Chapter 1 has recieved a small update - it's not much though; just a little extra detail for the arachno queen battle.
Chapter 2
Back with Fiora, Reyn and Shulk.
The three of them head on to the Gaur Plains, Reyn making no attempt to hide his enthusiasm for landscape.
"Nothing like the great outdoors; the fresh air, the sounds of wildlife, the…absolutely bloody enormous gogol…"
The three of them give said beastie a wide berth.
"Since when did gogols ever get that big?"
"Well, allegedly they grow more slowly as they age, but don't actually ever stop growing, so really old ones can end up huge."
"I don't remember that being in our textbooks…"
"It isn't; I picked up that titbit from Dickson."
"Did he give you any tips regarding Flamii?"
Several Flamii are advancing on them in an attacking formation. Fiora gets something of a glint in her eyes.
"Yeah, they go down great deep fired or with a bit of cranberry sauce!"
"Oh goody, I was getting hungry as well!"
The Flamii realise a little too late they've gone from hunters to hunted. Within a few more minutes they've gone from dangerous avian predators to a meal.
"That's us sorted for meat for the next few days. Hey Shulk, you want to get a wash now?"
"Definitely, I'm starting to get really itchy."
Shulk starts to get himself cleaned in a nearby pool.
"Oh man, that is so much better! Anyone else want to come for dip?"
"Maybe later, someone's gonna have to make sure no one steals your clothes."
"Were out on the plains, who'd do something like that?"
"Well during the joint exercises earlier this year some of our lads thought they'd take a quick dip between sessions. They couldn't have been more than five minutes, according to them, and they get back to find their clothes gone."
"So they had to make their way back to base in their underwear?"
"Worse."
"That's downright cruel. Did they ever find out who did it?"
"Nobody was ever officially blamed, and the clothes were later found in a tirkin nest."
"You think a bunch of tirkin made off with them?"
"It wouldn't be the first time those birds have swiped stuff, but there was one last twist. The nest in question had been abandoned for some time, so the real culprit must've planted them there."
"Hang on a minute, I think I can see something coming towards us…it's a kid…oh no! he's in trouble!"
"We'd better help him, those are ardun. If they catch him they'll make mincemeat out of him."
"Sorry about this Shulk."
"Don't worry about it, I'll catch you up."
Reyn and Fiora head towards the chase. As they get closer Shulk catches up with them, although he's now wearing a towel around his waist and not a lot else.
"You okay kid? Don't worry, we've got this covered."
("Only just…")
"Who are you? And why is he wearing a towel?"
"We'll explain later, these two don't look like they're open to negotiations so you'd be better get behind us."
"Okay then, everyone ready for this?"
"As always (For the fight, anyway…)."
"Let's waste these jokers!"
"Time to get wild!"
The three of them engage the berserk ardun. While they have a three to two numbers advantage Shulk finds himself having to be a bit more careful with his movements due to his precarious state of clothing. Neverless it doesn't take long for them to get the upper hand, with Shulk taking a support role and relaying his visions to Fiora and Reyn. Fiora swiftly dodges a charge from one of them, and it overbalances trying to change direction and collides with the other. Both ardun are knocked to the ground by the collision; Reyn jumps onto the back of one of them and brings his gun lance down as hard as he can on the back of its neck. The creature stops moving and a trickle of blood starts to come from its nose and mouth. The second one recovers quite quickly though; it tries to charge Reyn but he throws himself clear. Its momentum carries it towards Shulk; he activates the buster function of the Monado and lands a downward strike on the creature. Unfortunately it's a glancing blow; it shaves off some of the beast's armour plate around its head, but combined with the shock of the bright light this causes it to rear up. A moment later a knife lands in the now exposed soft flesh on its head and the creature collapses. The three of them inspect the beasts and find neither of them are still breathing, and Fiora retrieves her knife.
"Bit of hairy situation you got yourself in there; what's your name by the way?"
"I'm Juju."
"I'm Fiora, and this is Reyn and Shulk. How'd you end up being chased by a couple of Ardun?"
"Well…I'd taken a buggy out to scout the surroundings and something went wrong with it. It suddenly started smoking and ground to a halt, and the next thing I know those two beasties were bearing down on me, and the rest you pretty much saw."
"Is this buggy anywhere nearby?"
"It's not far."
Juju points to some smoke rising from nearby. The four of them make the short walk to the buggy.
"That doesn't look good, but I might be able to fix it. Okay if I take a closer look?"
"Be my guest."
"Okay then…ah, don't worry, it's just a ruptured cylinder. They smoke like mad when they go so it looks far worse than it is. Okay then, the buggy should have some spares on board…and you're in luck. Just a simple case of switching them around…like so…and everything should be fine again."
The buggy starts up again.
"Thanks!...umm, sorry if this is a bit of an awkward question but…why are you wearing nothing but a towel?"
"I was getting a wash when we saw you getting chased and didn't have time to get my clothes back on."
"Hang on, are your clothes back there?"
"They should be…is there something I should know?"
"There's a Tirkin nest just near there."
Shulk turns a little pale at this news.
"Uh oh…we'd better get back there fast!"
"Before you go I'm staying a camp nearby…here's the directions."
"Thank's Juju, okay let's get Shulk's gear pronto."
The three of them part ways with Juju and quickly head back to the pool…only to find…
"Oh no…that is not happening. I've had enough shit to deal with today already."
A couple of Tirkin are busy gathering up Shulk's stuff.
"Hey! Don't you dare!...Right, you're going down!"
Shulk charges towards to two Tirkin making off with his clothes. The towel finally comes lose, although Shulk's too angry to notice. The sight of an enraged and nude Shulk charging towards them proves too much for the Tirkin, and they drop his stuff and flee, squawking in terror.
("Whoa!...I was beginning to think he'd glued that towel on.")
"Finally, a little luck; I thought I was going to end up having to spend my savings on a new outfit at colony 6…wait a second…"
A grinning Fiora hands him a towel…the one he isn't wearing anymore.
"Ah…umm…oops!"
A red faced Shulk quickly pulls his clothes back on. In the meantime Reyn and Fiora have a whispered chat.
"Hey Fiora, I bet that was a bit of an eye opener!"
"You're telling me…when did he put that muscle on? Last time I saw him bare chested he looked a bit scrawny, but was that the beginnings of a six pack I could see?..."
"Oh that…he's been joining me for my morning workout session for the last year. For someone who spends so much time indoors he's a lot fitter than you'd expect, and he seems to put on muscle really fast when he puts the effort in."
"…and his legs have got such a nice tone to them now…"
"…uh…are you still listening to me?..."
"Okay then…I'm decent again…can we just…you know…try to forget this."
"Water under the bridge Shulk; you have got your shorts on inside out though."
"What…aw bugger."
"More haste, less speed."
("Hehehe…Not bad Shulk! Not bad at all…")
"So…we gonna head on over to that camp Juju told us about?"
"…what…oh, sorry! Yes, we'll make our way over now. Have you got everything Shulk?"
"Yeah…looks like it…well, except my dignity…"
"Ah come on, stop worrying Shulk, what's a little accidental exposure amongst friends anyway?"
The three of them head towards the camp. As they get there Sharla and Juju spot them.
"As, so you must be the ones who sorted Juju out; I trust you didn't have too much trouble with the tirkin?"
"I guess he told you about the towel business then. Close call, but I managed to rescue my gear."
"Well, it's good to see some friendly faces. The name's Sharla."
"I'm Shulk, and this is Fiora and Reyn."
"You wouldn't happen to be Juju's sister by any chance?"
"I guess you noticed the resemblance. If you're heading for colony 6 I wouldn't recommend going any further than here."
"Why? What's happened?"
"The mechon got the drop on us. We'd got complacent after sword valley and assumed we'd seen the last of them. We couldn't have been more wrong…they launched an intensive offensive; way beyond anything our defences could have coped with, even without them surprising us. When we evacuated they'd already destroyed much of colony; the remains of the defence force covered our escape but…as far as I know nobody else has made it out."
"That's horrible…have you heard any news from them?"
"Nothing so far, although if you're here I guess the messenger party must've reached colony 9."
"I'm afraid not; I think we found…what was left of them in Tephra cave. The arachno got them."
"Damn it!...Hang on, does that mean colony 9 isn't sending help?"
"I'm not sure we could right now, we got hit by the mechon as well. The defence force sustained heavy casualties so I doubt they've got the manpower."
"How did that happen? Doesn't colony have an air defence system, and isn't Dunban…"
Sharla notices Shulk's carrying the Monado.
"…oh no…please tell me they didn't get Dunban."
Fiora notices the colour draining from Sharla's face.
"Dunban made it, so don't worry. The reason Shulk's got the Monado is a bit complicated but…well, Dunban can't use the Monado anymore, although that's probably for the best given what he's put himself through already."
"We managed to drive them off in the end, but we had a rough time though. There was a new kind of mechon; the air defences didn't even mark it. We ended up fighting the thing ourselves…it nearly cost us our lives when we found out the monado didn't work on it. It's only thanks to Fiora we're still here, and she came a hairs breadth from being killed herself."
"A new type of mechon; it didn't have a face by any chance did it?"
"So there was one here as well?"
"I only got to see it briefly myself, but from what I could hear over the coms that thing was what did for us. It was just about unstoppable, and it made a mockery of our defences; anything we put in its path it just obliterated with a massive hammer. I saw it just as we were evacuating; it breached the hangar doors and we got out just in time…I dread to think what it did to the squad that covered our escape."
"Did you say it was wielding a hammer? Sounds like it wasn't the same as the one at colony 9; the one that came after us had huge claws."
"So there's more than one of them now…we need some kind of a plan; we barely survived last time."
"We need to mount a rescue mission to colony 6! We need to get them out of there!"
"Look Juju; I know how you feel but we've already gone over this; and Gadolt trusted us to take care of the evacuees."
"The camp is secure; the mechon aren't smart enough to find it; and every moment we spend here is one more the people we left behind have to try to hold out."
"You know as well as I do there are mechon stationed all over the Guar plains. They're looking for us; and if we're not careful we'll alert them to the camps location."
"We can't just sit here sis! We're as good as abandoning them if…"
Reyn places his hand on Juju's shoulder.
"Sorry to break this to you, but going up against an entire mechon assault force isn't gonna go very well. I know you're upset; I would be too if I was in your shoes, but think about it; what's gonna happen when you run into the mechon?"
Juju raises his gun.
"…I've got this…"
"An assault rifle might work just fine on the wildlife, but mechon are a whole different game. Look at it this way, you can do some good by protecting everyone here."
"…fair enough…"
A somewhat dejected looking Juju slopes away from the conversation.
"I hope he's alright; you don't think I was a bit too blunt with him?"
"It needed to be said Reyn, and hopefully he's got it into his head now that running off to colony 6 isn't an option."
"Yeah, you've got enough problems looking after this place as it is. I know the local wildlife isn't exactly friendly and I can't see anyone here apart from you who actually looks like they could be a serving member of the defence force."
"The evacuees are all people who couldn't fight; so everyone here is either too young, too old or in too poor health to consider fighting the mechon. We're not completely defenceless mind; Juju's a pretty good shot for his age, Earnest knows how to handle the wildlife, and some of the old timers haven't lost their aim; but against mechon we know it'd end in a massacre."
"Juju does have a point though; we need to do something. The mechon have already started patrolling parts of plains so I'm not sure how much longer it'll be safe here."
"Any ideas then Fiora?"
"I'd say we've got two realistic options. The first is to try to get everyone here to colony 9; and the second is to infiltrate colony 6 and cripple the mechon outpost that's no doubt there now, and that should force them to retreat."
"I think we need to think both options through. I know it'd be a major stretch on our resources but ideally we should get both of those plans underway."
"That's not gonna be easy Shulk; there's a lot we don't know about colony 6, and we don't have an easy way of evacuating the camp."
"Ah, I'd forgotten the transports were wrecked in the assault. Dickson will have been doing something about that mind you."
"If we don't have them available though the only other way out is by foot; and that would mean trying to get everyone here through Tephra cave."
"That's not a pleasant prospect. It's full of arachno and I doubt we could protect everyone if we got swarmed again; and if anybody got separated they'd get picked off in no time."
Sharla seems to zone out for a moment.
"Are you okay Sharla?"
"…If we evacuate the camp now…we're effectively abandoning anyone left at colony 6. I'm not ready to give up on them…but I've been trusted with the safety of everyone here. If we try to mount an offensive on the mechon we'll be putting everyone here in even greater danger."
Fiora puts her arm around Sharla.
"Then what we do is what Shulk suggested; we try to get both plans underway. It won't matter how the mechon react if we can get everyone to safety first. We'll get in contact with Dickson and find out what the state of play is with the transports. I reckon he could get something working as an emergency measure in a pretty short space of time, and if we can get everyone here to kneecap hill even one transport will be enough to take everyone to colony 9 in a few short trips. Once we've done that we can head straight for colony 6."
"Moving a large number of people across the plains without alerting the mechon isn't going to be easy Fiora, and they'll still be exposed at kneecap hill."
"Which is why everything will have to happen fast; the main limiting factor will be how long it'll take to get some kind of transport ready. If we can have the transport waiting at kneecap hill the exposure problem won't be an issue anymore."
"There is one further problem. If the mechon are watching colony 9 they'll almost certainly spot the transport."
"Ah…damn…well, I suppose when we call Dickson we could pick Dunban's brains while we're at it."
"You seem to be pretty friendly terms with Dunban Fiora."
"Well Sharla, he is my brother so we try to get along."
At that moment the sound of the buggy's engine starting can be heard.
"Juju! Oh hell! What is he thinking!"
"He must've overheard when we were talking about the evacuation plan."
"We need to catch up with him and straighten things out."
As the party make their move Shulk has another vision. It seems to be split into three pieces, the first showing Juju trying to flee from something, the second showing Sharla being crushed by a mechon mantrap on the end of a mechanical tentacle, and the third the silhouette of a faced mechon. The sudden shock makes Shulk stumble, but both Reyn and Fiora notice the momentary blue glow from his eyes.
"Shulk, are you okay?"
"…Sharla…you need to stay here…"
"Not a chance; Juju's my little brother, there's no way I'm just going to sit here and…"
"Was it another vision Shulk?"
"Yes Fiora; we need to find Juju fast. He's in danger from something; but I saw a mechon kill Sharla…"
"I'm sorry Shulk, but would you please stop talking nonsense."
"I know this is a bit had to believe Sharla, but when Shulk has one of his visions, he sees something from the future."
"It's more than a bit hard to believe Reyn; and I don't care what you think you saw, I'm coming with you. Besides, I know this area better than you do."
"But Sharla!..."
Fiora steps in front of Shulk.
"Shulk; don't try to stop her. We know Juju's in danger; the rest; we can change."
"I'm afraid Fiora…I don't know if I can change the future again."
"It's not just you now Shulk; you've told all of us about the vision this time. We all know what to watch out for now so you've already increased our chances of success."
"Trust Fiora on this Shulk; we can all do something now. Was there anything else important in that vision?"
"Two more things Reyn; I saw Juju trying to escape from something…and I think a faced mechon."
"Then we really can't afford to hang about with this. Juju's definitely in a lot of danger; if we leave Sharla behind we won't find him as quickly, and that'll probably mean we can't save him."
"I…see what you mean now Reyn. I didn't see Juju die in the vision but when you put it like that it's obvious he's depending on us."
"Are you three quite finished with this vision malarkey?"
"Let's get going, we can talk on the way."
The four of them hurry out of the camp. Fiora continues the conversation with Sharla
"I guess all of this vision stuff must sound like madness to anyone who hasn't seen it action."
"I'll happily give any one of you a psychiatric examination if you want me to."
"A few days ago I might've taken you up on that offer, but I know Shulk's visions are what he claims them to be. He's managed to save my life more than once thanks to them."
"…Well I guess we'll just see. You seem pretty sane to me Fiora so I'll try to keep an open mind."
Shulk interrupts the conversation.
"The vision wasn't very detailed, but we know three key things we need to deal with. The first is recuing Juju; I think if we can catch up with him fast enough we'll accomplish it."
"…what sort of surroundings did you see Shulk; I'm familiar with the area so I might have some idea of where he's supposed to run into trouble."
"There was some kind of rock structure. I think he was on a plateau with some natural rock pillars supporting another above him."
"…Interesting; have you ever explored the Guar Plains before Shulk?"
"No, never; why'd you ask Sharla?"
"You just gave a pretty good description of Spiral Valley. It's not far from the Bask Cave passage that leads to colony 6…and it would make sense that Juju would go past it…but not into it."
"I guess that means we know where to head now; so that's gonna save us some time already."
"That helps with the first. The second major problem is…well…you getting killed Sharla."
"A mechon mantrap…I don't think face mechon have those so it'll be something else; ah mechon ahead!"
The party head towards a mechon formation near the Lake Raguel bridge.
"Reyn, you keep Sharla safe! I'll back Shulk up!"
"Got you Fiora!"
The party charge the mechon. With the Monado on their side they make short work of them, and thanks to Reyn none of them even get close to Sharla.
"Well I'm safe so far."
"I think it was some kind of new mechon. The mantrap was on the end of some kind of long mechanical tentacle."
"That doesn't sound nice; but I guess it means it wasn't a regular mechon that got you so perhaps we can worry a bit less about these patrol units."
"…something about those two parts of the vision…Juju trying to flee…you getting grabbed…you were on your own Sharla; I couldn't see any of us with you."
"So I guess you'll be okay if you don't get separated from us."
"I doubt it's going to be quite that simple though Reyn."
"It never is; remember Tephra cave?"
"I'd rather not Fiora…hang on, is that what I think it is?"
The party make their way onto the bridge and find…
"That's Juju's buggy; where is he? What happened here?"
"No signs of a struggle…and some footprints; so I think he's just continued on foot."
"What the hell is wrong with his head? First he runs off, and then he ditches the buggy; without it he's going to have a hard time keeping ahead of the mechon."
"…I think I see what's gone wrong. Something broke the barrier and knocked it into the road, and it looks like he clipped it. The suspensions been knocked out of alignment and without fixing it the buggy will be just about unusable."
"So he just continues on foot; sigh, at lease we've got a better chance of catching up with him now."
"Hey Shulk, do you think you could fix this?"
"Now that you mention it Fiora, I probably could; but there's not enough room for four on it. We'd have to split up to make use of it, and given what was in that vision I really don't think that'd be wise."
"...Let's just hurry on."
"Yeah, there's still that faced mechon to worry about; if we're quick enough we might be able to get to Juju before it turns up."
"Sharla, what sort of information were you able to gather regarding that faced mechon at colony 6?"
"Very little conclusive info beyond the simple fact we couldn't stop it, and its offensive capabilities far exceeded a comparably sized normal mechon."
"Same as Metal Face then…wait a moment; did anything do it any damage at all?"
"Nothing significant; I heard something about it shielding its face when the squads opened up on it with ether rifles, and I did notice some bullet scars on its arm, but aside from that nothing even marked it; even a mining charge only knocked it back."
"It's ether then; definitely. I think we might have something to work with after all."
"Would you mind explaining what you just said?"
"Ah, sorry Sharla, I guess we haven't given you details of our fight with the one at colony 9. To begin with me, Reyn and Dunban took it on. Most of the fight was pretty one sided; at best we could make it stumble but nothing we did to it even marked its armour; and much to our horror that included the Monado. We did what we could but it wasn't long before it basically had us at its mercy. We thought were done for, but Fiora saved us by rushing it with the mobile artillery, which had some prototype ether shells loaded in its main cannon."
"I managed to get a shot into it; and that did damage its head and knocked it to the ground…hang on, did either of you two notice the light on its body changed after it got up again?"
"Now that you mention it Fiora I did notice something; at the time I wasn't sure whether it was just me but I have to agree with you, the light did change."
"That's interesting; I missed that myself but I did…well…lose my cool a bit after…it tried to kill you Fiora."
"Well, to cut a long story short after I blasted it with those ether shells it became vulnerable to the Monado, and Shulk managed to do it some more damage and drive it off."
"What's particularly telling in all of this is that the ether shell was the first thing that did it any real damage; and before that it shrugged off a direct hit from the air defence batteries, which are a lot more powerful that the artillery."
"Mechon always were susceptible to ether; I guess these new faced mechon haven't completely overcome that weakness after all."
"Still, it took a direct hit at point blank range with a high powered ether shell just to weaken its armour. I don't think any of us can up with an ether technique even close to matching that kind of power, so we're some way from having an effective plan."
"Any other ideas?"
"That light might be some kind of indicator; Metal Face retreated shortly after it changed so I'm wondering if perhaps it's part of some sort of barrier. The Monado was able to damage it after it changed; maybe its ability to resist ether might weaken as well?"
"So if we force the light to change maybe they'll have the same weaknesses as normal mechon. Tricky part is figuring out how to do that; anything else?
"Dickson's been working on the problem of mechon armour for some time now, and I know he'd had a bit of a breakthrough recently. It turns out mechon armour's simply much harder than most metals native to bionis so that's why breaching it's so difficult with normal weapons; if you use Mechonis based metals you can cut through it. I know he was in the early stages of manufacturing some weapons made of recycled mechon plate; while I hadn't heard anything in terms of results…well, you know Dickson. If he thinks it's going to work then it probably will."
"Might have to continue this line of thought later; we've got trouble up ahead."
"The high road's crawling with mechon; so I guess he'd take low road."
"No, he'd definitively take the high road. It's more direct and he knows how to sneak past mechon. The low road leads through Ragnirar canyon, which is infested with extremely dangerous creatures; it'd be suicide for us let alone Juju on his own."
"I think this might be our chance to catch up with him. He'll be keeping a low profile to sneak past those so if we just force our way through we'll be moving a lot quicker him."
"That's a lot of mechon Fiora."
"We've got the Monado on our side though; and they're probably a search patrol. If we scrap them here it'll probably one less thing threating the camp."
"Nice reasoning; let's do this!"
The party charge the mechon formation. While individually weak, the numbers of mechon prove slightly problematic. Fortunately Shulk manages to stay one step ahead of them thanks to the visions, and the party out-manoeuvre the mechon and avoid being overwhelmed. Within a short space of time the mechon are destroyed.
"Okay, we're clear now; still can't see Juju though…no wait, that rock formation in the distance; that was in the vision."
"That's the top of Spiral Valley; we'd need to go past it rather than through it to get to colony 6 though; in fact all it leads to is a route down to Ragnirar canyon."
"I'm pretty sure that's where we'll find Juju."
"Well let's not waste any more time Shulk."
The four of them hurry towards Spiral Valley. As they approach they notice something.
"Is it just me or is there some movement over there?"
"That's the Bask Cave passage that leads to colony 6; I'll check it out Reyn."
Sharla raises her rifle and looks down the sight.
"Well spotted; it's another mechon patrol, but it's heading back towards colony 6."
"That's it! That's why Juju went into Spiral Valley! He must've been hiding from the patrol."
Sharla swings her rifle around to take a closer look at the Spiral Valley plateau.
"I see him! He's hiding on the lower plateau and he seems to be okay; if we run we can get to him!"
The party break into a full run to get to him.
"We're going to make it! Juju! Over here!"
"I don't think he can hear us yet Shulk."
As the party get closer they notice something.
"Juju's still trying to hide from something…that doesn't make sense, the patrol's heading away."
"Maybe he just realised how much danger he was getting into and fear took over…Juju! We're coming!"
"Sharla…shhh…I think I've just figured out what happened in the vision."
"What, but we're nearly…"
"Something's on the plateau with Juju…that's why he's trying to hide now…and I think it's going to try and use him as bait. That's why you were on your own Sharla; you must've panicked and rushed to him."
"I can't see anything…"
"The top plateau; the angle we're at is blocking our view."
"…Look, I'm not waiting here for something to happen to Juju. We need to get to him right now."
"I agree with you Sharla; but don't shout to him; it might blow his cover."
"Speaking of which, we don't have any so I think we'd better just do this fast."
The party rush onto the Spiral Valley plateau; they quickly reach Juju.
"Juju! Are you…"
"Shhh! It's near!"
"…Just as I thought. What're dealing with Juju?"
"Some kind of new mechon; I think it's supposed to be a mass capture unit. It's got lots of tentacles…with mantraps."
"That ties in with the vision; I guess the best bet now is just stick together and get out of here."
"I'm with you there Shulk. I reckon…"
A tentacle breaks through the upper plateau; with an open mantrap at its tip. It smashes into the ground inches from the party.
"…we shut up and run!"
The party try to escape from Spiral Valley. As they approach the bridge another tentacle loops around the edge of the plateau and shoots towards them. It heads straight for Juju, but Reyn intercepts it. He blocks the mantrap jaws with his gunlance but he's forced back by the impact. A second tentacle shoots towards them; Sharla blasts it and sends it careering into one of the pillars. It rebounds and slams into the ground near Juju, knocking him away from the party. Shulk activates the enchant function of the Monado; Reyn forces the mantrap to one side and then smashes his gunlance down on the base, severing the tentacle; the remains of it withdraw rapidly and then the mechon swings itself down from the upper plateau, revealing its main body. It has many, many more mantrap tipped tentacles. It lands near Juju's position and advances on him. He starts to run, but the mechon sends some of its tentacles through the ground.
("No! This is same scenario I saw in the vision!")
Expecting Sharla to charge towards Juju at any moment; Shulk draws the Monado and sprints towards his position. He sees the ground start to bulge as he closes the distance; he has little trouble dodging the tentacles thanks to his visions, but he notices the ground below Juju start bulge. He knows he can't make it in time and shouts to Juju.
"Juju! Below you! Dodge!"
Juju jumps to the side just in time; several more tentacles emerge from the ground though and Juju lands awkwardly. Thankfully Fiora has managed to outrun Shulk and gathers up Juju, scooping him onto her shoulders. Sharla blasts some of them away, but there are just too many for her to shoot them all. Shulk tries to draw on a vision to find a way of saving them, instead he feels a pulse from the Monado. Time suddenly seems to slow and he notices a new symbol has appeared on it.
("I guess this is the moment of truth; please…just give me something more, just like last time.")
Shulk feels the Monado release its power, and the mechon seems to slow down. Sharla blasts away all but one of the slowed tentacles, and Fiora easily dodges the remaining one. As it impacts with the ground they notice the rubble and dust seems to hang in the air.
"Nice one Shulk! It's not gonna catch us now."
Reyn rushes up to the grounded tentacle. Before it can retract he brings his gunlance down on it; the mantrap crumples under the impact, rendering it useless. Realising it's now at a disadvantage the mechon retreats, pulling itself to the upper plateau.
"Guess it realised it couldn't win in straight fight."
"We need to follow it; if we stay here it'll just pull the same trick it did when it ambushed us."
The party quickly make their way to the upper plateau.
"So I guess this was the thing that did for me in that vision you had Shulk."
Shulk activates the enchant function of the Monado again.
"Well, it's not going to be the future anymore; let's end this."
Fiora rushes at the mechon and then changes her course, running around it. It sends a tentacle out in a wide swing, but she slides under it, and then Shulk severs it before it can retract. It then tries to repeat the tactic of striking from below, but it doesn't seem to have realised that tactic has a serious flaw; it's immobilised with its tentacles stuck in the ground. Already accelerated by the Monado; Shulk, Reyn and Fiora have little difficulty in keeping the remaining tentacles occupied.
"You know something Juju; you were right about mechon not being very smart; it just made itself a sitting duck."
Sharla fires round after round into the immobilised mechon. With it pinned in place the shots tear clean through it. Within a few seconds the mechon stops moving, its legs give way and the lights on its body go out. On closer examination they can see daylight streaming right through it.
"I'm starting to find the idea of your visions a bit more believable now Shulk. I'm not totally convinced, but at the very least I'd say you've a hell of knack for reading the situation."
"It's not over yet Sharla. We might've changed the future, but there's one part of the vision left."
"The face mechon; I think we should get out of here…"
The low roar of a mechon flight unit cuts through the air.
"…too late. How're you holding Shulk?"
Shulk tightens his grip on the Monado.
"It won't be like last time Fiora. You have my word."
If there are any parts of these stories you're finding difficult to follow (such as the three and four way conversations), or any parts where you feel i've left out important details feel free to PM me. I know I sometimes skip a bit on the battle scenes, and i'm not really includng any of the general battle encouters or the side quests into the stories at present. The side quests and some of their associated characters will get more of a mention after the ether mine events due to the significance of colony 6 throughout the rest of the game. As for the battles, if you think there needs to be more of them and in more detail just let me know.
I appologise if the quality of the writing is a bit off in places as well. If you find any mistakes, or there's a continuity error feel free to tell me and i'll try to address it.