After dealing with Odin, we continued on a short way before we were ambushed by a small group of soldiers and 2 of those big things we fought at some point last chapter. "L'Cie!" One of the soldiers said as we prepared for battle.
"Got my back?" Lightning asked.
"Yeah!" Hope said.
"And if he doesn't, I do." I said, taking up my stance. We dealt with the soldiers pretty quick, but two of those big-ass robots proved to be somewhat of a challenge. "I think we should call in some back-up." I said to Lightning.
She nodded as we both released our power crystal thing. "Odin..." She said quietly, tossing it up into the air, jumping up after it and slicing it in half, releasing Odin. She then dived down at him, grabbed his hand and he spun and flipped her around so she could land gently, both of them readying their weapons. "Cut out the path!" She said.
At the same time, I released mine. "Deathgaze!" I announced, crouching and slamming my hand and the crystal into the ground. Then a trail of darkness crawled on the ground a few feet in front of me and appeared as the Grim Reaper once again. I then appeared beside him with a dark-bladed katana drawn and we both took our stance. "May their deaths be swift!" I said. With the combined power of our eidolons and us, we were quickly laying waste and doing massive damage to the robots, but then we could feel the power of our eidolons depleting. "It's time!" I announced, jumping into the air as Deathgaze threw his scythe up into the air and began to transform.
"We do this together!" Lightning said as Odin dropped his sword and jumped into the air, transforming. He became his horse form again, let out a loud whinny and galloped out of the air towards her as she picked up his sword, jumped on his back and separated them. "Let's ride!" She said.
As she did that, Deathgaze finished his transformation and let out a mighty roar as I landed on his back, spun his scythe around with skill and took my scythe stance on his back. "Death from above!" I said as we flew in.
Lightning targeted the left one and attacked with her gestalt attacks as I attacked with my own:
Spinning Death, where I throw the scythe at the opponent while spinning it vertically, causing massive damage until it bounces back, The Reaper: Where we fly in with the scythe glowing with the power of death and darkness, slashing once with powerful and devastating force, Life Taker: a simple scythe swing that would take the head off of any normal soldier, but not these robots, Afterlife: basically shooting a beam of darkness and death energy that looks like a black and red kamehameha out of the scythe, Dark Embrace, sending a small army of crows that quickly tear at the foe and deal massive damage and finally the ultimate move, as we were running out of power again, The Netherrealm. At the same time, Lightning used her ultimate move... Zan-tet-su-ken?... Yeah, that. "The storm is here!" She said, rearing Odin onto his hind legs.
"Your time in this world is over!" I said in Raiden's "Jack the Ripper" voice. Lightning then jumped into the air, spinning around and swinging the swords with incredible power, purple energy swirling around her as well, even shattering the screen, landing and doing massive damage to both of them. All the while, I was drawing the power of death and Hell. "To me, fortress of the Netherrealm! Destroy the mortals!" I said evilly and finally swung the scythe, sending a wave of energy out of the scythe (picture Cloud's sword beam attack) between them, missing them but open a vortex to the Netherrealm, drawing them in and destroying them before they were even sucked into the portal. I then jumped off Deathgaze's back as he turned back to normal and gave him his scythe back. "See you again." I said as he disappeared into the darkness.
Lightning also jumped off Odin's back, although he stayed in his horse form and took the sword back in his mouth. "Until next time!" She said as he jumped away and disappeared.
"That was EPIC. Quan Chi ain't got shit on me! And Lightning, that was incredible." I said.
She gave a small chuckle at this. "Flattery will get you nowhere." She said, but then put her hand on my shoulder and gave me a small kiss on the cheek. "But you didn't do too bad yourself." She said.
"That was incredible." Hope said.
"Yeah. I know I've said it before, but I'm kinda digging this whole being a L'Cie thing. Sure, the time limit doesn't sound too appealing, but for now, I'm living it up." I said.
"We'll rest here. Hope, you rest up, we'll scope out the area." Lightning said, waving for me to follow her as Hope collapsed and instantly fell asleep.
"Oh, hell yeah, let's go." I said, following her.
Maybe we can scope out some other things, too!
[This journey has definitely had more pros than cons so far.]
We quickly split up and scouted the area before meeting up again. "All clear." She asked.
"Yeah. No signs of enemy activity whatsoever." I said.
"Good." She said, about to walk off before stopping and turning to me. "You know, we don't have to go back yet." She said.
"Oh, I like where this is going." I said, taking off my shirt and trench coat, then making out with her as she leaned up against the rocks.
I FUCKING LOVE THIS WORLD!
[Best... Story... Ever...]
We continued to undress and despite being outside in the middle of an abandoned wasteland/junkyard, the 20 minutes of ecstasy that transpired were incredible. After the deed was done, we redressed and went back to where Hope was, finding him still out like a light. "Well, he's got the right idea. It'll be good to get a good night's sleep with all that's happened so far." I said, collapsing and lighting my body on fire as an substitute for a blanket.
Lightning sat down as well, across from Hope and beside me, then Hope stirred slightly. "Mom?" He asked.
"Not quite, buddy." I said quietly.
"Not by a long shot." Lightning agreed, then rolled over next to me in a way her arm was on my chest, the fire over my body dying down a bit and turning blue, no longer hot enough to burn someone.
Elsewhere...
Sazh, Vanille and 'I' continued to flee the scene, stopping briefly and turning around. "No sing of soldiers." Vanille said.
"I guess Lightning got their attention." Sazh said.
"Yeah, it's more than likely. That should've been evident with the big explosions." 'I' said.
"I wonder how Hope's doing?" Vanille asked.
"He's got 2 badasses protecting him, I'm sure he's fine." 'I' said.
"They were headed towards Palumpolum. Kid's on his way home. You can bet on it." Sazh answered.
"Good for him." She said, then noticed Sazh's slight depression. "Hm? What's wrong?" She asked.
"Yeah, you ain't looking too good." 'I' said.
"It's good... If they manage to slip in quietly. All of Cocoon is in the grip of Pulse-phobia. If a L'Cie pops up on the radar... All Hell will break loose." He explained.
"Wow, you guys really aren't accepting people." 'I' said.
"They don't even know why they're scared." Vanille said.
"Fear is a strange thing. Some peoplemay not even know why they're scared of certain things. Like I doubt anyone really knows why Deadpool is afraid of clowns." 'I' said.
"Afraid of what they don't know. Afraid to find out more. It gets worse the older you get. I'm... terrified of what will happen." Sazh explained.
"Pussy." 'I' said.
"The world probably would be better without Pulse L'Cie." He continued.
"Racist hypocrite." 'I' added.
"I mean... Most of 'em." He quickly corrected.
"Still a hypocrite." 'I' said, shaking my head.
"Gee, thanks. Let's go!" Vanille said, pushing us along.
"Gotta admit, this girl's forceful. I like that in a woman." 'I' said.
We continued on, destroyed a bunch of bombs and other robots that would later serve to fill my profit box ten fold once they were redesigned and mass-produced. "Oh, I love this universe! And once I get back to mine, my company will officially be the richest in the world! Suck it, Lexcorp!" 'I' laughed, collecting the broken down robots for later repairs.
"You get really excited about money, don't you?" Vanille asked.
"It's number 4 on my list of my top 5 favorite things. Only below women, being a badass and video games." 'I' explained.
"After all this, you're company itself is probably gonna be a deterrent of war." Sazh said.
"Ah, yes, I can see it now: 'Hey, North Korea! Stop being a communist dictatorship!' 'Screw you, USA!' 'Don't make me call BladeCorp!' 'Okay, it's over, you win, we'll clean up a bit!'. Oh, that would kick ass." 'I' laughed.
We then encountered a giant tower thing we'd clearly have to find the power source of if we wanted to continue, as every other path we tried is block. We found the first conduit and looked it over. "Better not electrocute myself." Sazh said, pressing buttons.
"Don't worry, electricity doesn't always kill people. Sometimes it brings people back to life, too." 'I' added supportively. After he finished the button pressing, a light came on the tower thing. "Alright, we're getting somewhere, then." 'I' said.
We then rounded around to the next one, but unfortunately had to deal with two more of the Pulserwork soldiers, which is slightly harder when it's not one-on-three or four. Still, we managed to put them down easily enough and went to the next switch. "Hope the wires aren't fried." Sazh said as he pressed up the buttons.
"It's the main objective of what we're currently doing, it has to work perfectly fine. That's just the rules of video games." 'I' explained. Sure enough, the next light came on. "See? I told you so." 'I' said as we targeted the next one. We went to the next one and just like with the other 2, it was being defeneded by a Pulsework Soldier and a Bomb. "I've never like exploding things when they're being used against me. And the fact this one's alive makes it even worse." 'I' said, killing it with fire.
We finished them off and Sazh looked at the final machine. "Pulse machines can't be that different." He said, hitting buttons.
"You already used two of them, what do you think?" 'I' asked, somewhat annoyed. He punched up the buttons, but only another light came on and nothing spectacular happened. "Oh, must be one more switch. My bad, guys." 'I' said to the 4th wall. We went to where the REAL last switch was and were slightly relieved to see we only had to deal with 2 bombs. "Oh, that's a little better. I was getting tired of dealing with those Pulsework things. KILL IT WITH FIRE!" I shouted, shooting two Hellspiral missiles (one of my signature attacks: two fireballs the size of an orange that shoot out of my hands, spinning to gain speed and power and striking with the force of 10 bazookas) at them, easily destroying them both. "I think I win." I said triumphantly.
"Not bad." Vanille said, grabbing onto 'my' shoulders.
"Yeah, good job. Now let's see if I can get this to work." Sazh said, turning to the machine. "Let's give this a shot." He said, hitting up the buttons and turning the last light on the tower thing on. From there it rose up a bit, two electrode things raising up and spinning around it. "Aha! It's alive!" Sazh laughed.
"Way to go!" Vanille said happily.
"Nice work, man. Hey, look at that over there!" 'I' said, pointing to a door that just opened and two silver Pulsework Soldiers came out along with 2 bombs.
"Not the only thing we woke up, huh?" Sazh asked.
"We can take 'em!" Vanille said energetically.
"I love her enthusiasm. Let's go kick ass!" 'I' said, rushing at them.
Luckily, we were able to get the preemptive strike and take out the bombs quickly, also freezing the robots who, although were much more annoyingly durable than the Pulsework soldiers, still suffered from the same massive weakness. We continued to hammer on them and, after only minor difficulty, we finally brought down the two robots. "Glad that's over." Sazh said.
"That was pretty tough." Vanille agreed.
Time for a victory dance!" 'I' said, doing the macarena, but getting the words wrong. "~Blah dakka dakka dakka dakka~. ~Blong godda ba, this is to~tall~y racist~! ~Heeeey, chimichangas~!" 'I' sang.
"Uh..." The other two said, looking at me as if I were crazy.
We then continued down a long-ass cave that didn't seem to end for the longest time. "Whew. We finally made it!" Vanille said positively, even though we were still in the cave.
"It is nice to not run into robots and stuff around every turn. Fighting is fun, but it's just like sex: you can't do it all the time." 'I' said, but then looked Vanille up and down a bit. "Then again..."
"You guys must be tired, huh?" She asked.
"I still have energy for some things." 'I' said.
"Yeah, but we should take a break and rest. Get some sleep. Not fool around when it's clearly not the time for it." Sazh said with somewhat of an attitude and giving 'me' a small glare.
"Shit! Shit, shit, shit!" 'I' said quietly, punching the cave walls in anger.
We then finally reached the end of the cave and came into a small clearing in front of a cliff. "We gotta sleep somewhere. Is this okay?" Sazh asked, looking at us.
"Yeah, it's perfect for me, I can sleep anywhere. But isn't this a dead end? Where do we go after this?" 'I' asked.
"Yeah, fine by me!" Vanille said happily, 'my' question apparently getting ignored. She managed to find a large piece of cloth or something, big enough for 2 people to lay on and, singing and/or humming a bright tune to herself, carried it over to the middle of the clearing, spread it out and laid it down. "All set! Good night!" She said, laying down on her side.
"You know, there's room for 2 on that blanket. Any chance I could get in there, too?" 'I' asked.
"Heh. Not a care in the world." Sazh said as we walked up closer to her, as we deemed it unsafe to be on the other sides of the clearing from each other.
"Oh!" Vanille said, popping up as we got relatively close, grabbing a nearby stick and drawing a small line just after the blanket.
"Whaaat?" We both said, looking at the line until she finished it.
"Do not cross this line, understood?" She asked.
"Oh, that's fucked up." 'I' grumbled, starting to walk away.
"Grow up." Sazh said as he laid down about a foot from the line.
"Oh, wait, Sai! I only meant him. You asked nicely, so you can join me on my blanket." She said.
She blinked and as soon as she opened her eyes, 'I' was right beside her on the blanket. "Thank you very much." 'I' said.
She giggled at this, but had somewhat of a stern look on her face. "But don't try anything funny. That's as far as you're going to get tonight. Got it?" She asked.
(Shit!) 'I' thought.
"yeah, I got it." 'I' said, lying down.
"And good night again!" She giggled.
"Would you two just go to sleep already?" Sazh asked as we did so, him settling down as well.
However, halfway through the night 'I' woke up to the feeling of something pressing up against 'me' and someone wrapping their arms around 'me'. 'I' woke up to see Vanille crying a bit and holding onto me tightly. "Huh?" I asked quietly.
Sazh looked over at this and sighed. "Still just a kid." He said.
"Well, I guess it can be pretty scary out here on a cold night, dressed like her and with two people she's known than less than a day and no one you know personally and the possibility your family's dead." 'I' explained in depth. "But still, I could work with this." 'I' said, hugging her and holding her close.
(Jackpot!) 'I' thought.