Chapter 57:
A/N: I liked the Hunter's Eyes chapters, but I'm discontinuing them. (What with the change in format and all.) Oh well, since they're in Shinra's Junon base and trying to escape, there should be plenty of action. That means a longer chapter than usual. And I wrote this while listening to the new Dixie Chicks CD, so it may influence this just a little.
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Hunter watched in amazement as Yuffie Kisiragi screamed and threw a shuriken at a Shinra soldier, completely obliterating his face as the sharp edges sliced through the metal of his mask. The young mage had lived a few miles from Junon his entire life, not even remembering any time he may have spent in Corel with his family. He didn't even remember his family. Yet, he recognized Yuffie's fighting style.
"Hunter!" Quistis shouted, drawing the young man's attention in time for him to duck beneath the bayonet of a Shinra soldier. He ran from the attacker in fear. Quistis's whip wrapped itself around the soldier's neck, which broke when she jerked on her weapon. "What are you doing, Mr. Vance?"
"I am sorry!" was his response as he dodged another enemy attack. "I do not have any offensive magic."
A bolt of lightning leapt out of her hand, Quistis's Blue magic drawn out with the Enemy Skill Materia. She kicked the machine gun of a dead Shinra soldier to Hunter. The boy looked at it in confusion.
"Pick it up!" the Instructor ordered, and Hunter obeyed. The metal was still warm from where it had been fired just moments before. Unsure of what to do, he pointed it at an advancing warrior and pulled the trigger. However, the man didn't fall. He just kept running despite the bullets.
Nothing was said as he came to the realization that the men were wearing armour that protected them from their own weaponry, should any friendly fire occur. Hunter remembered some of his training at Balamb Garden, and spun just out of reach of the soldier. He brought up the firearm and struck the other man in the back of the head, knocking him to the ground. Two stones, one green and one red, clattered out of the corporate employee's pocket.
"It is about time," Hunter said under his breath. He tossed the machine gun to the side and picked up the two stones. The red was slid into his pocket, but his fist tightened around the other Materia. He raised it at another soldier and a blast of cold air blew the man back. As the first soldier stood up, Hunter impaled him with an icicle of magical origin.
---
Yuffie was proud of her classical training in ninjitsu, the native martial arts of her homeland of Wutai. She had been brought up by the local ninjitsu master, her father Godo. Not for the first time, her incredible reflexes saved her life. A large expanse of flame suddenly appeared in front of her, and she used the wall to jump over it and land in front of the owner of the Fire Materia.
It was a man dressed in a purple jumpsuit incredibly similar to what Cloud wore, and there was even a sword strapped to his back. The blade was thick and curved, almost like a scimitar. With a grin and a flash of metal, the sword flew out and just barely missed the teenager as she dodged and countered with a shuriken. Another flash of steel knocked the spinning blade to the side harmlessly. The man, a brunette with his hair slicked back, raised his sword and brought it down at Yuffie. She responded by ducking to the side and blasting him with her Lightning Materia. The man flew back ten feet and hit the wall, cracking it with the force of impact. However, he stood up relatively uninjured.
"If they'd deployed us the first time around, then the meddlesome AVALANCHE wouldn't have made it out of Midgar the night Sephiroth killed President Shinra," the man said as he brandished his sword. Yuffie hadn't been a member of AVALANCHE when the corporation's first president had been assassinated by the Jenova-enhanced Sephiroth clone, and she hadn't paid much attention to anything but her team mates' Materia until they saved her in Wutai, so the ninja didn't know what he was talking about. Still, his style of dress bothered her.
The man feigned a thrust, which the girl fell for, and then hit her with a bolt of Lightning from another Materia he held. Yuffie fell to the floor, but got up almost immediately. She had helped kill Sephiroth, and it would take more than a spell from some nobody to take her down.
Holding one in each hand, Yuffie launched two more shuriken at the purple-clad man. With unthinkable speed, he deflected both with his sword and charged her again. She spun around to dodge it, but felt the metal rake her back. It was a flesh wound, nothing life-threatening or debilitating, but it still hurt like hell. Gritting her teeth, Yuffie pulled out a green Materia and sent a large tongue of flame at the man. It struck him full on, but he still stood after the attack. That was when she realized that he had a MBarrier cast on himself to block some of her magic.
She ran at him, ignoring the stinging pain in her back, and launched herself in the air for a kick. Before her foot met him, though, the man grabbed her by the ankle and used her momentum to swing her around and let go. Yuffie flew and hit a wall. The girl wasn't able to stand up right away, but still managed to find her feet.
He's tough, she thought as she fingered a special Materia in her pocket. Again, the man charged her and, again, she dodged him. Then, when the moment presented itself, Yuffie presented her new weapon. The rock glowed red and a blinding light filled the room for a moment. When it dissipated, an old man holding a staff floated in the air before the young girl. The old man, Ramuh, threw his staff at the man in purple. Large flashes of lightning filled the air around both of them, taking down Shinra staff that had managed to get to close to the two fighters. Another large flash of light filled Yuffie's senses, and when she could see again the old man was gone. Surprisingly, so was her target.
Years of stealth training had made her ears sensitive, so she heard the attack before she saw the blade coming at her from the side. With a flick of her wrist, a shuriken flew out and she dove forward. As her spinning blade hit the sword, it knocked the man off balance and he hit the floor on his side.
Taking advantage of her quick reprieve, Yuffie scanned the hallway to see Quistis taking out dozens of soldiers herself with a combination of whip lashes and magic. Hunter was also on the offensive, sending out extraordinary blasts of Ice magic with relative ease. How he managed to get a hold of that type of Materia was beyond her, since neither she nor Vincent had given it to him.
"You're good," the man said as he stood up and pointed his sword at the crouching ninja. "You're still not a match for me, though."
We'll see about that, Yuffie thought.
---
Hunter killed a few more soldiers with his magic, and then realized that there were no more opponents for him to face. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Yuffie locked in combat with a man in purple, but brushed it off. She was in AVALANCHE, she would be fine.
Curiosity caught him as he watched Instructor Quistis Trepe whirl majestically and slap her own final foe with her whip. It hit him in the leg and he fell to the ground in pain. His life ended a second later as a blast emanated from the beautiful woman's bespectacled eye and vaporized his head. A gory mess of blood and tissue was left behind at the juncture of his shoulder and neck.
"Good work, Mr. Vance," Quistis panted. She stood straight up and put her whip around her waist and buckled it.
Wait, whips don't do that, Hunter thought before realizing that Quistis had been using a belt as a makeshift whip, her weapon of expertise. Suddenly, he admired her for more than her good looks. He cleared his throat before looking back to Yuffie and her lone opponent. "Shouldn't we help her?"
"Let's get on it, then," Quistis answered. However, at that moment, another squad of soldiers burst into the wide hallway.
---
Even though she was preoccupied, Yuffie saw her comrades engaging in another battle with Shinra forces. She knew that with her incredible skill, she would be able to take the new guys down with no effort. The guy she was fighting, however, worried her. Not since Sephiroth had she been in a fight this tough. Her abilities were definitely being tested.
"The famed Yuffie Kisiragi can't even take down 'lil ole me?" the guy mocked as he spun as swung his blade at her. Yuffie jumped back, hit the floor with her feet, and then launched herself forward. Her head met his chest and they both fell to the ground. He climbed on top of her, pinning her down with his knees, and raised his sword high above his head. "See, not a match for me. You're just a second-rate has been."
If he had paid attention, the man would have noticed that, just before colliding with him, Yuffie had pulled another green Materia from her pocket. Even with his MBarrier, the guy wasn't able to stay perched on top of her when the Lightning spell hit him.
Yuffie then rolled in the direction opposite the flying the man and stood up. She was aching slightly, but nothing that could be a handicap. A small trickle of blood ran down her back, but she ignored it as her fierce adversary stood up and charged her again. It seemed like he had no weakness. Nothing she could throw at him seemed to hurt the warrior.
She produced another shuriken and tossed it at the fighter, who knocked it away. He opened his mouth, as if to tell her of the futility of her assault, when another streak of fire slammed into his face. Immediately after that, Yuffie followed up with a kick to the side of his head. After that strike, the man punched at her face. Surprised by his speed, Yuffie was almost to slow to fall beneath the blow.
Her leg swung out and knocked his out from under him. Then she did a back flip and landed on the other side of the hall with a shuriken in hand. The soldier stood up and held his sword out at his side, grinning as sweat gathered on his forehead.
"Maybe I was wrong. Still, you can't hope to beat me."
"And why not?" Yuffie asked as she tightened her grip on the shuriken. Sweat was on her face, too. Hers was falling profusely down it, though. "Is it because I'm a girl?"
"No," the man told her. He flicked his wrist, changing the angle of his blade. "It's because nobody can beat a member of SOLDIER."
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It surprised him just how well he was doing. Hunter Vance spun, sending out another volley of sharp icicles. A few hit their marks, but several others lodged themselves into the wall. When one stray soldier got too close, he was blasted backward by a cold wind. Bullets were fired at him until the man Yuffie was fighting barked something at them.
"You're not supposed to kill the boy, you idiots! The woman, kill the woman!"
Hunter was unsure of what that meant, exactly, but there was a sudden upsurge in aggression toward Quistis. He watched as the woman, armed only with the Enemy Skill Materia this time around, surrounded herself with a large wall of fire. Momentarily it swelled before collapsing and pushing out, frying the soldiers around her. The Garden student was marvelled at her control of Blue magic, and felt that she should be given Mage status despite her position as a SeeD.
"Quit staring and do something!" she yelled at the transfixed Hunter as she undid her belt and hit an oncoming soldier in the face.
He took her advice and pulled out the red Materia. He had no idea what it was, since they hadn't covered Materia use in his classes at Balamb Garden. When he tried to recall something he had learned about Materia at Lotia Garden, his head began to hurt again and he fell to the floor in pain.
"Looks like he's out," Hunter heard a soldier say. "We should collect him now."
I'm not out yet, he thought as the Materia in his hand began to glow.
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A roar erupted and Yuffie felt herself grow hot almost immediately. She turned her head and saw Ifrit set a couple of soldiers on fire. Unfortunately, while she was distracted, the SOLDIER attacked. At the last second, Yuffie put her shuriken between herself and the sword. The sound of metal scraping filled the air, but was soon drowned out by a woman's scream. Even though she had successfully deflected a lethal blow, Yuffie's own weapon had sunk into her hand. One pointed end, which had pushed through to the other side of Yuffie's hand, shined in the firelight coming from Ifrit before it was covered by the ninja's blood.
With another scream, Yuffie ripped the star out of her right hand and launched it at the SOLDIER with her left. He easily batted it aside, but it was only a distraction. Yuffie used the free second to heal herself with a Restore Materia. The wound closed rather easily, but there was a large scar from where the sharp metal had dug in and been ripped out. She charged the man and attempted a spinning kick that he knocked away with the flat of his blade.
"I told you, you can't win," he told Yuffie with a grin. However, when she grinned back he looked caught off guard.
"I'm not trying to win," Yuffie said as Ifrit barrelled past her and into the man in purple.
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A/N: A sporadic chapter, jumping between Hunter and Yuffie. And nary a curse word! So, be honest, was it good or utter crap? And was Yuffie a Mary Sue? I hope not, because I tried so hard not to make her one, even though she is my favourite character from FFVII. And I know she's a little OOC, but I want her to be more than comic relief. Anyway, R&R!