A/N: yes! another update! no new reviews, sadly. but, the last chapter i posted was a bit messed up, a few paragraphs got deleted and dont worry, i fixed it! so read it and then read this! also, this chapter may be a bit werid, i changed some things around a bit. I got writers block really bad when writing this, mainly because its following the story so much. I couldnt add as much personality to this chapter as i wanted to. So, please enjoy!
Selphie had driven west towards the missle base. It was a small affair, but it was heavily guarded, she could already see 4 maybe 5 Galbadian trucks parked inside. She nervously drove up to the gates, a secrurity guard comming out and inspecting their truck. "Alright, go ahead," the guard said gruffly.
Selphie slowly drove inside and parked. "Everyone ready?" She said, itching at her clothes. They all nodded, Irvine opened the door for them to get out. Luckily, there had been extra Galbadian uniforms for them to wear hidden in the back, but they were smelly and they made her skin itch like crazy! They heard a male voice boom out from a set of speakers saying, "Following the launch on Trabia Garden, prepare for the launch on Balamb Garden. All personnel take your positions!"
"When is the launch time?" Quistis thought outloud. "It doesnt matter, what does matter is that we have to stop those missiles! If theres a door, we go in! If there's anything we can break, we break! and in the end, we blow this place to smithereens!" She said, feeling almost crazy. But she had a power that she hadn't had for a long time. She was their leader and right now she could be saving garden students from being killed! "Hey Selphie, I like your attitude! Let's do it up!" Irvine said. Selphie giggled and then said, seriously, "Lets get a move on!"
They entered the metal building in front of them, it was like a garage. There were metal barrel canisters holding some kind of liquid inside. They came to two doors, Selphie spotted an ID check. "Uh-oh, we dont have an ID..." She mumbled. "So like... I found this in the car. Give it a try," Irvine said, handing her a cool plastic ID card. She slipped the card into the card reader and squeed when she heard the locks click on the doors. They went through the left door. They came upon a small set of stairs and there was a solider guarding a door. 'Yikes! There's someone there! What to do...!' She thought. "Lets just act casual! It might look suspicious if we're caught." She whispered to them.
They slowed down into a walk and passed by the solider without any trouble. Selphie sighed heavily and ran right on the metal catwalks toward another set of steps. There were 2 doors, 1 was guarded by a solider and the other wasnt. Selphie led them towards the unguarded one. It led them outside, on a large metal mesh platform. Soliders were working on some machines, so Selphie went over to see what they were doing.
"I'm bust now! whaddya want?" One said, struggling to get a wrench out of his tool box. "Oh yeah, arent we suppos'ta inspect the circuit room soon?" The other said. "Oh, its that time already? We're doing the real thing today, so there's no way we have time for it..." The one with the wrench said. One of the soliders turned to Selphie, which almost made her jump. "Sorry to trouble you, but could you deliver a message for us? Tell the guys by the missle launcher to go on ahead and we'll catch up with'em later" He explained. Selphie nodded and he said, "thanks a lot. We really appreciate it."
Selphie led the group back to the inside and nervously went to ask one of the guards where the Missle Launcher was. "What, you dont know where it is? Sheesh, they arent giving me enough money to be doing this..." He said, pointing towards the door which was guarded. Selphie and the others went by, the guard didnt even say anything to them. Selphie walked towards a solider who was working on a large machine and said, "S'cuse me, sir... I have a message for you."
"Well, what is it?" He asked, wiping his greasy hands on his uniform. "Its about inspecting the ciruit room. The maintenace team said they were too busy, so that they asked us if we could go ahead and do it," she explained. 'ha ha! Now we can get into the room and stop those missles!' she thought. "Oh well...okay then," The guy said, getting back to his work.
"Are you sure that was wise, Selphie?" Quistis asked, nervousness shaking through her voice. "Hey, we can take these guys if we have to! Relax," Selphie said, running down the metal catwalk to the soilder who was guarding the door. "Um, the maintenance team asked us to take their place with the inspection," Selphie said, saluting the guard. "Oh really? Then I guess my shift if over... I'm gunna call in my relief, Go ahead with the inspection then," He said, shaking them off and going outside. "hee hee! lets go!" Selphie said, running inside.
The circuit room was a large room, with a window looking on to a large light source. There was a large control panal in front of them with many buttons. "I'm not sure what to do, so i'll just press whatever!" Selphie said, like a mad scientist content on finishing his grotesque new experiment. She started smashing her hands against the buttons, not thinking nor caring about what she was pressing. 'For Trabia! For Balamb! Gotta stop those missiles!'
After a minute of smashing, she thought 'Thats strange...nothings happening...maybe I should try again.' "Here goes nothing!" She cried softly, smashing her hand down on a medium sized blue button. She looked at her party and glanced at the light source, as it slowly turned black. As it did, the whole room turned pitch black. "what? heey...what happened to the lights...?" She said, groping around for an emergency light switch or something. A dim orange light glowed over the room as an announcment came from the intercom in the room. "Electrical System Malfunction. Maintenance Team: Investigate Immediately," The announcer said. "We should go, it would look suspecious if they found us here," Quistis said, pulling Selphie out of the room as Irvine and Zell followed.
A troupe of 3 guards came rushing at them. "Hey! Whats going on here?" One barked at them. 'uh-oh, bad timing!' "We...uh, were just about to go call on you!" She said, trying to act cool. "Oh," The guard said, his voice lowering, "Alright then, lets take care of it!" The troupe went in the room and closed the door behind them. "C'mon!" Selphie said, running down the catwalk and down the set of stairs. "Hey! You! I havent seen you around here before..." A guard said, stopping them in their tracks.
'coooooommmmmmeee ooon!' she screamed inside. "we need some help in here. Do you think you can lend us a hand?" He asked. "Uh, sure," Selphie said, not wanting to sound impatient. "Follow me," he said, leading them into a room with many large missle carriers, "Power failure at a crucial time like this? what the heck are the mmaintenance guys doing?" He stopped and motioned to the carrier which was out of place, a group of soliders surrounded on side. "Okay, just go by them and help push," He said, motioning for them to go.
Selphie took a spot next to two bulky soliders and the guard yelled, "Go!" The carrier was slowly, inch by inch, getting closer to its place. Selphie hardly pushed at all, thinking 'Ha, just do it yourself!' When the heavy carrier was pushed into place, the guard came up to her and said, "Good job. All we need to do now is confirm the coordinates on the control panal. The program should be ready to go, get to it!" He said. 'Heh heh, now we're talking!' she thought, almost skipping out of the room.
The control panal was placed outside of the door and luckily, no guard or solider was around. "ok, so what should we do?" Quistis said, as they all crowded around it. "Lets just bust it up!" Irvine said, smiling. Selphie smiled and said, "Yea-oh...It'll be a mega bummer if WE launch the missiles by mistake...Lets just hold back and kinda mess around with it." "Sounds good!" Quistis said, pressing some buttons and the screen turned blue and she clicked on the error ratio selection and found the selection on 0. "Turn it up! Its sure to miss!" Zell said. Quistis did so and clicked out of the program turning around, they seen a guard behind them.
"Hey, your not allowed up here!" He screeched. "Um, but we came to report on the missle coordinate data!" Selphie said. "Oh...very well! Go right ahead," The guard said, madly. Selphie and the others climbed up the set of metal stairs and into a large metal door labeled 'Launch Control Room.'
"All systems go, sir!" A solider yelled from inside. "Everythings all set, sir!" Another yelled. "We had some minor setback, but proceed as scheduled! We're running behind, but prepare for the final launch phase!" A officer in red said, laughing hystercally. The soilders nodded and the officer grabbed a mic from the control panel, and clicked a red button which must have turned on the intercom system.
"Attention, this is the control room. We are now entering the final phase of the missle launch. Take your desiganted postitions and prepare for the launch!" He screamed. Selphie ran to him and saluted. "Hey...what are you doing in here?" The officer said, looking at her with his eyebrow raised. "we've come to report on the missile coordinates!" She said, firm and clearly. "Oh...," he said, deep in thought. "Don't move!" he screamed after a moment of silence, "I thought you looked suspicious! You're the intruders! No use hiding it now! That salute you did was completely wrong!" He stuck his sausage shaped finger in her face and she jumped back.
Selphie pulled a small black object from her pocket and threw it on the ground, a blinding light flashing in the room. She unzipped the stinky uniform and ripped it off, grabbing her nunchaku which was hidden inside. "TA-DAH!" She sneered at them, "Yes! Finally, that uniform was itchy and it stinks!" She kicked it, for effect. The guards held swords in their faces. "fight 'em!" The officer yelled. The guards attacked, Quistis snapped her whip on the ground and made one of the guards fall back on the ground.
Zell started fist fighting with the other guard, knocking his pathetic sword out of his hand. Selphie and Irvine took on the officer, he lunged at them with his large gunarm and smacked Selphie in the shoulder. She fell to her knees, feeling like she broke something in her arm as Irvine shot 3 times with his rifle. As Quistis finished her guard off, Zell moved onto the officer. He punched him right up-side the head, and tripped him to the ground. Selphie swung her nunchaku in the air, the end of it smacking the officer in the temple before he slumped against the cold, metal floor.
"ok!" Selphie said, gingerly rubbing her shoulder, "Lets stop the missiles, blow the base to smithereens, and get out of here!" They all nodded, looking very exhausted. "One of these controls panels should be the launch control mechanism," Quistis said, stepping over the knocked out soliders and taking a closer look at one of the panels. "Lets just split up and start looking," Irvine said, going to the next. Selphie went into the next room and seen a large button. "Any luck?" She said, pretty sure it was the self-destruct button "Yeah! Come here!" Zell said. "
The trio came in and stood around Zell as he pressed a tiny, square metal button carefully. "All we need to find now is find the self-" Irvine said, but Selphie cut him off. "Already found it!" She said, skipping into the next room and pointing to the large tomato red button. "we have to set a time limit...20 minutes is more than enough time!" Selphie said, jumping up and down.
"Self-destruct mechanism activated. 20 minutes util destruction. All staff evacuate the base immediately. I repeat..." A voice droned from the speakers int he room. "Woo-hoo!" Selphie said, rasing her fist in triumph, "lets hurry on outta here!" The party ran down the stairs and out of the Launch Control Room. They didnt notice a solider open his eyes and crawl, slowly, over towards the control panel. "its...hehehehehehee, not over yet!" He moaned, pressing a button on the panel. He then slumped over against the panel.
As they ran down the metal catwalk, Selphie noticed that everyone must have evacuated, which made it much more easier to get out of this dump. She led them towards the exit and heard a loud, booming noise. "What...what was that?" She mumbled. She turned to Irvine, who shurgged, Quistis, who shook her head and to Zell, who wasnt even paying attention. Selphie shook her head and led them outside. The Galbadian vehicles were being drove, in a frenzy, out of the base. Soliders were making a beeline to the exit and soon only left Selphie, Zell, Irvine and Quistis alone. The ground shook violently as a group of 12 missles shot from carriers on the ground, shooting into the perfect blue sky. Selphie sighed and said, "Well, lets mosey!"
The were at the gates of the base when they heard the ground shake and a large, mechanical sound. Selphie looked behind her and gasped. A large mass of metal was before them, with tiny machine guns and 6 protroding bumps at the top of the machine. "Theres no way im letting you all live! It would be inexcusable to Sorceress Edea! I dont' want to suffer her wrath! Are you men ready?" A voice called from the machine. They heard a chorus of shouts before the machine scooted forword and the tiny machine guns shot at them.
Selphie jumped out of the way, Irvine barely dodge a bullet to the leg. Quistis started cracking at the machine with her whip as Zell started to draw spells from the monster. It only had a variety of simple spells, from blizzard to fire. Selphie smacked it around with her nunchaku and Irvine shot at the protruding bumps at the top. The machine gun aimed at Quistis, she jumped out of the way and screamed. A bullet grazed her shoulder, she rubbed it gingerly as everyone continued their offensive attacks. Quistis sprang back into action, as they heard a rumbling sound come from the machine. THey heard a low pitched scream and one of the bumps blew into an inferno. "No! Damn them! Get the beam cannon ready!" Another voice barked.
"Be careful you guys!" Selphie shouted, as she raised her nunchaku. "Draw...Thunder!" She cried, a bolt of electricity went straight into one of the bumps. They heard the rumbling and a large golden beam shot at them. Selphie felt sickly warm and she fell to the ground, coughing and feeling extremely weak. "Draw...Cure!" She heard a voice say. She felt warm again, but sweetly warm, a good one. She got up, a little wobbly and said, "Lets beat this thing!" she looked at Irvine and inwardly said thanks.
As they kept up the offensive attack, many more of the bumps slowly exploded until there was none left. "F-finally..." Zell said, falling on his bottom to the cement ground. "We cant stop now! we got to get out of here!" Selphie said, pulling him up and running to the gate. She cried out when it was locked from the outside, her eyes glancing up at the barbed wire lined tops. 'Are we locked in...? Squall will take care of the rest right...?' She thought, turning back to her team. She sighed, and felt warm tears burn at her eyes. She shook her head and thought 'I wont cry! Its all over, but i will not cry!'
"It came quite quietly, I thought the end would have been more dramatic," Qusitis sighed, her blue eyes glancing towards the sky in a holy way. It seemed everyone wanted to speak their minds at this moment, It was going to be their final moments anyhow. "Squall...he didnt trust me. Thats probally why he put me on this team..." Irvine said, falling to the ground and tipping his hat to cover his violet eyes.
Selphie clenched her eyes shut and thought, 'What are you all saying? Squall chose us because he believed in us! I'm sure of it! We can do it! That's what he thought when he made this team!...isnt that right Squall?' She couldnt be sure...The ground shook horribly as the small blue building behind them blew into an inferno. Selphie lunged, grabbing Irvine, Quistis and Zell with her, towards the destroyed Galbadian monster, jumping inside the pitch black vechile, everyone gasping for breath besides her. Outside-the world was comming to an end. Or so it seemed.