I do not own Final Fantasy VII or any of the characters.
Sewer Monsters
This was a disaster. They had gotten to Corneo's mansion easily, but Corneo had been gone. Instead, they found an apparent former employee of Corneo, Leslie, who had helped Cloud, Tifa, and Aerith when they were there before. He promised to help them get up to the plate if they helped him find Corneo's safehouse in the sewers. However, after about ten minutes of making their way through the sewer, thoroughly ruining Cody's extremely expensive shoes, they had reached the door to Corneo's hideaway, only for a blue, bipedal, knee-high, pig-looking monster to swipe the key from Leslie and take off. They were chasing it, but it was surprisingly fast and agile, and it kept leading them to groups of monsters like the reptile humanoid Sahagins and others of the little blue troll things, which Leslie called Abzu Shoats.
Cody slashed a pig aside as it leapt at him and spotted the one they were chasing duck under an overturned table sitting on top of two crates. Behind him, Tifa and Cloud finished off the other two, and they all sprinted after the annoying one, Cody slashing the table out of the way. They chased it until it reached a locked gate that was blocked by debris and garbage on both sides, only for it to leap over the railing and speed off through a gate at the bottom of the drained waterway they'd been running along. Cody and Cloud both followed it over the railing, only for two Sahagins and a pair of Scissorclaw crabs too suddenly land in front of them. Both lunged forward, killing a Sahagin before Barret fired a ball of compressed blue energy into one of the crabs and killed it and Tifa crashed down on the other in a kick that cracked the floor under the crab. Jessie and Leslie slid down the ladder and they all ran through the gate the Shoat had gone, then down a set of steps just in time to see it cut left into an alcove that dead ended and had a path going up each wall.
"Take the right!" Cloud said.
"On it!" Cody said, the pair moving up the paths quickly, Jessie and Leslie going with Cody as Tifa and Barret went with Cloud.
The Shoat was on a sluicegate at the far end, hopping back and forth from one foot to the other, but it stopped as it realized it was boxed in. Then, suddenly, it began to leap from one clump of garbage to the next until it was out of the alcove and took off again, Leslie hot on its heels this time.
"Oh for crying out loud!" Cody growled, he and Jessie sprinting after Leslie. "I can't wait to catch this thing and make it into a new pair of shoes."
"No kidding," Jessie said. "My boots are ruined. I can't imagine how bad your shoes must be."
"I'm going to half to stop at my old hiding place in Shinra HQ and grab a new set," Cody said, just as a Sahagin burst out of the water to their right, Jessie leaping backward but Cody being soaked with sewage. "You dead mother fucker."
The Sahagin charged at him, trident-first, only for him to catch the trident between two points, pulling it aside, then slashed the Sahagin.
"Great," Cody sighed. "Now my whole suit's ruined."
"We have bigger concerns than your Turk uniform," Cloud said.
"Excuse me, do you have any idea how expensive it is to get a three-piece suit custom tailored to be worn as a combat uniform by a Turk?" Cody asked. "This suit costs around a hundred thousand gil! Fortunately, I have nine other sets stashed in Shinra HQ that I can get when we get there, but that's beside the point."
"You have a million gil worth of suits?" Jessie asked. "Man, I do know how to pick 'em. Good looking and rich."
"There it is!" Tifa shouted suddenly, just as they reached a large open section with no other escape routes.
The Shoat turned toward them and roared, five more suddenly scrambling into the area from behind them. Cody lunged, slashing at the one they'd been chasing and it jumped, stepping off of his head before landing on its hooves, then launch itself at Tifa, only for her to kick it, sending it bouncing away. As Cody turned, Cloud slashed three of the other Shoats, Barret and Jessie shooting the last two extras, and they all turned to the one they'd been chasing. Just as they did, it began to hurl rocks, bits of metal, and anything else it could pick up at them. Cody growled in annoyance as he used his sword's blade to deflect anything hurled at him, Cloud doing the same. Finally, Jessie tossed a grenade with a strip of tinfoil wrapped around the outside at the Shoat, and it caught it, darting past them and dropping the small leather pouch they'd been chasing it for. Then, just as it turned right into the alcove again, the grenade exploded.
"Did we get the key?" Cody asked, turning to Leslie, who had picked up the pouch, only to see him holding a necklace with a gold pendant of a pair of lilies inside a gold heart. "Oh."
"That's..." Tifa trailed off.
"That's not a key," Barret growled.
"Sorry," Leslie said.
"Was she chosen for one of Corneo's 'auditions?'" Cody asked, right hand holding his watch.
Leslie glanced at him in surprise before nodding. "That's right. Six months ago. On that day Corneo picked her as a bride. And on the next, she vanished without a trace. But before she did, she gave it back. Salt on the wound. Thing cost me a small fortune."
Cody swallowed hard. He would have died before letting anything like that happen. But he could understand why Leslie had lied to them. If something had stolen his watch, he'd have chased them until he died of exhaustion to get it back.
"Why did you wanna come down here?" Tifa asked.
"Revenge," Cody said. "He wants to put a bullet in Corneo's head. Or a full magazine."
"I think I'll start with his dick," Leslie said. "Even if I can't kill him, knowing he has to live as a eunuch would be okay."
"Don't worry," Cody said. "Corneo's going to burn."
"What'd he do to you?" Leslie asked.
"Nothing," Cody said. "But I can understand how you feel. So I'm going to help you take Corneo down."
"As long as you get us topside, we're still in," Cloud said.
"Thanks," Leslie said, smiling. "And don't worry. I got you."
Barret, who had made it quite clear that he didn't trust Leslie, and didn't like him, since they had met up with him in Corneo's mansion, set a hand on his shoulder. "You alright."
Leslie smiled and nodded. "We're in luck. That door's a shortcut that will get us close to Corneo's hideout. And I've got the key."
He pulled a key out of his pocket and unlocked the door, and they all followed him through the passageway on the other side, then back through the sewers to Corneo's hideout. He had them wait in the room just before it as he went in.
"It's Leslie!" Leslie called out. "I have important information for the Don."
Corneo stepped out of hiding. He was fat, probably four hundred pounds, with five chins, a fancy white shirt, the buttons straining on his stomach and open on his chest and exposing his carpet's worth of chest hair, brown pants, loafers, a red robe with white fur around the sleeves and collar, and what little hair was on his head either in a thin, black mustache that curled at the ends and mutton chops, or died blond and taking up about a fifth of his head on the front right and gelled up into a slight curl in front.
"Come alone?" Corneo asked in a slimy, self-gloried voice.
"'Course," Leslie nodded.
"Really?" Corneo asked. "Without my Avalanche kittens? Thought I told you to round them up and bring them here."
"Actually, it's them I came to talk to you about," Leslie said.
Corneo hummed thoughtfully and turned his head to the side, beckoning Leslie over and cupping a hand to his ear. Leslie, not being experienced with killing, walked forward and put his pistol to Corneo's head, only for Corneo to instantly take the gun and punch Leslie in the chest, dropping him.
"Leslie, I don't think I need to remind you why I'm down here," Corneo said. "Spilling the beans to those three escape artists was a serious mistake. Now I'm on Shinra's shit list. the plate stunt was meant to be an unprecedented tragedy, claiming countless innocent lives." He turned back to Leslie, who was struggling to stand. "But those naughty little kittens organized an evacuation and screwed up the plan."
Barret grit his teeth, curling his hand into a fist.
"I'll let you in on a secret," Corneo said. "Shinra's going to abandon Midgar, and build something close to paradise. I was invited to be a part of it, don of a new and improved Wall Market! I'll be lucky to live another week." He walked back over and knelt beside Leslie. "Leslie, I was gonna let you run your own place, give you a piece of the action. What a shame." He jumped up and backed away. "Pop quiz time, kiddo! Villains like us only divulge our evil plans in a certain situation." He walked around Leslie, between him and the door. "But what is that situation, hm?"
"When you think...you've already won," Leslie said.
Corneo grinned, turning and aiming at Leslie's head, only for Cody to step in front of him, knocking the gun upward at the same time as he used his thumb to pull his gunblade's trigger while holding it in reverse grip, sending the blunt edge slamming into Corneo's family jewels more than hard enough to rupture them and leave them beyond repair.
"That's how you're supposed to do it, Leslie," Cody said, taking the gun and pushing Corneo, who collapsed instantly, finally managing to stop squeaking in order to suck in a breath, then going back to squeaking, though it might be screaming.
"That's one way to deal with it," Cloud said, he and the others joining Cody, Tifa helping Leslie up.
"You were talking about the Sector Seven plan," Barret growled, heaving Corneo up onto his feet by the hair. "Keep talking!"
"Ah!" Corneo squeaked, pointing behind Barret. "Look! Over there! Look!" As he spoke, he pointed and waved his finger, even tapping Barret on the shoulder as though he didn't have Barret's attention.
"Don't try to bullshit us!" Barret snarled.
"Um...Barret?" Jessie said, stepping back behind Cody, who held his gunblade in front of himself with both hands, slowly backing away with Jessie.
"You might want to put the human bowling ball down and turn around," Cody said.
"It's not technically bullshit when it's true," Corneo grinned just as the ground shook.
Barret spun just as a gigantic version of the monster they'd been chasing leapt at them, this one with two full grown horns and massive teeth, as opposed to the Shoats' small bony nubs. This one's right horn was broken off, however. Cody spun, grabbing Jessie and used his gunblade to launch them both out of the monster's way as it crashed tot he ground where they'd all been, Corneo staggering out of the hideout through a door on the far side, swearing and sobbing from the pain of having to run with at least one ruptured testicle. The moment the monster, which Cody assumed was the Abzu, since they'd been fighting Abzu Shoats, had landed, it spun, backhanding Leslie and sending him crashing through the door Corneo had just taken. The Abzu roared and half a dozen Shoats ran into the room.
Cody growled in annoyance. "Tifa, can you, Barret, and Jessie handle the Shoats?"
"Yeah," Tifa said. "Be careful, though. That thing's fast and strong."
"Duly noted," Cody said.
He and Cloud charged as Barret and Jessie opened fire on the Shoats and Tifa ran to the side, drawing the Shoats away from the Abzu. It roared, lunging instantly and bringing its fist down at Cody, who rolled aside, then stood just as the fist hit, cracking the ground. He spun, slashing at the arm and managing to split it partway, only for its arm to sweep toward him, launching him and getting his gunblade stuck between the Abzu's forearm bones just above its wrist. He splashed down in the sewage water on the side of the room and several Shoats instantly grabbed him, dragging him further down, biting into his torso and arms as they did. He shouted in pain, ecstatic he had Chadley's mask on instead of his altitude mask, then cast Barrier on himself, stopping them from biting into him, allowing him to wrestle himself free. He managed to get out of the water, only for another Shoat to crash headlong into his face, currently on fire, and knock him back into the water while knocking his mask off his face. it followed him in, the water putting out the fire before it and the other Shoats all grabbed him again, dragging him down, this time unable to breathe. He tried to fight to break free, but even more began to arrive to help. Suddenly, Jessie splashed down into the water, pressing her gun to one of the Shoats' heads and squeezing off a single shot, knocking it off. The pressure from the shot slammed into the rest of them, along with both Cody and Jessie, and stunned the Shoats and Cody. Jessie managed to grab him and pushed off a Shoat, returning to the surface and climbing out, pulling Cody after her and allowing him to cough and hack, spitting sewage water out of his mouth for several seconds before grabbing his mask from where it was sitting beside the water, putting it on and gasping for breath.
"Never shoot underwater around me again!" Cody groaned, his Prayer materia shining and healing both of them of the disorientation and the pressure damage to their eardrums. "I need a shower."
"Same," Jessie said, just as the Shoats all burst out of the water, only for Cody to wave a hand and send three fireballs into the group, the explosions igniting them all and sending them all bouncing off of the wall before they crashed into the water, all of them dead.
"Cody!" Cloud shouted suddenly.
Cody and Jessie spun, seeing the Abzu holding Tifa in its left hand, its massive, slimy tongue flicking out and slamming into her, obviously painfully, and coating her in its saliva. Cody stood and hurled a Firaga into the Abzu's back, making it roar in agony and drop Tifa. He sprinted forward, growling in annoyance as the Abzu began to flail and wave its arms around.
"Give me back my sword!" He shouted, blasting the Abzu's legs with another Firaga, making it fall onto its face.
He instantly grabbed his gunblade and tilted the handle toward its hand, then squeezed the trigger, splitting its hand in half between the monster's first and second fingers. It roared in pain as Cloud stepped past Cody, slashing it across the face. It roared in pain instantly, standing and spinning, its tail whipping around at them, only for Cody to jump and buzz-saw himself, slicing the tail off at the base, sending it crashing along the ground to where it killed the last Shoat in the room as it was leaping at Barret. Cody launched himself away from the Abzu as its unwounded arm fractured the ground where he'd been and it roared, its remaining horn beginning to glow blue. However, just as it did, Cloud's sword blade suddenly glowed bright orange as he spun in a circle three times before swinging the sword up over his shoulder as he leapt into the air, then flipped into a buzz-saw of his own, this sword smashing through the Abzu's horn before splitting its side open and finally fracturing the ground just as Cloud landed. The Abzu roared, staggering away before falling onto its rear and a dozen Shoats ran into the room, only for Cody to raise his hand, his summoning materia shining as a white seal appeared in the air. Then, it spun and faded, leaving a baby chocobo with the feathers on top of its head messy behind. The chocobo chick cried out excitedly and dropped onto Cody's left hand.
"Hey buddy," Cody smiled, setting the chocobo on his head and letting it burrow into his head. "Been a while huh? Can you do me a favor and use your fire spell on all the little monsters, and then Flare on the big one?"
The chocobo cried out excitedly, hopping up and down for a moment before suddenly spitting out fireballs as fast as Barret's Gatling gun fired bullets. The fireballs each hit a Shoat and exploded, burning them to death in seconds before the chocobo turned to the Abzu as it stood, only for Cloud to slash its legs. Then, the chocobo cried out excitedly, doing a backflip and hopping up and down on Cody's head, flapping its wings as small balls of glowing orange light suddenly appeared in the air around the Abzu, streaking toward each other and condensing into a ball of energy on the Abzu's chest. Then, the ball erupted into a massive explosion, hurling the Abzu backward into the wall on one side of the room just before Barret fired a massive ball of fire at it, groaning as his now superheated gun burned his arm. The fireball exploded against the Abzu's head and its body collapsed to the ground, beginning to fade into mako energy instantly. Cody smiled, holding a hand up to the chocobo chick, who climbed onto it, before he held him out to Jessie, who squealed in delight and cupped her hands.
"This is Jessie," Cody introduced her.
The chocobo instantly cried out in excitement, flying from Cody's hand to Jessie's face, rubbing his head against her cheek for a moment before dropping into her hands. She laughed, stroking his head lightly and Cody smiled. He loved his personal summon. Not just because he was cute and smaller than Cody's hand, but also because he had only been able to get him as a personal summon thanks to Cissnei. his summoning materia was as much a memento of his time with her as his watch and gunblade were.
"He messed up your hair," Barret said.
"That's alright," Cody smiled, reaching up and quickly brushing it back into place. "He's allowed. He loves to do it just to mess with me. Has ever since he saw Cissnei do it for the same reason back when we met him. now it's practically his favorite pastime, besides being the center of attention for every girl around him." He chuckled as he watched Jessie, now joined by Tifa, fawn over the chocobo. "He's such a little attention whore."
"We need to keep moving," Cloud said. "And we need to make sure Leslie's alright."
The others all grew serious instantly, the chocobo flying up to sit on Jessie's shoulder, apparently having taken a liking to her already, and they all quickly headed through the door Leslie had been thrown through, finding him unconscious on the ground, the room around him filled with so much expensive junk there was only a thin path through the room. Cloud knelt instantly, shaking him gently, waking him up.
"You okay?" Cloud asked.
"Where's Corneo?" Leslie asked.
"Sorry," Barret said. "Bastard got away."
"It's fine," Leslie sighed, standing. "I'll track him down eventually. Not like I have anything better to do."
"You know, I wouldn't be so sure about that," Tifa said, placing his necklace in his hand. "She could still be out there."
"Can never be sure how much someone means to ya 'til they're gone," Barret said. "Don't give up on her yet."
"Was it a message?" Leslie mumbled, staring at the necklace. "What was she trying to tell me?"
"We'll meet again," Jessie said, smiling. "If she loved you enough to agree to marry you, she wouldn't have given the necklace back just because a disgusting slime like Corneo chose her as a possible bride. If it were me, I'd only give something that predacious back as a way to say that we'll see each other again. I'd be saying, bring this back to me as soon as you can.'"
"That's right," Tifa smiled, nodding. "It's a symbol of reunion."
Leslie smiled, slipping the necklace into his back pocket. "Then I guess I've got no choice but to find her first. Thanks."
"Hold up," Barret said. "I think ya might be forgetting something."
"I haven't," Leslie said, stepping past Tifa and picking up a sack from the ground. "Let's get outa here, then I'll give you what you need."
"Please tell me there's a closer exit than Corneo's mansion," Cody said.
Leslie chuckled. "There is." He shoved a vanity out of the way, making a large, most likely expensive, vase fall to the ground and shatter, then stepped out of the way, allowing them to see a ladder. "Follow me."
He started up the ladder and the others all followed. After a couple of minutes of climbing, they reached the surface and walked up a small hill through a gate, Cody seeing a massive wall to the right with AVALANCHE written across it in red paint.
"Aahh!" Barret sighed. "Taste that sweet Midgar smog!"
Tifa laughed and Cody rolled his eyes, grimacing as he looked down at his still soaked suit. He reeked, he was wet and uncomfortable, and he wanted a shower. Desperately. He looked to Leslie as Leslie took a grappling gun out of the sack.
"Grappling guns" Leslie said. "You can practically fly with the souped-up motors on these babies." He turned to look at the wall. "Sector Seven is on the other side of that wall. The guns will get you over and past it, along with any number of other obstacles, but they're one-way tickets, so once you start up, there's no coming back. There's also one logistical problem. There are only three guns."
Everyone looked around at each other for a moment.
"Well, Barret obviously needs his own grappling gun," Cody said. "So I suppose that means I'll be sharing with Jessie."
"I'll share with Tifa," Cloud said, looking at her. "Sound good?"
Tifa nodded.
"Didn't tell you before, but we're looking for someone too," Barret said.
"That right?" Leslie asked, pulling the necklace out and staring at it for a moment. "Hope you find 'em."
"You too," Cloud said.
Leslie nodded, picking up the sack and handing them the other two grappling guns before turning and jogging away with whatever else was in it. Cody accepted his grappling gun from Jessie and looked up at the wall.
"Everyone ready?" Cody asked.
Everyone nodded.
"Let's go," Barret said.
Cody nodded and they all walked to the wall, firing their grappling guns up into the top of it. Cody wrapped his free arm around Jessie, who wrapped her arms around his neck, Tifa and Cloud doing the same.
"I'd kiss you, but we're both covered in God knows what," Jessie said.
"That's fine," Cody said. "We can save it for after we shower and change at Shinra HQ."
"You're not taking a shower at Shinra HQ," Cloud said.
"The hell I'm not," Cody said. "I'm not taking off a ruined suit, then putting on a clean one only to ruin it by not taking a shower. Don't worry. I'll be quick. Besides, with the access codes I stole before, I'll be able to walk into Hojo's lab as if I belong there, then can kill him."
"You're not taking a shower," Cloud said before he and Tifa suddenly shot upward.
Barret followed and Cody rolled his eyes.
"We're taking showers," Cody said.
"Agreed," Jessie said.
Then, they shot upward after the others.
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