Final Fantasy X: Chapter 6: Pressing Matters
In the few weeks that Gippal had joined the Gullwings, he had helped Cid build a brand new airship called the Celsius. It was slightly smaller than Cid’s airship, was twice as fast. The Gullwings hadn’t used it very often, but they constantly kept it on maintenance, and took it out for a spin from time to time. It even had a cloaking device.
Today, Yuna and Wakka were flying around the Djose Highroad, and the Djose Temple. Wakka was on the deck, fixing the cloaking device.
“Do you really need to check that cloaking device while we’re doing three hundred miles and hour, Wakka? There are other ways to impress a girl, you know,” Yuna said into the two way radio, while piloting the Celsius.
“C’mon, Yuna. How often does a guy get to tinker with a billion gil piece of hardware like the Celsius? I’ve spent my whole life fantasizing about a budget which could keep up with my ideas. Just wait ‘til you see the plans I’ve got for that Monster Arena in the Calm Lands,” Wakka replied into the radio.
“You boys and your little toys. One of these days I’m going to walk into a room and catch you and Tidus trading Pokemon figures,” Yuna through the radio.
“What’s the story with you guys, anyway? Lulu reckons she heard Tidus sneaking into your room the other night,” Wakka said, closing the panel on the deck.
“Well, I guess she needs to get her ears tested, Wakka. Poor Tidus’s spent the last year and a half trying to pluck up the courage to ask me out to a movie,” Yuna replied into the radio.
“You mean the guy who can lobotomize a Sinscale single-handedly fumbles in his lines in the presence of a skinny little sixteen year-old brunette?” Wakka asked getting to his feet.
“Oh, and you’re Casanova all of a sudden?” Yuna shot back.
“’How could a beautiful, uptown girl like Lulu ever love a man who can’t play blitzball? If only she’d ask to do washing up duty with me instead of that big, mountain-loving communist Kimarhi,” Yuna imitated.
“Very funny,” Wakka said boarding the elevator.
On the ground in the Calm lands, Tidus and Gippal were training. Tidus was chasing after Gippal trying to attack him, and Gippal was supposed to stay away from Tidus. They were working together, so Gippal could become faster.
“Isn’t there some kind of house rule against people eavesdropping on private talking to themselves?” Wakka asked, as the elevator doors slid open.
Wakka passed through the door to the bridge, as Yuna set the Celsius down onto the ground. Wakka walked over to a computer on the right side of the bridge, in a similar spot to where the computer was on Cid’s airship. He pressed a few buttons on the control panel, and then Yuna and Wakka were teleported into the engine room, on Cid’s airship.
“You don’t need to know that a person likes another person to see their tongue hanging out, Wakka McCoy,” Yuna answered.
“Cid to all Gullwings. Sorry to interrupt any of the decadent fantasies you may be having right now, but I just located another potential member in the Djose area. Your presence is required in the school viewing room immediately,” Cid said over the loudspeaker.
Kimarhi and Lulu were the first to come in.
“Is it Seymour, Cid? Do you think he’s finally figured out where you’ve set up the rival operation?” Kimarhi asked.
“Unlikely, considering this gentleman was just captured by the authorities, Kimarhi. Seymour would have leveled half the road before they managed to bring him down,” Cid answered, as Yuna and Wakka came in. “According to satellite pictures, our friend is being transported via chocobo to the Moonflow at the moment. I want you to intercept this convoy with minimum force and bring him back here for his own safety.”
“Sounds simple enough. Any idea who he is?” Tidus asked.
“It’s hard to tell, I’m afraid. I didn’t get to see inside of the carriage, he was being held in, so it’s impossible to be sure, but I suspect we’re dealing with Auron here, Tidus,” Cid answered.
“WHAT?” Tidus shouted.
Kimarhi and Lulu looked at Tidus. Gippal just kept looking at Cid ignoring Tidus’s outburst.
“Tell us you’re jerking our chain, Cid,” Yuna said loosening her the part of her robe around her neck.
Wakka glanced at Yuna and then turned back to Cid.
“Uh, would somebody mind explaining to us newbies who Auron actually is so we can all pee our pants too?” Lulu asked nervously.
“Auron is the most dangerous killer in Spira, Lulu. The only proof he even exists is a blurred picture taken during Braska’s pilgrimage,” Tidus explained. “All we really know about him is that he was part of Yevon in the days when Yevon was just exploited Al Bhed as opposed to routinely executing them. Rumor has it he escaped eighteen months ago and nobody’s seen him since. I guess this means his former masters have finally caught up with him.”
“This is going to be a dangerous operation, Gippal. You’ve only been with us for a couple of weeks, so nobody’s going to hold it against you if you’d prefer to sit this one out,” Cid explained.
No way, Cid. You guys were there for me when the Sinscales tried to fry my ass back on the Djose Highroad, right? It’s only fair I’m there for Auron,” Gippal said, remembering the fear he felt when he saw the Sinscales launch off of Sin’s back.
“Good answer, Gippal. Let’s rock’n’roll,” Tidus said jogging off.
There were three Chocobo Knights escorting two wagons, that were being pulled by chocobos. One of the wagon’s was really long, 36 feet long to be exact. Enough to hold a crap load of Yevon soldiers, and maybe two other people.
“Well, I guess any doubts we had about the authenticity of that tip-off can be dismissed, Auron,” said a man from inside the long carriage. “There ain’t many people on Spira who can take a hundred bullets in the rump and wake up with nothing worse than a hangover.”
“Kinoc?” Auron asked pushing himself up to his feet.
“That’s right, soldier. Welcome back to Yevon,” Kinoc replied.
Auron flung himself at the metal bars, tried to pull them apart, but they wouldn’t budge.
“Whoa. Easy, tiger,” Kinoc said. “I’ve seen your side tear through the side a carriage, just like this one, but then, that’s why we’ve got your side right here.”
Kinoc pointed to Auron’s sword lying on the ground inside it’s hilt, and then grabbed one of the Yevon soldier’s guns. He checked to see if it had any ammo in it.
“Cutting loose from this outfit once is more than any unsent ever managed in the past, old man. Nobody get’s that lucky twice in a lifetime,” Kinoc finished, pointing the gun at Auron’s head.
Auron growled at Kinoc, and was met with a bullet to the head.
POP! POP! POP! POP! POP!
“Sir, what are you doing?” the Yevon soldier asked.
“The same thing we used to do every night when there was nothing good on the sphere screen. Remember the laughs we used to have with your unsent abilities, Auron?” Kinoc asked with another POP.
When Kinoc finished, the bullets lay astray on the ground. Two of them were lined up with Kinoc’s shadow so that they looked like sinister yellow eyes. Auron lay on the ground in the fetile position, his teeth gritted together.
“You could shoot him, stab him, crack his head open with an iron bar… His unsent powers meant that he could always just piece himself back together again. Hell, Big Jim Grant even doused him in gasoline and set him alight one time, and he was still up for Yevon’s Thunder Plains operation two days later. Shame the same couldn’t be said for that little snot we had to scoop up in those plastic bags at the travel agency,” Kinoc explained.
“You dirty son of a…”
“Watch your mouth, Auron,” Kinoc snapped popping off a bullet.
Auron fell silent.
“Have as much fun as you like with him, boys. We’re wiping his mind clean again once we get back to base, so he ain’t gonna remember any names or faces anyway,” Kinoc said.
A tear trickled down Auron’s eyes. Kinoc pulled out a pipe, and lit it.
“Your butt belongs to us, Auron. We caught you, we trained you and we rebuilt you to be the security service’s number one killing machine,” Kinoc said as the soldiers emptied several magazines of ammunition on Auron. “It’s time you learned that the only way anyone leaves Yevon is in a bodybag, Auron.”
It seemed that all was lost for Auron. He was stuck in a carriage heading the Moonflow and from there: who knows where? His old friend Maester Kinoc had imprisoned him, and right now, he was being tortured simply for being an unsent. There seemed to be no hope for Auron.
A few miles ahead, one of the Chocobo Knight’s mouth dropped.
Dead ahead of him stood the Gullwings, with the Celsius resting behind it.
Gippal stood all the way on the right, with Yuna standing to his left. Tidus was also on the right, although he was closer to the middle. Lulu stood next to him with her hands on her hips. Wakka was crouched down on the ground in between Lulu and Kimarhi, tired of standing up. Kimarhi was standing at his full height with his arms crossed. The whole entire group looked menacing to the Chocobo Knights.
“Blow them away, Lulu,” Tidus ordered.
Lulu cast two blizzard spells, knocking two of charging Chocobo Knight’s off their chocobos. Then she cast two more, knocking the last Chocobo to the ground, and killing the chocobo that was pulling the carriage Auron was in.
“Wakka and Kimarhi, get Auron out of the carriage. Everyone else, keep these dirtbags occupied and don’t forget for a second that they’re all qualified PhDs in maneuvers,” Tidus ordered striking a Yevon soldier with his Caldbolg.
Kimarhi tore open the back door to the carriage, and Wakka jumped in. Yuna summoned Valefor and had him take at two Yevon flamethrowers. Gippal used the machina from a few weeks ago at the Djose Highroad to take out a YKT-63.
Back in the carriage, Kimarhi uppercutted a YAT-99 with his Spirit Lance, and Wakka finished it off with a shot from his World Champion.
“I hate the way Tidus keeps ordering everyone around like he’s in charge,” Kimarhi commented. “Did you know he’s a year younger than us?”
When Kimarhi and Wakka reached the steel bars, Kimarhi pulled out his Spirit Lance.
“Grab the Maester, you morons!” Auron shouted. “He’s the only one with the keys to the ten-digit code to get me outta this cell!”
“Take it easy, Auron. Slicing tin bars is how I used to make pocket money,” Kimarhi explained, pinning his Spirit Lance in-between two bars.
“Shame these ain’t tin bars, cat-breath,” Auron growled.
Kinoc was frantically rushing over to a Chocobo carriage. A Yevon soldier who saw him trailing off followed him.
“Maester! What about the men?” the Yevon soldier called out, “Maester?!”
But Kinoc simply continued toward the carriage with the Yevon soldier behind him.
“Hurry up with that lock, tubby. I’m losing my motivation to kill Kinoc,” Auron said.
“You know considering we’re the ones breaking you out of this place, I really don’t appreciate these comments about my weight, Auron,” Wakka said, playing with the lock, with Kimarhi’s spear.
Finally, when he got it open, Auron plowed his way through the both of them, and took off, grabbing his sword as he ran.
“Well, don’t eat so much, butterball,” Auron shouted back in reply.
“HEY!” Kimarhi shouted chasing after him.
“Bad news, Tidus. I’ve just got a message from Wakka asking me to break it to you gently that they’ve just lost Auron,” Yuna said.
“WHAT?!” Tidus exclaimed.
A moment later Auron flew over both of their heads, in a hover, with a determinedly grim look on his face. For a moment Tidus and Yuna were just speechless.
“Wow. Nice hover,” Lulu commented watching Auron speed away.
“Don’t just stand there catching flies in your mouths! Get after him!” Tidus ordered.
“C’mon, Leibowitz! Doesn’t this chocobo go any faster?!” Kinoc asked pleadingly.
“Maester, I go any faster and this chocobo will end up getting a heart attack,” the Yevon soldier answered.
“All I ask is that extra ten percent, soldier,” Kinoc said pulling out a gun.
“Wait, there’s something up ahead on the road!” the Yevon soldier exclaimed.
It was Auron, leaning against his hover, which was parked sideways in the middle of the path to Djose Highroad.
“Boo,” Auron said.
“HOLY S!@#!” the Yevon soldier screamed, veering the Chocobo off the path.
The Chocobo stumbled off the path and must have fallen a hundred feet. When Kinoc woke up, the Chocobo was lyin on the ground 20 feet behind him, the Yevon soldier’s body was lying face down behind him, and the Yevon soldier’s head was lying directly in front of him.
“LIEBOWITZ?! YEVON HELP ME! YOU JUST BROKE HIS FREAKIN’ NECK!” Kinoc shouted.
“Lucky Leibowitz,” Auron said pulling his sword of it’s sheath.
“Auron, No! Don’t kill him!” Yuna shouted, while Auron took a swig of rum, from his jug, “I can’t imagine what that animal put you through over the years, but murder him out here like this and all you’re going to do is prove that the papers are right about us.”
“Babe, do I look like the kind of guy who lies awake at night worrying about the public’s perception of unsents?” Auron asked, using his sword to make a long scar across Auron’s face.
“You’ve had a hard enough day, big man. Don’t make me hurt you,” Yuna said beginning to Summon Valefor.
Kimarhi and Wakka finally reached Yuna as they saw Valefor fly over head.
“And how do you propose to do that, gorgeous? Hit me with a high-heel? Smack me in the face with your Barbie purse?” Auron asked.
Valefor flew low to the ground and punctured Auron’s armor right in the chest, sending him flying into a rock. WAMMO! Then Auron slid to the ground without a sound, and didn’t move a muscle.
“Not exactly. Yuna to Tidus, get the Celsius up here and lets get Auron back to the Calm Lands before some local calls 1-800-YEVON,” Yuna ordered through the radio.
Kimarhi and Wakka went over to pick Auron up, and Yuna walked straight over to Kinoc.
“And if you even think about thanking me for saving your ass, I swear to god I’ll get Valefor over here to rip your head off his his talons,” Yuna threatened, “Filth.”
“He’s in, but we were lucky this time, Seymour,” Brother said, “I mean what were the chances of those Yevonites crawling out of the woodwork like that? And who the heck gave them details of when our Mi’hen Highroad connection was meeting Auron at the Travel Agency?” Brother asked.
“Oh, who do think, Brother? It was me, you idiot,” Seymour answered.
“What?” Dona asked.
“The unsent’s most highly trained assassin rings his doorbell and Cid Xavier isn’t supposed to be suspicious? Credit him with some intelligence, please,” Seymour explained, “A little sleight of hand and our dear Cid actually sought out the man I sent to kill him, leaving us the chance to concentrate on more pressing matters.”
A picture of Bevelle palace appeared on an overhead screen.
Thanx for reading
Sephistrife15
Comments
(1)
« Home |
