CHAPTER LXX
BOULDER BEAR BRAWL
Cloud and Aerith stood at one end of the dome while Ember and Vincent casually entered to meet them. It was hard for them to look at Vincent – he had seemed to be making progress against the darkness the last time they saw him…but now, he just looked like a mindless drone, following Ember like a lost puppy.
"The rules are just like before, except now it's two on two. First person to faint loses the match and the Showdown for their team…so stay on your toes! Good luck, and as always – keep an eye out for those surprises!" the announcer's voice was starting to grate on Cloud's nerves…
The buzzer sounded and the match began with a flash. Aerith immediately cast blizzaga at Ember, catching him completely off-guard. As he rocketed backwards into the ground, Vincent drew his Cerberus and fired round after round at Cloud. It was amazing – the gun seemed to house quite a lot of bullets. It fired over twenty rounds at the rapidly dodging Cloud before Vincent lowered it and reloaded. Cloud's Buster sword sizzled in several places where he had blocked the shots manually.
Ember had recovered from his fall – in one uncharacteristically graceful move, he pushed off of the ground as he summoned his laser sais, doing a mid-air spin as he landed behind Aerith. Launching into a volley of powerfully quick swings, Aerith didn't stand a chance to block. She was juggled farther and farther across the dome, Ember furiously pounding her backside.
Cloud left Vincent as he reloaded his Cerberus; he needed to save Aerith from Ember. In one mighty slash, Ember flew across the dome and smashed into the fence, nearly dropping his sais in the process.
Vincent turned and drew another weapon, previously hidden beneath his red cloak. Even in his uniform, he opted to further distinguish himself from the rest of the Legion Knights…perhaps he was farther down the road to becoming a Chaser than Cloud and Aerith had originally thought?
Any doubt of this was removed as he steadied his new weapon – a long, cylindrical black tube, bearing a sleek, stylized handgrip – on his shoulder. Pulling the trigger twice in the time it would take a normal marksman to pull the trigger once, he fired two glowing orbs at Cloud and Aerith. They left a swirling orange smoke in their wake, bearing down on the heroes.
"Split up," Cloud said, pushing the wounded Aerith away as he ran in the opposite direction. Unfortunately, his plan was foiled by the heat-seeking orbs – they followed Cloud and Aerith, detonating with a stunning orange and black flash.
The audience whooped and hollered – it was quite a display. Thorn angrily turned to Setzer.
"Sir, he did not present that weapon for inspection…"
Setzer swiveled in his chair, almost undetectably. He raised a hand and motioned for Thorn to calm down. "Let them put on a show…the audience is loving it…"
"But sir…heat-seeking weapons provide an unfair advan-"
"An unfair advantage? Against Cloud Strife? Even if Vincent had 1,000 of those weapons mounted on a tank, the odds would still be in Strife's favor."
Cloud and Aerith lurched forward as the blast collided with them. Weakly rising herself from the ground, Aerith was helped up by a soot-covered Cloud. As they turned to face Ember and Vincent on the other side of the dome, a large, rotating box appeared in the center of the arena. Vincent wasted no time in firing a single bullet at the box – with a loud 'ding', the box stopped on an image of an X. They hadn't the slightest idea what it meant…but they knew they'd find out.
Seconds later, up from the ground sprung two chain link walls, just like the fence around the dome. The first split right down the middle of the dome, creating halves, and the second shot across the halves, quartering the dome. Each quarter held one of the combatants, clockwise from Ember to Cloud, then to Aerith and finally Vincent. On each of the four walls, a centered keyhole was barely visible above eye level, blending in with the silver and black chain link fence.
"Isolation dens! These can be tricky to get out of! If you're not freed in five minutes, the show's over for you!" the announcer taunted.
Each of their weapons vanished from their hands in a puff of smoke. Ember and Vincent tried to summon their weapons once again, but they failed. Cloud slammed his fist into the wall – it rattled incessantly, but didn't move an inch.
"Okay contestants – examine your surroundings. Take your pick…but choose wisely!" In front of each of them a computer screen materialized, showing a small icon of various weapons. Each and every weapon that had been entered into the tournament had been replicated and made available for selection.
Ember and Cloud had located their weapons – sais in hand, Ember slashed furiously at the fence, but it barely seemed to do any damage at all. Cloud hacked away with his Buster Sword, doing infinitesimally more damage than Ember. They pounded on the same wall, gritting their teeth at each other, Ember's still hidden behind his mask. Most walls would crumble under this sort of attack, Cloud knew. Five minutes was a joke - they'd be slashing all day at the reinforced steel walls.
"C'mon…where is it…" she scrolled past images quickly. Tidus' blue, glassy sword…Kale's impressive bow…Zell's weighted gloves… "Found it!" she said, tapping the screen as a familiar weapon materialized in her hand. "Gee, feels kind of neat to finally hold one of these…" she said, pointing the replica of Mickey's keyblade at the fence between Cloud and herself. After struggling for a moment, the fence gave way and sank back into the ground. The keyblade was indeed just a replica – the amount of power in it was only a fraction of Mickey's true keyblade.
Vincent, on the other side of the fence, had gotten creative. After selecting Selphie's nunchaku, he ripped them apart and nimbly bent one of the chain links into a small, but effective, lock pick. Soon, he and Ember were reunited, opposite Cloud and Aerith. Simultaneously, Aerith unlocked one of the final panels as Vincent picked the other one open – their weapons flashed, replacing them with Aerith's staff and Vincent's Cerberus. Cloud wasted no time beginning his assault on Ember.
Ember kicked Cloud backwards as he clenched his hands together, igniting them in flames.
"If you're gonna know my name, might as well know why I got it…" he said, punching Cloud with his burning fists. Cloud's shirt and cloak were tattered and burnt by the time Aerith knocked Ember away with a thundaga attack; Vincent stood back, firing his gun rapidly. As his Cerberus was depleted once again, he reached around his cloak, readying his rocket launcher for another string of attacks…
Aerith and Cloud looked between Ember and Vincent as they parried Ember's attacks. Giving her a knowing look, Cloud stepped backwards and gripped his sword in an interesting fashion – with a faint click, it split in two – revealing a large, nearly hollow version of his regular sword, and a smaller, sleeker one with a pronged blade.
Aerith and Cloud started their limit attack – "FUNERAL PYRE!" they called, as Aerith swiftly smashed Ember in the face – his mask shattered inches from his face as blood trickled down his nose. Aerith cried 'gravity!', as Ember was slammed to the ground, his brown, spiked hair fanning out around him like a dirty halo. Cloud slammed his smaller sword down, inches above the Knight's head – right into his mane of hair. As Ember struggled to break free of the gravity spell, he realized that his hair was pinned to the ground by Cloud's sword – he couldn't raise himself up, let alone move.
Cloud smiled at Vincent from across the dome, flashing a peace sign as the other Knight pulled the trigger thrice on his rocket launcher – sending three glowing orbs straight at Cloud. In the blink of an eye, Aerith had cast two spells – a well timed blizzaga attack hit Cloud in the back, causing the heat-seeking missiles to veer around him as they sought the next heat-laden target. Aerith also happened to cast a powerful firaga at Ember's feet, creating a small but fierce pillar of flames to issue forth.
"Don't you get it? I'm fireproof, stupid!" Ember said as the flames licked at his feet.
"That's not what I'm counting on," Aerith said, yanking the sword free from Ember's tangled hair.
As he sat up, laughing about Aerith's foolish attempt to burn him alive, Aerith cast a protective 'reflega' spell around herself…Ember never even had a chance to think of Vincent's rockets…
The flash of light completely engulfed him – orange and black shot out in all directions as all three rockets connected fully with the Legion Knight. As the light subsided, Vincent was teleported out of the dome by himself. Ember's body was never seen again - his markings transferred themselves onto the remaining Knight's uniforms like thousands of tiny fireflies exiting the dome.
"I CAN'T BELIEVE IT! A stunning victory for Cloud and Aerith! Ember and Vincent, show's over! And that's the showdown, ladies and gentlemen! Your winners - Cloud and Aerith!"
The audience didn't seem to notice that Vincent left alone – nor did they notice that the 'no killing' rule was violated – the finish to the much anticipated match was far too exciting. Everyone in the stands was on their feet, screaming at the top of their lungs. Even Pete found himself impressed with the display as a portion of Ember's markings landed on his uniform.
"Don't start celebrating yet, combatants," Setzer said as he rose from underground on a circular platform. "There's still one rung left on the ladder…"
