Chapter 7: Road to Hell
I sighed angrily as Cloud and Aeris' voices rose yet another notch in their argument to preserve world peace... ok, that wasn't true, but it does seem like it with the way that they're going at it. Ok, right now they are in the name calling stages, or Aeris is at least. I smirked at some of the more inventive names coming from that mouth of hers, where'd she learn words like that? Or is she inventing some solely for this moment? Not like I care, I've been lounging around for an hour waiting for them to shut up and get a move on. At the moment, the only entertainment I have available are the games on my mobile, but 3D Space Invaders got boring quickly.
Cloud leaned towards Aeris, for what reason I dunno. Spike whispered something in my mind, though he could have shouted and the two lovebirds over there wouldn't have heard, even if they'd been listening. Sniggering at the idea my pet had planted in my mind, I pulled myself up. Cloud and Aeris were now practically yelling in each others faces, when I draped my arms across their shoulders.
"Guys?"
Both of them stopped yelling, coming to a mutual agreement to glare at me, testing the theory that it was indeed possible to burn a hole through someone's head. It didn't happen, thankfully. I tightened my grasp around their necks, ready for the diabolical plan I had.
"I've got an idea. How about..."
At that point I shoved them towards each other, banging their heads together. They both staggered backwards, looking dizzy.
"...We stop pissing around, and actually get going, before I drag both of you back to Aeris' house and lock you in."
Aeris recovered from her crash course on how to be a head-banger. She glared even harder at me. I didn't care, I was a heartless bastard, been called that plenty of times. However, I was surprised when she called my name in a sugar-sweet tone of voice.
"Oh, Spike..?"
Women are weird, but slow as I may be, I knew that she was anything but nice on the inside. However, I was not expecting her to swing her staff around and hit me in the face. And on the floor, I was vulnerable to the lethal bitch as she hit me repeatedly with that staff, which hurt by the way. I don't think my arm, which had been broken not a day earlier, was up to shielding myself, because I felt it fracture at a particularly vicious swing. That forced me to cradle my arm, moaning, but the Ancient swung her staff a last time, hitting me...
I actually heard Cloud wince at the blow, Aeris now had wide eyes and was apologizing repeatedly as I tried to get up. Tried being the key word there, but the injury in question would keep any self-respecting male on the floor a good 48 hours, minimum.
"Are you alright?" Aeris asked fearfully.
Yes, you better be scared, because once I recover, you are so going to slowly and painfully die. Screw Sephiroth's stabbing her; I'll cut a body part of at a time. Slow and so very painful. Despite that, I keep my sarcastic exterior up, better not let her on that I'm going to commit homicide on her.
"Sure." I respond in a very high pitched voice. "Don't worry. I was never planning on having kids anyway."
I sensed Cloud wince at that. I pulled out the hi-potion I found earlier and downed the entire flask. At least now I could stand, but the lingering pain, oh the pain. Now, I have a problem. I can pour another potion over the wound, so the pain'll go away, but that'll make it look like I've pissed myself. Or I can put up with the pain, and maintain my dignity. Hard choice, no?
I lagged behind the two lovebirds as we walked through what looked like a road under construction. My coat was tied around my waist, covering the wet patch that was the second potion I'd used in under a minute. I'm not sure if the combined might of the two potions was able to restore my ability to reproduce, I'm walking with a major limp, despite the wound being healed and the pain nulled, if only temporarily. I doubt either of them would have the guts to mention this incident to anyone, considering the rage I had been in for the last 20 minutes. At some point, I think I even used Cloud's sword as a throwing weapon. But I don't know for certain, my memory is never that good when I'm this pissed off at the world.
Yes, I'm still plotting my vengeance against the bloody bitch. I think I'll make Sephiroth's job easier and shoot her just before he can have the satisfaction of being the one who killed her. Maybe, I'll somehow convince Red to kill her when we're in the Shinra tower, or better yet, throw her off the roof of Shinra tower, and watch as she falls to her death, screaming all the way, yes... That works for me. Hell have no fury like a pissed off bipedal lizard, eh?
I'm torn from my musings at the sound of Cloud's sword being pulled into his battle stance. Subconsciously, or maybe it's Spike influencing me, I pulled my gunblade out, before looking at the monster. Ho-kay... We're fighting a house. How fun, what's it gonna do? Throw a brick at us? Heh, yea... and then if we just live long enough, it'll destroy itself because it threw one brick too many. Or perhaps there's a little gremlin inside we have to defeat? I sniggered at the thought.
With Jethro acting so distracted, it was easy to nudge control of our body to me. He might not know it, but this house... thing... was dangerous, so unless I took initiative, he was going to get us killed. I understood why he was so distracted, I'm having a few plots for vengeance myself, since I felt it just as much as he did. But as least I know when the time and place to do so is. I must say that I love this weapon. Gunblade, eh? Fitting. I watched as Cloud leapt at the house swinging his oversized sword, slashing through the wall. Something made a snarl from within, snapping Jethro from his thoughts.
Ok... What is that? He thought.
'As you would say... Hell if I know. You played this plenty, shouldn't you know?' I replied.
I sensed him getting embarrassed.
I can't remember, all I've been doing for ages is the mini-games and attacking the bonus WEAPONS.
Great, the self-acclaimed Final Fantasy Master has forgotten. I roll my eyes and sprint at the house, which I'm guessing is this creature's armour against any predators. Before I got to it, I received a face-full of some black inky substance, making me miss my slash, and hurting my eyes. This thing has just become the first thing I hate about this place, besides all the crap that my owner was bitching on about earlier.
I felt tears coming out as the ink, or whatever it was, continued to sting my eyes. I sighed in relief when someone, probably Aeris, poured a potion down my face, washing out the ink and relieving the pain. Once I could open my eyes again, I turned and thanked my healer, (yes, it was Aeris, yes, I still am plotting vengeance, but I should at least try to be civil before I carry out my plans) before charging at the house again, this time with me controlling my body for the most part.
If you don't understand how me and Spike's fusion works out, it goes like this: I mainly have control over my actual body, I do all the moves. Spike, on the other hand, has better reflexes, a better sense of timing and the instincts for it, so for the most part; he controls all my subconscious actions. Of course, we don't follow this method religiously, such as just now, he takes over when I'm distracted, or doubting myself, but he still leaves me in partial control, even in that instance, because I'm more used to being able to walk on two feet, and I'm more used to being sentient, so I can think more on my feet, rather than following my primal instincts. We are working in perfect union...
'Perfect...? Hah!'
Ok, semi-perfect, since we're both extremely stubborn, and when we disagree it leads to both of us trying to force the other to our will. It's sad, when you and your pet start arguing. I thrust my gunblade at the house, firing several rounds at the same time. The thing inside roars. I make my way to Cloud, for there is always strength in numbers, and together, I don't doubt we'll beat this thing... whatever it is.
You know, fate has a real sick sense of humor. The roof just flew in the air and a rocket flew out of the house and towards us. Cloud and I shot each other a wide-eyed look before leaping in opposite directions, preying that the blast radius wasn't large enough to kill us. I landed with a grunt and a roll, before the rocket landed where we had been previously. Neither of us were caught in the main blast, but we were still affected by the aftershock, sweeping us off our feet and through the air for several meters before landing. Trust me to land inside a broken crane. Unfortunately, the padding for the seat had been striped, leaving a hard plastic lump that hurt my back when I landed on it. Groaning, I looked out the door and spotted Cloud lying on a pipe, quite unconscious. Oh crap. What a weakling. Ex-Soldier? Not impressed, I pulled myself out of the crane, finally pulling my coat from its knot around my waist. The potion had dried from my jeans a while ago, thankfully. I slipped the coat on. Around my waist, it had been getting in the way, now my waist didn't have a bundle of leather tied in a very tight knot around it.
Talon was lying halfway between me and the house. I felt something in the back of my mind, something I hadn't felt since my fight against Jade. I ignored it, trying to think of a way to get to my weapon without being bombed to holy hell.
'You have a Limit Break ready.'
I know, I know! But I can't do much about it without my gunblade!
That was the feeling. After several seconds, Cloud came flying out of nowhere, screaming like a banshee. Sounded like one too. Aeris had obviously taken the time to revive him. I watched in interest as Cloud started furiously hacking at the house, he didn't have any of the finesse that came naturally with a Limit, which meant that he was just pissed off at being taken out so easily. Deciding that Cloud was offering plenty of distraction to pass an army without being noticed, I decided to go grab my gunblade and then aid him, but something crawled in my path. It looked a lot like a scorpion, but rounder... if that makes sense. Then another 3 more decided to join the first. Now, these I do remember. They weren't hard, but they swarmed you in large numbers. And, oh... how convenient... I just so happen to not have Talon, so I am weaponless. Wait, no I'm not. I bought that combat knife, didn't I?
Smirking at the scorpion wannabes, I pulled the knife from its sheath and held it in a reversed grip (where the blade itself sticks out under your fist) in my left hand, my right fist just behind it, no idea why, I just copy the wonderful stance of Snake from Metal Gear Solid 3. I think it was something like this. The scorpions weren't patient with me, and instead of letting me experiment my stance with the knife, one of them leapt at me. Spike's reflexes coming into play, I spun out of the way, slicing the thing as it flew past. I looked at the rest of the swarm and my jaw dropped. More were coming out. There were at least eight of them so far, more coming. My life has got to be a joke among whatever Gods exist. To make matters worse, Cloud and Aeris were moving away, the house, now with some kind of creature actually sticking out of the roof, windows and whatever other opening there was. Were those rocket boosters? Either way, Cloud and Aeris were being driven away from me, so they couldn't help.
Sometimes I think Jethro has a point when he moans about life being unfair. This is one of those times. He had been seperated from the others, so these scorpion things were coming out to take out the weak prey. We aren't weak, but it must have seemed that way to these things when we were caught by the missile. My owner was being calm about the situation however, something I was grateful for. He was trying to think of a way to get to our weapon. So was I, but I wasn't having much luck.
I swung the knife at more and more of the scorpions, killing them as quickly as they came. I was restricted to the knife, however. I'm not sure if the sting on these things are deadly, but I don't want to find out, so I can't tail whip groups of them at a time. I have an idea, but if I mess up, I'm easy picking for these little blighters. After slicing the tail off one of the scorpions, I leapt towards the crane, grabbing and swinging up to the actual crane thing. I'd noticed that the end of it was perched on a ledge, which was quite high. Using my tail for balance, I ran the length of it and hopped onto the safety of the high ground. I sneered down at the little insects; ignoring the disapproval from the lizard-within. This ledge ran quite a ways. Far enough for me to get to my gunblade. I regained my breath for a second, before checking on the critters.
Holy crap. In that short time, they'd managed to increase their numbers to the point that the floor was covered with them. Even if I get Talon back, I'd be killed in seconds with this many. Ok, new plan, grab the weapon, then... Run. Like. Fuck.
I quickly sheathed the knife before getting into position. I only had one chance at this. Fail, I'm most likely dead. Joy. Taking a deep breath, I jumped. I landed next to my weapon, which I scooped up, but the moment I'd landed, the scorpions were already flooding towards me. I ran towards the house, which was still locked in combat with Cloud and Aeris. I slid under the house, which had grown legs (don't ask) and leapt to my feet once the other side. My companions looked a little surprised at my sudden appearance, but I didn't stop for pleasantries. I just ran past them.
"RUN!" I yelled.
It took two seconds for them to see the flood of scorpions running this way and start fleeing themselves. Looking back, I noticed that even the house was running away. Didn't cause any to follow it though, it was like I was their sole reason for living. If they were this determined, was this going to ruin the whole park scene? Or was it going to a case that we run right into Sector 7 and have everyone run like headless chickens as the scorpions flooded town. I hope not, I don't want to be held responsible for destroying a town.
"Keep running!" Aeris ordered us.
No shit. What have I been doing for 2 minutes now?
"There should be a checkpoint up ahead that'll stop them from following!" Ok, that I wanted to hear. Wait... should? "But its been so long it may no longer work!"
...Bitch. You just made my day. Wait, is that the park I see? It is. I sprinted even faster. When I got there I fell over. Turning, I watched my doom come, and stop suddenly, screeching. Aeris laughed gleefully. I don't understand exactly, but I'm glad they stopped.
"The scent is still here! Yes!" Aeris laughed.
Scent? Huh? Cloud looked at my confused expression and grinned.
"Pheromones. Towns and cities usually use pheromones to drive away the smaller monsters, like those things. It doesn't work on the larger monsters, but the bigger ones are normally intelligent enough to know to stay away from large gatherings of humans."
Ah, that explains it. No wonder monsters never enter any towns. I picked myself up, smiling. I have never been so scared in my life, well, there was the incident earlier, which I'm still confused about, and will need to ask Jade about it sometime.
"The gate to Sector 7's in there." The flower girl said, jerking a thumb at a huge steel door.
"Thanks. I guess this is goodbye. You gonna be all right going home?" Cloud replied, looking a little downcast.
"Oh no! What ever will I do? ...isn't that what you want me to say? Take me to Sector 7? I could do that. But won't I be in your way?" Aeris giggled.
"What do you mean in the way?" Cloud asked, confused.
"She's joking." I mumbled, looking at the giant doors, trying to figure out how to open them.
Aeris nodded. "Right. Can we take a break?" At Cloud's nod she faced the park. "I can't believe its still here."
I turned and watched her run up to a slide shaped like a Moogle head. She looked like she was remembering old memories. I decided to leave her be rather than ask about the fact she only just noticed it. She climbed to the top of the slide and sat down.
"Cloud, over here!"
Cloud climbed up and sat next to her. They looked at peace, something I hadn't seen in Cloud in all the time I've known him. Normally I'm a Cloud/Tifa fan, but I couldn't deny that they looked like they were meant to be together there. I felt out of place, but didn't let it get to me.
"What rank were you?" The Ancient asked suddenly.
Cloud looked confused for a second, not expecting the question.
"Rank?"
"You know, in SOLDIER."
"Oh, I was..." Cloud hesitated for a little bit, and I watched, interested, as his Mako blue eyes flashed purple for a brief second. "First Class."
"Just the same as him." Aeris sighed, eyes clouded over in memory.
"The same as who?" The mercenary asked, interested.
"My first boyfriend." The flower girl smiled briefly at the memory.
"You were... serious?" Ooh, is that a hint of jealousy I detect there Cloud?
"No." Aeris said quickly, shaking her head. "But I liked him for a while."
Looking at Cloud's face, when she said that, he changed slightly, looking like somebody else. He had a brief like of sadness before his features changed to normal.
"I probably knew him. What was his name?" He asked, kindly.
Aeris sighed. "It doesn't really matter."
The large door behind me opened, and I saw a giant yellow bird, pulling a cart behind it come through. I quickly stepped out of the way of the chocobo, not too intent on the idea of being crushed. As the cart turned to go down another road, I saw the occupant of the cart. Tifa! She was wearing a dress similar to the one worn by Rinoa in Final Fantasy 8, but ocean blue instead. She noticed me and shot a small smile before closing her eyes. Perhaps she thought she imagined me?
"Huh? Hey, back there... Tifa?" And Cloud has just noticed Tifa as well. Both he and Aeris were looking at where the cart had disappeared.
The ancient raised an eyebrow. "That girl in the cart was Tifa?"
"Yea." I replied.
"Where was she going? She looked kind of odd..."
Without waiting for an answer, she hopped off the slide and ran to the road that the cart had gone down. After standing there for a couple of seconds, she took off, following the cart.
"Wait! I'll go on alone! You go on home!" Cloud yelled out, jumping off the slide.
He shot me a quick glance, silently asking me to come with him. I nodded but then my PHS started ringing. Cloud looked amused at my ringtone. My ringtone was the J.E.N.O.V.A. remix from the Black Mages Album.
"I didn't think you were the type who liked The Black Mages." He said at my questioning look.
More Earth influence, brought about by the evil PS2 no doubt. I slid the mobile from my pocket and flicked it open. The picture of Jade was showing on the screen, along with a flashing 'accept call?'
"Informant?" Cloud asked.
I nodded. I noted Cloud's lack of following Aeris. Maybe he wanted to know just what Jade had to say. I pushed the button to accept the call and put it to my ear.
"Hello Jade." I murmured.
"Hello to you to, Jethro." She greeted in a cheery voice. Can PS2s get hyper on sugar, because she sounds like she has.
"What do you want?"
"Can't I just want to speak to my favorite bi-pedal lizard boy?"
"Not really. And since when are you this... cheery?"
"No complaining." There, that sounded more like the normal Jade. "I just want to tell you that you can forget about going to Wall Market."
I grunted, letting her know to continue.
"Mainly, because you'd never be able to fool to Don's men, so you'll be useless when the time comes. Secondly, you may have a chance at changing some aspects of the original plot. You may help Biggs, Wedge and Jesse survive. I don't care whether or not you do, but you may as well try make a difference while you're there. It'd be the only way to be useful, especially since you only have half an hour before the Shinra attack party comes."
"Shit." Man, how did Barret survive in the game? In reality, it'll take much longer than that for Cloud and Aeris to get Tifa and return. Joy to the world.
"Got it."
I ended the call, and turned to Cloud, who was looking at me expectantly.
"Shinra are going to attack Sector 7. Today, at least half an hour from now."
Cloud's response was the same as mine to Jade. "Shit."
I nodded understandingly. "I'm going to Sector 7 to warn AVALANCHE. You go to Wall Market and get Tifa."
Cloud grunted his agreement with the plan. He turned and sprinted down the road after Aeris. I turned and hit the button on the wall next to the door. After a minute, the doors opened. I walked through them, into Sector 7. This would be interesting, since in the game you never got to do much for defending Sector 7. Just a race to the top of the pillar and back down again as the plate falls.
'Interesting ain't the word for it.'