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Chapter Fourteen

Palumpolum

Colonel Lightning was in her washroom.

She had pulls up her sleeves and her breath coming in ragged gasps. The brand on her forearm was burning even more than usual and she noticed faint blue light coming from the brand. It was more painful thing she ever felt in her life.

I will not succumb; she thought to herself, I will not succumb.

She slammed a fist against the mirror in front of her and before her very eyes, the thing simply frosted over, and ice taking over the mirror's front. Lightning's eyes went wide, knowing what had just happened.

Magic.

They were no other explanation for it. This had to be magic, and that would mean she was also cursed by the Pulsian if she could perform magic.

It's all that Pulsian fault, she thought thinking of her twin, she is the reason all of this had happened. She is responsible.

But as she watched the brand on her arm, she noticed that it had few more lines than before which caused her to narrow her eyes a little. The thing was changing…

I have to capture that Pulsian and make her tell me exactly what is going on with that thing, she thought narrowing her eyes.

Then she heard the door of her office sliding open and a voice calling.

"Colonel Lightning."

Lightning quickly put her sleeves down and rearrange her features into her usual expression. Then she stepped out of the bathroom and back into the main office finding Basch there. The man was still dressed in his Cavalry outfit.

"Something you needed Basch?"

"They have new intel they would like to share with you Colonel," Bash told her.

"New intel? On the Pulsian?"

Bash nodded at her.

"Yes I'm coming with you," Lightning said pulling on her gunblade back in place, "Let's go."

The two walked straight for the main building of the S.A. base. The room had a large hologram upon the machine with many soldiers around them. Lightning noticed Rygdea standing beside the hologram and the man looked up at her.

"Nice of you to join us, Colonel," he said, a smirk crossing his face.

Lightning glowered at him and turned her eyes toward the man beside him.

It was one of the Cavalry captain, but she didn't know him by name. He had dark hair and sharp blue eyes as he watched her.

"And you are?"

"I'm Cid Raines," the man said, extending his hand toward her, "Brigadier General of the Cavalry fleet. A pleasure to finally meet you in person Colonel Lightning"

Lightning shook his hand.

"I'm sure. You have Intel you would like to share with us?"

"Straight to the point," Raines said, "Guess the rumors about you were truth…but, we really do have Intel to share with you."

"Approximately two hours ago, one of our patrols had lost radio contact with us," he said, "and they stationed near the Whitewoods…but before that we caught an audio feed before we lost contact."

Raines pressed a few buttons and played the audio feed as Lightning leaned forward to listen, but the action was futile for the audio feed was a louder than she thought.

"All right you two put your weapons on the ground…now."

They were the sound of heavy breathing and Lightning can hear a rushing sound in the background…sounding like a body of water…

"The weapons on the ground…now,"

Then they were a noise of movement and then a gunshot then…

Statics.

"That's all what was recorded," Raines said, turning his gaze toward the S.A. soldiers, "Now anything you would like the share with us Colonel."

Lightning was frowning.

"I'm going to be frank with you Raines," she said, "We are hunting down a Pulsian."

Raines blinked.

"A…Pulsian? On Cocoon?" he whispered, "How…?"

"It's classified," Lightning cut across him, "All that you need to know is that this Pulsian must be captured at all cost."

The Brigadier General's face showed anger.

"How long were you planning to keep this from the Cavalry?"

"Your Division was not needed then Brigadier General," Lightning told him coldly, "This operation is under the Sanctum's supervision."

"Then what is one of my Captains is doing here?" Raines said.

Lightning glanced sideway at Basch before turning toward Raines again.

"He was with me since this mess started," Lightning told him.

From the corner of her eyes, Lightning noticed that Basch had stiffen had that.

"And he was under my command since then," she continued.

Raines didn't seem to have noticed the slight eye exchange and said, "Very well. This Pulsian assaulted my soldiers, this fall under the Cavalry jurisdiction also."

"You are correct General," Lightning told him, "this is why I want us to join forces for the moment to capture the Pulsian."

Lightning can hear the whispers echoing around them at that suggestion and she even notice the surprised look on Rygdea face.

Raines seem also to be surprised at that suggestion; it showed his surprise all over his young face.

"A joint command to capture the Pulsian," he whispered, putting a hand against his chin, "I must admit Colonel, I'm intrigued at it."

"It is for the good of Cocoon," Lightning told him.

Raines considered it for a few moments before extending his hand again.

"For the good of Cocoon then,"

Lightning shook his hand.

"So it is."

Then Lightning continued.

"From the recording we have," she said, "It is good to say that they will be heading toward the nearest city from the Whitewoods."

Raines blinked.

"Palumpolum?"

"Yes," Lightning said, "it had been two hours since then. Our first move should be contacting the troops stationed there about it. Then we lock down the city, no one come in or out, and to pull this off, the S.A. and the Cavalry have to work together. Let's move."

"Yes ma'am,"

PALUMPOLUM

The large Cavalry ships were flying above the city of Palumpolum. The citizens of the beautiful city were taken out of their normal everyday lives to notice that the military was moving in. They were many machines landing around the ports as the ships dropped the A.I. machines from the sky as more soldiers on Velocycles flew all around.

"What's going on today?" a citizen asked, noticing the commotion outside of his bar.

"The Army is moving in," another one said, "They're deploying all of their forces in."

A young woman who had been seating by the counter looked up at that. She was dressed in white shirt with long gloves and short black pants, attached to her body with red lines. Her long hair reached all the way to her waist her wide red eyes, observing the phenomenon taking place around her.

Something big is going on, she thought.

"Leaving early today Tifa?" the citizen behind the counter said looking at her.

The young woman, Tifa, turned her gaze toward the man and gives him a smile.

"Yes, thanks for the drink."

"Anytime my girl," the man said.

Tifa gives him a smile before taking off down the street in a light run. She must warn the others that something was happening. Never before she had seen so many soldiers together before. But what could have happened to cause such event to take place?

Whatever it is, she thought, it must not be good if it got the S.A. jumpy.

She arrived at her destination, entering the bar that had the neon lights flashing SEVENTH HEAVEN.

Entering, she noticed that the place was deserted and she walked straight toward the back door and opened it. Barrett who was seating in the corner looked up at her.

"Tifa…what's happening?"

"The Army is moving into Palumpolum," she said.

Barret seated up.

"What for?"

Tifa shrugged her shoulders.

"I don't know," she said, "I think something got them spooked."

"Damn it, if only soldier boy was here," Barret said, "He probably had an idea of what is happening out there? I hope they're okay."

Tifa nodded a little sighing softly.

"I hope so too."

They hadn't had contact with Basch nor Paine since the Hanging Edge, and Tifa had been worried about them ever since.

Barret give her a tap on the back.

"Don't worry Tifa, your sis will be fine after all, she is a strong one."

Tifa looked at him and nodded.

Then the door opened again, letting in another young man, his hair spiking backward. He was dressed in a black top and matching black pants also wearing boots.

"What's wrong Zack?" Barret asked.

"The S.A. is blocking out the city," he said.

"They're what?"

"They've got soldiers in key part of the city and also stopping people from getting out," Zack told them, "They've got Palumpolum in a lock-down."

"B…But why?" Tifa asked.

"I'm not sure," Zack told them.

"Sound like the Army is closing in to something in here in the city," Barret told them, "Whatever it was, and it got the entire Cocoon armed forces after them. I wonder what could get them all riled up like that."

Tifa thought about it. She couldn't imagine what could scare S.A. so much and she found out that she didn't want to know.

Never in her life had Éclair thought she would see something so bizarre. They had arrived in Palumpolum just an hour ago but then the Army had started to arrive from everywhere. She couldn't believe that they were able to track them down so easily, but she didn't like it.

But then Paine had led both her and Vaan toward a tunnel which leads them to the location they are in right now. It was a large underground facility, it had a platforms everywhere around then and mechanicals A.I. working upon them.

"Where are we?"

"Underneath Palumpolum, in the Nutrinex system," Vaan said, "AVALANCHE stumbled across it a couple of years ago, and we've been using it ever since as a way to travel without getting noticed by anyone."

"You've spoken that word before," Éclair said, "What does it stand for?"

"Not everyone agrees with the way the Sanctum handle things," Vaan continued, "but most of them had been afraid of speaking out in fear of being Purged. So AVANLANCHE was created as a resistance force and been causing trouble for the Sanctum since then."

"We've been getting up close and personal with one of Cocoon's benefactors," he continued.

Éclair blinked a little at that.

"Here it is," Paine said.

The trio arrived on a platform and Éclair's eyes were drawn toward a large glowing figure in front of them. It had two large wing likes features spinning around the crystal shaped middle, bathing everything close to it in a fiery yellow orange color.

"What is that?"

"Carbuncle," Vaan said, explaining, "Cocoon's own food supplies. Since Cocoon is a floating world in the sky, and without any contact to Pulse, they have to make their own food supplies. The Sanctum created this technology a long time ago when Cocoon was first created…Learn all of this in school of course."

Éclair approached toward the edge of the platform watching Carbuncle hung there. Something about the form in front of her reacted to her magic somehow… It was drawing her in…

E..Cie…Protector…

Éclair felt a hand on her shoulder, snapping her out of her daze.

"You're okay crazy girl?" Paine said from beside her.

Éclair blinked.

"Y…Yeah, I'm fine,"

"You sure?" Vaan asked.

Éclair snapped her eyes toward him.

"I said I'm fine already," she said walking off.

From behind her, Paine and Vaan exchanged glances before following leaving the floating form of Carbuncle behind.

Paine quickly took the lead again leading them through the way and came to a stop seeing the symbol that had been drawn upon the wall causing her to smirk a little.

"This will lead us straight to the AVANLANCHE base," she said turning toward the two, "I'm going to head there. Vaan you take this tunnel here, it will lead you toward your home."

"I know," Vaan sighed.

"You're leaving?" Éclair asked, sounding surprised.

"I have to tell Tifa that I'm still alive," she said, and she sighed loudly before continuing, "God, she's going to be a nightmare. I'll see you guys tonight."

"Good luck," Vaan told her.

Paine nodded at him and glanced toward Éclair before stepping inside the tunnel and disappearing from sight. Now only the two of them, Vaan stepped forward heading toward the other tunnel in front of him.

"C'mon," he said.

Éclair followed him through the tunnel and they can hear the noises from outside mostly the sound of machineries passing everywhere. Then the more they moved, the less the noises seem that is until they arrived right in below of a platform.

"This will take us straight to the surface," he said.

He approached the small pad and pressed a few buttons upon it. Then, the large platform started to rise into the air. When they arrived the double door opened and they found themselves into a courtyard.

Vaan approached the railing in front of them, glancing out toward the city.

"We're close to my house," Vaan said, "It's just up toward here."

He pointed toward where the buildings were joined together toward the trees.

"Close indeed."

Vaan jumped over the railing, landing on the street a little below them. Éclair did also, landing in a crouch beside him. The two ran through the empty street and turned the corner…

Shit, Vaan thought, stopping dead.

Two soldiers were standing there but to their lucks, their back was turned toward them. Vaan pulled Éclair by the arm and back behind the wall which Éclair slipped slightly…

The soldiers turned only seeing an empty street behind them.

"You heard something?" one of them asked.

Wow, that was a close one...

And they have arrived in Palumpolum and already, characters from the earlier chapters make their appearances again and this time along with new ones. What awaits our friends next?

Next chapter: l'Cie

Jacques0 out.

R&R.