A/N: The first chapter may not seem much. But things get crazy in this one, as you could tell by the title. I'm not gonna make much spoiler alerts, but let's just say things are gonna end with a bang. Pretty action-y wouldn't you say?
In the canyons, the train drives on the track. The train from Palumpolum that's making it's way to Bodhum. The train is about halfway to it's destination. Nora and Hope are wishing they would arrive at Bodhum sooner.
"One hour until we arrive at Bodhum."
Most of the passengers, even Hope, are asleep during the ride. Hope lays his head on his mothers shoulder. Nora couldn't help but laugh at her son. He looks adorable asleep, like a little child.
Their ride to Bodhum was peaceful, until a small explosion beneath the engine happens. The explosion startles everyone, even woke up the sleeping people. The train loses control, even tilts to the side. The trains heavy weight causes it to fall on it's side. Everyone on board falls out of their sits and onto the trains wall, which is now the ground.
"Mo-mom? What's happening?" Hope asks.
Nora and Hope stands up. "Don't worry, Hope. I'm sure everything's fine." Nora says.
Everyone stands up, some of the passengers are being to worry. The engine room isn't during so wall. The fireplace is overheating and the controls are fried. This is not good.
"Attention passengers. Do not panic. The train is out of control. We are going have to evacuate calmly and immediately."
The announcement was no help. The citizens starts to panic. Even Hope and Nora are starting to worry. The engineer comes into the box car, making his way through the crowd. "Calm down, everyone. We're gonna leave through the emergency exit.
Everyone gathers around as the engineer reaches the emergency exit, and opens it. The door couldn't open completely, since the ceiling is too close to the cliff. Nora and Hope were the first ones to come out, first it was Hope then Nora.
When it was Nora's turn, loud rumbling noises happen. Hope looks up to see it's a rockslide happening. Nora makes it up and she and Hope gets out of the way. The pile of boulders crashes onto the emergency exit, blocking it shut.
Nora holds on to Hope, in a mother protective way, of course she is his mother. After the rumbling stops, they look to see the exit is blocked, trapping the other citizens in.
"Oh no. What are we gonna do?" Hope asks.
An explosion happens. The engine room is about to explode. "We have to get out of here."
"What about everyone on board?" Hope asks.
"We'll go find help. Come on." Nora and Hope makes their way across the train. They make it onto the bridge, only when they're on the edge, they both slipped on the dirt on the very corner and they fall over the cliff.
The engineer starts banging on the door. "Damn it! It's jammed! I told them there should be more then one emergency door!" The announcement goes on.
"Attention passengers! The engine room is overheating! It's probably gonna-Gah!"
An explosion happens. The passengers starts to panic even more. Hope and Nora are on the ground, underneath the bridge. They both stand up, and looked up at the bridge. They see the large black smoke that's coming out of the chimney of the train.
"We can't just leave them like that." Hope says.
"I'm sure they'll be fine, Hope. We can pray that they'll make it out alive." Nora looks at the path away from the bridge, into a dense forest. "We should try and get to Bodhum."
Nora and Hope makes their way into the woods, which is a bad idea cause these woods...are very dangerous.
"Stand straight!" The rookies stands up straight. Lightning is now back on training duties. "Weapons out!" The rookies takes out their Gunblades. "Face each other!" The soldiers turned to face each other, all expected for the one at the end, who's the last soldier as in odd number. In other words, he has no partner to practice with.
"Uh, Sergeant Farron? I don't have anyone to face." The soldier says.
Lightning sighs. She grabs the soldier by the soldier and put him to face a target dummy. "Here, spar with the dummy."
The soldier isn't too sure about this, but he shrugs his shoulders and goes with it. "Spar!" The soldiers begins their training drills. Lightning mostly pays attention to the one's who are facing each other.
Lightning stands back watching the soldiers. She's disappointed at how they're fighting. "Spread your legs, Wing! Watch your form, Barret." Lightning looks at the soldier fighting the dummy. "Piros, you call that a heavy slash? Because I do not!"
Piros strikes at the dummy hard, only when that happens, Piro's starting shaking like he hit a large gong with a mallet. The other soldiers also collapsed in defeat. Lightning sighs in irritation. "How is it I get stuck with idiots?"
Looking down at her trainees, someone walks in. "Sergeant Farron." Lightning turns at the person. "General Amodar wants to see you, immediately." Lightning widens her eyes open hearing that, then rushes out of the training room, not even bothering to give orders to her trainees. Some teacher...
General Amodar walks down the hallway, in a bit of a hurry. Lightning rushes down the hallway, catching up to her General. "General." Lightning takes a moment to catch her breath, as she turns into speed walking. "What is it?"
"We've got a situation." Amodar says. "I just got a report. The D17 Train heading towards Bodhum crashed. There are helpless citizens trapped inside of it. The engine is overheating, dangerously at the risk of exploding." Lightning is surprised to hear this news. Amodar looks at Lightning walk they're walking. "Our high ranked soldiers are busy handling the incident at the Euride Gorge, so I'm seeing you and two Privates on the mission."
"General...I am honored, sir." Lightning says.
Amodar and Lightning walks outside of the Guardian Corps station, where the Private Gus and Private Luke are waiting by the Velocycles. The three of them gets on the Velocycles and they head out to the accident.
Serah is watching a romanic movie with Vanille at home. Serah's all curled up on the couch, holding onto the pillow against her chest like it's her life-force. The girl is both smiling and crying over the romanic from the screen, so is Vanille.
"I love you, Brad."
"I love you more, Monica."
"You'll write for me, won't you?"
"Everyday, my love."
A tear escapes from Serah's eye. It's truly a heart touching moment for her and Vanille. They are just about to kiss, until the show becomes interrupted and the news comes on.
"We interrupt this program to bring you an urgent Sanctum bulletin."
Serah was disappointed that her stories are being interrupted. But suddenly worries when she hears what it's about.
"Just an hour ago, the D17 train from Palumpolum has crashed on its way to Bodhum." The news shows the footage of the accident. "Hundreds of citizens are currently trapped inside of the train, at the risk of being killed in the explosion." The news lady receives a report and reads it. "Hold on, I've received news that Sergeant Farron of the Guardian Corps is on the way of handling the situation. This is the Sanctum bulletin."
The news ends and the screen continues with the romance movie. Of course, Serah and Vanille are both too shocked to continue to watch them. They can't believe all those innocent lives at steak. Not to mention to Serah, her sister is being sent down there to handle the situation.
Vanille stands up gasping. "I can't believe that's really happening!"
"I know. My sister is down there. Lightning..."
Lightning and the Private soldiers are riding over the canyons of Cocoon. The soldier girl keeps her eyes open in the canyons, for the train.
"Sergeant! the tracks!" Luke announces.
Lightning turns at Luke's direction, to see the train tracks. "Follow them!"
Lightning and the soldiers drives their Velocycles above the tracks, following it. At the incident, the train is at the risk of explosion, the head of the train is already on fire. The passengers inside are panicking, as their final moments are drawing near.
Lightning and the soldiers arrives. "The train!" Lightning announces. they landed their Velocycles on the wide opened area by the train. Lightning hops off of the Velocycle and she and the soldiers gets on the train. Luckily, the wheels have stopped spinning since they're on that side of the train.
Lightning stands on the train, looking at the situation. "This is bad." Lightning whispers.
Luke and Gus looks on the other side of the train, the roof of it. The only emergency exit they found is blocked by a bunch of boulders. Gus stands on the train and meets up with Lightning.
"Sergeant! The Emergency Exit is blocked. The citizens are trapped." Gus says.
"Find another one." Lightning says.
Luke joins in. "I've searched everywhere, there's no other emergency exits."
Lightning is disappointed to hear that. "There's only one? Who's the blockhead that made this train?" Lightning sighs, thinking for a moment. Her thoughts were interrupted when an explosion happens and the rumbling of the train staggers her and the soldiers. They look at the engine, it's about to explode, and the vibrations of the train is causing a rock-alanche at one of the box cars.
"The train's about to blow." Gus says.
"I know. Okay...I see we have no other choice." Lightning jumps off the train and heads for one of the containers in the Velocycle. Lightning takes out a buzz saw, then returns to the train. She kneels down beside her comrades. "We're going have to make a new exit."
"What? That's crazy." Luke says.
Lightning looks at Luke. "You have any other ideas?"
"On second thought, let's start cutting." Luke and Gus heads back to the Velocycles, to pick up their buzz saws. The citizens inside the train are panicking, banging on the walls of the train, trying to get out. They become startled when they look up to see buzz saws cutting through the metal wall.
They start to relax when they noticed the saws are cutting the metal, until they create an opening. Lightning looks in, noticing the worried citizens. "Everyone out! Hurry!"
In a rush, everyone starts to climb out of the train. Those that are out hop off the train and get to a safe distance. Children became the first ones to come out. The rest inside start to take the packages from within the train, so no one is losing anything. I wonder if anyone's gonna grab Hope's and Nora's packages.
As the citizens are starting to escape, Lightning's starting to get this bad feeling. Not about the train, but a presence. She looks up to see more Velocycles arriving. She's confused, she isn't expecting any reinforcements. Of course, she becomes disappointed when she realizes as soon as the Velocycle's landed, it's Snow Villiers and team NORA.
Snow and NORA rushes up to the train. When they're on, Snow sees Lightning. "Hey, sis."
"I'm not your sister!" Lightning says. "What the hell are you doing here?"
"We're heard the news about the accident. We come to help." Snow says.
"This is my mission, Snow. Stay out of it!" An explosion happens. It's more powerful then the last. Lightning and Snow looks at the train engine, they can tell the next one is going to be the big bang.
"Sergeant Farron, their are too many trapped inside! We're not going to make it!" Gus says.
Lightning sighs then looks at Snow. "Fine. You can help! Just don't goof off, this is very serious."
Gabot, Yuj and Lebreau take the buzz saws, cutting in more exits on the train wall. More and more citizens come out of the train. "Hurry, everyone out!" Lightning yells.
The new holes on the train are made and more passengers comes out of them. In about five minutes, everyone gathers at the wide open area, in the safe distance. Lightning and Snow runs up to the crowd while the last few are coming out.
"Is that everyone?" Lightning says.
"Wait!" A women makes her way through the crowd. "My daughter! She's not here!"
Snow looks back at the train and runs towards it. Lightning turns looking at Snow. "Snow, what are you doing?! Stop!" Snow climbs back on the train and jumps inside. The inside of the train is pretty messed up, large boulders are pilled up everywhere. The rock-alanches manages to break through the wall.
Snow searches in the train. "Hey! Anyone in here?!" Snow shouts.
There was no answer, but Snow kept searching. Soon enough, Snow hears something crying for help. It sounds like...a little girl. Snow follows the sound, it leads him to a train seat that's knocked over, and the space beneath it is blocked by the boulders.
"Hang on!" Snow shoves the boulders out of the way, he tries hard to do it fast. Outside of the train, everyone looks at the train. They all know that Snow's inside, the mother is more worried about her daughter.
Lightning doesn't look worried, but she is concerned. Which is odd since she can't stand her 'brother'. The engine room explodes, and the explosion wipes out the rest of the train, one-by-one, like a fuse. Everyone gasps at the sight of it.
Finally, Snow jumps out of the train. By the time he leaps off, the explosion happens on that box car, blowing Snow away. Snow lands rough on the ground, rolling away with the little girl protected in his arms.
Lightning rushes up to Snow when he stops rolling. The soldier girl helps him sit up, then takes the little girl to help her stand. Seeing the little girl, the mother runs up to Lightning and Snow.
"Angelica!"
The little girl sees her mother and runs to her. "Mommy!" Both of them mets each other half away for a hug. Lightning and Snow watches the both of them. The little girl was crying in fear. "I'm scared, mommy."
"It's okay, sweetie. You're safe now. You're okay." The mother says. Snow stands up. The mother carries Angelica and walks up to Snow. "Thank you for saving my little girl, mister."
"Hey, that's what Heroes do." Snow says, with a smile and a wink. Lightning growls in irritated of Snow's arrogance and slaps him in the back of the head. Snow looks at Lightning from that hit. "Hey, come on. Don't be like that."
"Humph. It was heroic of you, I'll admit." Lightning says.
"Well, you seemed worried back there." Snow says.
"I wasn't worried for a minute. You're too stubborn to die." Lightning walks away, taking out her phone to make a call.
While she's calling her general, Snow looks back at the crowd, they all seem worried. Gabot walks up to Snow. "What now, boss?"
"Not sure. We wait I guess." Snow says. Snow gives everyone an announcement. "Everyone remain calm! The Guardian Corps are gonna handle this situation as soon as possible."
Lightning reports the situation to General Amodar. They have a conversion about it, then Lightning hangs up. Lightning walks back to the crowd, standing next to Snow.
"Everyone, listen up!" Everyone stops talking and gives Lightning their attention. "Transportation will be arriving soon. We're gonna take you to Bodhum. Those of you who live there, we will safely take you to your homes. The rest of you, we'll find a temporary home for you to live."
Lightning walks away after her announcement. Private Luke walks up to Lightning. "Sergeant Farron. I just speak to the engineer. I think we have a situation."
"Great, just what I need. What is it?" Lightning asks.
"Before the emergency exit was blocked, a few citizens have escaped." Luke says.
"So, where are they?" Lightning asks.
"Yeah...that's the situation." Luke takes Lightning to the bridge, on the very opened edge where Nora and Hope fell from. "We've searched everywhere, no citizens were found. But we did find something. Look down there."
Lightning looks down over the bridge. She can hardly see it, but she can tell someone's been there. Lightning and Luke slides down the cliff, landing on the ground. Lightning gets a closer look on the ground. Just as she thought: Footprints.
"Someone's been here. And it's leading to..." Lightning looks ahead at where the tracks are heading. She stands up looking at the woods. "Jagd Woods."
"Jagd Woods? Isn't that place dangerous?" Luke says.
"Extremely. Only an idiot would go there alone, elite soldier or not. Those citizens aren't gonna last that long in there." Lightning says.
"What should we do, Sergeant Farron?" Luke asks.
Lightning looks at Luke. "I'm going in, see if I can save them before they're as good as dead."
"What about the other civs?" Luke asks.
"Transportation will arrive soon to pick them up. I'm putting you in charge of taking care of it." Lightning says.
"Re-really?" Luke salutes. "I'm honored, Sergeant."
"Right. Just make sure 'hero' boy doesn't do anything stupid." Lightning heads towards the woods. "Don't wait up on me."
Lightning and Luke went their separate ways. Lightning maybe tough, but is she prepared to face what the forest has to throw at her, while looking for and probably protect the helpless Nora and Hope?