We continued on after killing the Dreadnought, going up a long-ass uphill path. "This looks like easy goings!" Vanille said.
"Ugh... Too much uphill, you guys don't have elevators or anything?" I asked. We continued on until we reached another GIANT heap of junk that was previously a space ship from the look of it. "Well, great. Now what? Looks like we've run into another pointless landmark." I said.
"Might as well take a rest." Lightning said.
We all did so, settling down and giving our legs a much needed break. Sazh, however, still had to be a downer. "Not much of a future for us, huh?" He asked.
"Hard to picture a happy ending." Lightning agreed.
"Ah, these Final Fantasy games always work out in the end. The worst thing that happens is usually just one of the main characters dying and that's usually rare. Let's see, we got Aeris in 7, Minwu in 2, Shadow in 6, Galuf in 5 and Tellah in 4. That's less than the majority of the franchise, so I think we're okay." I said, trying to bring spirits us.
"Maybe, but we don't even know where to go." Sazh said.
"I do." Lightning said, standing up.
"Huh?" Sazh asked, getting up as well.
"There." She said, looking up to a giant white light in the sky that looked like a floating city of sorts.
"Ooh, shiny... Very shiny..." I said, distracted by the shiny.
"Eden?!" Sazh demanded.
"More religious propaganda I see." I said.
"The SANCTUM seed of power. Oh, that's a great idea." Sazh laughed.
"Yes, it is. I'd love to take these guys on at their strongest, right at the heart of their power." I said.
"Just charge right in there! Give em a taste of L'cie terror!" He still laughed.
"Actually, that about sums it up." I said, nodding.
He then looked at us, shocked. "You're serious?" He asked.
"Yeah, I want to keep the plot rolling so I can get back to my world and this sounds like the way to go about it." I said.
"Keep running, it's die or turn Cie'th. There's no place for L'cie to hide. No, they want a fight? Let's take it to the SANCTUM's door." Lightning said.
"I love this woman." I said, pointing to her
"This isn't a game!" Sazh said.
"Who said it was?" I asked.
"No, that's for DAMN sure." Lightning said. "It started with Serah. The Fal'Cie took her, now I'm a L'Cie, too. And the SANCTUM's hunting me. An enemy of the state." Lightning started.
"I know the feeling. So I blew up a town or 7 back in my world. There was logic behind it: they were filled with demons. Now they want to arrest me in those states." I said, shaking my head.
"But who's pulling their strings? A Fal'Cie: Eden. Cocoon's guider and sustaining light. It probably ordered the Purge, too." She said.
"That's fucked up." I said.
"Pulse and SANCTUM Fal'Cie, they're all the same. And we're all the same to them: Expandable." She continued.
"That's fucked up-er." I said.
[That's not a word.]
I don't ka-know... Who cares?
"I'm not dying a Fal'Cie slave." She said.
"See, people of the world, preferably those who make video games? This is what we need more of: Badass female protagonists." I said, pointing to lightning again.
[With strong will and resolve.]
Nice figures and big boobies, too!
"So, what are you gonna do?" Sazh asked.
"Destroy it." She said.
"Yay! More killing and destroying things!" I said happily.
"By yourself? Are you crazy?!" Sazh demanded.
"No, she's not crazy and she's not gonna do it by herself. I'm gonna help her." I said.
"Say you do destroy it. What will that get you? Satisfaction?" He asked.
"I'm satisfied any time I destroy stuff. And maybe it will get me a way home, too." I said.
"Something happens to Eden, it's lights out Cocoon." Sazh said, facepalming.
"Great, I don't care. Live on the ground like normal people instead of a floating mini-planet." I said.
He then looked as if he realized something, looking at Lightning and I in shock. "You want that." He said.
"Pretty much, yeah, whatever gets me home." I said.
"You're a Pulse L'Cie now, so you just want to snuff out Cocoon!" He said accusingly.
"Uh, yeah, so are you, dumbass." I pointed out.
"No!" Vanille said.
"What about Serah? She said to save Cocoon! It might even be our focus!" She said.
"Not likely." I said before Lightning stepped up to her.
"Our focus doesn't matter! I DON'T. Take orders from Fal'Cie!" Lightning said, Vanille backing away.
"Okay, let's everybody just calm the fuck down. No need to get hostile. Save it for the enemy." I said.
"How I live is up to me." Lightning said.
"That is one of the most badass quotes of all time, right there." I said.
"Don't you mean... How you die?" Sazh asked.
"Well ain't you so damn optimistic." I said both sarcastically and annoyed.
"Think like that and it's already over." Lightning said, to which I pointed to her as if to say "Oh, snap! She got you!". "Better to pick your path and keep moving. And don't worry. I'm going after the SANCTUM, I'm not out to destroy the world." She said.
"See? She's the main character of this game, obviously she's not the bad guy." I said.
"If it did come to that, I wonder if our 'hero' would try and stop me?" She wondered.
"You've got a sword, I give the edge to you." I said.
[You know we're gonna catch hell in the reviews for that, right?]
Yeah, I hear she fights him in the newest one and he puts up a good fight.
"Don't care." I said.
"You wanna fight Snow now? Just like that, you're enemies?" Sazh asked.
"Apparently. They were never on friendly terms to begin with." I said.
"Next time we meet, we might be, too." Lightning said, walking off.
"That's a little extreme, but don't worry, I doubt it will come to that." I said, following her, leaving a fire clone with them.
"Snow deserves it!" Hope said, following us.
"Jeez, what's he still got to hold against Snow? His mom's still alive because I'm a badass, that's his big issue in the game, what's the big deal now?" 'I' said, shaking my head.
"Because he may wind up dying or becoming a mindless Cie'th." Sazh said bluntly.
"Oh, yeah, that could put a damper on someone's day." 'I' said.
"I don't know what I should do." Vanille said.
"That makes two of us." Sazh said.
"Yeah, not much to do. What are we gonna do, try to run and wind up going to some type of Circus city?" 'I' said, smirking and shaking 'my' head at the idea.
"Hey." Vanille giggled, pushing them both gently, but almost causing them to fall, as they were on the edge of the debris they were on. "You're taking care of me!" She said.
"I won't be if you keep pushing on me like that." Sazh said.
"Yeah, I can't take that many hits. I'm a clone. Not as tough as the real thing." 'I' said.
Elsewhere...
Lightning and I continued on when suddenly, we heard a voice behind us. "Wait for me!" Hope called, rushing up to us, stopping just before reaching us to take a couple breaths and recover. "I'm going with you." He said.
"Well, we're all eventually going to the same place, might as well toughen you up now so you can kick ass later." I said.
"We can't babysit you anymore." Lightning said.
"I can fight!" He said.
"With a boomerang." I said bluntly.
"I'm not afraid!" Hope said.
"That is an excellent song." I said, nodding. At that moment, a small group of PSICOM soldiers charged up to us, guns at the ready. "Oh, look! Assholes!" I said, getting ready to fight.
"Great! A PSICOM hit squad." Lightning said.
"They're about to get hit." I said. Suddenly, the leader hit a button and the path we came from was blown up and destroyed. "So, I guess we're not going back that way." I said, turning to fight again, along with my team. I ran in quickly and snapped the closest one's neck, Lightning rushing in just after me and slashing the next one, easily taking him down, then Hope managed to take down 2 with fire magic and I zapped the last one. "Good job, Hope, you killed 2 before I got the chance to." I said.
"Not bad." Lightning agreed, looking at him.
"Really? Thanks." He said.
"Everybody gets one." I said.
Back with the others...
"Gods-damn! I wonder if there's any fire left to roast some marshmallows on?" 'I' wondered.
"Uh-oh. Army's out to play." Sazh said.
"Xbox or PS3?" 'I' asked.
"So, what now?" Vanille asked.
"The most ideal thing is to get away from the guys with the guns." 'I' said.
"That's one of the best ideas you've had since I met you." He said.
"Run? Okay." Vanille said.
"Yeah, you're right. I mean it's not like Lightning needs any help." Sazh said as we walked off.
"Of course not. I'm there." 'I' said, following them.
Back with us...
"There'll be more soldiers. We should keep moving." Hope said.
"That's a good idea." I said, surprised he was the one to bring that up.
We then both looked at Lightning, who looked at the debris. "Lightning? Are you worried about the others? I'm sure they got away okay." Hope said.
"Yeah, they fell from the sky, I think they could handle a little explosion." I said.
"You can get away too if you leave now." Lightning said to Hope.
"You've never heard of 'the more, the merrier', have you?" I asked.
"With me, it'll be fight after fight." Lightning said.
"Sounds like a dream come true." I said.
"I don't know how it'll end. It's anybody's guess." She said, walking past us and putting a hand on her hip.
"With me here, there is no guess. We're gonna win." I said.
"I know that, but... I need to be stronger." Hope said.
"Well then, you've come to the right place. Like I said before, I've worked with A LOT less than you." I said, showing them a picture of Tsukune with a personality profile to show how hard it was.
Name: Tsukune
Status: Weak-ass pansy
personality: Pervert, little whiny bitch, total dumb-ass
"You were able to work with that?" Lightning asked, shocked.
"Wow. Then how good do you think you could get me?" He asked.
"Probably good enough to solo at least RV. Maybe Dragon Ball if you're lucky. Not DBZ, though. But yeah, you'll definitely be a threat to anything else in this game by the time we're done." I said.
"Really? How?" He asked.
"Simple, rigorous, bone-crushing training in a badass montage up until the point you take control of one of those Dreadnought monsters." I said.
[Spoiler Alert!]
"You really think that will work?" lightning asked.
"it worked with him. Hell, if we did the same thing with you, you'd be able to pwn Goku by the time I'm done with you. Give you the terror of your name: Lightning." I said.
"Call me Light." She said.
"Very well then. Let's get this rolling then." I said.
Background music: "The montage song" from South Park
We encountered the first group of soldiers and sent Hope in while Lightning and I stood back. He used Sparkstrike to bounce his boomerangs off their heads while shocking them and knocking them to the ground, then he roasted them with firaga, easily defeating them while I nodded approvingly on the side. We came to the next group and Hope used a quick combo of Watera, Blizzaga and Quake to finish them off. The next fight came around and Hope used a quick volley of magic to attack them and deal major damage. However, one came in and would've hit him if I hadn't blasted him back with Aero, but he managed to recover quickly and threw his boomerang with flamestrike to finish off the soldier, then I helped him up. Suddenly, we encountered a new robot enemy we'd never encountered before called an uhlan, but we still sent Hope in first and he dealt with it rather well with a combination of Thunder, Sparkstrike, blizzard and blizzardstrike, then I collected it for further profit.
We then saw a couple of soldiers in front of a decommissioned Dreadnought and took cover behind a small cliffside. "Any sign of the L'Cie?" The first one asked.
"Negative, no sign it's been activated." The soldier inspecting the Dreadnought said, but then both of them must've heard or seen us somehow and got ready to fight.
"Huh? Who's there?" The first one asked.
"The L'Cie you were looking for." I said as we moved Hope to the front to fight them.
He managed to deal with them quickly and impressively by using Aeroga to launch them into the air in a small tornado, pummel them with Sparkstrikes and finish them with a bit of overkill by using Thundaga. "Nice work, Hope. You'd kick Superman's ass at this rate." I said approvingly.
"Yeah? Thanks." He said, nodding a bit.
"Yep." I said as we looked at the Dreadnought.
"What was PSICOM doing here?" Hope said, walking up to it.
"Probably thought we'd try and use a Pulse machine to escape." Lightning explained.
"Sounds like a good idea." I said.
"I don't know..." She said, looking as if she was thinking.
"Maybe we should try it. What does this do?" Hope asked, going underneath it.
"You're gonna hurt yourself! Get away from that." Lightning said.
"If he does, we'll just heal him. It's good to learn from your mistakes. It was my dad's main method of raising us. When we were just babies crawling with our dad watching us, I pulled on our dog's ears and got torn to shreds and he did nothing. And at the same time, my older twin stuck his finger in a light socket and my dad just sat there watching him. But, he got his lightning powers out of it, so not the worse trade-off. And my regeneration kicked in after the dog tore out one of my kidneys." I explained.
"Your family life sounds WAY too crazy." She said.
"You grow to love it." I said.
"What if it works?" Hope asked, climbing on.
"Then we're gonna kick a whole lot of soldier ass with it." I said.
"Leave it!" Lightning ordered. However, whatever he did worked, as the machine then kicked to life. "I told you to leave it." She said, getting ready to draw her gunblade.
"At the very least, this is quite entertaining." I said.
[Almost as funny as watching annoying anime characters get hurt.]
*cough, cough* Tsukune, Issei and Yamcha *cough, cough*!
"Three people whose asses I will never get tired of kicking." I said.
However, the machine finally stopped. "I think I got it! Light, I think I can work this!" He said as she walked away towards a blocked path. She stopped and sighed as she realized it was a no-go, but as I got ready to knock it down, she heard a noise behind us and turned to see Hope bringing the machine over and making it throw a punch, which she dodged, the force knocking down the debris to make a bridge and sending me flying.
"HEY, WATCH WHAT THE FUCK YOU DO WITH THAT THING!" I snapped as my chest recovered from being caved in. Regardless, with that machine we decimated every single thing that stood in our way with ease... Until Hope mistepped on a cliff and the machine fell and crashed. "AWWW! Talk about 'easy come, easy go'! Still, it was fun while it lasted." I said simply, looking at the wreckage.
"Nice landing." Lightning said as she jumped down. "Let's get moving." She said.
"Right behind you." I said.
For multiple reasons!
[Think about it...]
"I just need a minute. Still a bit winded." He said somewhat weakly.
"You're too soft." Lightning said.
Uh... Okay, this is taking too long. We now fast-forward to the next cutscene where Lightning and I are walking on a bridge with an exhausted Hope close-in-tow, but then he tripped and fell, being too weak to even lift his legs up high enough to get onto the bridge. "Man, you really need to watch where you're going." I told him.
"This isn't working." Lightning said, better understanding his condition than I was.
"What?" He asked.
"I mean you're a liability. You'll just slow us down." She said, starting to walk again.
"That's a bit harsh." I said.
"What?!" Hope said, shooting up.
"Perfect, problem solved." I said.
Just like a DBZ character!
[The slightest news can either piss them off or just put them right back in action.]
"I'm sorry, but I can't protect you when-" She started, but then dropped down, holding her chest in pain as her brand began to glow... Or at least the image glowed, we can't see the actual brand because it's on her chest. I'd LIKE to see it, but oh well.
"Here we go again." I said, recognizing the problem dropping down and holding her shoulder, trying to ease her pain in the meantime until the Eidolon appeared.
"You can't leave me here! You gotta take me with you!" He said.
"Enough!" She said in pain.
"Yeah, now isn't the time." I told him.
"The whole world is against us... I can barely keep myself alive... Let alone some helpless KID!" She said before even more pain filled her.
"Calm down, it's okay. I know you probably don't know the experience, but it's like giving birth. It'll uh... It'll hurt a little bit, but only for a little bit and you'll be better in no time." I said.
[Except you don't have to fight a monster after giving birth.]
What are you talking about? Our mom did. She had us, then killed an army of werewolves! What a trooper!
"I don't have time to baby you..." She continued.
"We're not. You don't remember the montage from before?" I asked.
"You wanna get tough? Then do it on your own!" She finished before the glyph appeared below her. Apparently, she was no longer in pain now, as she could look around, then we both dove out of the way before her summon appeared. Odin, one of the strongest summons in FF history. "This cannot be happening!" She said as she looked at the giant armored knight.
"Why not? It just happened to me like 2 chapters ago." I said.
The creature then lunged, causing Hope to fall back, then got ready to attack. "Look out!" Light said, rushing in.
"Not after all that hard work I put into the montage!" I said, rushing in as well.
In a brief flash of light, Lightning is now blocking the double-bladed sword and I powered up to Super Saiyan and flew in, slamming into him after Light pushed him back and sent him skidding across the ground. "Be ready. Shit's about to go down." I said.
The monster rose up and dashed forward once again, clearing a small distance between us, casting Doom on Lightning and preparing to fight. Hope and I pressed the assault as Lightning used Syntergist magic to power us up, then herself, then using saboteur magic to weaken him, before laying on her own assault. But with his power and deadly attacks, it was quite a bit more than a handful. He knocked them both into the air with Skyward Swing, knocking them both away, but not me, as I had dodged the attack, he then prepared to use crushing blow to finish them both off. "No!" I shouted, jumping in the way and stopping him with steelguard.
"Not bad!" Lightning said, quickly getting up and rushing in, staggering him back with an incredibly fast and deadly combo. Finally, she had done enough. His sword fell to the ground, then he jumped into the air and transformed into an impressive metal horse, galloping down from the sky in front of Lightning as she picked up his sword and jumped onto his back, separating the sword into two as he briefly reared up onto his in legs.
"Man, I've gone through that enough for one act." I said, rubbing the back of my neck.
Lightning breathed heavily, her brand still glowing, then she dropped down onto one knee. "Lightning!" We both said, dropping down beside her to help.
Hope then looked at the brand on his wrist and grabbed my left wrist, pulling it over so he could see Lefty, my nickname for the brand as a pun and reference to the parasite thing on D's hand. "Your brands look different." He said.
"I guess so." I said, noticing the subtle differences.
"Was that an Eidolon? Like L'Cie can summon?" He asked.
"Yep. I got one, too. It's a dragon." I said.
"Magic and mumbo-jumbo." She said.
"Heavy on the jumbo if you ask me." I said.
"I must've hit my head on that purge train." She said.
"We regularly shoot lightning and fire from our hands now. Nothing should surprise us anymore." I said.
"Um... Am I... Really in your way?" He asked.
"You're getting better, but I STILL say you need a better weapon than a boomerang." I said.
She merely sighed and walked past him. "I'll do better! I'll try harder! I-" He started.
"Hope." She said, stopping him. "We'll toughen you up." She said, brightening him up a bit. "I'm sorry about before." She said, walking again. He smiled at this and caught up.
"Yay! Group hug!" I said in a fake tone, but I did hug Lightning rather sexually from behind, getting a smirk from both of us.