Chapter 8: Getting out

Cho used the distraction to push away the 2 soldiers holding him back, Zone was able to slip out of the pile 4 men who had seized him with in the confusion as concealment. They now had a clear view of the room that was covered in large pieces of broken concrete and smashed metal all illuminated by the red haze of flames that encompassed everything. It was a good thing for them that the smoke had a way to escape or they would have suffocated by now. "Cho!" Zone pushed himself up on to his feet with Enix in an almost painfully tight grip being held with one arm, by the time he'd looked back for the boy the 4 men who held him realized that he'd gotten away from them.

Cho jumped over a long concrete pillar that separated the two of them and landed next to Zone with his rod held tightly in his hands, he hadn't let go of it even though the blue clad soliders had tried to extract it numerous times. "I'm ok, what about you?"

Zone wiped his forehead with his left arm to clear away some of the remaining blood, most of his wounds had been at lest partially closed when Enix preformed his cure spells before. "I'm fine, but neither of us will be for long if we don't get out of here." Zone hurriedly turned towards the door and nearly ran to an outstretched gunblade in the process, they had been surrounded again, 6 Galbadian solders against two.

"Stop right there!" The solider in the front called out, pushing the tip of the blade a little closer to Zone so that it was pressed against the bridge of his nose.

'Oh man, this is bad!' Zone took a small step back just to get away from the blade being pointed at his face. "Got any ideas?"

It was really unfortunate that Cho wasn't Junctioned at the moment, he wasn't strong enough to take on this number but they had no other choice...though he didn't necessarily have to fight them directly. "Just one." The brown haired boy drove the edge staff down in front of him, pushing it under the edge of another support beam that had fallen with the ceiling adjacent from the previous one. Then he pushed down on the other end of the metal staff, prying the burning concrete off the ground a few inches and then pushing it forward into a roll with one hard strike. It bowled into the 3 solders in front of them sending the men plunging to the ground and becoming trapped beneath. "Hey it worked!"

"Come on kid!" Zone grabbed Cho by the collar and charged through their clear path to the steel door at the end of the room. Cho got the hint that Zone wanted him to stop standing there and pulled his shirt free just as they got to the--Locked--door, the other 3 three remaining soldiers were still chasing them and gaining fast in the relatively small space of the room. "Damn door!" Zone took a step back then drove his shoulder into the door...though he didn't expect one hit to break it open, that much was obvious when he fell through the swiftly open door way, doping Enix and landing flat on his face. "Owww."

"Zone!" Cho jumped over the fallen man in front of him and stopped just as he landed, attempting to help him up by pulling at his arm. "Hurry up!"

Enix had landed safely on his feet next to Zone and waited worriedly by his side to see if he was alright. Though the white Chocobo was a little uneasy about the fire and bad men chasing behind them and jumped on Zone's shoulder as he was getting up, it was faster then waiting for Zone to reach down and lift him. "Kewk! Kewk!"

! - ! - !

"We have to hurry." Nida slammed the large steel door shut, separating himself, Seifer and Shadow from 5 or so Galbadian solders, or at lest that was the number the last time he counted. He was sure he'd seen other's behind them. Nida had no choice but to leave Cho behind and head down the path Seifer and Shadow had taken when Deling showed up, and he'd been able to avoid being seen. But that had only lasted so long since someone was bound to come this way eventually, now the 3 of them were pined in a room that could barely hold them let alone had enough room for a fight to take place. From what they could see the room was actually larger then it appeared, but the space was filled with endless streams of muti-colored wires coming from every direction. All of it was connected to shelves and shelves of servers, the perfect place to keep a back up.

Seifer was carrying it, a long square box like device with ports on the back and a strap on the box to hold it by. It was rather heavy. "The hell if I'm going to wait around and fight all of those guys." Seifer started, not to say he couldn't fight through all of them, by himself no less, but he didn't have that kind of time. "Shadow, your up."

"Fine." Shadow walked causally past Nida and pressed his head against the door that the boy was still holding. "Nida." His tone prompted Nida to move back, which the boy did. With Nida out of the way Shadow let his body fall through the door in a ghost like manner, causing a deep black shadow to spread out of the spot where Shadow had gone through. After only a mere second the steel structure was completely possessed, and just as he wanted the men on the other side didn't have a clue as to what was about to happen to them..

Nida glanced back at Seifer when he heard the sound of flesh being ripped and sliced through. "He couldn't have done it any less...bluntly? There is a such thing as a being inconspicuous."

"Yeah, that's spiky for you." Seifer smirked. "Alright, let's get going."

"Is it safe?" Nida watched the possessed door, unsure if it was alright to touch it while Shadow had it in that sate, for all he knew he could get sucked in.

"Yeah yeah." Seifer walked past him and pushed the door lightly, more for demonstration purposes to avoid farther skepticism, then walked into the white corridor with a little caution. It seemed like Shadow had done a his job, the path was empty except for the blood splattered across the walls plastering small pieces of blue fabric and traces of metal. "Working out frustrations Shadow?"

Shadow jumped out of the door, letting it return to it's normal color, and landed next to Seifer. He was about to reply to Seifer's remark with one of his own but something else caught his attention, a scent he knew well. "Cho."

Nida quickened his pace toward the end of the corridor where the two separate paths convened. "What? Where?" In his haste he nearly ran into Zone at the intersection, Cho trailing behind. "Zone, Cho! What happened, are you two alright?"

"No time for that." Zone declined. "We have to get out of here now, this place is under attack."

"Attack?" Nida ran after Zone who hadn't stopped at all while speaking, Cho had taken that time to rejunction with Shadow. "What do you mean attack? And what's with the bird?"

"I'll explain later, we just need to get out of here." Zone headed the group as they came to the stairway leading out of the basement and up the first floor. They were forced to stop when the ground started to shake violently, it came with a loud explosion and a rush of smoke being forced out of the ceiling from above. "What the hell are they doing up there?"

"Don't ask questions just move!" Seifer nearly pushed Zone out of the way but he thought better of it and instead he pushed Zone forward in a prompting manner. When he usually would have complained he kept running on to the half ruined floor littered with smashed concrete and furnishing, but still leavening a clear path to the front door.

Zone pushed the wooden doors open to the court yard...

He froze "Whoa!" he found himself looking upon a small war, men in green jumpsuits were all blended into a mix of a overwhelmingly larger number red and blue Galbadian uniformed solders. Aircrafts screech overhead, explosions tore across the ground, gunfire, roars of machinery, all of it was a surprise. "We are never going to make it out of the gate."

"Come on!" Cho ran in front and pulled Zone sharply to the left, around toward the side of the building while staying as close to the wall as possible, no one really noticed them with good reason. "We can use this car." Cho had remembered seeing a Galbadian assault vehicle around here next to some crates when Zone had been creating a distraction for them, and to his luck when he came to the location it was still there.

Seifer ran to the driver's side, his eye constantly on the Glatting gun mounted atop the roof which was making him more uneasy then the battle around them. "The damn thing is locked."

"Well duh!" Cho pushed Seifer out of the way and knelt beside the lock on the door, "Cover me, I'll have to pick the lock and it might take a few minutes."

"Just be quick.." Seifer took position at the back of the vehicle while Nida readied himself on the side opposite of Cho, a very unsure Zone settled himself somewhere in-between with no other choice. He obviously wasn't a fighter, he didn't even have explosives he had with him the first time, but he'd do what he could, he had to.

"Alright Enix, go over by Cho, it's safe over there." Zone coaxed the small bird on his shoulder, he was amazed at how he stayed up there after all of the running and sudden sharp movements. Zone waited a few seconds but Enix didn't move in inch, he just stared at him. "Enix...go."

Enix only shook his head "Kewk Kewk!" The bird only stared at him, unwilling to leave the nice man he'd just met. Enix wasn't so sure what was going on around here and it made him want to run and hide, but if it meant leaving the nice man alone, the nice injured man who could die... "Kewk..." Enix jumped off of Zone's shoulder and dived at an approaching Solider with one wing out stretched and crashed beak first into the blue uniformed Galbadian. He'd hit the man hard enough to make him stumble back a few steps and hold his now bleeding head.

Seifer attacked before the same solider could regain his footing, slashing the gunblade across his chest and finishing him with one hit. He wanted to ask about the bird but he knew now wasn't the time. "You notice something about this whole thing?" He glanced at Nida who he was directing the question towards.

Nida nodded, firing both guns at some one still far off. "I can't tell if they're fighting each other or fighting ever who get's us. Either way it's good for us."

Zone knelt down with his hands out, catching Enix as the bird ran back to him. "Your a really strong little guy." Zone praised, lifting the small bird up on to his shoulder again. "I'll let you help out a little but don't over do it, " Zone warned. He got an agreeable response from the bird who turned away from Zone and faced forward with a small jump, then lifted his right wing sparkling with small white flashes that signified a charging a spell. Fire was cast on the closest person approaching, causing a green clothed Gcom member to go up in flames. 'This bird is amazing!'

"I'm in." Cho pulled open the door he'd been working on and dived onto the driver's seat, pushing his head bellow the steering wheel. Of course he remembered how to hotwire a car, and Nida said that kind of skill wouldn't come in handy. "Seifer your driving right? Come on." His words were emphasized by the roar of an engine starting, he could hotwire a car much easier then he could unlock one. That was followed by a shuffle of light confusion as they entered the vehicle, Cho and Zone in the back while Nida took the passenger seat and Seifer the driver.

"I don't know weather to be impressed or horrified." Nida let out a deep sigh as Seifer revered and plowed through anyone or anything close to them.

"Nida, you see that gun on the roof?" Seifer asked, pointing to a small throttle in front of Nida's seat, "Your going to have to clear the way."

"Alright." Nida took hold of the throttle and trigger without hesitation, taking a few seconds to see how worked then afterwords it was easy for him. He was always a fast learner with these types of things, with a quick look at his ammunition count displayed on a gauge he opened fire on anything he saw fit as a threat. It was working, Seifer had turned around and made it to the closed front gate without incident.

"That's a pretty strong gate, this might be a problem." Seifer had seen first hand a number of times exactly how strong the gate could be, trying to smash through it head on wasn't a good idea.

"But the hinges aren't." Nida adjusted his aim toward the side of one of the gates, comparing the gate now from when they had entered he noticed that the hinges were only visible when the gate was completely closed, a link between the gate and the mechanizes that opened and closed it. Nida shot both of them off, allowing the Galbadian Assault vehicle to easily plow threw the steel barrier and head on to the streets of Deling.

"Ok." Seifer immediately looked back at Zone, "What the hell is going on with Watts?"

"Shouldn't you be watching the road."

"Don't worry about my driving, what the hell is going on around here?"

Zone looked down a Enix, now settled in his hands comfortably, he couldn't help but smile at how this small Chocobo (who didn't look like he was more then a baby) took to him so quickly. Even after spending who knows how long in the 'care' of Galbadia and ending up have starved, dehydrated and abused, which would have been more then enough to turn anything away from humans. Enix was probably missing his mother too, it's amazing that Enix could trust a human, let alone someone as bruised and bloody as Zone had been...still was. He must have looked pretty scary right now. "I got captured, when they found my earpiece they could have easily tracked the train and found Matthew. On top of that Watts had something on radar coming strait towards Deling, and as you saw back there it was those guys from before ."

"So where is the train now?"

"I don't know, but Watts would be someplace where radar couldn't pick up the train...Like underground or a tunnel or somewhere the reception is back." Zone paused and thought about his own words. "Hey that's it! There's a tunnel about a mille away from Deling, it's a new railroad track under construction and it's not finished yet, that's the perfect place...That's if we can make it out of here alive."

"He's got a point, Galbadian guys are all over the place." Cho said. "We'll never make it, they're probably setting up a road block right now."

"I'm surprised that none of you have any confidence in me."

! - ! - !

"Nice to finally meet you." Zell shook a very polite Alex's hand, standing in the main hall right in front of the training center. Carbuncle was mounted on his left shoulder, and only someone as agile as the small GF could stay on such a small surface easily. "You guys really must have been working hard, you both are all sweaty."

Alex smiled and gently wiped away the sweat visibly streaming down his forehead "Yeah, Carbuncle's really strong." He complemented, Alex had even had time to junction with him while they were in the training center. It was just really unfortunate that Alex hadn't had any magic to junction to his stats, it would have really helped when he came against that T-Rexaur...

"I know, I know." Carbuncle bowed his head in mocking arrogance, looking away in a small bit of embarrassment. "I am great aren't I?"

Alex looked away, just barely holding in a smile caused by Carbuncle's words and body expression. "Aww Shut up. You are so full of yourself to be somebody so little."

"Nope! Technically I'm not full of my self if I'm telling the truth." Carbuncle said with a impish smirk and his head tilled upward haughtily. "And I'm not that small. I can still grow bigger."

"Stop being so conceded!" Alex yelled fiercely, but with small playful undertones. "And there is no way your going to get any bigger. If you grow any more, I'll eat a Grat."

Carbuncle rammed his head into Alex's cheek and looked him in the eye, partly to make himself look more intimidating. "Is that a challenge?"

Alex lifted his fist and growled at the GF on his shoulder "Yeah! It is! All the milk and vegetables in the world won't help you."

Zell rubbed the back of his head nervously, it was actually kinda funny when he thought about it. "You two act like brothers." He laughed, "Me and Bahamut are going to get Squall and go looking for that thing...whatever it was, from last night." Bahamut was junctioned to him right now. "Maybe I can catch up with you guys later, we can go to the cafeteria and get some food." His eyes glanced down at his stomach when he spoke of the cafeteria, "I'm starving, I can really go for some hotdogs."

"I can't believe you guys actually saw the monster! I thought it was just it was a legend." Alex ran over to Zell excitedly, looking up at him with his mind racing with a thousand things to say and ask. "Your going to look for it? Can I come with you guys?" He asked anxiously, he had to refrain from jumping up and down.

Zell shrugged "Sure, we can use more people I guess."

"But wait..." Alex paused, stifling his excitement for the moment and looking over at Carbuncle "I thought it only came out at night. Isn't that when you guys saw it? I mean that's what I've been hearing all this time."

Silence.

Carbuncle agreed "He has a point. There are a lot of people around this place in the daytime, somebody would have seen it by now."

"...Your right." Zell nodded "We'll just have to wait until tonight."

Alex's excitement started growing again "A stake out! Cool! Does that mean I don't have to go to class?"...Carbuncle and Alex both looked up at Zell pleadingly, Alex knew that Zell was a high level SeeD so if anyone could excuse him from class he could.

'They are like brothers, they argue like brothers, they even tune into each like brothers...'Zell tilted his head upward and thought about it for a moment.

'Isn't that a good thing?' Bahamut asked. 'He's not depressed anymore.'

'Yeah your right.' Zell nodded "Aw hell, why not?"

"Yesss!"

! - ! - !

"Seifer your insane!" Nida clinched his pounding chest, panting heavily from an over load of fear. "You can't just jump over buildings like that! You could have gotten us killed!"

"I got us here did I?" Seifer snorted, driving the car over the railing separating the train station walk way from the 3 foot drop to the train tracks. There were 4 tracks and only one held a train, the far left one a good distance from them. The SUV's wheels just barely fit on the outside of the railings, causing some sparks to fly on account of friction as well as a bumpy road because of the wooden plates under the metal rails. This was the only exit that lead out side of the town that wasn't blocked by Galbadian solders, they didn't bother too since there were no outgoing or incoming trains coming in right now. How could they possibly get out this way?...If that's what they thought then they didn't know Seifer very well. "Stop complaining."

"Next time, I'm driving." Nida told him bluntly, to be blunt Seifer drove like a maniac. Nida had to admit he did take the fastest routes, even when the route wasn't a road, or even on the ground, he did always get them there in one piece. Nida was just afraid that Seifer's luck would run out and they would all end up running head first into a wall.

Seifer laughed at him, there was no way in hell that was happening. "Good luck."

"I am in charge." Nida reminded him.

Seifer didn't seem to be listening, he just waved Nida off discardingly. "Yeah Yeah."

"Hey guys!" Cho leaned in between the driver and passenger seat, pointing ahead. "We have bigger problems! Look!" What Cho was referring too was what was happening right in front of them. Their clear unobstructed path to the outside was being sealed off, at the very end of the train terminal a large metal gate was closing, a very large metal gate.

"Damnit!" Seifer veered sharply to the left and slammed on the breaks, forcing the front wheels to jump over a railing and the car to turn sideways, bringing them to a complete stop. He could only watch helplessly as the closed gate shut in front of them, a gate they would have had no chance of making it through if Seifer hadn't stopped. "Well o'fearless leader, what do we do now?"

"We get that gate open." Nida opened the door and climbed out of the large vehicle on to the uneven surface of the railroad tracks "Everybody out, we have to find away to do this right now, before Galbadia catches up."

Cho followed Zone out of the back seat into the large terminal, and with a little hint from Shadow, he spotted something that might help their current situation. "Nida, up there." He pointed to the left side of the gate about 15 feet above the ground where an out laying room settled on a platform mounted to the wall, a ladder was posted on the same wall that lead to it. "Maybe that's it--"

He stopped when the door he was indicating opened up and a man jumped down the 15 feet between the platform and the tracks. This man was wearing a green jumpsuit with the words Gcom printed on the left leg, he also was equipped with a helmet with a headset attached that he took off and tossed carelessly aside. With his face now exposed they could see that he was a bald man with green eyes and a strong jaw line, he seemed to be about 29. "Stop right there!"

"Gcom?" Cho looked over him questioningly, "He looks like that same guy who attacked us on the train...Hey! That is the same guy who attack us on the train!" Cho was referring to the beginning of their mission when they had been escorting Matthew to Timber, and when it when horribly wrong. That man had been the first person who attack them and the only one of the attacking party to make it out alive. "Aren't you trying to kill us? Why would we listen to you?" Cho said with laugh.

"We don't have time for this." Nida brushed past the green uniformed man and headed for the ladder laying against the wall just beside the large metal gate that sealed them in. "Cho come with me, Seifer, take care of this guy."

"Right." With a nod Cho ran past the same man and followed Nida who was already half way up the ladder.

After watching Nida and Cho for a moment to make sure they reached the ladder's peek safely, Seifer turned to Zone with a question burning in his head "What's with the bird?"

"I'll explain later."

The Gcom mercenary growled in annoyment, they weren't even paying attention to him! "Don't write me off like I'm some cheep Galbadian solider." He shouted, lifting his fist at Seifer and Zone with clinched fist.

Seifer rolled his eyes, this man was really anxious to get in to a fight with them "Your alone and unarmed, we're not really worried about you."

"I'll just show you my strength then..." The man lifted one arm and outstretched it toward them, his body began to glow lightly from a charging spell. "Sleep!"

"Hey wait? How is this guy using magic?" Seifer looked over there enemy carefully, he didn't quite get it.

"Machinery and Equipment can sometimes hold Ether abilities and allow users to use spells." Zone lifted his hand to his chin and thought about Seifer's question for a moment, Enix tried to make the same gesture. "But this guy doesn't have anything on him, he must be Junctioning."

"Hmm..." Now Seifer seemed interested, he even bothered to lift his gunblade in a ready stance. Which was more then he was doing before. "He might be a problem...hey wait, what happened to that spell?"...Both of them had been too busy trying to figure out why this man was able to use magic, they had forgotten that he even cast a spell, a spell that didn't seem to take effect.

Zone and Seifer looked back towards him and found that he was falling asleep from his own spell. "What? Why would he cast a sleep spell on himself?" Zone quickly got confused trying to figure it out..."Huh?" His question was answered when he heard a strange sound coming from the man's body...the man's growing body.

The Mercenary began to bulk up, his muscles expanding and growing, stretching his body outward enough to quickly rip through his clothing. His skin pale skin turned blue, his closed eyes shot open now glowing red, his fingers sharpened into bulky claws, and horns stretched out of his head. By the time the whole transformation was finished he didn't look remotely human, completely a monster. His body was Wendigo like, only he stood strait and he was larger, much larger.

"What the hell!" Seifer took a step back with obvious shock, "Is that what kinda sleep spell was that!" He didn't have time to think about it too much, The mercenary ran at him, the ground shaking in his wake, and drove a punch down on his head. Seifer jumped back, watching the large fist cause an imprint to form in the hard concrete, even then the earthquake caused by the impact made the ground shake. Seifer caught himself as the mercenary stood upright, just in time to create in opening that Seifer took advantage of. He closed the small gap between them with a few steps, then lifted his gunblade just above his left shoulder and slashed the mercenary across the wide torso.

The Mercenary stepped back with a monstrous growl, blood was drawn from Seifer's attack. He countered by clinching his fist together and swinging them into the side of Seifer's head, throwing him aside into the small 5 foot wall that the side walk was on top of. "Damn that thing hits hard...Zone, move!"

Zone ran forward, ducking just enough to avoid the Mercenary's cuffed fist hammering down on to him. Nearly falling from the resulting quake, Zone ran past the monster's side enough to get behind his much slower attacker "How the hell am I suppose to fight this-!-Enix!" Zone reached out and tried to catch the white Chocobo who jumped off his shoulder and dived beak first into the back of the mercenary's enlarged transformed head with as much forced as he could gather. It was enough to create a bruise and cause the monster to howl, not as weak an attack as Zone expected it to be... "Enix." Zone reached out and caught Enix as he was falling back "You can't keep doing that, it's dangerous and your hurt as it is."

Enix squawked and jumped a little "Kewk Kewk!" It looked like the bird really wanted to help, he really wanted to show Zone he could help.

"..." Zone quickly backed away when the transformed Mercenary turned around to face him, luckily Seifer came to his rescue, slashing the monster across it's back with his gunblade. The giant winced visibly from the attack, but kept walking towards Zone, who when trying to escape found his back against the gate. "Damnit!" He crouched down and darted forward just as the mercenary threw a punch at his head, the mercenary's attack instead hit the steel barrier hard enough to cause a dent in the structure.

"Kewk Kewk!" Enix, with a tight grip on Zone's shoulder so he didn't fall, lifted his sparkling left wing and flapped it toward the monster. A freezing bolder formed above the mercenary from an Ice spell, then dropped, smashing into it's head and shattering in a freezing rain of ice shards. The bruise from Enix's previous attack started to bleed from the hard blow.

! - ! - !

"Nida hurry, we have to get down there." Cho prompted, watching Zone and Seifer fight against the monster from the door's window.

"I'm trying." Nida was typing furiously at the control panel that controlled the gate as well as a few other mechanisms like track courses and cameras in the terminal. "Something's wrong with the automatic controls." Nida was good at figuring out theses types of things, especially computerized devices like this. The gate should have already been open, but something wasn't working right, instead of opening up like it should have the only thing he got was a red light. "Something manual must be wrong."

Nida knelt down to the base of the node as he retrieved a small screwdriver from his pocket, he used it to open up a small panel that revealed the internal components. Cho looked over his shoulder with light interest, unable to figure out what Nida could be looking for in the sea of wires... "I see it, a few of the cables came loose." Nida pushed his hand in side of the control panel's frame and tried to reach something in the back, what ever it was he couldn't seem to get to it. "Cho, I'm going to need your help."

! - ! - !

The mercenary let out a brute grunt as he clinched his inhumanly large hand around Seifer's torso and lifted him easily off of the ground. "Ahaaaa!" A cry of pain was forced out of him when the monster began applying pressure, squeezing as tightly enough to choke. It was much tighter then Seifer had expected, a rush of blood was forced up his throat and expelled from his mouth with a cough. He scowled inwardly when he dropped his sword as a result, but he had to free himself, and the only other means where by magic. "Flare!" With the call of his voice a strong forced rushed out between himself and the oversized mercenary, exploding outward in a rush of red energy. Seifer was blowout of the hand that held him, not to mention the mercenary lost a few fingers.

The Wendigo like monster cried out with a horrible screech, stumbling backwards into the gate as blood streamed out of the wound. The pain sent the Mercenary into a blind fury, enough damage had been inflicted to cause the blue skin to shift into a deep red from the berserker effect. It charged furiously at Seifer and Zone, pushing himself off of the gate just as it started to open...

With a quaking roar the Mercenary lifted both of it's fist, ready to pound down on the closest person, which happened to be Zone. When an even louder, repetitious roar of heavy gunfire overpowered it. Nida was controlling the Glatting gun mounted on the roof of the Galbadian assault vehicle, firing a torrent of bullets into the monster's body. It sent the Mercenary sprawling down the ground, weakened and defeated he had no choice but to revert back into his human form.

"Hey, he's still wearing pants." Cho stood over the fallen man, noticing that he was still wearing a pair of blue, rather tight pants even though his clothing had been ripped off when he transformed. "How?"

"Well..." Nida knelt down next to the defeated Gcom mercenary, checking him over... "I noticed that the lower half of his body was a slightly different shade then his upper, he must have been wearing these for when he changed back...How can fabric so small stretch so much? Strange." Upon checking the shards of the man's clothing he found something, an ID card on a chain baring the name and information of the man as well as a barcode along the side. "This guy's name is Erick, Hmm, doesn't look like an Erick."

It seem like they had other things to worry about..."Uh guys!" Cho called. "Hello, Galbadian territory! Let's go."

Nida stood up, leaving the man there as he returned to the front seat of the SUV they were using to escape. With everyone inside, Seifer took off with his usual way of driving. As soon as they were out of the terminal Seifer got off of the railroad tracks and asked Zone for directions for the Tunnel he spoke of before.

! - ! - !
! - ! - !

"Zone!" Matthew ran up to Zone as soon as he walked into the door, the small boy hugging him lightly. "I thought you were dead!"

"I'm alright." Zone patted the boy on the head and then pushed him back a little. "Don't worry about me."

"Sir!" Watts opened the door from the next car that held the control room. "Your all right!"

"I'm good, I'm good." Zone nodded, "Cho."

Cho walked into the train from the dark tunnel they currently resided in, their was a rather steep down hill slope to the tunnel, it was noticeable inside the train two since no surface was particularly level anymore. "Huh?"

"Enix is looking pretty bad." He said worriedly, handing him the sleeping baby Chocobo. "Can you help him?"

Cho gently held the white Chocobo in his arms, taking a good look at him. Being Chocoboy he was an expert in dealing with the birds. "I can do a little. He's going to need to eat something, something that will help him heal like Kupo nuts and Memit greens, some water too. Preferably Yellow potion."

"Yellow potion?"

"Yeah, it's a special potion for Chocobos." Cho rolled the sleeping Enix on to his back and gently rubbed his chest "If he gets some Yellow potions then we can skip some of the healing time, since he's really strong."

"So he's going to be ok?" Zone asked hopefully.

Cho nodded "He'll be fine, I just to find that stuff for him. Let him sleep for a while."

"I'll do it!" Zone impatiently turned around and ran toward the door, determined to gather up the things Cho had just listed. If he did that he could undo at lest some of what happened to Enix when he was in Deling.

"Uh sir, that's not a good Idea." Watts pushed Zone back away from the door, "Your all beat up, your too injured to do anything." He protested "Get your rest, Cho will handle it."

Cho agreed "I'll do it. He's right, you don't even know where to find this stuff."

Cho was right, Zone didn't have any idea of where he was headed off to when he went for the door, he had just wanted to help... The man sighed, running a hand through the stray blue strands of hair. "Yeah I guess, I'm gonna go take a shower or something. See if you can get anything out of that back up."

"Alright..." Watts took a quick look around. "Where is it?"

Cho walked over to the door and peeked his head out, looking around the dark tunnel for any signs of Seifer or Nida. Seifer was loading the Galbadian vehicle into one of the cars near the back of the train, apparently they thought it was a good idea to keep it. "Nida! Seifer! Come on, hurry up already!"

! - ! - !

"I don't know about this." Squall leaned back lightly in his chair, sitting at his desk. Zell stood before him with Alex by his side and Carbuncle on the boy's shoulder. "What's the point of bringing him along?"

"More people couldn't hurt." Zell said. "More eyes, more chances we'll see it right?"

Squall didn't think about it to much, Zell was probably right. "Fine."

! - ! - !