Author's Notes: Okay everyone! SOW is back and ready to kick butt! Here we are with the fifteenth chapter, and I'm stoked!
Tiffa: 1
Luna:1
Kevi: 1
Juka: 1
Spiler: 1
Tai: 2
The popularity contest finally has a leader! Tai! So, now, I will allow you to submit one vote PER chapter. Any votes for chapters 1-14 will not count, by the way. And don't make up a lot of anonymous pen names to vote for the same character. I will notice. O.o
Anyway, enough of that! On with the chapter!
"No Shoopufs ready to take us?" Briu asked Adrian as the nine surveyed the area, seeing only empty Shoopuf docks. "Maybe they haven't come back from the other side."
"It irks me…" Adrian muttered, crossing her arms. "But we'll have to wait."
"I saw a café a little ways over there," Juka remarked, pointing towards said Café. "We can hang out there until one comes."
"We're not here to smooze over drinks," Adrian said crossly. "But, if we have nothing better to do…"
"Wonder if they've got any alcohol…" Briu murmured, raising his eyebrows. Spiler gave him a look of worry.
"No alcohol before travel!" Spiler snapped. "You'll only throw up over the side."
"Ahh…you've got a point."
"Have you heard the rumors?"
"About the missing summoners?"
"They've just disappeared off the face of Spira!"
"What are they all talking about?" Juka whispered to the group as they reached the small store. A few groups of people were gathered around the counter, whispering fervently to each other. They all shot Adrian a short look, gave her a bow with their heads, then continued to talk.
"It seems it's that rumor again…" Ashnigh said, a worried sound to her voice.
"What rumor?" Luna asked, hugging her doll around her right arm.
"Recently, summoners have been disappearing," Kevi explained, stepping forward. "Right under their guardians' noses."
"Woah! Creepy!" Juka shivered.
"Yeah! Creepy!" Luna agreed, grabbing onto Juka.
"It's just a rumor…nothing more…" Adrian sighed. "Now c'mon, I need something to drink before we start out."
"Where are we headed?" Spiler asked, a hopeful glint in his eye.
"Not the blitzball tournament in Luca, if that's what you're hoping."
Spiler's face fell. "But it's in only a few days! We could get there in time if we really tried! Maybe they need me to play-"
"Your stupid sport does not take priority over this pilgrimage," Adrian snapped. "Once we reach land, we'll head straight to Djose for the next Aeon." Adrian turned to the woman behind the counter. "One drink please, ether flavoring."
The woman slid a glass of slightly green liquid was given to Adrian, and she took a small sip, then wrinkled her nose. "Too much ether."
"Ride ze shoopuf?"
"Nine tickets please," Adrian said, nodding to the group of guardians behind her. They had all gathered in front of the blue, wide-eyed Hypello who ran the Shoopuf they were trying to buy tickets for. "For the shore over."
"Shoopuf leaves right away, right away!" The hypello told them. "Get on board, get on board!" He pointed to the shoopuf and the group nodded to one another.
"Let's get one," Adrian walked swiftly over to a lift and stood inside it. Kevi and Tiffa followed, only to be followed by the rest of the group. Soon, they were all in the lift and were on their way up towards the top of the tall Shoopuf.
"I hope we'll be okay…" Juka gulped. "These things give me the creeps!"
"Of course we will," Adrian scoffed. "What do you think, it's going to step on us?"
"Possibly…" Juka muttered, narrowing her eyebrows.
"Or maybe…" Luna whispered to Juka in a scary tone. "We'll get eaten by a giant sea MONSTER!"
"AAAAHHHH!" Juka screamed, throwing herself back out of fear. "Don't do that Luna!"
Luna was laughing uncontrollably as the lift moved its way over to the Shoopuf that was patiently awaiting them to jump from the lift onto its large back, in which a small carriage was waiting for them.
Adrian climbed in first, quickly taking a seat near the front. Ashnigh sat next to her, and the rest milled in, Briu and Spiler forced to stand from lack of seats.
"Ready to go?" asked the Hypello driving the Shoopuf. Adrian nodded, and he kicked at the reigns.
The Shoopuf was off across the Moonflow…
"GRR!" Juka reached forward, her hand outstretched towards a pyrefly, only to have it dart out of her hand quickly. "Darnit! Not again!"
"You can't touch the, dimwit," Adrian rolled her eyes and Juka shot her an angry look.
"The pyreflies will only fly away," Kevi told Juka. "It's not their nature to stay near the living."
"We've been on the Moonflow for awhile," Briu realized, leaning over the side to look at the water.
"Yeah," Spiler nodded, sighing.
"Adrian…" Ashnigh began, and Adrian turned to look at the Moonflow.
"I know what you're going to say Ashnigh," Adrian sighed and Ashnigh gave a small smile. "It's just a rumor."
"What's just a rumor?" Juka asked.
"Summoners disappearing," remarked Kevi, his eyes growing dark. "Just vanishing from Spira."
"Scaaarrry!" Luna cooed, rubbing her arms and looking at her doll. "Most likely, Adrian will be kidnapped too!"
"We're guardians," Kevi snapped. "Our job is to protect our Summoner from things like this."
"But all the summoners that disappeared also had guardians," Tai pointed out, furrowing his brow. "What could possibly have made them just disappear like that?"
"Magic?" Juka asked.
"Don't be stupid," Adrian rolled her eyes. "There is no current master of Teleportation magic on Spira. It's too difficult for even a Guado to manage. No…they were taken without notice somehow…"
"How could such a thing have been achieved?" Ashnigh asked. "It seems nearly impossible…"
Tiffa had remained quiet for the entirety of the conversation, simply looking at her red booted feet and not saying a word. Her face was sour, and her eyes were blank. Suddenly, she stood up and shook her mane of black hair. "…not sure…"
"ARRGGH!"
It happened in an instant. A gigantic metal claw flew into the air and grasped Adrian around the waist, pulling her from the Shoopuf cart as if she were an apple in a basket. Before the guardians even had time to move or blink, Adrian had been pulled down under the waters of the Moonflow, the metal claw along with her.
"Damn!" Kevi shouted, running to where Adrian had been pulled down and looking down. He started to take his axe of his back, only to have Ashnigh grab his wrist.
"No!" She shook her head. "You know your axe is too heavy for the water! Without a weapon, who knows what'll happen?"
Kevi grimaced and shook his head. "Fine. Juka, Spiler, and Tiffa," he turned to the three. "You three are the only ones with weapons that can be used underwater. Tiffa, your gun doesn't use gunpowder does it?"
Tiffa didn't answer. Her eyes were wide and her eyebrows were arched in a shocked expression. Her mouth, agape, just stared at where Adrian once was.
"TIFFA!"
"What?" Tiffa asked, looking up. "What is it?"
"Does your gun use gunpowder?" Kevi repeated, growing impatient. "It's an Al Bhed model, so I'm guessing not."
"No, it doesn't use gunpowder," she shook her head.
"Right then…you three are the only ones with light enough weapons, and Luna's magic is useless under water," Kevi shook his head. "You three go after Adrian."
"Right!" Juka nodded, then ran to Adrian's seat and jumped off into the water. Spiler nodded and followed her, making a perfect dive worthy of a blitzer. Tiffa waited, then walked to where Adrian had been, hoisted herself up, took a deep breath, sighed, and jumped feet first into the water.
"What the!" Juka called, then gasped as water filled her mouth. She rose to the surface, took a breath, then dove back down.
Underneath the water was a gigantic water Machina! It had a cage in the very middle which held an angry looking Adrian, and threatening looking guns on either side of the machine. Spiler and Juka exchanged looks, but Tiffa only grimaced at the machine.
She turned to them and threw her thumb upwards to tell them to surface. They nodded and swam upwards.
"Look," Tiffa told them once they had all risen. "It's vulnerable to lightning. Do you guys have any sort of Lightning abilities?"
Juka and Spiler looked at each other, and Tiffa shook her head. "I'm guessing that's a "no". Oh well," she sighed, "it's up to me then. Guys, just attack it, got it?"
"Right!" They said together, then dived again. Tiffa shrugged, then took a large breath and dived after them.
Juka was already on the move with a strike from her short sword knocking the machina back. Adrian frowned at Juka as if to say, 'Don't hit it too hard idiot! You'll blow me up with it!'
Spiler followed up Juka's attack with one of his own, knocking the machina back a few steps.
Juka's eyes widened as the machina started to float above them, the jet propellers on the back moving frantically.
Tiffa loaded her gun and pointed it at the machine. Juka and Spiler had already started to swim away, but Tiffa just sighed and squinted her eyes.
Lightning sparks began to grow around her gun. She took out the other one and a similar effect began to grow. Soon, the sparks started flying around one another, until they formed a long chain that glowed around the two pistols.
Tiffa narrowed her eyes and the guns fired, the lightning powered bullets flying right into a metal sheet under the machina. It started to spark, then roll around violently.
Tiffa turned to Spiler and Juka and nodded her head to the machina. Juka and Spiler nodded and started to swim frantically for Adrian. Tiffa followed, rising towards the ruined machine to the back of the cage. Juka and Spiler swam in behind her, only to see Tiffa already unlocking the security lock on the cage. The door swung open and Adrian swam out.
Spiler and Juka supported Adrian on their shoulders, and all four started to swim to the air, the machina floating towards the surface as well.
"Finally!" Juka gasped for air, her face red. "Guys! We got her!"
"Thanks to Tiffa!" Spiler commented as the Shoopuf lowered itself to a crouching position so the four could climb on. "She knew exactly where to shoot it! Amazing!"
"A machina?" Ashnigh gasped as the culprit floated to the top of the water. "Then the Al Bhed…!"
"Hey! Tiffa, you big meanie! What was that for?"
The group looked down to see the pilot of the machina rising from the pilot seat and unlatching the top of the craft. The top popped off, and from a silver ladder climbed a young girl, about Juka's age, with blonde short hair in a ponytail and green spiral eyes. She wore a red and tan Al Bhed uniform, and she had just removed her thick goggles from her eyes. She turned upwards towards the group.
"Up to no good again, Rikku?" Tiffa asked, shaking her head.
"You bet," Rikku smiled.
"How can you be so friendly?" Ashnigh asked, her eyes wide. "This person kidnapped Adrian!"
"She had her reasons…" Tiffa murmured. "Look, Rikku?"
"Yeah?"
"We'll talk once we reach shore. Can the Extractor make it there?"
"You bet! You didn't beat it up too bad!"
"You know what that thing is?" Tai asked, his eyes wide. Tiffa turned towards the center and smiled.
"Lucky guess."
"So…you tried to kidnap my summoner."
The minute that the Shoopuf had reached the other edge of the Moonflow, Tiffa had excused herself from the group with Rikku, who had parked the Extractor far enough away as to not arouse suspicion. The two had found a secluded area in the end of the woods, just in front of a patch of lake.
"Why're you a guardian, anyway?" Rikku asked, her brow furrowed. "Doesn't seem like you!"
"I had to do something, right?" Tiffa scowled, putting her chin on her knees. "Couldn't just sit around forever."
"I think it was just to be mean to Pops."
Tiffa narrowed her eyes. "Your dad has nothing to do with this."
There was a silence between the two, then, finally, Rikku spoke. "You know why I tried to kidnap your Summoner."
"Because 'Pops' told you to?"
"No!" Rikku shook her head. "It's because of the summoners wasting their lives! Sin has never been beaten with the final summoning."
"Maybe it'll get beat this time."
"Shouldn't we try another way?" Rikku pleaded. "Tiffa, what's wrong with you? Why are you helping them?"
"Because that's what I chose to do," Tiffa told Rikku sharply, standing up. "And you can't stop me, Rikku."
"You're just being selfish!" Rikku shot back. "Matthias is still at Home! Why can't you come back? He misses you a whole lot, you know!"
"Matthias is different then me…" Tiffa shook her head. "He was able to live the way he is. I…however…" she grimaced, "I just can't do it Rikku."
"You were never an outcast!" Rikku insisted. "That was just some picture you nailed into your head! That's why you left!"
"You're wrong," Tiffa shot back. "Just because you're my cousin doesn't mean you know everything about me! Neither does Uncle Cid! He knows nothing about me!"
"Then why don't you try to let us find out about you?" Rikku asked. "Tiffa, why are you so intent on not being a part of Home?"
Tiffa stopped and looked over the lake of the Moonflow. Pyreflies danced over the cool waters, making shining reflections in the deep pool. The sun was setting slightly…the dance would begin soon.
But Tiffa wouldn't be there for it. She was busy.
"I don't belong in Home…" Tiffa shook her head. "Now take your Extractor and go back to the Moonflow."
"I'm going to have to repair that knick you put in it," Rikku scowled.
"Well…I guess that it's easy to fight something you built," Tiffa smiled, shrugging. "It should be ready to get going in no time."
"Fine!" Rikku pouted, standing up and putting her goggles on again. "I will go…"
"Speaking of which…" Tiffa murmured, then turned to face Rikku. "Are you going after Yuna?"
"Of course…" Rikku nodded. "Yunie, most of all! We've already got people stationed in Luca to make sure she gets to Home safely!"
"And when you say that, you mean "kidnap her"."
"I know Yunie isn't your cousin, Tiffa," Rikku turned to Tiffa. "But please, if you see her, don't tell her about our plans. Or any of your friends either…the Al Bhed are only doing what's best."
"Fine, fine," Tiffa shrugged, then turned and started to walk back. "I've got to find my friends. Catch you later, Rikku."
"I'll tell Matthias you said hi!" Rikku called energetically after Tiffa. "Oh, you stupid head! You're so stubborn! Just like Pops!"
With that, Rikku ran off back into the water to board the Extractor once more. Tiffa saw her dive in, then smiled and shook her head.
" 'Home' huh? What a title…"
Don't forget to review and vote!See you!
Anyway, hope you all liked this chapter! I did!
Next Chapter: Yellow Wings