dragon? It's not giving chase?" asked Selphie as she brought the Ragnarok up to a higher level, safe from the impact of the bombs.
"I think I saw somebody threw some bombs at the dragon when we were launching the missile," said Zell, watching from the sidescreen. "Then KABOOM…man, this city's gonna burn."
Black smoke trailed from every corner of the city, with many buildings that had been damaged or collapsed, and some of it were still burning away as flames licked faintly at the steel structures. Sirens of the ambulances could be heard faintly wailing away as they rushed to help the hurt. Copters were seen flying around the red zone where the explosion took place, shining their white light here and there to seek out any survivors.
Only the central part and the Presidential Palace remained intact. The other half of the great city of Esthar was destroyed due to a rampant dragon.
"Oh, Hyne…" Quistis said it again as she shook her head sadly. "I can't believe this is happening…"
"I wonder how's Mr. President is doing…" Selphie said worriedly.
Just then, Laguna's voice answered her through the intercom amidst a static background. "Ragnarok! Are you still there?"
"Mr. President!" Selphie shouted excitedly. "You're alive!"
"Uh…yes…" a small laughter responded. "Although barely…"
"What do you want us to do now?" asked Squall who appeared behind Selphie.
"I will need some help trying to get everything under control…I mean, the city to get under control."
Just as Squall was about say that they would think about it, Selphie had answered, "No problem! Leave it to us!"
"Okay…then I guess we'll meet at the Airstation then." He hung up, and the line was closed.
"Yeah! We're gonna help Mr. President to rebuild his city!" said Selphie, pumping her fist into the air.
"Selphie…since when are you allowed to give orders?" Squall asked, with a slight hint of controlled anger and annoyance in it. Selphie felt it and turned to him, smiling sheepishly as she apologized.
"Sorry, guess I just got…carried away?"
"Our mission was to obtain whatever information we can get from Dr. Odine, not to-"
"Squall…just leave the matter at rest," said Rinoa. "We need to help the President as his city got under attack from-"
"-a dragon. I know, but-"
"Guys! The dragon's still ALIVE!" Selphie shouted, pointing down at the red zone. Everyone looked at where she was indicating at, and as the smoke started to clear, they saw a dark figure moving. Without warning, the black serpent had appeared, and screeching with anger, it started flying at an unbelievable speed, snaking its ways upwards.
Towards the Ragnarok.