Sazh, Vanille and my clone continued along and ran into a strange sight: The SANCTUM robots fighting one of the useless Pulse robots. "Now the robots are fighting each other?" Vanille asked.
"Makes our job easier, so I'm not complaining." 'I' said. We did use this to our advantage, gaining a preemptive strike, then staggering the pulse robot, finishing off the SANCTUM robots quickly and them going back for the vulnerable Pulse robot. "Huh." 'I' said, puling out a little red button that said 'easy' on it, then pressed it.
"Well, that was easy." The button said, then 'I' put it away.
Sazh looked at the small rig in the middle of the area we would undoubtedly need in order to proceed down the blocked path. "Never seen a rig like this before..." He said, pulling the lever. This launched out a small magnet on a wire onto the piece of junk blocking are way. "Wha-?! Oh." Sazh said impressed. Suddenly, the device and wire began pulling back the magnet along with the junk, causing Sazh to go "whoa" over and over again until it was gently brought to a stop in front of the rig. "I knew that would happen." He lied.
"Uh-huh. Sure." 'I' said, nodding.
We encountered another fight between the green cougar monsters and the Pulse robot, easily dealing with them as they were fighting each other more than us, so we had no problem eliminating them all and continuing. The path was once again blocked by what looked like a fan blocked by debris, but Sazh punched in a few things on the control panel. "This should do it." He said. It spun for a moment, but then nothing. "Huh?" He asked. Then suddenly, it spun violently, clearing the debris, sending it flying and breaking the blades. "Uh... Peace of cake." He said.
"Yeah, no it wasn't." 'I' said.
We then continued on and kept killing things until we all saw a familiar figure sitting down in the middle of a clearing. "Oh! Hope!" Vanille called out. We then hustled up to where he was and looked around, panting. "We made it!" She said happily.
"Where's grumpy?" Sazh asked.
"Well, considering what she's been through so far, can you really blame her?" 'I' asked, counting on my fingers. "She failed to save her sister, she had to betray the very thing she stood for, then she got turned into a L'Cie and is pretty much doomed to a suck-ass fate, now she, along with the rest of us, is lost in bum-fuck nowhere." 'I' explained.
Hope made some kind of "hmph" noise and gestured his head towards the wall Lightning and I went up. "I see. Couldn't make the jump or something?" 'I' asked.
"Got left behind, huh?" Sazh asked, putting his hand on Hope's shoulder.
"Yeah. I couldn't make the jump. Then they just left me." He said.
"Yeah, I have a habit of doing that. I'm like the opposite of the marines: if you hesitate, fuck up or screw around, I leave you behind." 'I' explained.
"That's kinda dark." He said indifferently.
"You want dark? I'll have to introduce you to my buddy Damion sometime.
Back with Damion...
He sneezed. "Someone must be talking about me." He said.
Back with us...
"This is pointless. Can't keep up. Can't go home. It's over for me." He said.
"I guess it is like Tsukune all over again. But for you, I have a little more hope. One training montage, you should be better than ever." 'I' said.
"It's not over! We'll get you home!" Vanille said.
"Yeah. I'm all about reuniting lost children with their family. Hell, I run an agency designed for that. It's called 'The guardian Blade of children.'" 'I' explained.
"Is everything blade with your family?" He asked.
"It's our last name, what do you think?" 'I' asked.
Hope then had a memory of the night before the purge he spent with his mom.
Flashback...
Hope was watching the fireworks with his mom and she was wishing on the fireworks. She then finished and looked at her son. "Not making a wish, Hope?" She asked.
"Mom, you still believe in that kind of stuff?" He asked, to which she nodded. "Wishing on fireworks? Really? That's for little kids." He said.
She then pulled him in for sort of a side hug. "Who are you calling 'kid.'" She asked.
"You." He said. "What'd you wish for?" He asked.
"That next year... Your father could be here with us." She said.
He sighed at this, pulling away from his mother. "Why, it's better like this! We don't need him!" He said.
Break in the flashback...
"Daddy issues, huh? Try this on for size: They day me and my brother could walk, MY dad threw us off a cliff." 'I' said.
"Whoa, really?" Sazh asked.
"Yeah, that asshole Kazuya gave him the idea so we'd be tough, like what his father did to him." 'I' explained.
"Wow." He said.
Back to the Flashback...
The flashback was starting to drift, but Hope narrated at this moment. "That night... They found the Fal'Cie in the Bodhum vestige. The next day, soldiers sealed off the town. And we couldn't get back to PalumPolum." He explained.
End Flashback...
"PalumPolum? That reminds me of these two little kids from Final Fantasy 4 named Palum and Polum. I think they died in a rockslide or something." 'I' said.
"They forced us onto the train with everyone else. My mom, she was frantic. She wanted to get us home, so she decided to fight." He said.
"Can't blame her. If my mother knew I was part of the Purge, she would've SLAUGHTERED every single soldier who was a part of the operation." 'I' said, nodding.
"Yeah. And because of Snow, if it hadn't been for you, she'd be dead." He continued.
"Yeah, all of his little soldiers would. Good thing I'm probably the only demon you can expect a miracle from." 'I' said.
"Let's get you home. Maybe your mom made it home by now. And your dad must be worried." She said.
"Let him worry. Why should I care? He doesn't." Hope said.
"Any father cares." Sazh said.
"Exactly. Maybe your dad's just a workoholic trying to make you a good life. He may have threw us off a cliff, but if it meant saving our lives, my dad would take down an entire army." 'I' said.
While 'I' was saying that, Sazh worked on another device thing and made another path with one of the magnet machines for us to continue. "There's still time. We'll get you back home, your mom and dad will be happy to see you." He said.
And so, we climbed up the junk wall the easy way, killed another one of the Pulse robots and continued on until we reached and killed another one... Man, it's amazing I can make these as long as they are, most of the non-cutscene and or boss stuff is REALLY uneventful. I honestly don't even have commentary for some of this. We climbed up the little ledge after that and continued on, but then Hope noticed something up on more metal beams high above us. "There's something up there!" He said as they jumped down, revealing themselves to be some sort of strange bird things.
"Oh, goodie! New enemies! Which means a new opportunity for me to get more product for Bladecorp and more money for ME!" 'I' said excitedly. We quickly took the bird-things down, 'I' got more samples and we continued on until we saw a broken, yet impressive-looking ship. "Huh. That looks very impressive. Imagine how much we could charge for just one of them." 'I' said.
"Isn't that a..." Vanille started.
"A warship from Pulse." Sazh said.
"You mean, they made it this far?" She asked.
"Of course not! Not during the war, not since. They might've tried, but none of their forces made it into Cocoon." He said.
"Wow, you really don't give these guys much credit, do you?" 'I' asked.
"They only damaged the outer rim. Then, the SANCTUM'S Fal'Cie pushed 'em back. What did you, uh, sleep through history?" He asked.
Vanille giggled. "More or less." She said.
"I wasn't here." 'I' said.
"So, what's a ship from Pulse doing here?" She asked.
Hope was the one to speak up this time. "Once the war was over, people couldn't live near the rim anymore. And places like the Hanging Edge. So the Fal'Cie, they gathered up scraps from Pulse. And used it for rebuilding here. This is what was left. A bunch of garbage." He said.
"Yeah, not really a sight to behold, is it?" 'I' asked.
"Who would've thought: A Pulse Fal'Cie and who knows what mixed in with all the trash." Sazh said.
"Who'd have thunk?" Vanille asked, somewhat sadly. Then she brightened right up and went on ahead. "I'm gonna go look ahead!" She said.
"Do me a favor: stop running off and stay where I can keep an eye on you." He said.
"Don't worry, old man, I've got both eyes on her." 'I' said syly, then thought. "As long as your DAMN bird stays out of my way." 'I' added.
Okay, let's see here... More killing, more long stretches in between fights, more fights... "I hope Snow's alright." Sazh said.
"Oh, him, don't worry. That guy's too stubborn to die." 'I' said simply.
We continued on, but suddenly, the camera angle shows something from above looking down at the group. Lightning then jumped down, landing in a kneeling position while the real me jumped down, landed on my hands, pushed into the air, did a fancy flip and landed perfectly on my feet.
Oh, yeah! Skillz!
[10 for the performance, 10 for the landing]
"Impressed you guys made it this far." I said, merging with my clone.
"Hey, welcome to the party!" Sazh said.
"You miss us?" Vanille asked.
"I missed you, that's for sure." I said slyly, walking up to her, brushing her hair behind her ear.
Lightning just huffed and continued on. "Would it kill her to smile?" He asked.
"Oh, trust me, she smiled a few times while we were together. I don't know if she's wearing lipstick or something, but she tastes like strawberries." I said, following her.
Now, before I forget, since I meant to after hope joined the party with my clone... MONTAGE TIME!
Background music: "I'll Make a Man Out of You Parody" By TeamFourStar
We encountered a couple more Pulse robots and I threw Hope into battle while keeping everyone else back. He cast his strongest spells on them and forced them back, but still didn't move as they were coming in to attack him. "DODGE!" I snapped, blasting him out of the way with aero. This time, instead of just falling to the ground, he must've learned from last time and tucked before he hit the ground, rolling and popping up at a safe distance. He then hit them with more spells, finally staggering them and opening them up to make them vulnerable. He then threw his boomerang at them, doing some fairly decent damaged, before blasting and finishing them off with Thundaga. "Most impressive." I said in my Darth Vader voice.
We continued on and then ran into two more bird things. He took point, or rather, I forced him to take point again and laid into them, actually managing to jump back and dodge the first one's attack on his own, but then the second one ran in from his side. He was somewhat shocked by this and didn't react, so this time he took the hit and was knocked back. I picked him up, healed him and pushed him back into battle. Then, he vamped himself up with Syntergist magic and jumped out of the way of both their attack, then powering them down with Saboteur magic. Then surprisingly, as one ran in from his side and he folded up his boomerang and used it to block, pushing it back and taking their next combo with Steelguard. Then when the finished and jumped back, he froze did massive damage with Blizzaga and finished by knocking them into the air with Quake and causing them to fall to the ground headfirst, breaking their necks due to being somewhat frozen.
Then, we ran into more of them, but this time they had a different version of them with giant shurikens on its back with them. He went to fight them by himself this time and then started by wearing them down and powering himself up, going for the one in the back first, as it was powering itself and the others up, eliminating it fairly easily, as it was weaker than the first ones. I took a sample from it and then he hit the other ones and finished them off with heavy magic combos.
End music
"There... Hey, Sai, I did it." He panted.
"Awesome." I said. We continued on until there was another machine that needed tampering with. "This should do the trick." Sazh said, pushing buttons and bringing down a folding stairway-type bridge. "Nothing to it." He said.
We continued on, this time helped Hope fight more, then continuing on until we ran into a giant scrap heap. "What do you suppose that is?" Lightning asked.
"Hopefully something I can salvage for large amounts of profit." I said. We walked up to it and it activated, unwinding and such, revealing it to be some type of giant, epic robot. "Oh, yes it is!" I said with and eager look on my face and dollar signs in my eyes.
"What is that thing?!" Sazh asked.
"Pulse armament!" Lightning said, now being able to identify it, taking a fighting stance.]
"And when this adventure's all over, it will be a Bladecorp armament!" I said, taking my stance beside her.
"And that's bad for us..." Sazh guessed.
"You have eyes, don't you?" She asked.
We then got together and fought it, vamping ourselves up and powering down it as much as possible, then attacking with a mix of magic and physical attacks. We were doing good, but suddenly, it opened up its mouth or whatever, revealing some form of small wrecking ball on a chain, firing it out at us, destroying the floor beneath us. "Oh, how the mighty have fallen..." I groaned, getting up.
"Uh... I thought we were goners! You alright?" Sazh asked us.
"I think so." Vanille said.
"Yeah." Hope agreed.
"Incoming!" Lightning said as it dropped down.
"Man, we should call that thing elevator operator, 'cuz he's bringing us down!" I said.
Ba-dum, chi!
[All humor aside, Bladecorp will be rolling in dough from those.]
We then re-engaged it in battle and it started putting up way more of a fight. We were actually starting to have some difficutly with it. "Okay, that's it. No more Mr. Nice Demon." I said, using my Devil Trigger, pummeling it with intense blows and powerful magic, both demonic and L'Cie magic, even mixing the two of them together for some massive damage. Eventually, it got ready to fire its wrecking ball thing at me, which I prepared for with Steelguard, the combination of that along with my demonic power caused the wrecking ball to literally bounce off of me.
Indestructible!
[Our determination is incorruptible!]
"Annihilation will be unavoidable!" I continued as I blasted the monstrous machine with another powerful blast of magic, bringing it to its knees. "Take a last look around while you're alive! I'm an indestructible master of WAR!" I shouted, crashing down into it, finally bringing it down and out of commission, sealing it away in the vast depths of my trench coat for later use. "I think I win." I said, nodding.
"Pulse is crawling with things like that, isn't it?" Sazh said.
"Got me." Lightning said.
"I hope so! More stuff to fill my wallet!" I said.
"Not even the corps has access to intel on Pulse. Soldiers in the field fight blind." She explained.
"Yeah, I noticed that." Sazh said.
"So THAT'S why they suck." I said.
[Makes sense.]
Or maybe their whole purpose is to suck?
"But don't soldiers need to know what they're up against?" Sazh asked.
"Target's a target." She said.
"Makes perfect sense. Just see something and kill it." I said nodding.
We excel in that!
[It's our favorite style.]
"You two like to keep it simple, don't you?" He asked.
"I don't like to make things complicated." I said.
"I stick to my goal." Lightning said.
"As long as you have a goal, you can fight?" Hope asked.
"Exactly. If you have a goal, that's all you need to keep going for as long as you can." I said.
That's what she said!
[Ugh...]
"You can stay alive." She said.
"That as well. Also not something I'm opposed to." I agreed.