Chapter 102

Shinra Ambush

Zack glared at Rufus. "You used us to lead you here!" he accused.

Rufus nodded. "And you helped us determine the location of AVALANCHE's hideout, of which I am appreciative," he replied confidently.

"Now, let's squash these vermin!" Heidegger cheered.

Barret held his right wrist and prepared to aim his gun arm at the Shinra executives. "Y'all Shinra are the vermin, killing the planet and busting up people as far as it conveniences you!" he accused. He focused his glare on Rufus. "And you're their president! That makes you King VERMIN! The dirtiest rat in this trash hole!" Sora, Kairi and Donald could not help but to snicker.

"They didn't do anything!" Zack argued. "You know they didn't!"

"The people won't care, so long as there is something to placate their anxiety," Rufus claimed calmly. "The sight of the reactor blowing up pushed them to the brink of panic. Hearing that justice has been served will calm them down."

"But that'd be a lie! You're just using it as an excuse to persecute people who don't agree with you!" Sora shouted back.

"People are ignorant," Rufus replied. "They'll feel better as long as someone is punished."

"Some Public Safety department," Riku quipped bitterly. "You don't care about the well-being of the people."

Rufus frowned and brushed his bangs aside. "I thank you for vanquishing the Heartless threat in my city, but from here onward, you are dismissed. I would suggest you leave, and let us handle our business," he said coldly. He turned to speak to Heidegger, but turned back when he heard the five Keyblade wielders, the wizard, and the knight summon their weapons. Zack pulled his sword off of his back, and Barret raised his arm up and pointed the gun prosthetic at Rufus and Heidegger.

"We can't let you do that," Zack declared.

Rufus raised an eyebrow. "You would turn against us now?" he asked.

Zack's eyes narrowed. "A SOLDIER First Class has the privilege to refuse orders if he so chooses," he said. "I stuck with this even when Shinra did unspeakable things because I wanted to help people and do the right thing to the best possible ability. But now, the best position is right here, and the wrong side is right in front of me."

"And you're gonna be the hero now?" Heidegger spat.

Zack smirked. "It's what I always wanted. And better now than never, right?"

Rufus turned around and strolled through the crowd of infantrymen. "Burn AVALANCHE to the ground," he ordered calmly.

Behind his bushy beard, Heidegger grinned maliciously. He pointed forward. "Charge!" he yelled.

One of the soldiers prepared to simply open fire, but Aqua cast a Fire spell to blast the gun out of his hands, which also sent him flying. Eight troops charged forward to engage, so Sora, Riku, Zack, and Goofy ran up to meet them. The troops attempted to strike them with their batons as well as use close-range fire, but the swordsmen swiftly overpowered their foes with a few combo strings while Goofy easily blocked the gunfire with his shield, even at one point pinning his shield up to the end of the barrel of one of the guns, causing the firearm to explode in the troop's hands while Goofy did not budge.

Aqua glanced around and saw that there were civilians on the scene. She turned to face Barret. "Mr. Barret, we need to get everyone out of the way safely," she said before running off to help some of the people out of the crossfire.

Barret stared after her, somewhat dumbfounded. "Who you callin' Mr. Barret?" he mumbled. "That don't sound right." Nevertheless, he got to work, shouting for people to get clear while keeping his gun arm trained on the Shinra soldiers. One of the troops turned to target him, but he quickly shot him down with a few spinning rounds.

Some of the troops fired at the diner, but Mickey and Kairi used Reflect to deflect the bullets while Donald cast Thundaga to disable the attackers. The three proceeded to use magic to dispel any troops that attempted to shoot up the diner and any AVALANCHE members inside.

While the fight went on, a figure crept up to the scene from behind the forces of Shinra. Holding an Entice-G in his hand, he snickered as he made his way to one of the Cutter Machines. He had asked the gerbil what he intended for the hacking Gummi blocks, to which he said that their use on the Shinra-made machines were only for practice with the technology. He also wanted to use the machines' scanners, which were used to determine friend from foe, to gather biometric readings on the Keyblade wielders and their companions, such as the First Class SOLDIER. The scientist, impressed with this research, requested an opportunity to personally gather an up-close real-time study of the visiting warriors. And so, he determined that he would take advantage of Shinra's plan to attack the AVALANCHE base to get his reading on the eight persons of interest.

A stuffed cat doll with black and white fur, wearing a gold-colored crown and red shoes, and carrying a miniature megaphone, the same toy that Marlene had been playing with earlier, slipped out of the diner's side door and, moving autonomously, ran up to get a closer look at the scene. It glanced around, surveying the danger.

From his surveillance point in his office, Reeve studied the image projected via the robotic doll's camera eyes. He sighed in exasperation. He had had a feeling that Rufus and Heidegger would attempt to trick Zack and the new guys. Now, he was wondering what he could do about it. Then, in the corner of the screen, he saw a shifty figure in white clothing, hiding behind some garbage.

"What's this?" he muttered to himself as he squinted to try to identify the figure. "What is that man doing?" He watched as the figure stepped up to one of the robots, unnoticed by all others, and reached up to jam the pink block into the robot's rear circuitry. "Oh dear. He's using another of those blasted Entice blocks!" He typed into his keyboard and toggled a joystick to make the cat doll move.

Zack knocked down a troop, but another one closed in behind him and pointed his gun at the back of his head. However, Aqua struck him in the head, then dealt a few more blows to knock him out. Zack turned to her and grinned. They both turned when they saw Cissnei approaching them, holding onto her collapsed shuriken.

"What is this?" the Turk asked. "Why are you fighting against us?"

"AVALANCHE didn't blow the reactor up," Zack told her. "Heidegger just tortured the guy and made that whole 'confession' up so he and Rufus could use it as an excuse to gun them down."

Cissnei blinked in surprise. "Are… Are you sure?"

Aqua nodded. "They didn't make the bomb. They couldn't have made the bomb."

Cissnei's eyes widened as she tried to process this information. She shook her head in disbelief, coming to understand that Shinra was not even doing something unethical under legitimate pretenses. This was just wrong.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw two infantrymen running up and aiming their guns at the diner. Stepping past Zack and Aqua, she opened up her shuriken, which was made of red and silver steel and consisted of a circle with four pointed blades, and raised it over her opposite shoulder. With a flick of her arm, she threw the shuriken, which looped around and struck the troops' guns, knocking the weapons out of their hands, then came back to hit them both in the face, making them stumble back.

Cissnei caught her shuriken and turned back to face Zack and Aqua. "We can't let that happen," she said resolutely. "Not again." She ran off and jumped, delivering a flying kick to another troop's head.

Tseng approached her, a puzzled look on his face. "What are you doing?" he asked. "Our orders were—"

"Until now, our superiors have been straight with us on our missions," the redhead interrupted, her tone showing restrained anger. "But here they deliberately concealed how wrong this sting is. Our mission directly implied by the 'orders' was to take out the terrorists responsible for the reactor bombing. But the intention behind this strike involves the murders of countless innocents in their desire for control. And I cannot stand for this injustice any longer." Tseng's expression remained unreadable. Cissnei stared coldly into his eyes. "I don't want to cross you, Tseng, but you can step back from this, or you can go down like that guy." She pointed at the troop she had kicked in the head to emphasize her point. When he tried to push himself to his feet and reached for his gun, she stomped him in the crotch, causing him to grunt in pain and slump back down, all without taking her eyes from Tseng.

Several seconds passed without Tseng making any change in expression, rendering it difficult to tell what was going through his head. Finally, he took a small step back. "The paperwork is going to be trouble," he muttered. He stepped further backward, leaving Cissnei to her decision.

Sora and Riku tag-teamed on an infantryman until they knocked him down and Riku heavily damaged his gun. Another troop raised his gun and aimed to shoot Sora from behind, but the spiky-haired boy whirled around just as he was pulling the trigger and raised his Keyblade to deflect the hail of bullets. A nearby generator exploded as the bullets found their new destination. The troop gulped in fright as Sora thrust himself forward and slammed him through the air with the head of his Keyblade.

Everyone who was not presently occupied with combat turned in surprise when they heard the mechanical spinning of a saw blade. One of the Cutter Machines shook wildly, as if its programming knew that something was wrong and was trying to fight back. It marched forward, at first slowly but then faster. It swung its arms, nearly shredding a few troops with its spinning blades.

Barret was bewildered. "What is going on?" he asked incredulously.

Mickey ran up to him. "It's been hacked," he told him. "We need to get everyone to safety."

"The lad is right." They turned to see the robotic cat doll approaching them and speaking to them in a Scottish brogue.

"Uh, why is Marlene's Cait Sith doll walking and talking?" Barret asked, simply confused.

"It's actually me, Reeve, controlling this robot remotely," the doll explained. "And for the record, it's not pronounced as it's spelled. It's actually supposed to be called 'Kett SHEE'."

Barret blinked. "Reeve? The Urban Development director?"

Cait Sith nodded. "Aye, chap. Someone's got control over the Cutter Machine, and we need to do something about it."

"We could destroy it," Barret suggested.

Tseng approached the trio, drawing their attention. Barret raised his gun arm, but Tseng held up his hand, silently indicating that he need not use violence. "That would seem to be a viable option, but frankly, I am tired of having to deal with these out-of-control robots," he said. "We need to come up with a lasting solution to the problem."

Mickey and Cait Sith put their hands to their chins, contemplating what they could do. Mickey blinked, thinking of an idea. "Maybe we could hack back into it and turn the tables," he suggested.

Cait Sith nodded. "Brilliant! I saw someone plug it in from behind, though I couldn't make out who."

Barret thumbed his gun prosthetic. "Then how about we take the sneak out ourselves?"

Cait Sith shook his head. "If he sees us coming, he'll probably hightail it," he argued. "Mickey's right. If I can use my megaphone as a conduit and amplifier, I can take control of it right from my computer. But we'll need something that can let me bypass the Gummi block's innate firewalls."

Mickey reached into his pocket and pulled out the Gummi Ship remote. "This should work," he said.

"Give me a moment," Cait Sith requested. A moment passed as Reeve set up a connection to the remote. "There we are! Now, let me see if I can override the remote that's already linked."

In the meantime, Rufus ordered a troop controlling the other robots to attack the diner's defenders while everyone else moved to avoid the rogue robot. Zack moved to destroy the hacked Cutter Machine, but stopped when Tseng relayed the plan over the comm link. He instead focused on fighting the other two robots, promptly slicing off one of the saw arms.

Kairi sent three troops flying around with an Aerora spell while Donald blasted two others with a Blizzaga. Goofy took four out with his tornado spin. Aqua defended against gunfire with her Barrier and took a few more troops out with melee and magic attacks. Riku assaulted one of the robots, slicing its circuitry with his Keyblade and using a ball of Dark Fire to blow up its engine.

Sora threw his Keyblade to knock out a troop that aimed his gun at Mickey and Barret from a distance, then turned around when he heard a gruff chuckle. He found himself facing Heidegger, who was holding a submachine gun and pointing it at him.

"Game's up," Heidegger taunted. "Gya haa—"

The Keyblade returned to Sora's hand and he promptly brought it down on Heidegger's gun, slicing it into two pieces.

"Huh?" Heidegger gasped in surprise and bemusement.

Sora reared his left fist back and punched Heidegger in the face, sending him stumbling backward and causing him to drop his broken gun. "How about you stop that stupid horse laugh?" he muttered irritably.

Back by the corner of the diner, Cait Sith jumped with an audible cartoonish bounce. His megaphone hummed and beeped. "Got it!" he announced. He turned and held the megaphone in front of his mouth as if he was about to shout something. "I'm taking control of the robot."

On cue, the jittery robot stopped its rampage and turned around. It marched away from the main area of the fight, making its way toward where Reeve knew the enemy hacker was hiding.

Hojo continuously mashed buttons on his tablet, wondering why the Entice-G was not responding to his controls. When he heard the robot's saw blades spin, he gulped. He got to his feet and, bending over to avoid being seen, shuffled away from the crate that he had been crouching behind.

Reeve snickered. "Let's try the Death Joker," he hissed as he typed in commands to initiate the robot's self-destruct system.

A few seconds later, the Cutter Machine was engulfed in a fiery explosion. Reeve lost connection to the robot as the Entice-G was consumed in the blast. Hojo was thrown off of his feet. He lost his grip on the tablet, which hit a wall and broke to pieces. Hojo's glasses also fell off and shattered on the ground. Turning to see that everyone's attention was taken by the flames, the scientist decided that it would be best if he made his escape.

Barret let out a triumphant scream. Mickey jumped with joy. Cait Sith hopped and cheered while Reeve slouched back in his chair and crossed his hands behind his head in satisfaction. Tseng simply smiled and nodded.

As Heidegger regained his senses, he looked around to see the robots all destroyed, Zack and Cissnei having destroyed the last one, and his soldiers beaten and disoriented. He saw some of the slums' civilians returning to the scene to see what was going on. A few of them picked up trash and started to throw it at the Shinra operatives, yelling and jeering as they did so. He gritted his teeth and clenched his fists in anger. "MEN!" he shouted. "GUN THEM—"

"Enough!" Rufus interrupted. "Stand down. It would be best that we retire from this venture."

Heidegger looked at his boss in disbelief. He attempted to protest, but Rufus glared at him, shutting him up. Sighing, he turned to address his troops. "Pull back, men," he ordered reluctantly. The infantrymen stood up, with some difficulty, and followed Rufus and Heidegger as they retreated from the field.

The civilians cheered and shouted. Barret let out his own yell. "Yeah! You better run, you vermin!"

The party regrouped, trading high-fives and laughing. "Okay, that felt good," Zack said with pride.

"We should probably go up with them," Mickey advised, "and make sure they leave AVALANCHE alone."

"And let Zack and Cissnei keep their jobs," Aqua added.

Donald cocked his head in confusion. "Why would they want that?" he asked.

"They might keep Shinra in line," Riku replied. "And they'd be able to do more good working in Shinra instead of being hunted by Shinra."

Back in Rufus' office, the president of the Shinra Corporation sat at his desk, clasping his hands together as he leaned against the desk, considering his options. Sora, Riku, Aqua, Mickey, Kairi, Donald, Goofy, and Zack stood across from him. Heidegger, Scarlet, and Reeve flanked the desk, with Hojo having apparently refused to come up from his lab to join the meeting. The Turks flanked the party. Tseng and Rude kept their stoic expressions while Reno looked around nervously and Elena failed to hide her curiosity. Cissnei tried to keep a straight face, but could not help but smirk when her eyes met Zack's.

"Well, today has been quite interesting," Rufus began. "First, you did us all a favor by defeating the Heartless attackers, but then you turned against us and fought our soldiers."

"That's because you—" Sora started to protest, but Kairi put her hand on his shoulder to calm him down, shaking her head to tell him to leave it be.

"On the other hand, you aided in countering the hacker's attacks, and we can assume that he was either killed in the explosion or he was discouraged from resuming his abuse of the Entice Gummi Blocks as you had turned the technology against them. So I suppose I should extend my gratitude."

Scarlet chuckled. "Regardless of how the assault went, we now know where AVALANCHE is hiding out," she said confidently. "Next time, we'll—"

"You won't be doing anything," Riku interrupted, shaking his head.

"What do you mean by that?" Rufus asked.

"He means that if you try anything like you did tonight and endanger innocent people, or if you go after AVALANCHE without a legitimate justification, you'll be in even deeper trouble than you were all day today," Sora replied.

"Care to elaborate?" Rufus pressed, growing annoyed.

Sora smirked and shrugged mockingly. "Those rogue robots caused a lot of chaos and destruction. You weren't happy about them, and neither were the people who were caught in the middle of this mess, above and below the plate. It would be a shame if everyone found out about the Entice-G's that caused the mess, and the fact that you've been experimenting with them."

Scarlet gasped and Heidegger growled. Rufus glared at Sora and Riku. "You expect us to take your threats kindly?" he asked sternly.

Zack shrugged. "We could tell them now, if you like," he said. Reeve pulled his phone out and tossed it to Zack, who caught it and flipped it open. "Although, I can't imagine AVALANCHE will be happy."

There was a moment of tense silence as they found themselves at a standoff. Finally, Rufus sighed. "What do you want me to do?" he asked.

"Let that AVALANCHE guy, Porkins, go. He didn't do anything you can properly charge him for," Riku said. "Leave AVALANCHE alone, and don't go after them unless they do anything severe that deserves justice, and not to any extent disproportionate to what is deserved. So, if they happen to blow up a factory after hours with minimal casualties, don't do anything such as dropping one section of the city onto another section of the city. And when you're taking on a situation in the streets, make sure that your soldiers don't inflict collateral damage and endanger civilians. Got it?"

Heidegger scoffed. "And if we refuse?"

"Heidegger…" Rufus groaned.

"You know what, never mind. You can keep your Entice-G locked up," Sora said in a tone of blatant false reassurance. "And we should also hang onto the one we got ahold of." Donald took the Gummi Block that he had collected out of his pocket and showed it off to the executives. "It would be a shame if it fell out somewhere and landed in the city streets, or in the slums for anyone to find."

There was another moment of tense silence. Mickey, Zack and Aqua beamed at Sora and Riku with pride. Kairi had to cover her mouth with her hand to hide a wide smile. Reno grinned with amusement.

Rufus finally ended the standoff with a nod. "Very well. We agree to your terms," he said.

"What?!" Heidegger and Scarlet were flabbergasted.

Rufus stood up. "If our business is concluded, you may go now. I'm sure you have work to do elsewhere."

Sora grinned. "Thank you, President Shinra," he said. With that, he, Riku, Kairi, Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Aqua, and Zack turned around and made their way to the elevator.

It was not until they reached the ground floor that they began to chat amongst themselves about the events on the top floor. Kairi, Donald and Goofy burst out laughing, with Sora, Zack, Aqua, Mickey, and Riku soon following.

"I can't believe you just blackmailed those guys!" Kairi said in between laughs.

Riku shrugged. "Had to do something to get them to listen," he replied as if it was no big deal.

Sora let out another laugh. "What about all that legal jargon? You really sounded like you meant business!"

"You really think they'll clean up their act?" Aqua asked.

"If they know what's good for them!" Donald answered haughtily.

Zack nodded. "News of the robots going nuts and the attack on the AVALANCHE diner won't help with public opinion," he explained. "And with the panic from the reactor blowing up, they won't really be able to afford more of a scandal. And with the Heartless making waves again, I doubt they'll really want to have you as enemies."

"I couldn't agree more." Everyone turned to see Reeve and the Turks exiting one of the elevators and making their way over to them. Reeve carried one of his Cait Sith dolls, which Mickey guessed was also a robot. "We had a conference after you left," the Urban Development director continued.

Tseng turned to face Zack. "In spite of the insubordination in which you participated to do the right thing, the president stated that he will allow you and Cissnei to retain your jobs," he explained. "He did not appear to be in the mood to go through the complicated and secure procedure of dismissing you."

Zack nodded. "Good to hear," he replied.

"And we are going to start making sure that the president and the SOLDIERs enforce the less-brutal police work that Riku advised," Rude added.

"That'll take a load off your shoulders, huh?" Kairi told Reeve, sympathetic of his earlier complaints of having to clean up the troops' messes in the city.

Reeve gave a soft smile and nodded. "And I wanted you to have this," he said, handing the Cait Sith doll to Sora. "In case we need to communicate, we can do so through this friend." There was a brief pause as he thought of another option. "You don't have phones, do you?"

Riku, Mickey, Donald, and Goofy shook their heads, though Sora and Kairi cocked their heads in confusion. Was that what those were that they were using? Portable telephones? They then shook their heads along with Aqua.

Reeve shrugged. "Oh, well. I doubt they would work outside of this world's borders. But now that Mickey has supplied an uplink to your Gummi technology, Cait Sith should still work as a transceiver so long as it is in your ship."

Sora looked down at the Cait Sith doll in his hands, his gaze focusing on the whimsical expression on its face. Kairi giggled as she admired the stuffed animal. Jiminy slipped out of Sora's pocket and hopped up to his shoulder to get a look at the doll.

"Thank you," Mickey said.

"Well, I guess we should get going," Riku said.

"Take care!" Goofy said, waving.

Zack nodded. He turned to face Aqua, although he addressed everyone else to some extent as well. "Good luck finding what you're looking for. I know you'll find it. Just remember to embrace your dreams. And no matter what happens, protect your honor, as a Keyblade Master and a hero," he advised. He put his fist over his heart. "It's what's in here that counts."

Aqua smiled. "You too, Zack," she said. She took a step forward and reached up to give him a kiss on the cheek, then took a step back. Cissnei let out a slight chuckle. "Take it from someone who's had to walk around in empty hopelessness: there is always a light to guide you in the darkness. Oh, and I'll let Philoctetes and Hercules know that you made hero if I see them."

With that, the party backed away and began to take their leave, waving good-bye to Zack, Reeve, Tseng, Cissnei, Reno, Rude, and Elena. Kairi reached over to grab Cait Sith's arm and make the doll wave good-bye as well, earning laughter from Sora, Reeve, Zack, and Reno. They located a Safe Point in the corner of the lobby and used it to beam up to the Gummi Ship. Reno, Rude and Elena's jaws dropped and eyes widened when they saw them vanish in a column of light.

Sora set Cait Sith on the floor of the cockpit, with Donald declaring that he would put together a better place to put it.

"Well, that was something, wasn't it," Jiminy said as he sat in the cupholder, writing down the events that occurred on Shin-Ra.

"We never actually found out who was responsible for the hackings and the bombing, did we?" Goofy realized.

Mickey shook his head. "I suppose we'll have to leave the investigation to the Turks," he said. "But I have a feeling that the hacker isn't from that world. With luck, we managed to drive him off by using the same trick against him."

Sora blinked and slapped his forehead as he remembered something that he had forgotten about. "We never got Zack to tell us where he got that sword!"

When Donald and Goofy realized what he was talking about, they sighed and slumped slightly. However, Riku and Kairi looked at Sora with confused expressions. "What's the big deal about that sword?" Kairi asked.

Sora shook his head in self-directed disappointment. "It looked like the same sword that Cloud had," he explained.

Riku, Kairi, Mickey, and Jiminy's jaws dropped.

A/N: Ooh. Cliffhanger. If any of you were worried that Cloud didn't appear in this arc, don't worry. When we get back to Shin-Ra, he'll be a central character. Hojo's insane experiments will also be explored further in that period.