Cannon fire sounded
in the distance, and it was quite apparent that whatever was attacking
was getting closer. A barrage of missiles struck around them, vaporizing
the enclosing army and giving some much needed breathing room. A moment
later the two trucks from Garden drove into view, and both mage and SeeD
breathed a sigh of relief.
“The cavalry has arrived!” Zell announced
as he bounded out of the truck, which had yet to come to a full and complete
stop. He hit the ground and rolled, coming to a stop next to Seifer and
Alex, who were quick to untangle themselves and act in a professional manner.
“So, did you guys miss me?”
“We’ll tell you later,” Quistis said as she
stepped up behind Zell. “Right now we all need healing spells of some degree
or another.”
“And an ether or three,” Lina croaked as she
cracked her neck and back. “Did anybody remember to pack some?”
“In the back of the truck,” Boomer said as
the back of Truck 02 opened, a hidden panel in the floor rising to reveal
a cooler filled with bottles of many colored liquids. “They’re some of
dad’s special mixes and blends.”
“This one smells like raspberry,” Amelia said,
holding up a bottle of light purple liquid. She took a long drink before
making a sour face. “It doesn’t take like raspberry, though. Yuck.”
“Still very experimental, but not nearly as
bad as green death original.”
“Tell your dad that we appreciate his efforts,”
Ihrie said as she popped the cork on one of the bottles and downed the
concoction in one long gulp. Once the bottle was empty she tossed it into
the back of the truck and let out a contented sigh. “Mmm..... that wasn’t
so bad. Tasted better than some of the things that I’ve had to drink in
the past.”
The smell of burning ozone filled the air
a moment later as Irvine backed up to the truck, his shotgun belching Ultima
rounds like there was no tomorrow. “Guys, I hate to tell you to save the
warm fuzzy moments for a better time, but right at the moment we’re just
a tad surrounded!”
Lina and Amelia blinked a few times at the
sheer numbers of phantoms that had managed to get around them. Quistis
took a calculator from her pocket and crunched a few numbers before holding
it up to the others, who face faulted. “There is no bloody way that there
are that many of them!!” they exclaimed as one.
“Oh, I forgot to carry the one,” the calculator
beeped. Quistis looked at the total herself, her glasses sliding to the
end of her nose and her blouse slipping off of one shoulder when she saw
the actual amount.
“Everyone, grab an ether and chug it,” Lina
instructed as she slung bottles to everyone within range. “If we’re lucky
it’ll recharge us enough for some mega armor attacks.”
“And if we’re unlucky we’ll all die of food
poisoning before those things kill us,” Zell sighed. Selphie and Anessa
smacked him upside the head.
Several energy blasts tore through the ranks,
thinning them immensely within a matter of seconds. A triple powered energy
beam cut its way through the phantom army, and that was accompanied by
an intertwining wave of flames. Those by the vehicles looked skyward to
see Warriors Night, Centaur, Nebula, Cassiopia, and Ursa come flying in.
The five warriors landed nearby, their armor reverting back to normal mode
as they stepped towards their friends.
“We’re, like, he-eere,” Cassi giggled as she
struck a pose. “You may thank us with large cash donations and expensive
dinners.”
“Cassi, we need to discuss this at a later
date,” Night sighed, hooking an arm under hers to drag her towards the
others. “We figured you could use a bit of assistance with this battle,
ya know.”
“Yeah, we know,” Celia sighed, rubbing her
head. She glanced about a moment later, making a mental note at the complete
lack of phantoms when they had been surrounded only moments earlier. “Um...
you guys didn’t vaporize all of the targets, did you?”
“Hah, as if,” Ursa said in a very valley girl
way. “Our attacks only took care of the immediate threats. When we were
flying in we could barely see the ground since there were so many of ‘em.”
“So where in the nine hells did all of them
go?” Lina pondered. The ground shook a moment later, shocking her out of
thought. “Damn it Zel, if you’re going to summon the spirits of earth,
do it away from the cars.”
Zel blinked at the sorceress a few times,
since he was 1) shirtless, b) having his wounds tended to by Alex and Tina,
and 3) in no way doing anything magical. “Um, Lina, that wasn’t me.”
“Then what the bloody hell was it?” she asked.
“I think we found where all of those annoying
phantoms went,” Jessica said, looking up from her hand held to point towards
the far horizon. The others followed where she pointed to a very large
shadow that blocked the furthest point on the horizon.
“That thing’s bloody f*beep*ing HUGE!” Del
and Mack said in unison.
“I don’t think we have the firepower to deal
with something that large,” Boomer and Spark gasped simultaneously.
“We can bend over and kiss our asses good-bye,”
Kirinis sighed, rubbing her head. “Man, I knew I shouldn’t have rolled
out of bed this morning. Something bad always happens whenever I get out
of bed.”
“No time for a pity party,” Squall said, trying
to be the calm voice of reason. “What sort of a thing are we dealing with?”
“And more importantly, just how long until
it gets to us?” Tina asked as she finished casting a healing spell on Guile.
“We’ll do a bit of recon,” Alex said, nodding
to Lina. Both took to the air in order to have a better look at what they
were dealing with.
“Until they get back all we can do is sit
and wait,” Seifer sighed as he popped open a bottle of ether and took a
swig. He promptly spat the liquid out, spraying the ground a glowing orange
color. “What the hell did I pick for a flavor?!”
“Looks like you just sampled daddy’s jalapeno
nacho,” Boomer snickered, taking the bottle from Seifer and sniffing at
it. She took a long drink of it and breathed a contented sigh. “That really
hits the spot.”
“I think I may be sick,” Amelia said when
she watched Boomer finish the bottle.
“I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a worse
combination,” Mina sighed, “if Lita found out about that she’d work to
make some nice tasting flavors.”
<music: Boss Battle - Lunar 2>
“New tactical data has just been downloaded,”
Rinoa said from her seat in the truck, breaking up the light banter outside.
“This one is... it’s... dear mother goddess, it’s beyond Giga in level.”
“It must be an Ultron class,” Deka squeaked
from the Cobra’s computer. “It’s one of those automated death machines.”
A great shadow fell over them, and they looked
up to see a phantom that was five times the size of Garden. Nick slid his
shades down to the end of his nose to be sure he wasn’t seeing things.
Boomer and Spark did the same thing, since they’d never seen anything like
it.
The phantom in question resembled a cross
between a volcano and a tortoise. Great plumes of smoke rose from the top
of the mountainous shell, which threatened to be lost in the clouds above.
Smaller phantoms flocked around this larger one, forming great swarms that
were black against the sky.
“Oh my stars and heavens,” Seifer said as
he looked at the approaching enemy through high power binoculars. “That
must be the mother of all youma.”
“It’s one hundred percent solid matter, as
are those around it,” Anessa reported, “we’ll get pretty beat up, but they
won’t steal our spirits.”
“Is it intelligent?” Squall asked, “Can we
reason with it?”
“Doubtful on both counts,” Lina said as she
and Alex landed. “I’m getting mega bad vibes from it, and our psychic saturation
expert here nearly passed out.”
“Evil... pure evil...” Alex said, his eyes
wide with terror.
“Please excuse us,” Irvine said as he and
Seifer picked Alex up by the armpits and dragged him towards the Mustang,
where Seifer proceeded to alternate between elbow stomping and rib tickling
in an effort to bring him back to his senses. Squall and Lina face faulted
when they saw how the mage was being treated, and face faulted even more
when Alex came to his senses and batted the Hyperion Knight several feet
away.
The ground trembled as the Ultron class phantom
approached, and SeeDs, Slayers, and Warriors alike took on defensive stances.
“This is going to be the mother of all wave
battles, isn’t it?” Del asked, tying his headband tighter. Zelgadis nodded.
“Damn. I swear if we make it out of this alive I’ll attend more LARPs than
I have been.”
Hails of energy fire struck around them and
among them, sending all into action. Each group received telemetry and
tactical data from Anessa, Rinoa, Deka, Selma, or Boomer.
<music: Iczelion techno theme>
Darren took to the sky, his armor changing over
for flight mode. Cassi, Dawn, Heather, and Will followed suit, their armor
also undergoing transformation. Rings of light formed in front of them
as they sailed forward, and as they passed through these they gained visors,
wings, stabilizers, and boosters. Once completely airborne they smashed
their way through the enemy offense, leaving broken bodies in their wake
and taking no prisoners.
“Galaxia Gun.... FIRE!”
“Soul Eraser!”
“Sky Twister!”
A wave of violet light tore through much of
the swarm, obliterating all in its path. Following that was a triple beam
of raw astral power, two of which rotated around the third. To finish the
combined attack a roaring tornado tore through the swarm, destroying many
with high velocity winds.
“There are way too many of these things,”
Will said as he descended to a lower altitude in order to fire off another
attack. “For every one we toast, two more pop up.”
“And with the amount of damage our attacks
incur we’ll be up to our eyeballs in them soon enough,” Celia replied,
“not the way I planned to go out.”
“We’re not going out,” Lina said, crossing
her arms over her chest to align her talismans. “Lords of darkness of these
four worlds, as they words as my bond, grant me your power and give me
your strength.”
“Looks like it’s time for that trusty dragon
spell,” Alex said, charging up his chaos emeralds.
“And a triple dose may be more effective than
a double,” Celia said, assuming a spell casting stance as Lina and Alex
also took on casting stances.
“Darkness beyond twilight...”
“Crimson beyond blood that flows...”
“Buried in the stream of time...”
“Is where your power grows.”
“I pledge myself to conquer...”
“All the foes who stand...”
“Against the mighty gift bestowed...”
“In my unworthy hand.”
“Let those who oppose us be destroyed by the
power you and I possess!”
The area was awash with violet - crimson light
as three spell casters each summoned and invoked the strongest “common”
spell in the books. Three large globes of blood red came into existence
as the casters prepared to speak the final command words.
“Dragon... SLAVE!”
Alex, Celia, and Lina cried the command words
in unison, sending their spells screaming through the air. Midway to the
target the spells spiraled together, fusing to form an even stronger beam
that took on the shape of a dragon. The dragon roared before crashing into
the Ultron class monster, detonating with such force that the ground rumbled
and split while the shockwave threatened to throw everyone several feet
away.
“Did we get it?” Mina asked, leaning against
the Mustang for support.
“Nope,” Selphie replied, fear very evident
in her voice, which was little more than a squeak. “It’s still alive and
kicking, even after a triple Dragon Slave.”
The smoke around the creature cleared, revealing
that all it suffered for damage was a few burns and nothing more. The smaller
youma around it, though, were fewer in number following the spells.
A loud humming filled the air, and this gave
people headaches like nothing ever imagined. Tina fell to her knees and
screamed since it felt like her head was exploding. Ihrie and Amelia crashed
down near the cars, their armor vanishing yet again, and both rolled on
the ground, covering their ears against the painful droning.
“I think I’m going to be ill,” Will groaned
as he landed near the cars, “Can’t somebody stop that noise.”
“Working on that,” Deka purred, several small
recording devices in the Cobra activating. The AI program sampled the sound,
analyzed it, and came up with an effective counter measure. The process
took only a few seconds, but to the humans going through untold pain it
was an eternity. “Countermeasure ready,” the AI chirped before sending
the counter sound through the Cobra’s speaker system. A moment later it
was transmitted to the other vehicles and broadcast through their sound
systems.
“Way to go Deka,” Seifer said, pulling his
hands from his ears. “And now to give that bastard a taste of real fire
power.”
He held his sword above his head, the blade
glowing as electricity sparked and crackled through the air. A column of
light surrounded the blade, and a second later this expanded to roughly
three feet in diameter. He glared at the droves of airborne monsters before
swinging his blade in a downward arc. “Fire Cross!”
The column of flames and electricity mowed
through the airborne monsters like a hot knife through butter, exploding
into a cross shaped wave as it struck the back of the Ultron monsters.
Upon completion of the attack Seifer glanced to Alex, who was outlined
by a glowing white aura. “Go get ‘em kid.”
“With pleasure,” Alex smirked as he leapt
into the air, the glow collecting into his right hand. “Giga... CRISIS!”
The accumulated energy tore through the air,
ripping monsters apart on the subatomic levels, leaving dust to shower
down upon the ground based forces. The wave struck the Ultron, taking a
chunk out of the shell and causing the monster to scream and roar in pain.
“I think you hurt it with that one,” Zel said
as the ground rumbled from the monster’s screams.
“It doesn’t know pain yet,” Del said, his
voice cold. Electricity sparked around his body as his hair stood on end.
The air around him took on a powerful charge and gained a metallic taste
as he summoned all of the power he could into his body. “Those things attacked
my home, my family, and me. Well, this attack is for all of them!”
<music: Hurricane - Bubblegum Crisis>
The elf leapt skyward in the general direction
of the monster army, lightning bolts crackling through the air to give
him more strength. His body took on a golden glow as he reached the all
critical overload point, where one would spontaneously combust if the power
wasn’t released.
“Amelia, prepare to heal him when he lands,”
Cassi said as she went airborne, her boosters heating to near white hot
as she tore through the air. ‘Del, don’t do anything too stupid, O.K..' She neared the elf as he began his dive towards
the Ultron’s head. Stopping short of the probable perimeter of his attack
she erected a shield and waited and prayed.
“Heaven’s Vengeance!” Del cried as he crashed
into the Ultron, releasing the accumulated energy as one all mighty shockwave.
Cassi shielded her eyes from the blinding light, and heard all the monsters
that were destroyed by the blast scream as they were torn asunder. The
shockwave threw her back a little, but she managed to remain in the air.
Something hurtled over her head, and she squinted to see Del’s lifeless
body sailing away. She kicked in the afterburners, screaming through the
air after him. A few seconds later she had caught him and was on her way
back for a landing.
“Estimated army strength at 66% of what it
had been,” Rinoa reported as Cassi landed.
“That’s still not good enough,” Alex sighed,
“we’re giving it our all and barely making a dent. We finally met the enemy
we couldn’t defeat.”
He found himself face to face with Celia,
who slapped him with all her might. “Don’t give up on us now,” she hissed,
balling her hands into fists, her nails digging into her palms. “You of
all people know that when faced with impossible odds you can pull a brilliant
victory out of your ass. I heard about Ultimecia. And Tormaline. And there
are so many others. Hell, I helped with a few of those.”
“And if you stop believing in yourself your
powers go away,” Mina added, “Serena let herself get distracted one day
and it cost her. Heck, she almost lost us, her ability to become Sailor
Moon, and her life in the same day. So never give up hope, or your dreams.”
Alex rubbed the hand print on his cheek while
absorbing everything his friends were telling him.
“You have people from different worlds and
different times fighting together for a common goal,” Fam said, giving
him a hug. “Don’t forget that the power of many greatly outweighs the power
of the individual.”
“So what do you say now?” Will asked, giving
him a thumbs up.
“Two words,” Alex said, raising his left hand
to the sky, a brilliant blue glow encompassing his wrist. “Charging UP!”
<music: Dancin’ Doll - Iczelion>
The seven others who possessed similar wristbands
raised their hands to the sky as well, all shouting, “Charging UP!”, colored
lights encompassing first their wrists, then their bodies. Eight people
underwent very revealing transformations, gaining powerful mega armor and
with those some of the strongest attacks known to anyone.
“Let’s do this thing!” Kelly shouted as she
took to the sky. The other seven followed her lead into battle, all producing
weapons as they headed into the fray.
“We can’t leave it all to the eight of them,”
Celia said, her clothes changing to female style scale armor before she
took to the air.
Zelgadis, Guile, Adderson, Seifer, and Irvine
soon joined Celia in the charge to battle, and they soon caught up to the
others, who were about to engage the enemy.
“This is definitely the wave battle to end
all wave battles,” Del commented as they hovered at the very edge of the
enemy perimeter. He swallowed loudly before adjusting his headband. “I’m
ready for it.”
“The Ultron might try to wipe you out with
an eruption attack,” Boomer said over the radio, “if it uses that don’t
try to run. Stay where you are and dodge. Kelly, when it’s attacking we
need for you to attack back. Think you can handle it?”
“Yeah, I can handle it,” Kelly replied.
“Incoming,” Seifer said, dropping rapidly
towards the ground as laser fire tore through the air.
“Can’t hit what you can’t see,” Fam teased
as she blinked in and out of space, using the increased speed and agility
that her armor offered in order to stay alive.
“Fam, try to move forward instead of just
moving back and forth,” Ihrie scolded from a position a little further
on.
Laser fire continued to tear through the air,
scattering the attacking force to the degree that assisting one another
would be next to impossible. That was when the airborne monsters began
their attack runs, quickly isolating everyone and keeping them pinned down.
“Mana Missiles!” Ihrie shouted, the drills
on her arms glowing before spitting forth a massive barrage of glowing
missiles. She spun around while attacking, covering a wide area with her
missiles, and in effect cutting into the enemy ranks.
“Cherry Blossom Hurricane!” Del cried as he
began to spin about. Sakura petals erupted from the air around him, forming
a wide wave of destruction as they struck monsters and drained their energy.
“Meteor Splash!” Naga cried, he wings spreading
to their full expanse, the feathers glowing a blinding silver - white.
She crossed her arms over her body before flinging them wide, a barrage
of energy bolts tearing through the sky and laying waste to more of the
monsters. Yet the army remained large, their energy finite, and their task
just as large as it had been.