CHAPTER 21
The foot steps were slow, rhythmic, and loud. Precisely one and a half seconds apart, expensive leather combat boots would strike the floor as Heidegger strut into the President's large 70th floor office. He held his bearded chin high, and swung his shoulders with such strength that most of his body followed the movement, his green, medal-decorated Colonel's uniform barely able to hold itself together on the both rotund and muscular man as he moved this way.
The office itself was almost the half the size of a football field. The floor was made of a rare metal which was reflective as glass; giant gold columns rose up in a spiral to support the eighteen foot high ceiling. In front of him, Heidegger observed the President's desk: A large, semi-circular bundle of computers which were dwarfed by large windows from where one could see half the city of Midgar. This is where he also saw the President himself, as expected.
"Sir!" Heidegger proclaimed, announcing his presence and saluting.
President Shinra formed a crooked, wrinkled smile at the familiar voice and turned around. "How is the plan proceeding?"
"Gya ha ha!" Heidegger laughed, his gut almost jiggling with the horse-ish sound, "Very well! I'm going to assign the Turks to this!"
"Mister President, I object to this!" came a deceptively young-sounding voice. The owner of the voice had dark hair which was slicked back behind him, and a dark goatee covering his pale face. He wore a meticulously ironed blue suit and tie, along with fancy suede shoes on his small, thin body.
"What's the matter, Reeve, you want out?" the President said almost threateningly.
"...No," Reeve hesitated. "But as head of Urban development, I've been involved in the planning and building of Midgar, which is why..."
"Reeve, flush your personal problems with the rest of your crap!" Heidegger spat.
"The mayor's against this, anyway..." the executive tried in vain, holding out his arms.
"Mayor?!" Heidegger mused, raising an eyebrow and shrugging. "All he does is sit in this building all day feeding his face. You still call that a mayor?"
Reeve, already flustered at the prospect of having to watch his hard work be destroyed, suddenly blurted out, "There's no guarantee that your information is right! For all you know they're based in sector six! Maybe they're based in KALM? You've said yourself they may have as many as a thousand members... There's nothing that..."
"If you'll excuse me, sir, I have more important things to do other than listen to Reeve cry!" Heidegger said to the president. With a salute, he then turned and vacated the large office.
Or tried to.
Tseng was in his way. "SIRS!" he announced. "I have excellent news. We've located where AVALANCHE is based!"
"Yes, Sector Seven..." Heidegger said dryly, lowering his eyebrows.
"..Sir?!" Tseng said, surprised.
"That's old news," Shinra commented, taking a puff of his cigar.
Tseng simply stood there for a moment. "Since WHEN?!"
"That mole we have in there reports directly to me!" Heidegger announced, "We've known where they've been for months!"
"But... he's MY man! Why wasn't -I- informed?!" Tseng asked almost complainingly.
Heidegger just shrugged. At this, Tseng turned on his heel and vacated the office, mumbling something about never being told anything. Heidegger followed a moment later.
"B-but... but..." Reeve tried. Unfortunately, he was too flustered to come up with anything more, despite the interruption. There was a tiny, TINY chance that he could sway the President, but not Heidegger, who could always talk the president back into this plan with much more ease.
"Relax, Reeve," the President started. "It's not like they only have a handful of ragtag trouble makers. Dyne and his cult are dangerous, and would probably destroy all you've worked so hard for anyway. This is the only way to contain them: exterminate them like the pests they are."
Reeve let out a sigh and bowed his head in defeat. The President walked up to him and placed an assuring hand on his shoulder. "Why don't you take the rest of the day off?"
The head of Urban Development simply gave Shinra a blank stare before turning towards the stairs. He walked, instead of ran crying -which is what he wanted to do- in a last ditch effort to preserve some sense of dignity.
Once Reeve was gone, the President took a puff of his cigar and smiled wickedly to himself. "We'll destroy Sector Seven, blame it on AVALANCHE, and send in the Rescue and Recovery teams care of Shinra, inc. This is perfect!"
***
"Whoooaaa!"
"Aaaaaaah!"
"Eeeeeeek!"
"WOO-HOOO!!!"
Tifa, Cloud, Aeris and Zack all flew out of the end of a large chute and into a mammoth, dilapidated sewer, the ground covered in almost a foot of soft, sludgy "water". Tifa managed to land on her feet and roll off the impact with a somersault. Aeris managed to use her staff to pole-vault the ground and help her land safely. Zack simply landed on his feet and skid several yards, holding his arms out as though he were surfing on water.
Cloud fell out of the chute and landed flat on his face into the murky, brown water. For a moment he lay there, before realizing he couldn't breath. Pushing down on his arms, he lift his face out of the slime and coughed out the bit which had managed to get into his mouth. It tasted enough like vomit that Cloud had actually found himself vomiting as a result. As he coughed out the last bit, he managed to resist the urge to tear up, though he was still visibly shaking.
Aeris raised an eyebrow at the display for a split second, but composed herself. Tifa and Zack had already gone over to help him up.
"Are you okay?" Tifa asked, though her voice seemed to hold something other than just concern. Something like... disappointment?
Cloud mumbled something incoherent and shook his head lightly.
"Yeah, well..." Zack started, "At least we're in the clear. Now we..."
Zack was interrupted when a loud growling noise came from an unknown source. The four companions turned to the wall behind them, as a large rusted gate began to open...
"Oookay, mebbe not!" Zack amended chipperly, drawing his sword.
As it emerged from the shadows, the lgiant, blue creature's features became more and more apparent. It was about twenty feet tall, and possessed large, wild red eyes and a pig-like snout. It was dressed in large tattered rags and had broken chains attached to its wrists and ankles. Its arms were large and muscular, and were about half the length of its body, making an odd contrast to its relatively short legs.
"APPS SMASH!" it proclaimed as eloquently as it could, beating its chest and looking at its latest supper with crazed, bulging eyes.
"Yeah? Well... ZACK SLASH!" the former SOLDIER retorted, running at the creature and cutting into its arm with his weapon.
Apps stood there with a despondent look on its face as Zack tried to get his sword out, which had somehow gotten stuck. With a roar, Apps swung his arm wildly, causing Zack to fly into a nearby wall, which he hit with a thud before going limp and falling into a heap like a rag doll.
"ZACK!" Cloud yelled. The creature then began to approach the other three, its footsteps echoing like thunder in the man-made cavern. Cloud whipped out his machine gun and went to fire... A dull "clk" was the only response his weapon would yield, as the companions came to the horrifying realization that the gun was jammed!
"Agh... I must of gotten sewer crap inside of it!" Cloud lamented as he tried desperately to fiddle with the weapon.
"Fix it!" Tifa commanded, "Aeris, I noticed materia in that rod of yours, hope you know how to use it!" she said quickly while dodging Apps's large hand as it swiped to grab her.
"I have to help Zack!" Aeris replied, noticing that Zack hadn't moved. Tifa's face filled with anger, but knew that the newcomer was right.
"Okay, go! I'll hold him off!" Tifa said, producing a grenade. She ran off to the side, away from Zack, and launched the small metal orb at the beast in front of her.
Exploding on impact, it caused Apps to reel in pain as green blood flew out of his shoulder, where the grenade had hit. It struck down at Tifa with its good arm, hitting only the ground as Tifa did a flying back-flip out of the way.
Apps then shot its head down at Tifa, trying to bite at her. Tifa skid back, but hit the wall as Apps's jagged-toothed jaws snapped a mere few inches from her face, its nauseatingly bad breath almost being enough to kill Tifa on its own. The young ninja stuck back, rapidly punching the large beast upon its pig-ish nose. Shrieking in pain, Apps retreated back for a moment...
While this was happening, Aeris was next to Zack, concentrating on her Restore materia. Unleashing a cure spell, she was relieved when Zack begun to stir while green light mended his injuries.
"How do you feel?" she asked hurriedly.
"Ow..." Zack barely managed to mutter.
"Good enough!" Aeris responded, standing up and turning to Apps. "FIRE!"
Just as it was reeling from Tifa's attack, the large beast found its body assaulted by flame, scorching its thick, blue skin for but a moment. It let out a deafening roar, beating its chest and stomping its feet, causing a small quake in the cavern. Unknown to the party, inside of App's cage was a dam made up of weak, damage ply wood, which, as Apps pounded and stomped, began to give way!
A large wave of muck flew at the combatants as the dam finally broke. The four friends went wide-eyed as a twenty foot wave of sewer water came upon them...
..but hit Apps first. The wave broke as the large creature hit the ground, dispersing the water all around as the friends found themselves caught up in the rising waters and thrown around by the force of the impact. The water then began to calm down and recede as the companions found themselves up against a high ledge. Cloud looked disdainly at his weapon, which he had just managed to un-jam, but had gotten gunk inside of it again. The four picked themselves up, and the water was now up to their knees as Apps lay several yards away, eyeing them while trying to get back on its feet.
"We don't have time for this!" Tifa spat angrily.
"Yeah, we have to get back to Dyne," Cloud said, pointing out the obvious.
"Okay, this way!" Aeris said, breaking off to the right, where the large subterranean tunnel turned.
"You sure about that?" Zack asked.
"Do you see any other way to go?!" the flower girl replied hurriedly, pulling herself up onto the ledge.
Zack glanced around and supposed Aeris was right, as there was no other way to go. He THEN noticed Apps charging at them. "RUN," he blurted unnecessarily!
The companions pulled themselves up onto the ledge as Apps ran smack into it, sending stone shrapnel flying in every direction. Growling, it went to swipe at anyone within range, but missed, only smashing the wall again.
The four came to a startled halt a few yards later as they approached a dead end!
"Gee, that was smart," Zack lamented.
"Down here!" Aeris pointed out, ignoring Zack's sarcasm. She indicated towards a large pipe in the ground, where something else caught Zack's eye.
It was a yellow stone of some sort, which he picked up and threw at Apps, hitting it in the eye. The creature roared in pain and tried desperately to get the small stone out, though its large, pudgy fingers would not help accommodate this task.
"Yeah, Bulls-eye! Er, Apps-eye!... whatever.." Zack joked as he jumped down the tube after his friends.
He landed on a cold brick surface moments later behind his friends, who were all standing in fighting positions. "Oh, what is it this time?!" the former SOLDIER wondered aloud.
Before the companions were four large, turtle-like creatures who stood upright, and in their upper extremities possessed a wide array of archaic weapons. They wore bandanas over their faces, pads on their joints and leather straps acting as carrying belts around their torsos. They too were standing in fighting positions, yet no one seemed too eager to actually start a fight.
"This just went from dumb to dumber," Cloud mumbled to himself, hesitant to make the first shot.
"We'll ask again!" the turtle-man wielding the two katana blades spoke, "Who are you, and what are you doing here?!"
"I say we kick their butts now and ask questions later!" the one with the three-pronged sais spat, taking a step forward.
"I dunno, dude, I'm not really in th' mood," a third turtle with nunchucks replied, swinging one pair nonchalantly, "I haven't had my early afternoon 'za yet!"
Zack looked around while the turtles argued amongst themselves, and noticed a manhole at the top of the far wall. He shook his head and simply started walking towards it.
"HEY!" the sword-wielding turtle warned, "Stop right there or else..."
"Hey yourself!" Zack replied with a hint of anger in his voice, "We're just passing through, so bugger off. And don't you guys have a living cole slaw machine to be beating up or something?"
"He's got a point," the turtle with the bo staff conceded.
Zack climbed up the rusty ladder and pushed away the manhole, signaling for the others to join him. The turtles suspiciously eyed the four humans as they returned the glares while slowly and carefully making their way out.
The companions looked around at their new surroundings, and observed that the plate was still over their heads. Around them were several derelict train compartments, track parts, oil drums and other such debris.
"Where the hell are we?" Zack wondered aloud.
"The train graveyard," Aeris answered, making her way towards one train directly in her path. "It would take too long to get around, but we can go through and over most of these trains to get back into sector seven."
"That sounds like a good idea," Tifa replied. "But how will we know which trains to go through or over?"
"Did she say graveyard?" Zack asked Cloud, who simply shrugged.
"I..." Aeris started in reply to Tifa, but hesitating for a moment, "I have a pretty good sense of direction, I'm sure I can get us through here pretty quickly."
Tifa gave Aeris a skeptical look, but knew that other woman had enough confidence to believe she was right, and so the young ninja decided to give the new comer the benefit of the doubt... for now.
"Oh, and by the way," Aeris spoke, entering a train, "This place is haunted, so stay on guard!"
"H-haunted?" Zack tried to say skeptically, though a bit of hesitation was present in his voice. "Crap... someone call the Phantom Busters..."
"Zack, I highly doubt that ghosts even exist, so don't worry," Cloud responded plainly as a way of insurance, following Aeris.
The flower girl led the others in an apparently random pattern, though they were very obviously progressing through the ruins of the former train station. Once in a while she would stop, look around and think to herself for a moment before proceeding.
"Man, it's almost like she knows this place," Zack mused to Tifa and Cloud.
"I agree," Tifa replied a bit wearily, though too quiet for Aeris to hear, "It's more like instead of trying to decide where she thinks we should go... it's more like she's trying to remember, or something. What do you think, Cloud?"
The blond-haired former soldier simply shook his head and shrugged. "I don't care what she's doing; as long as we can get back into Sector Seven in time to warn the others, I don't think it matters."
"Ah, good ol' Cloud, always the voice of reason!" Zack chimed, slapping Cloud on the back, almost sending him off balance.
"With you around, someone has to be," Cloud mumbled to himself, lowering his eyes and giving Zack a cold stare.
The party pressed on through the train yard, and came to a clearing. There was a large, burnt crater near the middle, and debris surrounded it in an almost circular fashion. Those things closest to it were partially destroyed and very burned. It was obvious that there had once been a large explosion here, which may of been why the yard had been closed down. Cloud took this opportunity to lean back against a large metal pole and take a few breaths before continuing.
"Are you okay?" Aeris asked, noticing that Cloud had stopped.
Cloud waved and stood back straight up. "Yeah, I just had to take a breather.."
Both Tifa and Aeris had puzzled looks on their faces for a moment, but quickly recomposed themselves.
"I thought SOLDIERS could march through the harshest conditions for over 3 days straight without rest?" Tifa inquired.
"Uhm, urban legend!" Zack quickly replied dismissively.
Aeris gave Zack a dirty look for a quick second and turned to Cloud; "Oh, you WERE in SOLDIER?"
Fuck! both young men thought at once, giving the other the same lost look.
Just then, as luck and literary convention would have it, Zack felt something behind him and instantly turned to face whatever it was that was less than a tenth of a second away from attacking him. He froze, and his eyes went wide with fear as he began to process what was now right in front of him.
A translucent blob floated in mid air, a cracked and deformed skull viewable through where its head would be. The entity also possessed blood red eyes which pulsated with unholy light, which contrasted its otherwise harmless appearance.
"AAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!" Zack yelled out, sprawling behind a tipped over oil drum. The others looked on as the phantasm glided through the air elegantly around the container and looked Zack curiously in the face.
Screaming again, Zack stood, grabbed the drum and smashed it down on the entity and onto the ground.
"H-heh... that'll teach that damn g-ghost t' mess with me!" the young fighter said to himself, wiping some sweat from his brow. It was just then that the entity popped its head up through the container, giving Zack the same curious glare.
"WWWAAAHHHH!!!" the former SOLDIER screamed, waving his arms and diving for cover again, except this time the only place for him to hide was behind his hands. He was bent down on the ground with his arms over his head as he simply stared at the ground below him, trembling with fear.
The ghost materialized right below him into his field of vision, causing Zack to jump several feet in the air and bolt off screaming.
"Uhm, shouldn't we do something to help him..." Cloud began, "Or are you enjoying this as much as I am?"
"Well, I'd love to let this go on," Aeris began, concentrating on her Restore materia, "But we're on a clock!"
"Uhm, wait, why're you casting cure?" Tifa asked.
As an answer to the ninja's query, Aeris shot forth a cure spell at the spirit, destroying it instantly in a burst of green and white light.
Zack stopped running and dared to look behind him, and breathed a sigh of relief when he realized his pursuer was no longer there. He waited as his companions caught up to him.
"You're afraid of ghosts?" Cloud asked.
"Er, NO, don't be stupid!" Zack snapped, folding his arms and closing his eyes.
"Well, good, because I think we pissed off its friends!" Tifa shouted, pointing past Zack.
Zack turned pale, as he could feel dozens of undead eyes suddenly staring at his back. "Can we run?"
"Yes!" Aeris replied, already taking off. The others followed her, as their pursuers assaulted them with their screams of the damned, chilling each of them to the bone. However, they soon ran out of room, as a two trains blocked their path!
"Now what?!" Zack worried aloud. Aeris quickly scanned the area when a thought came to her. "Zack, use that train over there to push that other one out of the way! We'll hold off the ghosts!"
"We will?" Tifa and Cloud asked in surprise simultaneously.
"How do you even know it's gonna work?!" Zack asked, though already running to the train Aeris had indicated.
"How are we supposed to hit things that are intangible?!" Tifa asked, putting her arms up in front of herself.
"They'll have to solidify to hit you, hit them when they do!" the mysterious flower girl answered quickly. And as to prove her point, one spirit flew at her, its claws extending out to tear her throat out. She waited until just the right moment before ducking the blow and coming up with her staff, knocking the creature several yards away.
Cloud let out a volley of bullets, all flying past or through their intended targets. Several of the ghosts flew at him, ready to attack the young man for his futile efforts. When they materialized to strike, the young soldier emptied his clip on the phantasms, destroying them.
Tifa had figured out that spells would work as well, or at least fire anyway. She cast a light fire spell at a group of three ghosts, causing them to turn away fly off in fear of their earthly existences.
This, however, only caused more ghosts to appear to avenge their fallen and wounded. Just as the hopelessness of the situation began to sink in, the three companions heard a loud CRASH behind them. Turning for but a moment, they saw that Zack had managed to get the first train working, and was beginning to push the other train out of the way with it, sending sparks flying everywhere against the cobblestone ground as the other large hunk of metal resisted the movement. After pushing it several feet, Zack threw the train into reverse to make room for his friends to run through.
"C'mon!" he yelled from inside the train, doing his best to ignore the contingent of ghosts near by. However, he was quite ready to break down into the fetal position and go into shock: but he did not. He waited as his companions ran past him, and for the ghosts to start chasing them. Closing his eyes, he threw the train into full throttle, dropped a live grenade and jumped out the window...
The trio turned around just in time to see Zack's train slam the ghosts into the other train and explode!
"ZACK!" Cloud cried out, extending a hand, as if somehow he could reach into the fiery debris and pull his friend out safe and sound. He waited tense seconds as all he heard was the distant echo of the collision and the roar of the flames. Dark, black smoke billowed up into the air, and began to fan out slowly over the area, but that was it. No ghosts, no Zack. Nothing.
A moment later however, Zack emerged from the wreckage. He was a bit burnt, somewhat shaken and completely covered in silt and dirt, but other wise seemed no worse for wear.
"Zack!" Cloud exclaimed.
"What's the matter with you, you could of hurt yourself!" Tifa reprimanded, masking her concern and slight bit of admiration.
"Are you okay?" Aeris asked pointedly, readying her restore materia.
"...I want my mommy," Zack replied childishly before collapsing flat onto his face.
***
Dyne stood at the doorway of Seventh Heaven, looking outside at the small army lined up before him. There were only about four or five dozen of them. The rest of his forces were diverted elsewhere to prepare for the worst. He glared at the culmination of years of hard work, training, blood and tears. He was not about to let the Shinra take it all from him, especially not by sacrificing the thousands of innocent lives that live both on and under the Sector Seven plate. He heard Biggs come up behind him, despite the fact that the young intelligence officer had done his best to come up quietly.
"Status?" Dyne asked darkly.
"They're initiating the 86 directive now. Their forces should be here within fifteen minutes," Biggs responded, hiding the fear from his voice.
Dyne lifted his head and spoke out to his men. "RED ALERT! This is NOT a drill! This is the REAL THING! ARM THE TURRETS, READY YOUR WEAPONS! RAISE THE BANNERS! CASTRATE THE COWS!"
Meanwhile, in a cow pen a few feet away: "Moooo?!"
Biggs blinked and looked at Dyne. "Uh, what?!"
Dyne didn't even turn to speak, but rather strode down the steps, expecting Biggs to follow. "It's from a movie, you should really get some culture some time. If we survive this..."