Chapter 51: Shinra's Dark Secret
MEANWHILE, BACK IN THE PRESENT...
July 9, 0011
Yuffie, Red XIII, Barret, Jessie, and DiStefano stood before the door at the bottom of the elevator, bracing themselves.
The first door slid open, revealing another door behind it.
The second door slid open, and Yuffie's eyes were greeted by a flash of green.
"This can't be the sewers," DiStefano said out loud.
"We're beneath them," Red XIII informed her. "This is the crust."
Jessie eyed the green glow.
"Is this Lifestream, or Mako?" she inquired.
"God only knows," Barret relplied.
"Nero has to be down here," Yuffie began. "And probably Weiss, too."
She turned, and scanned everyone.
"Let's do this," she said.
Yuffie led everyone down a catwalk and a flight of stairs. It was a strange place they were in; it seemed both natural and man-made at the same time.
Two gargoyles began to bear down, and Yuffie killed them both with a shuriken.
Six more arrived.
Barret dispatched two with his gun-arm.
DiStefano took care of two more with her laser blaster.
One flew too close to Red XIII; he grabbed it with his mouth and literally shook it to death.
Jessie killed the last one with her nunchucks.
"I had a feeling this wouldn't be any cakewalk," she said.
Yuffie then resumed leading them, jumping down the platforms. She then led them through a lighted tunnel.
Beyond the tunnel, Yuffie spotted two Deepground soldiers with their backs turned. She quickly killed them both with a shuriken.
As she led them down another platform, somebody shouted: "They're here!"
All hell broke loose, with Deepground soldiers firing, and drones suddenly attacking as well.
Barret and DiStefano dispatched the Deepground soldiers as quickly as possible. Jessie destroyed half of the drones with her nunchucks, while Yuffie destroyed the remaining ones with her Conformer.
Yuffie then led the group through another tunnel.
On the other side, there were five armored Deepground soldiers.
"There's just an endless supply of them!" Barret said as he opened fire with his gun-arm.
Suddenly, blue force fields appeared around the soldiers.
"They've got shields!" he exclaimed.
Yuffie, not missing a beat, charged at the troops.
The troops began to open fire.
Yuffie slid forward, and sprang to her feet inches away from three of the troops.
She quickly swung her Conformer and decapitated all three of them.
Then, before the other two could react, she swung her Conformer again, causing them to suffer the same fate.
She then turned to her friends, and cracked her knuckles.
"I'm the wrong chick to mess with!" she announced.
Yuffie then continued to lead them deeper into the complex. By this point, the green glow was completely gone, and only the dark metal was visible.
"Move out!" shouted a voice.
Barret quickly spotted two more Deepground soldiers, which he took care of with his gun-arm.
Another tunnel then beheld them a few feet away. Upon entering, Yuffie noticed it was different; it was larger, wider, and made of stone.
Yuffie took several steps in before she looked up and noticed holes in the ceiling.
"What's wrong?" Jessie asked.
"Hold on," Yuffie replied.
With that, she held out her Conformer.
A series of bullets were fired from above, causing everyone to jump.
"They're coming from the ceiling!" Red XIII exclaimed.
"They must really want us to stay out of here," DiStefano said.
"Like that means anything to me!" Yuffie laughed.
She carefully held out her Conformer.
No more bullets came.
"I think it's one and done," Yuffie announced.
With that, she carefully stepped forward.
"Looks like it was a one-shot deal!" Yuffie said.
All the same, she kept stepping slowly, with her Conformer out in front of her at all times.
Suddenly, another series of bullets fired out of the ceiling.
"Shit!" Barret exclaimed.
Yuffie waved her Confirmer again to make sure no more bullets would come. She then led the rest of the way.
"She's braver than I thought," Red XIII whispered.
"I heard that!" Yuffie said. "Is it because I'm nineteen years old or because I'm a girl?"
Instead of answering, Red XIII gave her a sheepish look.
Beyond the tunnel, they found themselves in a chamber very similar to one that would contain a roller coaster at Gold Saucer.
A vehicle on a track lay before them.
"It looks like we're supposed to get on," Yuffie deduced before hopping in.
Barret, Jessie, DiStefano, and Red XIII followed her.
Suddenly, the room rotated.
This did not sit well with Yuffie, whose motion sickness immediately kicked in.
The vehicle then darted forward again, exiting the chamber and riding on a track outside, the green glow more prominent than before.
"This is great fun," Yuffie said sarcastically.
Moments later, they were outside the room, with the green glow having returned. The vehicle was still continuing on its track.
Jessie, meanwhile, noticed there were tracks above and to the side of their own.
"This doesn't look good," she said aloud.
Everyone was facing forward, looking toward their destination.
"Bogey on my six," DiStefano suddenly announced.
Everyone turned to see two vehicles, one on the side and one on the track above.
Both had three Deepground soldiers on them.
Barret quickly dispatched the first group of three with his gun-arm. Yuffie took care of the other three with shurikens.
The vehicle entered a dark chamber, and then began to rise. Then, the room turned again.
"Not responsible if you get hurled on!" Yuffie groaned.
The green tint of the Lifestream was visible once more.
And then, a giant drone appeared over them.
"Incoming!" Barret announced.
He quickly opened fire on it with his gun-arm, but the bullets did not appear to have any effect.
"Aim for the engine!" Red XIII commanded.
"I'm trying to!" Barret shouted.
The vehicle kept moving along the track with the drone in hot pursuit.
DiStefano fired her laser blaster, but that apparently did nothing.
And then, the drone fired missiles.
"Hit the deck!" Yuffie shouted as the missiles struck the track.
They did not damage the vehicle, but they did cause it to shake.
"That's it!" snarled Yuffie as she rose to her feet and pulled a shuriken out of her pocket. "I am not puking on this mission!"
She tossed the shuriken.
It ended up stuck in the outer armor of the drone.
"Yuffie," Red XIII began, "we need to be reasonable here. If we don't-"
The drone exploded.
"Holy shit!" Red XIII exclaimed.
The remains of the drone disappeared into the green abyss.
"How can you tell which one of those are explosive?" Barret exclaimed.
"I couldn't," Yuffie replied sheepishly. "Some are explosive and some aren't. It's totally random!"
Everyone gave her an annoyed look.
Everyone then turned to Red XIII.
"You swear?" Jessie asked.
"Doesn't everybody?" the quadruped replied.
And then, the vehicle entered another room, and came to a stop.
"Maybe it's for the best I'm banned from Gold Saucer," Jessie sighed.
The group disembarked, and made their way to the bottom of the room.
There, they all beheld a tunnel.
And it was leading to something green.
MEANWHILE…
The screen in the conference room displayed the names of the Tsivets.
ROSSO: MISSING
AZUL: DECEASED
NERO: ACTIVE
WEISS: ACTIVE
"We've used the jellyfish flood five times," the prime Tseng pointed out. "And Zack and Yuffie were the first to survive it."
"It ended up costing me Azul," sighed Rufus. "And the cleanup on that is a nightmare, anyway."
"Vincent, Lucrecia, and Zack escaped," the prime Elena pointed out.
"They're the least of our worries," Rufus dismissed. "Right now, that little Wutai snob is leading a party through one of our best-kept secrets. Only Nero and Weiss can stop them now."
"Should we send reinforcements?" the prime Rude inquired.
"Hell, no!" Rufus answered. "If this is compromised, we'll have to blow up the elevator."