Categories > Games > Final Fantasy 7 > Reintegration
Reintegration
Step 43: Calamity
As I get into the elevator and press the button to go up, I'm pulling my PHS out of my pocket and setting it to conference call mode, calling all the Turks and Rufus at once. "We have an emergency, I just had a fight with the shape shifter in the parking lot, but it got away."
I hear Tseng shouting commands in the background before replying, "everyone go to the president's office right away."
xoxox xox xoxox
Rufus, Tseng, Elena, Rude, Reno, Blaze and I are in the president's office now. The glass windows are covered in metal, as if we were expecting a tornado to come any second, but this is worse. "It might be Jenova, another one I mean."
"What?" I don't blame Rufus for his alarm.
"It's only a theory, but I think that's what that thing is. It can shape shift into anything, it was a butterfly before and I didn't even suspect what it truly was. It tried to take control of me, but it didn't work." If that thing had simply attacked, I would have been caught off guard, I might no even be standing here now, I'll have to be more alert. "It's as if it's connected to Jenova somehow, that's why I think they are of the same kind. Besides, I cut it in half and got back together, just like the reunion theory."
"This is worse than I thought; everyone needs to be on full alert. Tseng, contact Junon, we have to be ready!" Rufus pauses, his face invaded by shock once again, he's looking at the computer screen which was left on and ignored when the emergency meeting was called.
"Sir?" Tseng looks at the screen and I become curious about it too.
The screen is all black, save for the red letters that read, "connection terminated."
"This is not an error," Tseng concludes.
"What do you mean?" I urge.
"This isn't the message that pops up when the connection to the mainframe is lost because of an system error or a problem with the hardware or software," Tseng explains. "The connection was terminated on purpose, all of Shinra's networks are halted, even the satellites. Practically all of the city's services that require data transfers have been stopped. The only ones who know the access codes to do something like this are the president, Rude, Elena, myself and the keeper of the databases."
"I do too," Reno complains, "no, wait, I think I forgot," it seems that Tseng predicted that would happen. "What now?"
"Go, Sephiroth, you too," Tseng commands.
Reno leaves Blaze on Rufus' desk and runs out of the office, I follow him, unsure of where we're heading. "Reno, where are we going?"
"To the basement," he runs into the elevator and holds down the button to stop it, then presses a combination of numbers, like an access code on a secret panel that also serves as the elevator's controls.
"Just what does this mean?" I can tell it's serious.
"Remember where we went to get information? The place with the databases."
"Yes," I recall it clearly, I found out more about my origins and the girl who worked there played with my hair.
"There's another level lower than that floor and that's where we're going. There has to be a reason why she shut things down."
"Is she alright?" She was a bit eerie, but perhaps I only thought so because she was dressed as a scientist and I had a dislike towards scientists at the time, but I know they're not all bad.
"Who knows, our team would be incomplete if she's not. You know how it is," I don't have the slightest idea what Reno is getting at. "Every team of secret spies needs a leader," Tseng, "someone tall, silent and intimidating," Rude, "someone skilled in piloting anything and totally awesome," I wonder who that could be? "A rookie," I think he means Elena, but technically I'm the rookie. "Someone who's a little crazy," is that supposed to be me? "And a tech geek," that must be her.
"Wait a minute, those are mostly Turks," does that mean she was aiming to become one?
"She's one of the undercover Turks," there are undercover for the undercover? "There are more, I think you'll meet them soon, but not in the best situation."
I'm about to curiously inquire her name, after all I just found out she is our teammate, but before I can ask, the elevator doors open and we exit it to a devastating scene. "How did we not hear this?" It looks like there was some kind of short circuit and an explosion, or several.
"The president's office is too high up and it's sound proof," Reno looks around and I make sure to watch his back, he's too careless at times. "These aren't the real archives; it would be too obvious to keep everything right at headquarters. This place is connected to the archives but the real data wasn't lost."
"What about..."
I fall silent as Reno kneels, brushing his fingers on the debris covered floor, they come up red, "she got herself injured, even with all this. She has an affinity for electricity, like me, except in a much geekier way. She loves technology more than anything, she was surrounded by it, electricity was all over, that boosted her power, but it wasn't enough." He dug out a strange looking helmet, stained with blood. "This is used to connect to the computer directly by brainwaves; you have to be a real geek to generate brainwaves that are strong enough."
"Reno!" I found her, the injured girl whose name I don't know.
"Sephiroth?" I feel a cold chill; I don't think I can stand having another woman die in my arms.
She reaches for me weakly; her blue nails remind me that mine are still silver under my gloves. What a silly thing to remember now, but my mind is seeking distractions away from this scene. I take her hand to assure her, "be strong, we're getting you help."
She glances at Reno, he hasn't moved, instead staring at her, scrutinizing, "Reno, you came for me..."
"Yeah, I did... Calamity!" I drop the fake just as her blue painted nails extend inhumanly like knives directed at my throat. Reno unleashes an electric attack, which distracts her for only a split second, but it's enough for me to gather myself and attack with my sword.
The being screeches when I cut it apart and Reno keeps attacking the pieces with electricity, but they crawl away, like a dismembered monster that cannot die. The pieces put themselves back together no matter how much I cut them up and how much Reno tries to stop them.
Finally, the creature disappears into the debris, probably transformed into something small. We searched and searched, but it slipped past us. Our situation is definitely critical and the chaos has just begun.
"This isn't working, it must be gone, we need to leave too and meet the others," Reno heads towards the elevator and I follow.
"What about the girl? She's a Turk, our comrade," I remind him. "How did you know this one was a fake?"
"I knew because of her wimpy 'Reno, you came for me' line, the real one would say something like 'your timing sucks Red', she's gone," Reno replies.
I get into the elevator too, "gone? You mean dead? To say it with so little regard..."
"Not dead, Turks don't die easily," Reno corrects, "we found blood but not a body, she escaped, but we can't follow her. She must have taken the secret tunnel and activated the traps as she went along to make sure that thing didn't follow her. She's following the mission she was given if something like this ever happened, no one expected another Jenova, but in case you revived insane, there was a plan. All the Turks have a part to play, except you haven't been given a role yet, but I'm sure you'll be busy."
So the contingency plan designed for me has finally been activated for the calamity. Yet, I wonder if the girl is truly alright, having left so much blood behind. "Are you sure she made it out?" What if the creature turned into something big and ate her? I would hate to think of anyone suffering such a terrible fate.
"There are no damsels in distress in the Turks."
It's true, I have witnessed how dangerous Elena can be, I nod, finally convinced. "Right, so are we going to meet the others? The creature might be after them as we speak!"
"They're long gone by now," Reno assures. "The satellites aren't working so we can't contact them, but it doesn't matter, I know where each of them is." I suppose this is part of the emergency plan.
To be Continued
Disclaimer, I don't know Final Fantasy VII.
Step 43: Calamity
As I get into the elevator and press the button to go up, I'm pulling my PHS out of my pocket and setting it to conference call mode, calling all the Turks and Rufus at once. "We have an emergency, I just had a fight with the shape shifter in the parking lot, but it got away."
I hear Tseng shouting commands in the background before replying, "everyone go to the president's office right away."
xoxox xox xoxox
Rufus, Tseng, Elena, Rude, Reno, Blaze and I are in the president's office now. The glass windows are covered in metal, as if we were expecting a tornado to come any second, but this is worse. "It might be Jenova, another one I mean."
"What?" I don't blame Rufus for his alarm.
"It's only a theory, but I think that's what that thing is. It can shape shift into anything, it was a butterfly before and I didn't even suspect what it truly was. It tried to take control of me, but it didn't work." If that thing had simply attacked, I would have been caught off guard, I might no even be standing here now, I'll have to be more alert. "It's as if it's connected to Jenova somehow, that's why I think they are of the same kind. Besides, I cut it in half and got back together, just like the reunion theory."
"This is worse than I thought; everyone needs to be on full alert. Tseng, contact Junon, we have to be ready!" Rufus pauses, his face invaded by shock once again, he's looking at the computer screen which was left on and ignored when the emergency meeting was called.
"Sir?" Tseng looks at the screen and I become curious about it too.
The screen is all black, save for the red letters that read, "connection terminated."
"This is not an error," Tseng concludes.
"What do you mean?" I urge.
"This isn't the message that pops up when the connection to the mainframe is lost because of an system error or a problem with the hardware or software," Tseng explains. "The connection was terminated on purpose, all of Shinra's networks are halted, even the satellites. Practically all of the city's services that require data transfers have been stopped. The only ones who know the access codes to do something like this are the president, Rude, Elena, myself and the keeper of the databases."
"I do too," Reno complains, "no, wait, I think I forgot," it seems that Tseng predicted that would happen. "What now?"
"Go, Sephiroth, you too," Tseng commands.
Reno leaves Blaze on Rufus' desk and runs out of the office, I follow him, unsure of where we're heading. "Reno, where are we going?"
"To the basement," he runs into the elevator and holds down the button to stop it, then presses a combination of numbers, like an access code on a secret panel that also serves as the elevator's controls.
"Just what does this mean?" I can tell it's serious.
"Remember where we went to get information? The place with the databases."
"Yes," I recall it clearly, I found out more about my origins and the girl who worked there played with my hair.
"There's another level lower than that floor and that's where we're going. There has to be a reason why she shut things down."
"Is she alright?" She was a bit eerie, but perhaps I only thought so because she was dressed as a scientist and I had a dislike towards scientists at the time, but I know they're not all bad.
"Who knows, our team would be incomplete if she's not. You know how it is," I don't have the slightest idea what Reno is getting at. "Every team of secret spies needs a leader," Tseng, "someone tall, silent and intimidating," Rude, "someone skilled in piloting anything and totally awesome," I wonder who that could be? "A rookie," I think he means Elena, but technically I'm the rookie. "Someone who's a little crazy," is that supposed to be me? "And a tech geek," that must be her.
"Wait a minute, those are mostly Turks," does that mean she was aiming to become one?
"She's one of the undercover Turks," there are undercover for the undercover? "There are more, I think you'll meet them soon, but not in the best situation."
I'm about to curiously inquire her name, after all I just found out she is our teammate, but before I can ask, the elevator doors open and we exit it to a devastating scene. "How did we not hear this?" It looks like there was some kind of short circuit and an explosion, or several.
"The president's office is too high up and it's sound proof," Reno looks around and I make sure to watch his back, he's too careless at times. "These aren't the real archives; it would be too obvious to keep everything right at headquarters. This place is connected to the archives but the real data wasn't lost."
"What about..."
I fall silent as Reno kneels, brushing his fingers on the debris covered floor, they come up red, "she got herself injured, even with all this. She has an affinity for electricity, like me, except in a much geekier way. She loves technology more than anything, she was surrounded by it, electricity was all over, that boosted her power, but it wasn't enough." He dug out a strange looking helmet, stained with blood. "This is used to connect to the computer directly by brainwaves; you have to be a real geek to generate brainwaves that are strong enough."
"Reno!" I found her, the injured girl whose name I don't know.
"Sephiroth?" I feel a cold chill; I don't think I can stand having another woman die in my arms.
She reaches for me weakly; her blue nails remind me that mine are still silver under my gloves. What a silly thing to remember now, but my mind is seeking distractions away from this scene. I take her hand to assure her, "be strong, we're getting you help."
She glances at Reno, he hasn't moved, instead staring at her, scrutinizing, "Reno, you came for me..."
"Yeah, I did... Calamity!" I drop the fake just as her blue painted nails extend inhumanly like knives directed at my throat. Reno unleashes an electric attack, which distracts her for only a split second, but it's enough for me to gather myself and attack with my sword.
The being screeches when I cut it apart and Reno keeps attacking the pieces with electricity, but they crawl away, like a dismembered monster that cannot die. The pieces put themselves back together no matter how much I cut them up and how much Reno tries to stop them.
Finally, the creature disappears into the debris, probably transformed into something small. We searched and searched, but it slipped past us. Our situation is definitely critical and the chaos has just begun.
"This isn't working, it must be gone, we need to leave too and meet the others," Reno heads towards the elevator and I follow.
"What about the girl? She's a Turk, our comrade," I remind him. "How did you know this one was a fake?"
"I knew because of her wimpy 'Reno, you came for me' line, the real one would say something like 'your timing sucks Red', she's gone," Reno replies.
I get into the elevator too, "gone? You mean dead? To say it with so little regard..."
"Not dead, Turks don't die easily," Reno corrects, "we found blood but not a body, she escaped, but we can't follow her. She must have taken the secret tunnel and activated the traps as she went along to make sure that thing didn't follow her. She's following the mission she was given if something like this ever happened, no one expected another Jenova, but in case you revived insane, there was a plan. All the Turks have a part to play, except you haven't been given a role yet, but I'm sure you'll be busy."
So the contingency plan designed for me has finally been activated for the calamity. Yet, I wonder if the girl is truly alright, having left so much blood behind. "Are you sure she made it out?" What if the creature turned into something big and ate her? I would hate to think of anyone suffering such a terrible fate.
"There are no damsels in distress in the Turks."
It's true, I have witnessed how dangerous Elena can be, I nod, finally convinced. "Right, so are we going to meet the others? The creature might be after them as we speak!"
"They're long gone by now," Reno assures. "The satellites aren't working so we can't contact them, but it doesn't matter, I know where each of them is." I suppose this is part of the emergency plan.
To be Continued
Disclaimer, I don't know Final Fantasy VII.
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