Chapter 8: "Operation Reclaimer" Part Three
After a lot of diving, climbing and dodging, Cid finally managed to down the red submarine, along with its back-up. As soon as this had happened, a call came through from back at Junon stated that all subs had to return to Junon Harbour and that the Huge materia was being transported via the Galinka, a large cargo plane. They abandoned the downed sub that held the yellow Huge Materia as it would have taken too long to find without missing the plane. So they hightailed it back to Junon as fast as the sub would go.
"Damn! This is such a pain! We just left this place!" pouted Naruto as he and the others rushed into Lower Junon. He felt like he understood, at least a little, how Shikamaru felt at times. The plan was that Naruto, Garra, Cloud, Aeris, Vincent and Nanaki would split up and head for the beach and ascend the city via sand and Naruto's flying cloud jutsu while the others would wait in the house they stayed at when they first came here.
"We'll be back soon!" shouted Naruto as the new group headed for the beach. When they arrived, Naruto created his cloud and he, Aeris and Vincent hopped on while Garra used his sand to levitate himself, Cloud and Nanaki up to the top. While rising up, the group noticed everyone below was busy preparing for something. They also saw that pieces of the mega cannon were being moved and transported away.
"Where on earth are they taking that thing?" asked Aeris.
"Beat's me. Maybe they want to set up some sort of artillery cannon in case Weapon come-a-strolling too close to Midgar," theorised Naruto. "Anyway, let's get to the top and stop that plane!"
However when the group got to the top, the Galinka was already halfway to taking off. The team watched in dismay as the cargo plane reached the end of the runway and took off from Junon.
"Damn it! We were too late!" cursed Naruto before he noticed the plane turn to the side and realign itself in a new direction.
"Huh? A north-west direction? The only towns that way are Costa Del Sol, North Corel, Nebelheim and..." said Naruto before his eyes widened. "I see. That's what's happening huh? Cid's not going to like this."
"What? What's going on?" asked Aeris.
"I'll explain when we're back on the Highwind," said Naruto before he signalled to Gaara that they were returning back down.
"WHAT!"
"Yeah. That's the theory that completely fits," said Naruto, watching Cid's face change colour.
"I concur with this. The guys at HQ have finally spilt the beans to this part of the plan. Rocket town is the Galinka's planed destination," said Cait.
"Well, that's that. We're off to Rocket Town," said Barret.
"They are not going to take this away from me," said Cid before he exploded. "NO FUCKING WAY!" he then turned to the pilot who was already trembling in his boots. "You heard him! Let's get our asses in gear and get to Rocket town!"
Our new team which included Naruto, Vincent, Cid and Gaara, climbed up the side of the rocket to the control room. Steam was heavily leaking from exhaust vents, letting everyone know that the rocket was close to lift off.
They got to the top and Naruto sighed as he saw who was blocking them.
"Hey Rude!" called Naruto. Rude himself glared slightly at the group, two soldiers reading themselves behind him. "...We will eliminate everyone who get's in Shinra's way."
"You..." said Cid before yelling, "GET THE FUCK OFF MY FUCKING ROCKET!" He then jumped into the air and came down hard with his spear. He swiped off the two soldiers with his first strike then struck Rude with the butt of his spear. He apparently got in a good strike as Rude went down on one knee. Cid took this chance to knock him off the walkway, but he reached out and grasped the edge, stopping his long and fatal fall.
"C'mon you three! We need to stop this launch!" Cid said before he ran inside. Naruto and the group followed and Naruto locked up the entrance from the inside before he followed his friends inside the control room.
Inside there were three tech guys gearing up the rocket.
"Hey! What the hell're you guys doin'!" asked Cid, apparently knowing these three.
All three turned round and looked long at Cid before all three broke out in smiles.
"Hey! Just when I thought somethin' was goin' on, you come back!" said the one on the left.
The one on the right stepped forward. "Listen to me Captain. We're gonna launch this rocket!"
Cid looked a little confused. "Huh? What are you talkin' 'bout?"
"We're gonna load a Materia bomb in this and blow up Meteor," said the one in the middle.
"Our rocket's gonna save the planet!" said the left one.
"Man! This is so cool!" said the right one.
"Woah! Wait a minute!" Naruto said, walking forward. But it seemed that Cid wasn't in the mood for this.
"Shut up! Just shut the hell up!" he yelled at Naruto, making him blink a few times. Cid turned back to the techies.
"How's the rocket?" he asked.
"It's pretty much OK," was the answer he got.
"But... we planned to run it into Meteor on Auto-Pilot, but the controls are broken for that part."
"Broken? How's the repair goin'?" asked Cid.
"Shera's doin' it..." was the mumbled response for that question.
"Oh great! What a buncha wizards you guys are! She's gonna take a 100 years!" growled Cid impatiently. He seemed to think for a few seconds before he nodded. "Ok, I'll take over, so don't worry about the Auto-Pilot!" he said. "Go tell everyone."
"Alright Captain. Good luck!" they all said before moving out of the control room.
Naruto walked up to Cid and placed his hand on his shoulder, but added a bit of pressure to convey his seriousness.
"Cid, are you sure about this? Using the accumulated knowledge of the Cetra as a weapon?" he said.
"Don't worry about it. All I want to do is go into space. That's it. I understand that Materia is precious. That's why before we run into Meteor, we'll use the escape pod that's attached to this rocket and escape with the Huge Materia with us," he explained.
Naruto sighed. "I see," he said before grabbing Cid's ear and giving it a long painful tug. "YOU WORRIED ME FOR A SECOND! DON'T DO IT AGAIN! AND DON'T YELL IN MY FACE!"
"OwowowowowowowowOWWWWWWWW!" yelled out Cid before Naruto let go. Cid would of retaliated, but then the whole rocket shook with life.
"What the hell?" said both Naruto and Cid at the same time. Then we heard a very annoying voice over the intercom.
"Hey-hey!"
"Fucking Palmer!" muttered Naruto darkly as Cid walked over to the intercom.
"Palmer! What the hell did'ya do!" roared Cid.
"They said they finished repairing the Auto-Pilot. So, I laun-ched it!" he said, seemingly quite happy.
"Goddamn Shera! Why'd she pick today to get fast!" muttered Cid. He went over to the consol and tried to stop the launch, or at least pause it, but nothing happened. "DAMN! Won't even budge! It's completely locked up!"
"Hey-hey-hey! Almost lift off!" laughed Palmer.
Naruto walked over to the intercom and growled out, and angry tick mark on his forehead. "If I ever see you again Palmer, I'll KILL YOU!"
There was a nervous silence before a much more subdued voice announced that the rocket was lifting off.
The shuddering got more and more violent until Naruto fell to his knees, unable to keep standing. The rumbling sound that accompanied the vibrating reached a climax before everyone was pushed into the ground.
After about 10 minutes of this the rumblings and shuddering grew softer and softer until it was just a hum of instruments. Cid looked at the screen in front of him to see where they were.
"I finally made it... outer space..." said Cid after a moment.
Naruto placed his hand on Cid's shoulder again. "You're finally here," he said softly.
"Yeah...," he said before he busied himself with the consoles again. "Let's see, how's the course set?" He pressed a few buttons before confirming the trajectory with Meteor.
"Well, it seems it's time we headed for the room where the Huge Materia is then head for the escape pod," said Vincent.
"That's right. Cid, would you know where it might be stored?" asked Gaara.
Cid was busy with the consol again. He pointed behind his back to a doorway in the side of the room. "The Materia should be through there. You go ahead. I'm going to unlock the code that locks the escape pod in place."
Naruto nodded and he, Gaara and Vincent went through the doorway. On the other side there was a tall ladder. They climbed it swiftly and at the top there was a circular room with many pipes and wires all connecting to one spot; the chamber with the final two Huge Materia to collect, sans the Materia on the bottom of the ocean. One was a sky blue and the other was a deep amethyst purple. Along with the yellow piece in the sunken submarine, and the red and green pieces already collected, there was a total of 5 pieces of Huge Materia.
"There's our targets," said Naruto before he walked up to the chamber. He took a closer look and saw that a passcode was needed to open the chamber.
"Looks like a job for Kyuubi," said Naruto before he closed his eyes.
'Kyuu-chan, you up to date?' Naruto asked.
"Yep! Just relax and I'll control you for a bit, like with opening the safe at the Shinra Mansion," she replied.
Naruto did as he was told and when Naruto opened his eyes they were now a bright ruby red. Vincent gasped slightly.
"Oh, that's right. You weren't with us when I did this the last time. Don't worry, it's me, Kyuubi. I'm just borrowing Naruto's body to use a complicated jutsu," was the voice that came out of Naruto, but was distorted beyond gender discerning. Naruto then flipped through several seals before calling out.
"Demonic Art: Sabotage," Narubi (Naruto and Kyuubi together) called out before hovering both hands over the input buttons. Ten black tendrils of darkness, one for each finger, wiggled and stretched out and slipped through the cracks and gaps in the machinery. After a few seconds, words appeared on a small screen.
Passcode Confirmed
Identified as an Authorized User
Unlocked
The tendrils then retreated back into Narubi's hands and he closed his eyes, only to open them again. Vincent looked at his eyes. They were blue once again.
Naruto then pulled his item storage scroll out and unfurled it on the floor. He then took out each piece of materia and placed it on two 'slots' in the scroll. He then pressed his hands on the scroll, charged with chakra, and the 2 Huge Materia pieces poofed into the scroll. He bound the scroll up and pocketed it. He then turned to his friends and grinned widely while giving off the v for victory sign.
"We got them!" he called out.
"Great, now let's get back to Cid," said Gaara.
We headed back down the ladder and into the command room to see him waiting for us.
"You got it?" he asked. Naruto nodded. "Yep," he said.
"Great. The escape pod is this way," Cid said, jerking his thumb over to the door that lead to the hallway they first entered. There was now an open hole on the far end.
"Down there," said Cid and they made their way through the entrance, climbing down the ladder. At the bottom there were a number of large tanks lining each side of the hallway. Naruto and the others walked past then but out of the corner of Naruto's eye he saw multiple surges of electricity coming from one of the tanks.
"Look out!" yelled Naruto, but it was too late. A large explosion rocked the entire room and everything whited out.
After a few moments from the initial explosion the whiteness in Naruto's eyes began to clear.
"Naruto-kun! Are you alright?" asked Kyuubi; her voice full of worry.
'Yeah, I think so,' replied the Yondaime look alike. Since his vision wasn't fully back he wriggled all his toes, legs, finders and arms. 'Everything's working,' reported Naruto.
"Thank goodness," sighed Kyuubi.
By now Naruto's eyesight had returned almost to normal. He shook his head and looked around. It seemed that one of the tanks had exploded, and the twisted piece of metal was now on top of Cid. Vincent and Gaara had been quick enough to jump out of the way like Naruto had, but Cid wasn't and as such, was now half underneath the bent metal slab.
"Grrrgh!" growled Cid in pain. "Damn! My leg's stuck in the debris..."
Naruto stood up and slowly walked over to Cid. "Don't worry Cid. I'll get you out of there." Naruto then fuelled a large amount of chakra into his arms and upper body and grasped the metal sheet. He slowly picked it up and shifted it out of the way.
"There! Now, is anything broken?" asked Naruto.
"My leg's broken... and my pride," he added.
"Huh?" asked Naruto.
"The tank that blew up was No.8. It really was malfunctioning..." Cid drifted off.
"I see. Then Shera isn't at fault," Naruto said before he flipped through several seals.
"Divine Rebirth no Jutsu!" he called out and placed his hands of Cid's chest. Cid rose off the ground and his leg repaired itself while steam rose from the cuts and gashes he received from the explosion. After 10 seconds the jutsu deactivated.
"There you go! All better," said Naruto, smiling.
"Thanks Naruto. I owe you one," Cid said. He then sighed. "Shera... you were right."
"Well I'm glad I was right," came a voice from behind them. They all turned to see Shera standing in the doorway with a small, knowing smile on her face.
"Shera!" said Cid before his arms fell limply beside him and his head dropped. "...Sorry," he said.
"That's all right," she said. "C'mon you four. The escape pod is this way," she pointed behind her. The group nodded and followed Shera into the next compartment. They followed her unlit she stopped at a round entrance.
"Here it is!" she said.
"Hey Shera?" asked Cid. "Does this pod even fly?"
"It'll be ok. I've been checking it till now," she replied.
"..." said Cid before he relented. "...Then, I'm relieved."
"Thanks," she replied.
We then all piled in and Shera pressed a button that closed the door. She then pressed a second button and the group felt a shudder through the whole pod. They looked out of the window to see the rocket passing them by.
"So this is... outer space..." mumbled Cid as he watched the stars fly by. "Man... it's the real thing... I'm really here in outer space..." He then turned to the rocket that was getting steadily slammer and smaller as it flew towards the mammoth Meteor. "So long, Shinra No. 26..."
"So what the hell happened?" asked Barret.
"It seems that Meteor is more than just simply a lump of rock that is pulled onto an impact trajectory with the planet the Black Materia summoned it to. The outer shell seems to be rock, but the large core seems to be made of some sort of metallic substance. It's also outputting strong electromagnetic lightning to keep the large debris pieces from flying off," explained Naruto.
"I see," said Cloud.
"What a bust..." said Barret. "But I kinda hoped it'd work."
"No," Naruto shook his head. "It'll take more than that to rid Meteor." He then turned to Aeris. "When you were praying for Holy, did you, by any chance, tell it to wipe out Meteor now? Or something?"
Aeris shook her head. "I didn't receive any answer. It was as if no-one was home. But I kept trying."
"Left a message on the answering machine? 'Hey Holy! Can you wipe out Meteor on your way back home from the store? It's being such a bother. Chao!'" Everyone laughed at Naruto's joke before going back to being serious.
"How bout we go back to Grandfather's place in Cosmo Canyon. We can figure out our next step with him," offered Nanaki.
"That sounds like a good idea," said Naruto. "With any luck, he can give us his ideas on the upcoming battles."
"So, we goin' to Cosmo Canyon, eh?" asked Cid. "Ok, changing course now."
"Wait a minute! Let's get that final piece of Huge Materia in the red sub first," said Naruto. "We can stash them at Bugenhagen's place." Everyone nodded their agreement.
After recovering the pirated vessel, Naruto, Vincent, Gaara and Cloud entered it and searched for the red sub. Having tagged the spot in the nav computer onboard, they found it in a matter of minutes. After they recovered the final piece of Huge Materia, Naruto drove the sub back to port, loaded back onto the airship, and headed for Cosmo Canyon.
After the long climb to the top they all reached Bugenhagen's place. Naruto opened the door.
"Hello? Anybody home?" called Naruto.
"Oh, is that Naruto? I'm in here!" called Bugenhagen.
The group of 11 walked inside and made their way to where Naruto had heard the voice coming from. The room with the solar system inside.
"Hello Bugenhagen! How have you been?" asked Naruto as he saw the old, still levitating man. He looked about the same, but then, Naruto didn't expect to see any change happen with him from just a few weeks away.
"I've been ok, ho ho hoooo!" he laughed his usual laugh. "Oh my! It seems you've picked up a few more friends in your quest to save the planet. Tell me, how does it go?"
"Well," said Naruto as he began to tell Bugenhagen everything that had happened since they visited last, excluding the private parts.
"And that's where we stand," finished up Naruto.
"Well well, it seems you've been through quite a lot these past several days," said Bugenhagen. "And you've come to me for help?" He then brought his wrinkled old hand to his chin, his face deep in thought.
"Well, it seems to me that we'll just have to trust in Holy, and the planet. What is best for the planet? We humans couldn't possibly know the will of the planet. But Holy must be summoned with the White Materia. Without this materia, you can't communicate with the planet at all,"
Naruto turned to Aeris. "Does that mean...?"
Aeris nodded and pulled a piece of Materia from the base of her plait. "Yes, this is the White Materia. Up until recently I thought it was worthless. But my mother gave it to me so I always carried it with me as a sort of 'good luck charm'. I had no idea that this piece of Materia could cast the Ultimate White Magic spell, Holy."
"So, what? Do you just use it like a normal piece of materia?" asked Cid.
"I don't think so. I think that one must pray and communicate with the planet for the magic to work," explained Aeris.
"But that's what you did at the ruins. I guess then it really is up to the planet after all," sighed Naruto. His eyes then widened. "What if Holy is trying to destroy Meteor? What if something is blocking it's advance?"
Everyone closed their eyes to think about it. Then Cloud's eyes opened suddenly and he looked at Naruto. "You don't think!"
"Yeah! I do. Jenova has corked up Holy from kicking Meteor's ass. If we want Holy to do it's magic, we need to remove the blockage!" announced Naruto, making everyone gasp slightly.
"But Jenova is inside the planet! How are we going to get there?" asked Yuffie.
"...Northern Crater?" asked Gaara after a moment of thinking.
"No good. The crater is still protected by Jenova's barrier. We can't get in until we find a way of punching through that barrier," said Vincent.
"Right. Which leaves us back where we started. What do we do?" asked Nanaki.
Cait Sith, who hadn't spoken at all, now piped up. "Hey Naruto, remember when you told us that the Junon cannon was being moved? Seems Rufus was the one who ordered that to happen. He wants to destroy Sephiroth/Jenova with it. While you've been in space, he's been building the cannon in Midgar."
"That makes sense. There's no Huge Materia anymore to create a large reaction, so they would move it to a place where Materia... no, where Mako is produced and gathered in large quantities. Midgar is the only place that fits," acknowledged Naruto.
"Well it seems that you know what to do," said Bugenhagen.
"Yeah. Thanks for your help," said Naruto.
"Ho ho hooooo! I didn't do anything. You and your friends figured it out," he replied.
"Well! I'm going to get the Highwind prepared!' said Cid before he walked out of the room.
The rest of the team filtered out of the room until only Naruto, Gaara, Vincent and Nanaki were left with Bugenhagen.
"Oh! By the way. I need a place to keep the Materia Crystals. Keeping such powerful objects in stasis isn't good for long periods of time," explained Naruto.
"Ho ho hooo! Not a problem. You can keep them here," said Bugenhagen. He then floated over to the lever. "Everyone! Get on," he said. The group moved onto the platform and Bugenhagen pulled the lever. The platform rose up and the lights dimmed before the hologram sprang to life.
Naruto unfurled his item scroll and stretched it on the ground. He coated his hand with chakra and wiped his hand over five slots on the scroll. Five puffs of smoke later and there were five glittering crystals of raw Materia lying on the paper. Bugenhagen seemed to press a hidden button and the crystals rose off the ground and were left suspended in the air roughly 4 feet off the ground.
"There you go," Bugenhagen said, smiling at the crystals.
Naruto gazed at each one. They were so beautiful and full of ancient power and knowledge. But when he got to the blue one, he felt a pulse come from it.
"I think it's responding to the summon materia you have in your sword," said Kyuubi.
Naruto summoned his sword before placing his hand on the crystal. "What do you want?" he whispered softly to the crystal. An image of an absolutely huge silver dragon with six giant wings. The dragon was flying in orbit around the planet, looking down. Then the words Bahamut ZERO appeared in his mind before the image disappeared.
"Woah!" breathed Naruto. He then looked at his sword and saw that the Bahamut and Neo Bahamut materia was pulsing in recognition to the image he saw. He removed both Bahamut materia from his sword and held them close to the shimmering blue crystal.
"Is this what you want?" he asked before the blue crystal pulsed strongly. He then saw something drop out of it and he looked at the ground to see a blue piece of materia that was quickly changing into a red colour. He picked it up and felt the power emanating from it.
"Bahamut ZERO?" he asked and the materia pulsed in his hand, as if to acknowledge what he had said.
"Well it's good to have you on board!" he said happily before he looked back at his sword. There were eight slots on it. There was a Bolt materia, Ramuh, Shiva, Ifrit and the Choco/Mog summon. With the now three Bahamut summons, his materia slots on his sword were now full up. He pushed the materia into their respective slots, making sure to have the Bahamut brothers next to each other, before de-summoning his sword.
"Ok, I'm ready to go," he said to the others.
Back on the Highwind everyone was gearing up for the battle ahead. Naruto looked around at everyone.
"Can I have everyone's attention please!" Everyone turned to him, waiting to hear what was said.
"With the final Materia Crystal safe, 'Operation: Reclaimer' has been a great success. Now our next step is..." He would of continued, but one of the techies in charge of monitoring changes to the planet spoke up.
"I'm sorry sir, but just now there has been a report of a large quake that has been felt almost throughout the whole continent," he reported.
"What could that mean?" asked Aeris.
There was a silence while the techie gathered new information. He then rose up once more. "New information has reported that one of the Weapons that were released from Northern Crater has just surfaced 50 miles off the south-eastern coast of the Northern continent, roughly 100 miles south-east of Bone Village. Weapon is currently moving, it's destination confirmed to be Midgar!"
"What?" gasped everyone on the bridge.
"How long until Weapon reaches the beach?" asked Naruto in his commander voice that he used in the Battle for Condor.
"Based on current speed, it will reach landfall in five hours," said the techie.
Naruto sighed. "Ok, new orders! We're to try and stop this new threat, codenamed Diamond Weapon, from reaching Midgar and destroying it. The lives of everyone in Midgar rest on us. If we cannot defeat it, we must at least hold it until Rufus fires the mako cannon, which he will. This operation will use long range weapon use. Those who can use materia magic well will do so from the deck of the Highwind as it circles around Diamond Weapon. I will summon artillery foxes to bombard Weapon while the Bahamut brothers and I attack directly from the sky. Operation: Paladin begins now."
"Sir!" said all the staff on the bridge while the members of Naruto's group smiled at him.
Naruto sighed before he grinned. 'I think now would be a good time to see what Kaku meant by using a X-35 fighter jet.'