Here we are at part three! There’s gonna be a bit more action in this one. I hope you enjoy it! Please contact me at jonathon_clayton@yahoo.co.uk The Second Coming Chapter 3 One of the SOLDIER’S head disintegrated in a cloud of blood, bone and brain matter. The other five turned as one, to see Vincent Valentine standing, rifle raised, a slight smile playing on his lips. They all took aim and fired but Vincent was already diving headlong out of the way. This gave Cloud the opportunity he needed. Sprinting forward he stabbed one of the SOLDIERS through the back, however he didn’t see the stun grenade fall from the dead man’s grasp. The blast threw him backwards, momentarily stunning him. As he regained conciseness, he could only lie groggily as a SOLDIER advanced towards him, rifle raised. He braced himself for the end, just as Tifa barrelled into the SOLDIER, knocking him off his feet. As he stood up she punched him in the face, instantly breaking his nose, then put her knee into his crotch, he fell to the ground and lay there whimpering. Round the other side of the bar, Vincent was engaged in a fierce firefight with the three remaining soldiers. He shot one of them through the chest, killing him instantly, then had to duck behind the nearest wall as the other two fiercely retaliated, spraying the wall with bullets. There was no way he was going to get into a position to return fire. Concentrating hard he harnessed the power of his newly acquired Bolt materia sending a wave of lightning down on the two SOLDIERS. Their screams echoed around as their bodies fried, finally when their cries of agony stopped Vincent walked out into the street. “Thanks!” said Cloud as Vincent joined him and Tifa. “No problem”, replied the ex-Turk, “Have you seen the others?” “No”, answered Cloud, “We were on our way to the crash site to look for them, when we were ambushed. So what happened to you?” Vincent swung his rifle over his shoulder before answering; “When the ship was hit I was already in the cargo hold preparing to land. I got the emergency hatch open, grabbed a chute and jumped. I landed just a block away from here; I was just storing my chute when I heard raised voices and a blast from a grenade so I came to investigate. Lucky for you I did!” “Enough chat, lets go already,” said Tifa impatiently. They turned to leave, as an afterthought Cloud looked down at the two surviving SOLDIERS, quietly whimpering in pain. Strange that he felt no emotion towards them whatsoever. The three of them sprinted through the dark, rubble-strewn streets and quickly reached the smouldering remains of the Highwind. The once proud ship was wrecked, its frame crippled, lots of its metal plating had melted and fused together, creating lots of large, shapeless blobs. The wreckage was strewn throughout the rubble of the small building it had obviously landed on. Lying near the wreckage was the still form of Cait Sith, neither the large stuffed mog or the tiny creature which lay atop it were moving. Standing over him were Barret and Red XIII. As Cloud and his companions grew near Barret turned. “Yo Cloud, ya finally got here”, he said in way of greeting, “ Have you got any of them Phoenix Down things?” “Yeah, but its my last one”, replied Cloud pulling the small bottle from his pocket. He sprinkled the red, life restoring dust over Cait Sith. Nothing happened, the body didn’t even move. “Eh, that’s never happened before!” exclaimed Barret, “Why isn it working?” “I dunno”, replied Cloud quite stunned, “It should work, but I guess Cait Sith isn’t much like the rest of us. That was my last one; we’ll just have to leave him for now! What about the other survivors?” “There are no other survivors Cloud”, answered Red XIII gently, “Only us” “Oh man”, thought Cloud “Yuffie, Cid and Cait Sith, all dead, just like that. He could have stood there, grieving for eternity but he remembered that they had a job to do and this wasn’t the first time the group had lost members. Did anyone see where that chopper went?” he asked his companions. “Yes”, answered Vincent, “It landed on that Helipad on the roof of Shinra HQ” “Then that’s where we’re going”, said Cloud firmly whilst the others nodded in agreement. As one the group turned their backs on the wreckage and began to run. They flew through the slums, the giant Shinra building becoming bigger with every step. As they reached the ruined steps, which sat at its entrance, a group of Shinra Bots appeared in front of them firing their weapons. Cloud grabbed Tifa and pulled her to the ground as lasers laced the air above their heads. Vincent blew one apart with his Death Penalty rifle and Barret got another with his Gun-Arm. However they too were forced to the ground under heavy fire. Red ran straight at the Bots, as he was on all fours, the lasers whizzed above him safely. He barrelled into one Bot, his Limited Moon headdress he had received from Bugenhaden tearing it apart, then went for another. “He can’t take all of them at once!” cried Tifa from the ground, as the remaining bots closed round the flame red beast. “I’m working on it!” hissed Cloud. With a sudden flash of red light a large Golden chocabo appeared next to him. It lowered its head, then charged straight at the group of bots, destroying them all, bits of metal and machinery flying everywhere. When the debris cleared, Cloud saw that the chocabo had disappeared. He rarely used the Choco/mog materia any more, deeming it to be quite weak, but it was still useful in some situations. As the group ran up the steps, Red nodded his thanks to Cloud then turned and surveyed the entrance with the others. “Damn place’s caved in”, growled Barret, “we’ll have to use them side steps like we did last time!” Cloud remembered. The stairs ran right to the very top of the building and that was where they needed to go. Last time it had taken ages to get up all the stairs, lots of effort, energy and frequent rests had been required. However last time they had had an added motivation, they had been trying to rescue… “Yo Cloud are we goin or not”, shouted Barret, bringing him sharply back to reality. “Yeah, lets do it!” he said and led them round the building until they reached the entrance. The door had been blasted off its hinges but the stairs seemed to be intact. Cloud too a deep breath and ran up the first flight. *************************************************************************** Out of breath from the last stint of climbing, he sat back on a ledge, about a quarter of the way up the Shinra HQ building. His head ached from oxygen starvation. His hands, despite gloves were bloody and raw. He looked upwards, trying to measure how far he had to go and how long it would take him. Probably another few hundred feet, which would take him around another three hours, going at his present rate. He started to climb again and managed about twenty feet. He found another ledge and sat gulping in the scant amount of air that he could. It was hard work! However he knew he would never get to the top if he kept sitting there. Grimly he readied himself for another climb… *************************************************************************** They had stopped for a rest about half way up the stairs. Cloud could see that Barret was suffering, being the biggest in the group he was finding the climb up the stairs extremely difficult, he was bent over, breathing very fast and very hard. “Shit”, he thought, “I hope he doesn’t die on me!” He allowed them five more minutes before setting off again, the climb had already taken them over an hour. They ran up five more flights before Vincent who had taken the lead stopped dead causing Cloud to run straight into him. He opened his mouth to speak but Vincent silenced him by putting his own finger to his lips. Then Cloud heard it-voices! Vincent raised his rifle as Barret edged forwards next to him his Gun-arm at the ready. Suddenly three SOLDIERS appeared on the landing above, one of them glimpsed Vincent and his companions and raised his rifle, shouting out a warning to his companions. Vincent squeezed the trigger of his rifle and the SOLDIER fell to the floor, spots of crimson on his chest. There was a burst of gunfire from the other two SOLDIERS and Cloud and the others pulled back into cover. Barret and Vincent stayed put, the former raking the above landing with bullets. One of the SOLDIERS grunted and fell to the floor, his uniform soaked in blood. The other one retreated behind the staircase. However Vincent could still see his legs, he fired and blew out the man’s kneecap, then when the legs gave out, finished him with a shot to the chest. “Good shooting”, praised Cloud as they started to run towards their goal again. ****************************************************************************** He was getting there. Another half hour and he would be. His slow ascent had been pretty uneventful, apart from when the Shinra chopper had flown past his position, forcing him to cling to the wall, hoping they wouldn’t see him. Now though all was quiet. His climb steady and unmolested. He just hoped that whatever he found when he got there was worth it! **************************************************************************** Cloud and his companions raced up the last flight of stairs and paused at the door, which led to the president’s office. “Ya’ll ready”, he said to the others, his voice firm. They all nodded. Cloud took a deep breath then burst through the door, then stopped dead. The sight before him sickened him… To be continued… Phew, that was a bit longer than the others. Hope you enjoyed it. The next parts coming as soon as I can get it done!