I do not own Final Fantasy VII or any of the characters.
Escape
Cody stirred as someone shook his shoulder gently. He opened his eyes, feeling them burn from crying in his sleep, and blinked the remaining tears away, looking up at Jessie.
"Something's happened," Jessie said.
He stood as the door hissed open, Cloud glancing at them all from the doorway. "What's going on?"
"I don't know," Cloud said. "I woke up and the guard was dead and my door was open."
Cody stepped out instantly, looking to his red and seeing a Shinra officer slumped in a corner down the hallway, blood staining his shirt and the floor below him. He narrowed his eyes, stepping back into the cell long enough to grab the file on his parents, then walked down the hallway away from the others, incinerating the file as he walked before stopping beside the Shinra officer and inspecting his wound. It was a small stab wound. The blade was sharp, but thin.
"How'd he die?" Jessie asked.
"Stabbed," Cody said, standing and summoning his gunblade. "We should go. We need to get to the ground floor fast."
"No," Cloud said. "There was a TV in our room, for whatever reason. The mayor, AVALANCHE's man on the inside, hacked into it so that Wedge could give us a message. AVALANCHE HQ is sending us an evac helicopter. It'll land on the roof soon, so we need to get there fast."
"Alright," Cody nodded. "Let's go."
"Are you okay?" Jessie asked worriedly.
"I'm fine," Cody said, walking away.
The others followed, but the air around them was tense, and not because the path toward the roof, which was accessible through President Shinra's office, was clearly marked by a trail of blood and corpses. Cody clenched his gunblade tightly as they made their way through Hojo's lab. Hojo's words, and the information in the file, swirled through his head again, fighting for his attention alongside Cissnei's words and his own feelings. He could tell that Jessie was worried, and him shutting her out like he was probably hurt her. But he couldn't think straight right now. He had been bombarded with so much. He needed time to get his head straight again, and he needed a tall, fat bottle of something extremely hard and liable to make him throw up several times. It had been a while since he's craved a drunken stupor this badly.
"Whoa!" Barret said, Cody stopping and returning to reality, realizing they were standing in front of what had once been Jenova's containment pod.
It had been destroyed. Except, it was too precise for that. The metal, and the pipes that had been connected to it, were all severed perfectly, though at angles. It looked like someone had cut them all with a blade, though the blade would have to have been at least twenty feet long, probably more. But it was definitely a blade that had done it, Cody was pretty sure. The cuts were too perfect for anything else. Even the razor-sharp mako energy waves and arcs Cloud could launch couldn't cut that perfectly. Of course, the real problem was that Jenova's body was missing.
"Who could have done this?" Barret asked.
"Who would have done this?" Jessie asked.
"I know one person," Cloud said. "But...he should be dead."
"Sephiroth?" Tifa asked. "That's impossible, isn't it? You killed him."
"I don't know who else could do this," Cloud said.
"Let's keep going," Cody said after a moment. "We might find answers at the end of this trail, which I'd bet my gunblade heads to President Shinra's office."
The others all nodded in agreement and they continued to follow the path. After a few minutes, they finally reached the stairs to President Shinra's office, the blood continuing up the stairs, just as Cody had suspected.
"It goes up," Cloud noted.
"And so are we," Cody growled, starting up the steps, his shoes squelching in the bloodstained carpet on the stairs.
"You're going to stain your shoes," Tifa pointed out.
"I don't give a shit," Cody growled. "I'm pretty sure we have larger concerns, don't you?"
"What's-"
"He's right," Jessie interrupted Cloud. "Let's just get out of here. Then we can worry about everything else."
Cody stopped at the top of the stairs as he spotted President Shinra, slumped over his desk, a cigar lying half gone on the desk, and a katana sticking out of the president's back and standing about two feet above him. "I'm not sure whether to be afraid or happy."
He walked forward, stopping beside him as he saw the katana was far longer than he thought. The blade alone had two feet above the president, then extended down into the floor.
"That's a long ass sword," Cody said, then knelt, pulling open the president's drawers one at a time.
"That sword belongs to Sephiroth," Cloud growled. "So he really is alive."
"This is really bad," Tifa said.
"What are you looking for?" Barret demanded.
"There you are," Cody said, standing with a full bottle of bourbon. "Bourbon huh? Well, I guess today is a day for slumming, isn't it, Mister President?"
He unscrewed the cap, tossing it away and pulled his mask down, taking several swigs before sighing contentedly as his throat burned. He pulled his mask back up, looking around, the others all giving him disapproving stares.
"What?" Cody asked. "I feel like getting drunk and he's not going to miss it."
"Let's just get out of here," Cloud sighed, walking to a door off to the side, then out onto the helipad outside.
The others all followed, Cody taking several more swigs on the way before they stopped, looking up at a helicopter hovering above them, a large, stylized, white "A" on the side of it. Cody took another swig as it began to descend, only for a rocket to suddenly slam into it, the entirety of the helicopter erupting into a fireball and falling past the helipad. They all looked to the right, seeing a second helicopter approaching with the Shinra emblem on the side. The side door opened and Tseng leaned out for a moment, surveying them, then leaned back in.
"Time to go!" Cody said, everyone turning and hurrying back toward the door.
However, as Cody reached the door and glanced back, he saw Cloud standing on the helipad as Rufus Shinra, the former Vice President, now President with his father's death, step out of the helicopter with his pet hellhound, several Shinra officers also stepping off, running past Cloud and toward the door the others were heading through. Cody growled in annoyance, seeing Reno glaring at him out of the helicopter window, then stepped inside, running after the others. They fled quickly down through the lab, but once they reached floor sixty four again, Cody stopped, glancing back, realizing Tifa was gone. However, they didn't have time to worry about that. He could hear the Shinra troops running down the last set of stairs.
"We need to split up," Cody said. "I'll draw them away. Probably kill them. You guys get out of here."
"I'm not letting you sacrifice yourself!" Jessie said firmly.
"I'm not planning to die yet," Cody assured her.
"Good," Jessie said. "Then I'm going with you."
"Wha…" He groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose before huffing out a short sigh. "Fine! Barret, you take Aerith and him and get out of here."
"Why do I gotta escort the lab rat dog?" Barret asked. "We should just kill 'em!"
"I'm not a lab rat dog!" the dog growled. "Hojo called me Red Thirteen. That will suffice."
"Barret, the moment we kill them, this entire building goes on lockdown!" Cody snapped. "We're above the SOLDIER floor! if the building is locked down, we're fucked! Now go!"
Aerith grabbed Barret's arm and ran for the elevator. Cody glanced back down the hallway they'd just left as several guards rounded the corner, one of them shouting for Cody and Jessie to freeze, only for them to sprint to the stairs, the guards following. They headed quickly to the virtual reality trainer, and as soon as they were inside, they split, pressing themselves against the wall to either side of the door. A moment later, the guards sprinted in and the door closed behind them before Cody summoned his gunblade and slashed them all across the back, killing them all. Then, he resealed his gunblade and they left quickly.
"We have about ten minutes at best before the alarm sounds," Cody said. "Let's get to the elevator quickly."
Jessie nodded, and they quickly got into the first elevator that opened, Cody pressing the button for the ground floor. As they rode in silence, Cody took another swig from the bottle of bourbon he was still holding, sighing heavily and pulling the mask back up. The elevator was moving entirely too slow.
"Are you okay?" Jessie asked. "You've been...different ever since we talked to Cissnei."
"I'm fine," Cody said curtly. "I just...I need time to think."
Jessie nodded. Cody glanced at her, feeling guilty for obviously hurting her. She thought he was questioning whether or not he had feelings for her, and to be honest, he wasn't really sure that he wasn't. But it was more than that. It was everything. The situation, her, Cissnei, Hojo, his parents. He needed time to process, and that wouldn't happen until they were safe.
His thoughts were interrupted as the elevator suddenly came to an abrupt stop with a loud, resounding crash and a metal screech. Cody staggered to the side, catching Jessie to hold her upright, then looked around, frowning.
"I think the elevator's caught on something," Cody said.
"Where are we?" Jessie asked.
Cody glanced up at the digital floor readout that flickering between forty five and forty six. "Looks like just above floor forty five. Hold on. I'll pry the door open."
He summoned his gunblade and slipped it in between the two doors, which he was grateful opened from the middle, then pulled to one side, levering the doors open slightly before getting his foot between them and resealing his gunblade. He grunted with effort as he pushed them open, then stopped, staring through the third of a doorway visible near the floor. There was a corpse just inside.
"Oh my god!" Jessie gasped, having knelt down to look through.
"Go through," Cody said. "Of it's safe."
Jessie carefully looked out of the elevator, then slipped out of it and dropped to the ground, grabbing a metal pipe from the floor inside and passed it to Cody, who wedged it in the door, then quickly slipped out of it just before the rod slipped free and the door closed again. He looked around, eyes wide and brain struggling to process what he was seeing. Everything was destroyed. Even the doors of the elevator they'd just been on. They were broken open and the insides of the door were bent outward at the top, allowing them to catch the elevator, bend a bit more, and then hopelessly jam it, resulting in Jessie and Cody having to slip out of it as they had. The rest of the room was worse, though. There were corpses everywhere, civilian and Public Security alike, and all of them mutilated, dismembered, or split in half entirely. The walls were riddled with bullet holes and gashes, the ceiling looked like there had been an earthquake that caused it to collapse, and the experimental weapons that were supposed to be held in glass display cases or containment tanks were all scattered. There weren't a lot of them right now. Maybe twelve or so at most. Cody walked toward the main computer, which had somehow escaped damage, only to stop as he found a SOLDIER lying in two pieces, his sword shattered about the middle of his blade beside him.
"Was this Sephiroth?" Jessie asked.
A choking sound rang out from their left and they spun, Cody preparing himself to launch a spell, only to see a researcher with a gaping stab wound through his chest choking on his own blood. The wound was through his right lung, missing his heart, but it was an inch wide, and four inches from top to bottom, the weapon obviously having been held vertically when it impaled him. Cody walked over and knelt.
"Can you hear me?" Cody asked, the man looking at him. "Can you speak? What happened here?"
The man began to choke, trying to speak. "...stole...teria...gun...blade...white..." the man's eyes glazed over and his head fell to the side.
Cody frowned, looking around, counting the displays and holding tanks, then counting the weapons that didn't belong to the SOLDIER or the Shinra troops. There were two empty tanks.
"Who do you think it was?" Jessie asked.
Cody was silent as he walked to the computer, turning it on, only to get an alert warning that the data was corrupt, and that all video files had been corrupted too badly to be loaded. He pulled up a list of the research files, strolling through it and found one for several materia that were being studied. One was a new type of Enemy Skill materia, and the other two were some kind of absorption or sealing materia. The next file he found, however, pissed him off. He opened it and the designs for his gunblade appeared. When Hojo had mentioned that Scarlet had gained an interest in his gunblade after seeing him wielding it, he though that meant she would use his design. Instead, there was a red band across his schematics that had the word "INFERIOR" along it. He scrolled to the right and found an updated schematic, which included a barrel to direct the explosive blast of what was now six Fire materia from the cylinder alone the inside of the back of the blade in an ever-shrinking barrel until it ended in an exposed notch in the blade where excess heat would be vented, and the blast itself would hit the metal of the blade near the tip. The force of the blast would then multiply both slashing speed and force, giving it monstrous cutting power, and the ability to obviously smash straight through a SOLDIER's sword, but which would also result in it being harder to transition from one strike to the next due to recoil and follow-through. Cody had initially had the idea to do something similar, but had decided against it because his blade was already made out of a harder metal than any Shinra Weapons platform or SOLDIER swords and armor, so he didn't need more force, only speed.
"Looks like they upgraded," Jessie said.
"Downgraded," he corrected her. "They used a weaker steel for the weapon because they had to focus on heat resistance and diffusion instead, and they upped the force of each blow by trading off speed."
She raised an eyebrow at him as he powered down the computer and walked back to the elevators, Jessie following, and summoned an elevator that wasn't blocked by its doors.
"Will whoever stole it be a problem?" Jessie asked.
"Probably," Cody said.
She nodded and looked around, then knelt, picking up a ninjato, a sword shaped like a katana but with a straight blade, with a small barrel running two thirds of the way up the back of it, and a cocking lever doubling as a finger guard. "Then you can teach me to use this."
"I don't know how to use that thing," Cody snorted.
"It's a gunblade," Jessie shrugged as the elevator arrived.
"It's more of a rifle sword," Cody said. "Just a second." He sighed, walking over to the computer and turned it back on, quickly finding that weapon's schematics, and used his watch's magnet wire to connect his watch to the computer, downloading the weapon's file, then disconnected his watch and shut the computer back down, walking back over to join Jessie in the elevator. "I'll teach you how to wield a sword once we find a place to lay low. I'll also have to upgrade that thing, because the blade's not nearly sturdy enough to be used reliably, and it's a single-shot weapon reloaded through the buttcap at the base of the grip."
Jessie beamed at him, hugging him. "Thank you!"
He smiled, hugging her back. "My feelings haven't changed. I just need some time to think. I'll explain why after."
"Okay," Jessie said. "Take as long as you need. I'll wait."
He nodded, smiling, and slipped his hand into hers, both waiting in silence as they rode the elevator down the tower. The tower shook several times as they road, but after a moment the apparent explosions stopped, so Cody wasn't too worried. As they reached the lobby, however, they stopped, finding Barret, Aerith, and Red Thirteen all surrounded in front of the security desk by Shinra troops, Heidegger standing at the front.
"It was only a matter of time, and here we are," Heidegger said. "So, what is this ragtag group of misfits I see before me?" Heidegger asked.
"Go get a motorcycle," Cody whispered to Jessie, nodding toward the vehicles in the exhibit to the left.
"AVALANCHE!" Barret declared.
"Local florist!" Aerith said.
"Lab rat dog!" Red Thirteen said.
"Former Turk," Cody calmly from behind one of the troops, snapping his neck and taking his gun and one spare magazine as he fell. "And if you think that this is enough soldiers to stop us, you're sadly mistaken. I can kill them all with just this."
Heidegger glared at him. "So, you're the traitor Turk I've been hearing about. And where are the rest of you?"
"Up your ass," Barret said.
Heidegger snorted. "Charming. Though not what I would've chosen for my last words. Secure the Ancient, but feel free to kill both the idiot and the dog. Kill the Turk first."
The soldiers all turned on Cody, who smirked, spreading his arms invitingly, having already cast Barrier on himself.
"Aerith, you saved my Marlene," Barret said quietly. "Now, it's time I returned the favor."
However, just as the soldiers were all about to fire, a motorcycle engine roared and they all looked up just as Cloud jumped off the upper level on a black Harley-Daytona that had been on display upstairs. He crashed down and began to skid in a circle, dragging his sword to turn his skid. he began to race and swerve around the room, using his motorcycle like Roche would to take down almost all the troops, leaving only four plus Heidegger within seconds. Then, he stopped, then shot toward the five still stancing, stabbing his sword into the ground at the last second and revving the engine as he used his enhanced strength to swing the bike up, the back tire crashing into the four Shinra troops' heads, missing Heidegger's by an inch. As soon as he had, he skidded to a stop as Tifa pulled up in a blue truck, skidding to a stop and opening the passenger door.
"Everyone, get in!" Tifa shouted.
"I'll find a bike and help Cloud!" Cody said, tossing the gun and spare mag aside and summoning his gunblade, using it to launch himself up to the upper level as the others all loaded up the truck.
Then, he ran into the exhibit hall just as Jessie shouted in frustration, kicking a motorcycle. It was the same model as Roche's bike, but was dark green instead of red.
"This fucking thing won't start and doesn't have anywhere to put fuel!" Jessie said as Cody reached her.
He laughed, sitting on the seat and pulling the Lightning materia out of his bangle, pressing it into a small indentation in the bike, the materia shrinking down to fit. Then, he pressed the materia like a button and the bike roared to life. Jessie rolled her eyes, climbing onto the back of the bike behind him just as Cloud and the others reached the room and stopped, staring at a lone troop who had just stepped out of a bathroom, now staring at them in surprise and fear. Cloud revved his engine, starting to turn his bike only to whip it back around and sending his sword flashing across the room into the window behind the troop, who shrieked in surprise and fear, fleeing back into the bathroom. Then, Cloud gunned it at the window, Tifa and Cody doing the same. Cloud shattered the window and caught his sword, putting it back on his back before Tifa and Cody followed, Barret and Aerith screaming while Jessie tightened her one-armed hold on Cody's midsection and cheered, raising her new sword over her head. They landed hard and she groaned, shifting slightly, before laughing.
"Let's do that again!" Jessie shouted over the wind and the bike's engine.
"Some other time!" Cody shouted back. "Keep an eye out for any Shinra troops! And let me handle them! You'll probably break your sword if you try!"
"Have some faith!" Jessie said. "I've played a samurai before!"
Cody glanced back at her sternly, then reached over and sealed her sword in his gunblade's sealing materia. She huffed indignantly, but hugged herself tight to his back. However, after a moment, he glanced back as she tapped him twice, seeing a dozen Shinra troops rounding a corner behind them, gaining quickly. He sighed, summoning his gunblade.
"So much for our romantic, moon-lit drive," Cody said, Jessie laughing.
"I think this is pretty romantic," Jessie smiled.
He snorted, then hit the brakes, stopping almost completely as the Shinra troops raced past him, one Officer being split at the waist and the one behind him loosing his left leg as Cody's blade split his motorcycle. Then, Cody twisted his throttle sharply and sped after them. Cloud slashed a bike on his left as a Shinra troop on the right side of the truck, opposite Cloud, raised his gun, only for Barret to shoot him. Cody caught up to one of the basic troops and slashed his back tire, spilling him onto the road as his bike flipped and bounced away. He caught up to another, only for them to swerve out of the way of his slash. So instead, he squeezed his trigger, the blast hurling Cody's bike sideways into another Shinra troop's bike and making the troop crash as the one he'd blasted was launched off of his bike, hitting a third troop and taking him off his bike as well. Jessie shrieked as they were thrown, then sighed once they were driving normally again.
"Are you trying to get us killed?" Jessie asked.
"I thought you were an adrenaline junkie!" Cody laughed.
"Yes but I don't want to die!" Jessie snapped.
He laughed. "Relax! I'm not going to let you get hurt!"
He looked back as more Shinra troops began to close in on them from behind, this time accompanied by a heavily armed troop transport truck. Cody allowed the truck to pass them, then quickly slashed the front tire of a Shinra officer who tried to follow it on Cody's left. Another pulled up on Cody's right and moved to slash his stun baton, only for Cody to slam a kick into the man's bike, making it jerk away, going out of control and crashing into another bike. Two troops pulled up on their sides and Cody huffed, glancing at Jessie.
"Hold on!" He shouted, then popped the bike's clutch and cut the wheel, leaning hard as he spun the bike clockwise rapidly, allowing him to slash both of the bikes beside them before getting their bike going straight again and gunning it.
Jessie's death grip on him slackened slightly, just as Cloud slashed the now burning troop transport's front left tire, sending it flipping and crashing ahead of them into a blockade, clearing their path through it. Cody caught up to the others and Cloud nodded to him, then looked past him, his eyes narrowing.
"Firing warning shots!" a voice boomed from above them before a spotlight found them, then swept ahead of them before several rockets exploded into the road, Cloud, Cody, and Tifa all swerving around the explosions.
"That chopper's all mine!" Barret shouted. "I'll bring it down real quick!"
"Jessie!" Cody shouted over the sound of Barret shooting at the rocket. "Take the handlebars!"
Jessie grabbed them instantly and Cody carefully pulled his feet up on the front of it, then jumped, casting Haste on himself before kicking a Shinra troop off his bike and managing to land on the bike, taking control of it before it could flip, all thanks to his Haste spell. Then, he gunned it just as a bike Cloud had slashed fell onto its side. Cody braced and hit the bike hard, the one he was riding flipping into the air, Cody still on its seat, before he fired two blasts out of his gunblade, throwing himself and the bike at the chopper. Barret stopped firing just as Cody jumped backward off the bike, firing one final blast into it and sending it exploding into the chopper and himself at the truck, Barret catching him. Jessie sped up, getting up next to the truck just as a Shinra troop aimed at her back, only for Cody to launch himself off the truck, his feet colliding with the troop's chest, both crashing to the ground, Cody sliding along the ground for a moment, using the Shinra troop as a skateboard. After a moment, Jessie skidded to a stop beside him and he swung his leg onto the bike behind her, wrapping his left arm around her and holding her tight to him.
"Think you can keep us upright if I use my gunblade for a speed boost?" Cody asked.
"Let's do it," Jessie grinned.
Cody smiled, tugging his mask down and kissing her on the cheek before pulling it back up. "Sorry for being such a handful."
She smiled, then twisted the throttle sharply, the bike roaring and speeding after the others. Once she had it going straight, Cody fired a blast behind them, the bike lurching and flying along the road, the engine roaring deafeningly. After four more blasts, they streaked through a group of three bikes that were behind Tifa's truck, Cody laying backward and slashing the front tire of each bike as they passed, his legs clenching his and Jessie's bike in a death grip before he sat back up, once again holding Jessie tightly.
"Careful you don't get me too excited rubbing against me from behind like that," Jessie said, flashing him a Cheshire grin.
Cody rolled his eyes, squeezing her gently and pressing the front of his mask to the back of her shoulder in a mock kiss. She smiled, turning back to the front as Cloud dropped back beside them, giving them an exasperated look.
"Enjoying yourselves?" Cloud asked.
"Definitely," Jessie beamed. "There's nothing more romantic than exploding Shinra motorcycles."
"I hope you don't change your mind," Cody said. "We're bound to draw Roche's attention."
Jessie grimaced. "You might have to drive for that."
"Oh I will," Cody said, just as a robot with a spike reaching forward off its head, blade-like arms, and its legs replaced by a ball of some kind, which currently was split open around the middle with some kind of blades spinning around it in a blurred disk, burst off of a highway crossing above theirs, landing in front of them and beginning to speed along with them.
Cody swore as it suddenly swerved toward him and Jessie, Cody grabbing the left side handlebar and swerving them past the robot, which bounced off the guard rail, the blade spinning around its ball shredding it. Jessie swore loudly as the robot began to quickly catch up and pass them. Cody sealed his gunblade just as Cloud slashed his sword, an arc of mako energy streaking forward and crashing into the robot, bursting into a cloud of green energy and leaving a deep gash in the robot, which was otherwise fine. Cody raised his right hand, a blast of ice magic exploding out of his hand and slammed into the robot's back, erupting into a massive spiked ice formation, only for the spikes that hit the robot to shatter as the robot left the ice formation behind. On the bright side, the ice did stop the Shinra officer that slammed headlong into it in a fiery explosion a moment later, warning them about the troops gaining on them. Cody swore, looking behind them, then to the front again as Jessie's right hand snapped out, a bolt of lightning flashing down from the sky and sheering the robot's top left side off entirely just as it reversed directions toward them. She swore, Swerving, Cody's right hand replacing hers on the right handlebar, his left holding her against him as they worked together seamlessly to avoid the chunks of robot, which took out two more of the bikes. Then, they were upright again and Cody gave her back control, resummoning his gunblade and looking back at the other four Shinra troops.
However, just as he looked, a pair of SOLDIERs shot past the four of them, swords in-hand. Cody swore harshly, gunblade snapping up just in time to deflect both blades over them as the SOLDIERs sped past on either side. Cloud hit his brakes instantly, slashing one of the two as he passed, and Cody used his gunblade to launch himself and Jessie forward, flying past the other SOLDIER just as they were about to slash the truck's engine, Cody slashing off his back tire, then also accidentally splitting the soldier in half diagonally across the torso from low on their back to mid-ribcage in the front. The pieces of SOLDIER and motorcycle flipped and bounced, taking out two of the remaining bikes before Cloud took down the last two and caught up to Tifa, Jessie slowing down to let everyone catch up to them too.
"We're not doing well getting away!" Cody shouted across the truck to Cloud. "We need to do something!"
Cloud nodded, looking around and back. Cody did as well. There was nothing. It was silent, aside from them. But there was no way they'd escaped. That was too easy, messy though it had been. He was about to say something when he heard a grinding, roaring sound, like something metal and extremely uneven being dragged across the ground at fifty miles an hour.
"Do you hear something!?" Cody asked Jessie, who nodded.
Just then, a massive, six-wheeled tank with glowing blue lines and highlights over its black surface pulled up on their left side using a slightly higher road. Cody's gut dropped. He saw what was making the noise. The things wheels were all made out of metal and had metal spikes covering both their tread and sides, the spikes about two inches long each.
"No!" Barret shouted at the thing. "Don't you dare!"
The guardrail exploded as the tank swerved over, crashing down just behind them on their road and rapidly gaining as the top of the tank opened, the two barrels there rising on the shoulders of a robotic upper body. The two barrels began to belch smoke and flames, the robot's right hand was a spinning drill glowing bright orange, and it quickly gained on them again.
"Come on!" Barret groaned. "You see the piece of shit we're driving here!?"
"Says the three hundred pound sack of it," Red Thirteen countered.
"Hey!" Barret complained.
The robot swung its right hand at Cody and Jessie, Jessie swerving out of the way, barely.
Cody swore, left hand taking the handlebar just outside of Jessie's. "Carefully get behind me!"
She released the left handlebar, letting him adjust his grip before leaning to her right, Cody leaning left. Then, she carefully pulled her left leg back before swinging it over the bike behind him, Cody shifting forward before she sat down again, holding him tightly as he summoned his gunblade and switched it to his left hand, his right twisting the throttle sharply and quickly catching back up to Cloud and the others. Cloud used his sword to block a long burst of bullets from the robot, the force of it pushing him sideways across the road to the guard rail, then swung back over and slashed three of the robot's tires, his sword only barely getting through the metal, and nearly being ripped out of his hand by the tires' spinning in the process. Cody grit his teeth. He couldn't slash like that. He glanced at his gunblade and hummed thoughtfully. Maybe there was an alternative.
He tapped one of Jessie's hands with the hilt of his gunblade and she took it, allowing him to open the cylinder and pull out the Fire materia, putting it in the empty slot in his bangle instead before putting his Wind materia in the cylinder. He closed it and took his gunblade back before squeezing the trigger and slashing. An arc of super-compressed Wind raced away from them and slammed into the robot, scratching it, but not doing much else. He huffed, having Jessie take it again as he swapped his Wind materia back to his bangle, then took her Lightning materia. This time, when he squeezed the trigger, electricity screamed deafeningly along the blade. He slashed toward the machine experimentally and an arc of electricity flashed away from them, tearing through the three tires on the left side, all three exploding into flames instantly, the blue lights on them going dark. A second later, Cloud spun, his sword tearing through the other three, all three also exploding. The robot's lights flickered and it slumped forward, the flames coming from its smoke stack fading to thin smoke trails.
"Now's our chance!" Jessie shouted, peppering the robot with fireballs, Cloud continuing to slash the tires over and over.
Cody squeezed his trigger again and slashed, but just as he did, he had to swerve around a chunk of metal Cloud had broken off of the robot, resulting in Cody's attach splitting the robot's right shoulder open but not killing it. Suddenly, the robot's lights returned and it straightened up, the lights on the tires also flickering back on. Then, four openings in its torso began to spew flaming napalm as the robot suddenly began to spin. Cody swerved to the right side of the road, avoiding the trail of flames the robot was leaving in its wake as Cloud and Tifa tried to avoid the actual fire streams. Then, the flames stopped and the robot turned toward Cody and Jessie, a pair of machine gun barrels in its torso opening fire. Cody swerved left, then gunned it, rapidly catching up, managing to stay ahead of the stream of bullets. Once they were beside the robot, it rocked away from them, the three tires on that side rising before beginning to shine white. Cody swore, braking just before the tires crashed to the ground where they'd been, cracking the asphalt. Cody squeezed his trigger and slashed, sending an arc of lightning at the robot, but only managed to get one tire as it suddenly began to swerve and pull ahead of them all, Cloud's mako energy arc likewise only managing to take out one tire. Then, suddenly, the robot was firing electro-mines out of its back onto the road ahead of them, dropping more out of its sides as it swerved, the mines all erupting into massive domes of electricity. Cody swerved and weaved between the mines, but wasn't able to focus on attacking while doing it. Finally, Cloud managed to hit two more tires, blowing them up and making the robot stop swerving just long enough for one of its own mines to take out the other tires' power. The robot again slumped forward and Cody tried several times to get a direct hit with an electric arc while avoiding the electro-mines. He got a couple of deep gashes in, but he couldn't score a direct hit. Cloud hacked and slashed at its tires, before finally dropping back and sending a mako energy arc into the robot, the blast slicing halfway through it.
It sat up suddenly, its engine roaring as it sped ahead of them, releasing more electro-mines before its hands suddenly shone orange, a massive orange energy sphere forming in behind it between its hands before it swung its arms toward them, sending the ball of energy racing toward them. Cody swerved out of the way of the blast, then swerved again away from a mine. Jessie clung to him tightly, face pressed into his back, and he grit his teeth. He squeezed his trigger and held his gunblade pointed at the robot, aiming carefully before squeezing his trigger again. A bolt of lightning flashed from the tip of his gunblade, clearing the distance between him and the robot in less time than it took to blink, exploding through the robot's chest instantly, the impact a little to the right. Instead of taking the robot down in one blast like he'd hoped, it instead only relieved it of its right arm. He sighed. That was good enough. The robot began to swerve violently, spitting out electro-mines at double the speed, and Cody swore, resealing his gunblade and holding on with both hands as he swerved and dodged between the mines rapidly. As he did, Cloud caught up with the robot, which stopped releasing them in favor of using its flames, tires, and machine guns to try and kill Cloud, who was able to hold its attention for Cody. Cody finally got clear of the last of the mines and sent an arc of electricity exploding into the back of the robot's tank base, the arc tearing halfway through it before dispersing amidst a fiery explosion. More explosions, all smaller than the first, began to go off over the robot and its tank base, the robot trailing fire and smoke from several places. Red Thirteen shouted to Cloud and Cody suddenly, looking ahead of them to where there was a section of road missing.
"Shit!" Cody shouted. "Hold on tight Jessie! We're going to jump!"
Her hold tightened instantly, and Cody gunned it, streaking forward with Cloud. Both sent an arc of of destructive energy out of their swords, turning all six of the machine's wheels into burning balls of ruined metal before Red Thirteen suddenly flipped into the air beside the robot, spinning and slamming a swipe from his paw into the robot's head, rocking it to the side as Cloud slashed upward into the tires on one side, forcing the machine's tires into the air on that side. Cody shot under the machine instantly, slashing over his head as he did and splitting the bottom of the machine wide open, flames exploding out of it behind him as he severed machinery, oil lines, brake lines, and basically everything required to control the tires. The machine began to spin instantly and Cody sealed his gunblade, gunning it and streaking along the road with Cloud and the others. Then, they all shot off the up-angled edge of the road, clearing the gap in the road as the robot spun off the edge and began to tumble, plummeting to the ground below in a massive explosion.
Cody grinned as they landed safely on the other side, then smirked as he spotted a cherry-red motorcycle up ahead, parked at a tole station. Roche looked up at them as they sped toward him, but merely smirked and saluted lazily, making no move to pursue them when they passed.
"Why'd he letting us go?" Jessie asked.
"No idea!" Cody responded, looking to Cloud. "What now?"
Cloud was silent for a long while before sighing. "We have to find a way to leave Midgar!"
"What!?" Barret demanded.
Tifa began to slow and Cody and Cloud did the same, slowing enough to talk without shouting.
"The Shinra Building was filled with cameras," Cloud said. "Our faces will all be all over Midgar now. We need to leave in order to lay low. And besides that, Sephiroth is alive. I have a score to settle with him, and he needs to be stopped, whatever he's planning."
"Why?" Barret asked
"Sephiroth hates humanity," Cloud said. "He thinks we stole the planet from the Ancients, and that it's his birthright to rule the planet. He wants to exterminate the human race and rule whatever's left."
Barret growled angrily. "Alright. I'm convinced. Let's get this sonofabitch!"
"Not so fast," Cody said. "Sephiroth is the strongest being ever born. Even assuming we can actually find him, killing him won't be an easy task. And Sephiroth was always known to have a thousand plans for every battle. Whatever he's doing, it's not without reason."
"Cody's right," Cloud said. "But that doesn't change what we have to do."
"I agree," Jessie said. "As long as we're careful, we should go after him."
The others all agreed, so they headed for the edge of the plate, finding a road that was under construction as a connecting highway between the plate and the slums, one of Reeve's ideas that Cody whole-heartedly approved of. They stopped at the edge of it and Cloud walked over to a crane, lowering its cable as low as it would go, managing to get it within a couple feet of the ground, from what Cody could tell by scanning the cable with his watch.
"Cloud and I will go last in case anyone finds us," Cody said, pulling his Lightning materia out of his and Jessie's motorcycle, which he was going to miss, and giving hers back to her, then swapping his Lightning and his gunblade's Fire materia back into their rightful places.
"I'll go first," Barret said.
"Good luck," Cody said.
Barret nodded and Cody cast Barrier on him before he started down the cable, the spell protecting him from the cable cutting into his skin. After a few seconds, Aerith followed, then Red Thirteen, then Jessie, each of them being given a Barrier from Cody on the way. Finally, Cody cast it on himself before tossing it to Cloud.
"See you at the bottom," he said, then began down the cable.
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