Chapter 20 The OKV

Are boring walk to the town of Kalm was filled with unexcitement and dull, random conversations. We had split up into two groups and meet there. As I entered the town, I seen miss Miko with her dogs. I ran up to her, Riker alongside, and made my way to the front.

"Hey, hows it going?" I ask, casually walking to the front of the building.

"Ryan, great to see your still alive...hehe now the innkeeper owes me 2000 gil." She said under her breath.

"Whats that?" I ask

"Several people took bets on how long you'd survive" She responded. Cloud stepped into the conversation.

"Is it still too late to take bets, Give him a week more." He said coldly.

"WHY YOU SON OF A BITCH, IF I WASN'T SUCH A NICE GUY, I WOULD FILL YOUR ASS WITH BULLETS."

He just shruged and walked away. "Maybe a day would be better." Miko walked towards Riker and patted him on the head.

"I fell sorry for you, two numskulled guys. You must have some patients." Riker barks back happily nodding somewhat, as if he was agreeing.

The anger subsiding, I was walking into the shop to hear a rumbling noice outside of town. I look and was almost scared shitless at the sight. A midgar Zolem was heading right for the town, but it wasn't the same. It was coated in what looked like some sort of metal, and the eyes were glowing red, almost burning. Everyone runs inside, everyone except us...including me. I don't know, either I was stoned to the point of insanity, or I was fascinated by what was happining. Putting aside that I don't do drugs, I have to be out of my mind.

"HOLY SHIT. WHAT THE #$ IS THAT!" Barret yells out. He raised his gun and shot at it, doing nothing but agitate the fiendish creature more. I shot at it, doing minimal damage as well. Red jumped on top of it and tried clawing his way through, but the monster threw him fror a ride. It was in the town now, smashing the buildings to pieces and injuring countless. Only a few stood.

"YOU MOTHER F&#ING SNAKE." Tifa yelled out, to all of our surprisement. She pulled off her limit break on it, smashing it with the beat rush, denting it with sumersalt, and stunning it with waterkick. Cloud ran towards it, sword sliding against the ground until the point of impact across the snake. It left a gash, but the Midgar Zolem regenerated itself, it was about to use beta. I seen it before, and with no water to dive into, I was a sitting duck, along with the rest of the town. I covered riker, who was strangly afraid of it. The only thing he feared was machines. In a moment, a sharp blistering pain was covering my body, burning. The blast ended, causing the buildings that were left to combust. I bearly felt anything as the numbness came over me, and then relief. The only ones left standing were me, Aeris, and Riker. Everyone else got knocked out. I looked at my Arm, which had now felt red hot.

"Aeris, beta, use beta, this thing is made of some kind of metal. We might get it to back off." Aeris nodded, she got ready to cast beta as I did myself. For Aeris, the flames were appearing above the fake snake, for me, the beta spell was froming withing my gun, but it was compressed. The burning sensation was overwhelming as the fireball shot out and impacted at the same time as Aeris's hit. The being was starting to melt, and it ran away. I looked over at my arm, which was bright red. I took out a potion and poured it on, attempting to cool it down. It sizzled and dimmed back to the origional color. I looked around to see the people running in fear as the houses were falling apart. Aeris cast Ice on the homes as I gave pheonix downs to all the unconsious, including our friends. As they were comming around, the Man in Black had walked around some debris. I ran to go and meet him.

"What the hell was that, that isn't in this game." I yelled at him.

"I know, and I am sorry for not warning you ahead of time, we didn't think it had gotten so powerful." He responded.

"What is 'IT'" I asked.

"They call it the OKV, an artificially intelligent virus that was self created from bits and pieces of leftover data, from when this virtual world was made. If it destroys this world, It can escape into yours. Traveling across computers, into government areas. If it were to escape, both worlds would be lost. Your purpose here is to support the fight at any means. What you got here was just a small sample of its power, it could be compared with weapons. It takes on the form of what the people around fear the most. In this case, it was a midgar zolem."

"So can it be stopped?" I asked, nervous.

"Yes, an antivirus has been developed, but only a true human can use it, that is your true reason for being here." He took what looked like a metalic colored materia out of his pocket."This is it, it must be placed within the viral core. When you equip it to your arm, it will infuse, making your punch the cure. To expose the core, you have to never hold back in battle. It's core was exposed, so it ran away to recover. Be safe, and remember, the world is counting on you." He faded back to where he resides, leaving the antivirus materia in my hands. I equiped it and watched as it infused with my arm.

"Go figure, the fate of the world is in my hands.litterally" I let out a weak laugh and went to join the others.