The lights flicker for a few seconds and finally stabilize, blinding us all.
"Is that too much, yo?" I laugh as I close the box and take Truncheon back from Jade.
"Haha, very funny Reno, but how do we keep whoever did this in the first place from coming back and doing it again?"
"Can anyone hear me?" Denzel's voice comes across the walkie-talkie. I grab for it, but Cloud answers first.
"This is Cloud, go ahead."
"The lockers have power again. All the displays read 'default.' Our codes won't open them as we suspected."
"Someone will be with you shortly," Cloud answers.
"I don't know," I answer Tifa's question. I look around and spot a tool box. I rummage through and find a soldering iron; I smirk.
"Cloud to Reno's team."
I hand Tifa the radio while I plug in the iron. "I'll need three or four minutes for this to heat up and another couple to seal up the panel."
"Go for Tifa," she responses.
"What's your ETA?"
"Ten minutes. If you want to go –"
"No, we stick together," Cloud barks.
The nice thing about having three separate parties is that we can stack the weakest party members in the middle, which are essentially Elena, Jade, and Tifa. It's not bad enough that we are only partially armed, but we are also heavily outnumbered with a Tonberry and three Malboro standing in front of the exit.
Cloud has the chair leg I was using earlier and he stands between us and the two monsters, Nanaki and Vincent step up with him. Tseng, Rude and I face off against six Ghosts that close in from the rear. Every time I strike one, it disappears, but Tseng is able to Mug each of them as they return, earning us six Ghost Hand Items. He hands them back to Elena who moves them along to Vincent, Cloud, and Nanaki. They alternate, attacking, using the items, and restoring their MP. Nanaki casts Lightning Three on all the targets and the smell of ozone fills the air. I take a deep breath and feel better as my Element calls to me.
It takes far too long to beat down the Malboros and every time one of them casts Bad Breath, Elena and Jade are hit the worst. We have to make the hard call to let them stay affected by the statuses. Luckily, neither of them can hit worth a shit while unarmed and it makes the whole thing more comical than deadly. Once our fight is over, Tseng unequips the Steal Materia and throws it to Vincent, who is just about to hit his Limit Break. He nods his thanks, equips and steals an M-Tentacle from the Malboro and an Elixir from the Tonberry. He manages to toss the Elixir to Cloud before he triggers his Limit Break – Gigas. The combination of Cloud with his full health and magic, Nanaki with a full-functioning Lightning, and Vincent's dreadful attacks eventually wears down the enemies.
Elena blunders about in circles as the Confuse status continues to affect her even after the battle concludes. Jade snores, crumpled in a heap on the ground. Tseng watches his wife for a second, then consults his watch. "It should fade in a few minutes," he tells himself, more than us. Elena strikes out at Rude, but he sidesteps and she misses.
"We can't wait a few minutes," Cloud says. "Just slap her and get her back to her senses."
"I volunteer," I shout. "I've always wanted to smack 'Laney." Tifa shakes Jade until the girl regains her sense.
"No way," Tseng protests. "If anyone is going to strike my wife, it's me." We all wait for him to move. "Never mind, that just sounds wrong. Go ahead, Reno, but I'm watching you."
I wait until Elena spins toward me and I smack her. It may have been a little harder than necessary, but she snaps to attention and rubs her face.
"Thanks, Senpai! I was getting nauseous."
Barrett and Denzel are finishing off a trio of Frogs when we arrive at the Battle Arena. Nanaki grabs the last one by the back of its head and shakes it until it disappears.
"You're late, bitches," Barrett calls, smiling.
I rush passed the others and give the keycard and key chain to Milly. She does some sort of administrative magic and all the lockers pop open. Cloud grabs his sword, Venus Gospel, and Conformer and rushes out to where our last party is still fighting unarmed.
Vincent steps up to our shared locker and pulls Cerberus and its holster out and secures it to his leg. I reach over him, grabbing the Electro-Mag Rod and pull out all the Materia to reload my armor; it sucks that Truncheon has no slots, but there is no way I'm ever giving it up. He's tugging up the gauntlet when Denzel suddenly steps back from his locker, his mouth agape.
"Re, Re, Reno," he stutters out my name. I turn and look, but I can't register it, it's too unreal. The timer on the device reads fourteen minutes.
"It's a bomb," I finally say as the clock runs down second by second.
"Evacuate everyone," Vincent orders and the room empties but for me, Vincent, and Rude.
Rude pushes me aside and gets his upper body into the space around the bomb. "I can't see the wires and I'm afraid it will have some sort of secondary trigger. Reno, go around the other side and open the locker. Tell me what you see."
I'm running even before he finishes his sentence, and Vincent is right behind me, picking off minor enemies with a single shot of the tri- arrel weapon. Each shot is impossibly loud in the corridor, but I make it to the other side and he keeps things off me. The door is already open, and I've got my head half in the locker and I'm dripping sweat.
"There are three wires and none of them are in the right place," I tell Rude.
"Amateurs," he mutters. I pull out my knife with the intention stabbing it in the wrong places and hoping it doesn't go boom in my face, when Rude clears his throat.
"Vincent," he says, and makes the hand signal for take him out. I stand up, confused by the whole thing and bump my head on the top of the locker.
"Take who out?" I ask, turning, but Vincent moves too fast and I stumble as he hits me on the back of the head. I'm not unconscious as he drags me away, but I'm dazed so that I can't fight back.
"Rude…" I slur.
Cloud rushes back to us and Vincent drops me in his arms "Fly," he shouts, and hustles back into the locker room. Cloud has me in a strangle hold, making it hard from me to breathe. We fly through the air, him moving forward, me backward, Vincent! So I see it when the world dies and the bomb explodes.
"Motherfucker!" I scream, "You're not supposed to die before me you asshole."