Chapter 71: The Glass Elevator
We stood looking over the place, wondering what to make of it. None of us had ever been to a place like this in our lives. There were stores on both sides of all three floors. There were moving escalators and kiosks as well.
"Amazing, Madam President!" Jack Balen's voice suddenly called over the loudspeaker. "I wasn't expecting you to make it this far."
"Where's my daughter!" Tifa called out furiously.
"In a safe place," Balen replied. "Until midnight, that is."
"Hand her over!" she demanded. "This is between you and me!"
"You know my terms," Balen reminded her. "Appoint me vice president and resign, and your daughter goes free."
Aerith didn't need to tell me they would kill her anyway; the stories she told me made me well aware of it.
"I don't care how big this place is!" Tifa snarled. "I'll tear it apart until I find her! And Boomda is going to be your grave!"
Jack Balen began to cackle over the loudspeaker.
"You think this place is called 'Boomda?'" he taunted. "Maybe you're not as smart as I thought you were!"
Remember, "Boomda" was what it read on the outside with missing letters.
Tifa then turned to Tobin and I.
"If it's okay with you, I've had enough of this, and I'd like to start looking for my daughter."
We nodded in agreement.
We then proceeded forward.
"What is this Boomda, anyway?" Tobin asked. "What was it for?"
"There were letters missing," I pointed out. "Look."
Behind us, there was an identical sign behind us at the exit of the area we had just left. Only there were no letters missing. It read: BLOOMINGDALE'S.
"Taken from the Old World," Tifa repeated. "Piece by piece."
"Wrong," Jack Balen said over the loudspeaker. "This place is indeed from the Old World. But it was teleported here by an experiment."
"He can hear everything we say," Tifa whispered. "We need to keep quiet."
"He can't hear me," Aerith dismissed as she appeared to us.
Tifa and I, of course, stopped in our tracks, leaving poor Cloud and Tobin confused.
"Don't say anything," Aerith warned. "Don't understand me?"
Tifa and I nodded in unison.
"Ada isn't in any of these stores," Aerith began. "She's being held in the security office. It's on this floor, further down. No harm has come to her."
Tifa breathed a sigh of relief.
"But," Aerith continued, "it's not like they don't have any defenses. They've got men. They've got machines. But nothing worse than the Shinra Building. Just stick together."
With that, she vanished.
At that moment, Tifa spotted Cloud heading for one of the stores to search for Ada.
"We need to stick together," she commanded.
"But Ada could be in there!" he protested.
"Cloud," Tifa insisted, "trust the women who love you."
That was a subtle clue that Aerith had spoken to her, and Cloud caught on it.
Suddenly, we all heard the sound of footsteps.
Human footsteps.
We soon saw five troopers with Eastern Continent uniforms charging toward us.
"Looks like we've got trouble," Tobin said.
Tifa stretched her arms.
"Looks like we've got a party!" she declared.
With that, she darted ahead of us.
Tifa grabbed two of them and conked their heads together. She then grabbed a third one, and tossed him over the ledge. She kicked the fourth one in the balls, and threw him over the ledge as well. The fifth one tried to throw a punch, but she grabbed his arm, broke it, knocked him to the ground, and stomped on his chest.
It was a side of Tifa I had never seen before. The fact that she was a mother now seemed to make her even more dangerous than I knew her to be. Capture baby bear, mama bear comes after you.
She turned to the three of us, and smiled.
"And I thought I'd have lost my edge after two years," she said.
Of course, none of us left unprepared. I brought my shuriken. Tobin brought his nunchucks. Cloud brought his buster sword. Tifa brought her fists.
As we progressed down the corridor, Aerith suddenly appeared again.
"They're sending something after you," she warned us. "Something your weapons will be useless against."
"Thanks for the warning," I said.
"There's an elevator further down," Aerith continued. "It's the only way up. Get there before it does."
She then disappeared.
"What's it?" I asked aloud.
"I think we're going to find out soon enough," Tifa replied ominously.
Just then, two large humanoid robots dashed out of one of the stores. One was red and thick; the other was blue and thin.
We all immediately drew our weapons.
"Mighty grunts!" Cloud announced.
She charged the red one and sliced it in half with his buster sword.
I got the blue one, decapitating it with my shuriken.
"You dealt with them before?" I asked.
"One attacked me in the Shinra Building elevator two years ago," he replied. "I haven't forgotten."
Further up ahead, five robots on spiked orbs came our way.
"Moth slashers," muttered Cloud. "I hate those things."
He sliced one in half with his buster sword.
Tobin took out two of them with his nunchucks.
I stabbed one with my giant shuriken.
Tifa kicked the last one, sending into the air, over the ledge, and down to the bottom floor, shattering it to pieces.
"It's that the best you can do, asshole?!" Tifa shouted in a broken voice.
Although she was doing the best she could to keep her composure, she was no doubt beyond distraught for her daughter's life.
I was worried how much longer she would be able to function.
Further up, the glass elevator came into view.
"There it is," Tifa sighed. "It looks like we made it!"
Suddenly, a loud clanking sound began. It was the sound of a heavy metallic object clanking against the floor.
Cautiously, I approached the ledge.
Then, I peered over, and I saw what Aerith had warned us about.
It was ten feet tall.
It was emerald green.
It had three legs, a turret, and nothing else.
"A walker," Tifa whispered. "I've heard about those, but I've never actually seen one."
It was on the bottom level, slowly approaching the elevator.
And then, I moved.
It was a mistake.
The walker fired a laser beam in our direction.
It missed us, but it fired right into the store behind us, causing it to be destroyed in an explosion.
"You can't defeat it," Aerith warned as she appeared. "Not with your weapons. And once it gets up here, it'll kill you all in thirty seconds flat."
"That's uplifting," I said sarcastically.
"Cloud," Tifa whispered. "Cut the elevator wires."
But Cloud shook his head.
"Cloud!" Tifa whispered again. "We only have one chance at this!"
"Wait," he mouthed.
Both Tifa and I soon realized what he meant.
If he destroyed the elevator now, the walker would still be able to attack us from the ground floor.
All we could do was wait for the walker to reach the elevator and get on.
The elevator door closed on the ground level.
"Now!" Tifa whispered.
Cloud sprang up and sliced at the elevator wires.
Unfortunately, they were too high.
The elevator dinged; it, as long with its contents, was at the second floor.
Tobin lifted Cloud on his shoulders.
Cloud desperately swiped his buster sword at the wires, but they were still only a hair too high.
"Dammit!" he shouted.
In a few seconds, it would be too late.
Cloud continued to reach for the wires.
The elevator dinged.
Suddenly, Cloud felt himself ascend another foot.
Tifa had lifted Tobin up by the legs.
It was now or never.
Cloud sliced through the wires with his buster sword.
The elevator door opened less than an inch before the car dropped, crashing down and smashing to pieces on the bottom level. Suddenly, there was an explosion; when I peeked over the ledge, I saw pieces of the walker everywhere.
Tifa then let Tobin down, who, in turn, let Cloud down.
"You okay?" Tobin asked.
"I think I pulled my groin," she muttered.
She then smiled.
"Just kidding, cuz," she laughed.
Tifa then turned to Cloud.
"I knew you could do it," she said before placing her hands on his shoulders and kissing him.
Tifa cracked her knuckles, and faced down the corridor.
"Hold on, Ada," she said. "Mom's coming."