Chapter 16
Dragon Skin
The Highwind went into a nose dive just in time for the Shadow to pass overhead and miss the airship. The second Shadow came on and slammed head first into the port side.
The entire bridge trembled but everything appeared to be intact.
"That didn't even damage the ship," Cid said looking at Chuck.
"The Dragon Skin works," Chuck said smiling, "I knew it would of course."
Cid turned the Highwind so it was face to face with the oncoming Shadow, Cid opened up with the ship's weapons and a wave of bullets and missiles drove into the Shadow. The impact of the combined weapons forced the creature to drop out of the air and fall toward water.
Cid knew he had to try and ration the weaponry this time; he now had two enemies to worry about. He hoped silently that he had loaded enough ammunition to take the things out.
The Highwind went into a series of turns and dives that one wouldn't think the ship was capable of. She was more agile than she looked.
The second Shadow came to a stop a few feet from the Highwind and instead of ramming; the creature fired a constant beam of black from one of the spikes on its left wing.
The Highwind took the full brunt of the beam and it appeared to be literally pushed a few feet to the side by the force of the attack.
"How's the Dragon Skin?" asked Cid steadying himself.
"That was a serious hit, definitely put a crack in it but it's still stable," Chuck said looking at the console that obviously monitored the armour.
"How did you make such a powerful armour?" asked Wymond, he was a bit impressed by the ability of the armour to block attacks so well.
"Actually it was Shera's theory, the mixing Materia and metal thing," Chuck said, "I just used my usual tools and trial and error until it worked…can't believe I never thought of it before."
"You make it sound simple," Wymond said, "it can't be easy to intertwine Materia and regular alloys."
"Well, like I said, it was mostly trial and error," Chuck said, "about two weeks worth of trying different things and I found the right combination, didn't get much sleep those two weeks."
Wymond just shook his head; he had never really expected anyone to make such a thing from Materia.
"Shera was around, so I had four hands on the job too," Chuck said shrugging.
"Hang on!" Cid yelled suddenly throwing the ship to starboard; another of those black beams just barely missed the airship.
Cid brought the Highwind straight again and headed back toward one of the Shadows. He had been trying running at them and firing weapons but it was taking too long, Cid needed a new plan.
"Chuck, tell me you installed something with a bigger boom than this conventional stuff," Cid growled.
"It's hard to name them all," Chuck said, "they aren't all installed but I got a few on before we left."
"That's what I like to hear," Cid said smiling.
"I suggest the small blue button to your right," Chuck said.
Cid nodded and looked around the console, there were also some other buttons and levers he had never seen before, he knew they were weapons.
Cid looked up to see the Shadow was still ahead and hit the blue button.
From the right and left sides of the ship two very thin looking pieces of metal broke off and were propelled forward by small jets.
"What the hell are those little things gonna do?" asked Cid looking at Chuck.
Chuck smiled, "I knew you would say something like that, everyone should probably avert their eyes."
"Avert their…it's just two little pieces of…" the two thin metal pieces hit the Shadow and exploded into a massive ball of flame quickly accompanied by an extremely bright flash.
Cid staggered back and rubbed his eyes; when he opened them he could still see the residual light from the flash even though the explosion and flash were done.
Wymond took his hand off his eyes and watched the Shadow drop limply to the water and disintegrate. The guardian looked to Chuck, "What was in those explosives?"
"A mixture of Trinitrotoluene and some nuclear material created by doing some experimentation with atoms," Chuck said, everyone looked at him blankly. "Uh, it's made of some stuff that when mixed properly make an extremely powerful explosion?"
Cid nodded, "That I can understand."
The ship trembled again violently as the remaining Shadow rammed into the starboard side of the Highwind. Cid turned to face the creature but it was already around to the port side and firing another black beam.
"Sucker just got real fast," Cid muttered fighting with the ship's controls to try and catch sight of the monster.
"It's angry," Wymond said, "your airship is too slow to keep up with it."
"We could fight it from the platform," Shera suggested.
"I think that looks like our only option," Chuck said.
"You keep the Highwind moving as best you can, I'll handle the rest," Wymond said.
"I'll go grab a little something to help you along your way," Chuck said running off to where he stored all the uninstalled weaponry.
Wymond headed toward the outdoor platform.
"Try to hold on to the hilt of the sword this time," Priscilla said.
Wymond looked back and then looked to his bloodied right hand, "I will."
The guardian was outside on the platform just as Chuck exited the ship. The man was carrying a very large gun with that looked like a belt with bullets on it hanging from the weapon.
Chuck set the huge weapon up on the railing of the platform and looked to Wymond.
"This sucker spits around ten thousand bullets a minute so when the sucker flies by the torrent will keep him pretty well in place for a few seconds," Chuck said.
"You think that gun will hold the creature entirely still?" asked Wymond doubtfully.
"I do, just get ready to jump on," Chuck said and aimed the gun around.
After only a few moments the Shadow appeared in view, it was heading for the outdoor platform, it must have known two easier targets were there.
As the Shadow charged toward them Chuck pointed the heavy gun at it.
They waited.
When the monster was a few feet from the platform and within jumping range for Wymond, Chuck opened fire.
The weapon's shots were like thunderclaps or possibly the sound of a million explosions going off all at once. The constant stream of bullets drove into the creature and it almost immediately buckled under the pressure of the attack. The gun was almost throwing Chuck off his feet as it fired, his glasses vibrated so badly eventually they just fell off his nose.
Indeed, though, the force of the bullets was completely reversing the momentum of the Shadow and it did appear to be completely stopped in its tracks.
Wymond noticed the bullets on the belt that were constantly running into the gun's chamber and being fired were disappearing quickly. He drew his sword and jumped on to the railing of the platform and then immediately hopped right across and on to the Shadow's back.
Chuck's powerful machine gun finally ran out of ammo. The man shook his head, feeling a bit dizzy from the vibrations of the gun and managed to stagger over to pick up his glasses.
The Shadow, realizing the barrage had stopped, attempted to continue its attack but there was a new distraction.
Wymond stabbed his Masamune Blade into the monster's back and it cried out, attempting to do what it, or its late companion, had tried to do before, it turned upside down trying to throw Wymond off; he used the embedded sword again to hold on to…the hilt this time.
The guardian didn't plan on letting the Shadow try and right itself. He put his left hand on one of the flat sides of the blade and closed his eyes.
Suddenly a stream of electricity flowed from his arm, to the blade and then up into the Shadow. The Masamune Blade acted as the perfect conduit to transport the deadly electricity right inside the Shadow.
The monster could only take a few seconds of the magical attack before it exploded entirely, the pieces disintegrated before ever touching the water below.
As the smoke and other residue of the explosion dissipated, Wymond was left floating in the air where the Shadow had once been.
Wymond landed back on the outdoor platform, Chuck apparently had gone back inside. Wymond was alone, and the sound of the air rushing by was almost soothing.
Seems he had finally found his quiet place, he sheathed his sword and closed his eyes.
He sent as much information as he had gathered up till now to Aeris and hoped he could at least tell her something she didn't already know. He was sure once she knew that a group of renegade Cetra were involved she would understand fully the gravity of their situation.
Back underwater in the Forgotten City Wymond had learned of the man behind the tampering of time. Though he hadn't had enough time to discover what exactly his plans were Wymond did learn a few things.
The first important thing was that someone he both had heard of and knew personally was behind it all. The leader of a group of rebellious Cetra called the Outcasts. Wymond hadn't expected to see Feardorcha's face when he entered the water, but that was who he saw.
He also learned that because Fear was a Cetra he would be aware that Wymond had searched him out via the Forgotten City and had identified him. Though, Wymond knew Feardorcha, and he knew the man wouldn't care whether the guardian knew of his existence or not.
As Wymond concluded sending his message he turned and headed inside the Highwind. He was back on the bridge.
"Well done, that's probably the best explosion I've ever seen without an actual explosive," Chuck said grinning.
"Thank you," Wymond replied.
"I was thinking," Cid said, "Shera and Chuck here obviously have some talents and might be able to help us kill this Ancient Black bastard."
"We need as much help as we can get," Wymond said, "it is of course dangerous, once we explain what is happening you will understand just how dangerous."
"If you don't kill this thing, will it destroy the planet?" asked Chuck.
"Yes," Wymond replied.
"Well, I'm in," Chuck said shrugging.
"I go where Cid goes," Shera added.
"Alright, why don't you fill them in guardian-boy," Cid suggested.
Wymond did so, skillfully condensing a day's worth of incidents into about twenty minutes.
By the time the guardian was done Cid had stopped off on some detours and they were a few minutes away from the black building.
"Time travel and alternate dimensions," Chuck muttered after Wymond had finished. "This can't end well for us."
"If we destroy this creature, the Ancient Black, then we will have destroyed the danger," Wymond said, leaving out the fact it was all on a much larger scale now. As far as the others knew the solution to all the problems would be killing the Ancient Black. This, however, was only the solution for their own existence…the Outcasts' plans would affect every existence and more.
Wymond didn't tell them this; they didn't need to know, not yet. The Outcasts hadn't come, no, telling them would only complicate matters.
The stopping of Feardorcha and his Outcasts would have to be left to Cloud and Aeris; they were the only ones in a position to fight the renegades.
A Cetra and a man Wymond knew nothing about against an entire army.
Things did look as if they couldn't end well at all.
"Heads up people, something's happening!" Cid yelled as the ship began to tremble violently as if it had been hit.
The vibrations were too constant; however, nothing was hitting the airship.
Wymond closed his eyes and opened them almost immediately.
"Cid, turn the ship toward the Northern Crater," Wymond said.
"What, the Crater?" asked Cid. "That's miles away."
"Just do it!" Wymond growled.
Cid looked at the guardian curiously and then did so, as the ship faced toward where the Northern Crater would be they saw what Wymond had expected to see.
"Oh, now what the hell is that?" asked Cid shaking his head.
"The Ancient Black's red carpet," Wymond muttered.
Though they obviously couldn't see the Crater itself, being so far away, the column of what appeared to be jet black smoke was visible.
"I gather you and your friends have not had any good experiences at that Crater?" asked Wymond.
"Not one I can think of, why?" asked Cid.
Wymond stared off at the smoke, "You may have to add another bad experience to your list I'm afraid."