Final Fantasy VII: The Story 3rd Instalment

Emerald Princess of Vernea

Chapter Two

"It's Weapon."

"There have been so many attacks lately. Can we handle it?"

"I believe so. Your orders?"

Rufus turned his gaze to look through the giant glass wall that was the front of Junon Shinra HQ. Beyond the wall was the sea, calm and tranquil, its colour tinted to reflect the deep orange hue that had taken over the sky since Meteor's summoning. The ocean waters seemed still with barely a ripple, giving no trace at all of Weapon's presence. But appearances were deceiving. Weapon was beneath the surface, Rufus knew. A smile tugged at his lips as he looked upon the water.

"No need to ask," was all he said.

Beside him, Heidegger grinned. "We'll give it a shot from our big cannon," he said, and turned to face the three sailors who were standing nervously behind him. As he turned the sailors stood at attention, awaiting their orders. "Open cannon doors!" Heidegger roared, making them jump. "Activate cannon. Target: Weapon!!"

At his command the sailors nodded and ran from the control room, bellowing out the orders to all those who could hear. The words spread quickly all through the room and the rest of the building. Pretty soon the main headquarters was alive with bustle and activity as employees typed furiously into their consoles, shouting commands and confirming actions as they completed them. Satisfied everything was in order, Heidegger turned back to Rufus, who was watching the events through the window.

Outside, Junon was preparing for the imminent attack. The upper town had been evacuated, leaving only Shinra soldiers who ran around preparing the city's defences. Metal plates as thick as trees rose in front of the buildings on the road facing the docks. Giant hooks held the plates in place, securing the buildings against any heavy attack. This defence would hopefully hold against Weapon.

A segment of the main road dipped and was pulled back to slide underneath one of the buildings. The resulting gap contained a hidden cannon, another one of the city's defences, which rose up from beneath to stand in its place. The cannon was pushed to its full height, settling over the road. The long metal barrel swivelled and twisted this way and that before finally settling on the ocean ahead.

The cannon seemed just a mere toy when compared to Junon's main weapon. Another cannon, it was built into the front of the Shinra HQ and made up the majority of Junon's upper levels, almost matching it in size. The powerful steel pistons that held the cannon up heaved and groaned as they strained to push the cannon up and turn so that it faced the ocean. Switches that lined the cannon's side flicked down, marking the cannon as active and ready for battle. The two giant pistons that held up the barrel groaned and released gusts of piping hot steam into the air as they lowered the colossus barrel so that it pointed into the waters ahead.

Junon was ready for battle.

"Preparations complete!" a sailor announced, running to Heidegger.

The man nodded. He did not turn but stood alongside Rufus, glancing at the young president's face to see what his orders were. Rufus's eyes were fixed on the ocean, his lips set in a thin line. A slight nod was all he gave. Heidegger raised his arm. "The cannon… Fire---!!" he shouted, and brought down his arm as the signal to fire.

The cannon fired. The shock caused the cannon to jerk backward so violently it made the entire upper section of Junon shake as though an earthquake had gone off beneath. Black smoke and red flame poured from the cannon's mouth.

The projectile, burning hot and imbued with the power of mako energy, shot rapidly through the air toward the ocean. It moved swiftly, at a steady downward angle, not once wavering or faltering from its course. A long tail of pure mako, so hot it burned white, blazed behind it, leaving a sparkling trail in its wake.

The projectile headed far into the horizon before finally hitting the water.

A loud explosion shook the ocean. A shockwave, causing by the crushing impact of the projectile, spread out across the waters. It was followed just seconds later by a second shockwave, this one in the water itself, spreading out from the point of impact and deep into the ocean. The waters it left behind were flat, without any ripple or swell. It was as though the entire ocean had been flattened where the projectile had hit. After a few tense moments the waters eased, and life returned to it, waves rippling gently beneath the scorched surface.

In the Junon control room it was as though time had come to a stop. All movement ceased as everyone's attention turned to the sea. The computers were silent, their workers abandoning their work to look up and stare through the window. Rufus and Heidegger stood side by side in silence, not saying a word to one another but simply gazing at the ocean before them.

On Junon docks, all was the same. The Shinra soldiers stationed to the docks had ceased all movement. They did not twitch nor turn. They barely even breathed, so focused were they on looking ahead. More than a hundred pairs of eyes stared hard at the ocean waters, waiting for some sign of Weapon's presence. But the ocean remained still, its waters silent and unrevealing.

After what seemed like hours but was only a few seconds tense silence, Rufus looked to Heidegger. "Did we get 'em?" he asked, his voice loud in the eerie silence.

Slowly and unsurely, Heidegger nodded. "Seems so…" he whispered. He was about to breathe a sigh of relief when the sirens sounded, so suddenly and so loudly that it made him and everyone else in the control room jump out of their skins. The workers leaped back to their computers, throwing on headsets and typing furiously.

"Weapon approaching!" the alarm announced.

"Speed, 50 knots!" called one of the sailors from his console.

"It's heading right toward us!" shouted another.

"It can't be!" said Heidegger, shaking his large head in disbelief. "We hit it dead on!"

Rufus said nothing. When the siren sounded he had turned his attention back to the window, looking out at the ocean before him. He knew Heidegger was wrong. It could be that Weapon had survived the blast from the mako cannon. Though he knew very little about Weapon and what it was, he knew enough to know that it was a beast that would not be destroyed easily. Even as he looked at the ocean now, he could see the far-off ripples that were the telling signs of something large moving beneath the surface. He turned to Heidegger. "How about the cannon?" he asked.

"It'll take time to reload," said Heidegger reproachfully.

"Then use regular firepower in the meantime!" Rufus commanded irritably, turning back to the window.

Heidegger nodded. "Yes sir!" He spun to face the soldiers and sailors who had gathered behind him. "Open all artillery doors!" he bellowed, his voice booming even over the deafening roar of the siren. "Target: Weapon! Don't let it land!"

Beneath the ocean's surface Weapon swam, its gargantuan body barely visible through the rippling water. The ocean's waters swelled above it like a protective mound, and the lash of its tail created a long line of bubbling white froth that wavered and flickered in its wake.

With a sudden surge Weapon rose and broke the surface. Its appearance caused the mound of water flowing over its body to split open, sending showers of large and small water droplets to fall through the air and splash back into the sea. Fins the size of a ship's sails rose and stretched up. Sunlight fell on blue-purple skin that was almost metallic in appearance. The large body of Weapon settled heavily on the water and continued to swim toward Junon.

Seeing Weapon rise, the commanders on Junon's docks gave the order for the cannons to fire. The soldiers standing on the docks looked up as the cannons above them opened fire. The firings of the cannons made the ground shake beneath their feet and their helmets rattle on their heads. Three rows of cannons either side of the main opened fire upon the approaching Weapon. Pretty soon the town was filled with the sight of fire and the deafening roar of the cannons. But each soldier held his ground, holding fast to their weapons and awaiting their orders.

The cannon-fire appeared to be doing little damage. Weapon continued to approach, even as the red-hot cannon pellets struck its body. The majority of the pellets struck the water around Weapon, hitting around it, in front of it, and even behind it. The pellets made the water a churning mass of bubbles and spray, which only served to shield Weapon further from their attack. Those that did hit their target did nothing to slow it down, exploding on its surface and barely even scratching it. Instead it seemed to swim faster, preparing to make its final approach.

Rufus stared in open-mouthed astonishment as he saw Weapon break through the cannon-fire and continue to advance. Even with all Junon's immense firepower raining down on it, the beast—if that's what it truly was—was still heading toward them. The Shinra president did not wait to marvel at this, for he was already running from the control room, with Heidegger running close behind him. Only the Shinra employees remained, shouting out even as their commanders fled the chamber.

"Speed, 70 knots!" one sailor called. He wiped his brow with the back of his hand.

"Weapon!! Closing in!!" shouted another.

"No good!!" cried a last one, pointing to the window. "It's attacking!!"

The cannons of the upper levels continued to fire. At the forefront of Junon's defences, a long line of soldiers stood on the main road, anxiously waiting for the signal to fire. One by one they looked to their commander. The commander, seeing the approaching wall of water that was Weapon's shield, raised his arm and barked out that the soldiers prepare to fire. At once the soldiers sank to their knees, raising the heavy guns and resting them on their shoulders.

The commander waited until the last soldier heard the order and was ready to fire, before shouting out another command. The soldiers then opened fire, firing at will.

The bullets from the bazookas joined the endless volley of cannon-fire, whistling in the air before exploding against the wall of water that bubbled around Weapon as it swam forward. It was a futile effort, for the bullets had as little effect as the more powerful cannon-fire that detonated on Weapon's diamond-hard surface.

Despite the shower of bullets and flame, Weapon continued to surge effortlessly through the water. Only its back and its raised fins were visible through the frothing waters, for it had ducked its head beneath the surface to protect itself against the cannon-fire.

As Weapon drew closer and closer, it became clear to the attacking soldiers that Weapon was not going to slow down or stop, but ram into Junon with the intention of crushing the cannons and stopping the assault.

The soldiers waiting on the lower levels, after seeing that Weapon was not going to be stopped, dropped their weapons and fled from the shore. One young soldier was too afraid to run with his comrades and simply dropped to the ground, hiding his face in the dirt as Weapon's shadow loomed over him.

Weapon rose up and slammed into the town. The impact caused the whole town to shake and tremble beneath its ginormous bulk. A giant wave of water fell onto the lower levels, filling the streets with water that swept through the town at an alarming rate. Spray fell over the upper levels and onto the soldiers, who were on their knees and trying to keep from being swept off the road and into the ocean below as the town trembled around them. All they could see before them was Weapon's great back as the beast, after slamming into the town, curled its body up and rolled back under the ocean. The last they saw of the beast was its main fin and tail in the air, the tail swaying as it sank beneath the water and out of sight.

Emerald: Holy-moley-on-a-sour-dough-roley! An update! Yes, I have been seriously slacking in recent months. I will have to work hard if I am going to achieve my aim to complete this fic this year. I think the slacking is due to the fact that this part of the game is not one of my favourites, and requires me to do a lot of work converting FMV to written form and still making it interesting. Not to mention: no Cloud. Me like Cloud. Cloud good. Me want Cloud back. NOWZ. So, while I'm still in the writing mood, I'm gonna begin the next chapter.

Apologies for the length of this chapter. I've been flicking through my notepad with the script in it and judging how long the next few chapters should be. See? I plan. X3

And to all those who thought I'd abandoned it: XP