Baa-Ram-Ewe!

by Darkonshadows

421. Straining Morale.

-Moon Cell Realm, Midgar NPC Slum Sector, Seventh Heaven Secret Room, an hour after the underground facility explosion, Canard-

“So that’s my story.” Well it seems like Elise came from a place where people spontaneously gained super powers, which didn’t end well for her… she doesn’t have family anymore, her having friends in predicated on whether we’re likely to help her or not and she’s chosen a poor time to be fully alive once again.

Merak the final target of our stay here in Midgar was of a genius level intellect and had a particular fondness for machines, he also was exceedingly lazy and his powers matched his laziness by giving him portal abilities similar to what Gilgamesh could do.

Fortunately Merak was highly limited in this regard as he couldn’t store anything in his portals in a separate reality and he could only have ten functional portals total at any given time, the real danger is that he can increase the size of any objects or energy entering a portal. The size changing thing didn’t have any effect on people, but I can imagine the description of giant’s lasers and mechanical fists was something Elise had haunting memories about.

I could already tell Elise had it out for Merak, but she wanted to help us as well so I voted in favor of her. The others did so to, the only one that hasn’t cast a vote is Pom and that’s because she’s likely trying to silently work through some self-inflicted trauma. Pom’s method in dealing with Elise was, to put it frankly, exceedingly weird if highly effective.

Elise could resurrect someone from dying and put the body in a slightly better state than it was before it died, but it had known limitations which is why the Reviver Seed Pom gave her fixed her soul when even her onw powers couldn’t. Pom had even been banking on that according to Dormarch, resurrection wasn’t the same as healing.

Dormarch was watching our surroundings as Sweepers, Drones, Crawlers, gun wielding EPs labeled Archer Trooper, helicopter gauntlet wearing EPs with labeled Lancer Helitrooper since they had a particular habit of charging forward and finally among the newer EPS they had support canine EPs with singular long tentacles reminiscent of the ones that came out of Dormarch’s back when he is in his champion evolution labeled with Beast Guard Hound. All in all the new smaller bipedal machine EPs weren’t too powerful and the Guard Hounds were only a threat up close where they can whip or bit at a target, they however made up for that in numbers. The Sweeper type machines were still the worst thing to run across.

As for Pom, Dolly was currently squeezing some Sitrus Berry juice down her throat and Pom was thankfully swallowing it without having to have her throat rubbed, but otherwise she has been listless since we got here. I could understand why, tearing into someone with your teeth and eating their heart out in the most literal fashion imaginable would be quite mentally scarring. It says a lot about Elise that she wasn’t holding it against Pom and thought it was less painful than what an entire facility of scientists put her through trying to study her powers.

“What I want to know is, how did you know about this place again if you finally got around to sorting out your head?” Jeanne waved her arms to the surrounding room and the bar that we were currently hiding under.

“Okay, I think I finally have everything I know about why this off grid bolt-hole is here. Cruel was looking into alternative basing solutions, we didn’t exactly like being underground or inside that facility… wouldn’t be the first time we got stuck somewhere underground. This place was too small to operate out of, but apparently Crazy did come up here to continue setting things up sporadically when Moon Cell couldn’t keep a good grip on her part of my soul and Cruel didn’t stop her from doing so.” So that would make Elise’s two other personality Crazy being prepared and Cruel giving some hope that they might escape Moon Cell. “I don’t know how long this base will hold up to the constant scrutiny going on around here and your vehicles can’t stay hidden forever. Once we leave, I doubt we’re coming back here.”

“I’ll just be taking all the rum with me then, seeing that nobody else be wanting it.” Shanty kept sending Pom looks that she wanted to talk to her, but in her current state Pom was not in any mood to do anything other than heal the muscular damage Dormarch said she caused herself when fighting Elise and the three Behemoths.

“That lazy genius certainly has the area on lockdown, I’d even say that something has him spooked and we have a lot to tear through.” Snake stated as he popped out of the shadows. The rogue Assassin servant, in the form of a camou furred bipedal rabbit, was drawing our attention to the screens he worked on. “I think we can open and break the gate so that it can’t be closed, but doing so won’t exactly be easy and I could possibly do that alone if given time and a big enough distraction. It’s disabling the wall cannons that is going to take some doing. As for a report on our allies, Shine says that Castle Alexander is still standing, but it’s taking quite a pummeling and even might have to pull back temporarily if the fighting gets too heated. Castle Alexander can’t even move forward from its current location without feasibly incurring massive damage and that’s while they are likely getting support of the Harmony Programs from Mare Melum.”

“Peppercat is going to be ready to go in a few hours, her repair cycle is working hard in getting her back to fully functioning.” Krosserdog announced as he came down from quietly watching the entrance to Seventh Heaven. “All the remaining Zealots are fine at least.”

“We’re not in a good situation here, but we can still do what we came to achieve at least…” Jeanne was at least trying to stay positive in this situation. “What are the chances that they can find us here?”

“Not very good, Merak is lazy… super lazy even, but he’s not really looking for us too hard because he knows where we are generally and I bet he’s planned out what to do when we eventually try to make a move.” Stated Elise, since stealth at this rate wasn’t a great possibility in the long run as we all well knew. “He already knows what you’re try to do here, he certainly planned the self-destruct of the facility out. Merak did that for when I somehow failed at stopping you well enough, I'm sure he even planned to kill me outright if I had won.”

Yeah, Elise definitely had a chip in her shoulder about that guy. This even reminded me of Gilgamesh in some ways, at least he didn't have infinite weapons to pummel us with constantly.

“If we could get some communication to Castle Alexander, then we could have them send us Zealot reinforcements down the pipeline… provided that the path we came through hasn’t been entirely sealed off.” Nice suggestion Sami, but we’d need to have Shine check the tunnels and a way to get back here with those extra forces and that was going to take some time, time we might not have if the reports on Castle Alexander’s situation is anything to go by.

“Shine can still get to Castle Alexander, but she’d have to swim the shadows for quite a while and it’d take her a while to get back with a message.” I said as I raised a hand to take the floor. “She’s busy scouting the surroundings visually at the moment since we don’t know if we can trust the technology here to have our best interests in mind, we’ll have her check the tunnels and get to Castle Alexander with our problems. If we try to communicate openly now, we’ll be swarmed with EPs without a place to fall back to.”

“We need Pom up and decently mentally capable before we move out. We’re obviously going to have to split up and have one team draw the attention of our enemy and he has the resources of an entire two tiered city at his disposal, we’ll simply be crushed if we don’t plan out things well enough and try the direct approach.” Thankfully enough, I was quite good at surviving in heavy occupation environments with lots of lethal automatons. At this point it’s become my standard way of living to plan for stuff like this and to make sure whatever team I have to work with can fully function in such a lethal environment and hopefully survive. “It’s a good thing I’m used to planning under such heavy odds that I’ve stopped caring about what’s impossible anymore.”

“I would at least like a few hundred Commandramon at the moment, even if some of them would only last thirty seconds in combat. What you’ve got is me and I’m a fair claw at demolitions.” Sami was of course volunteering to deal with the artillery. “This Merak guy doesn’t entirely know what we’re capable of yet, but we don’t know entirely what he can throw at us either. This city is basically crawling with EPs and the only reason why he knows to have patrols around the particular areas we need to operate in is because he caught us using one of the tunnel exits to come up here.”

“Doesn’t know where we are exactly, but he definitely knows we’re here at the very least and that we cannot be ignored.” Jeanne grumbled with her plated scaled arms crossed and leaning against a wall, she was one of the better fighters in Valora and she didn’t disappoint with how well her scales held up to Shrieker spikes and Water Tigers trying to leap out of the water to spear us. “The number of drones patrolling the nearby areas say as much.”

Jeanne D’ Arc was supposed to be the leader of the operation, but at most she was leader of the Valora units and we were more of a mishmash of various factions working toward a common goal. It felt like I was on the ice playing the roughest game of hockey in my life with a mixture of teammates from several differing teams.

“Dormarch, Dolly, can you two work on getting Pom into a better headspace?” I was willing to take the next nine hours to sleep, eat and prepare for our next move. We still had to get a message back somehow, but any attempt at communicating with the castle would drop hell on our heads.

Dolly gave off a cheerful bark, it’d sound better if she wasn’t straining herself to stay positive.

“Her body is already on the mend, but Mom’s mind needs a lot of help... what she did was, not something she’s up to the task of living with having done.” Dormarch looked at Elise. “She still could have actually done much worse to you Elise.”

“How could your mother have done worse?” Elise asked looking not as afraid as one would expect the snake lady that has suffered a lot to be. She should be more afraid of Pom, yet she carried her to us and helped us out of the underground network in short order. “I’ve already been through a lot, being partially eaten really isn’t actually the top of my list of worst things ever done to me. It was really painful, but it’s not even in my top ten of things I’ve lived through.”

“Well with her control of her wool mom could have… right, not important at the moment.” Dormarch would know what Pom was capable of and I shuddered slightly at the idea that Pom could have done worse, at least I know Pom wouldn’t snap and start attacking us all. She was made of sterner stuff than that, at least when she wasn’t going full on beast. “In any case mom won’t be able to do that again for twenty four hours, much less would want to go beast at all for a long time since she took a pretty big hit to her mental faculties.”

“I’d say I can even already forgive her if she was willing to listen! I mean my body is whole, my soul is whole and I’m alive, I couldn’t ask for a better outcome on my side of things. That is more than I can say for all the other things in these realms or the souls being forced to work for Moon Cell.” Which were technically computer programs, but no less dangerous considering where we were in the whole grand scheme of things Elise. “I’m something of an outlier as far as being able to come back to life from my soul being summoned from the depths of wherever it was. I can tell Pom is really sorry and miserable about it and that she may have lost control when she had her strange mist wolves pin me down and decided to tear me open before I could revive Cruel or Crazy. Doing so with her teeth seems logical given how strong they were when she bit straight through my ribcage.”

“At least I can’t imagine her doing that to Tianhuo…” Jeanne idly commented and Pom twitched slightly, yeah that brought some life back into her eyes.

“Dormarch, do you have a recording of Pom’s significant other? That might get her out of her funk.” I suggested as a course of order. “Maybe make a collage of soothing words for her?”

Dolly barked something unintelligible, but it sounded… I want to say curious? The longer I spent around Dolly the more understandable the Dalmatians emotions were. Clearly worried about Pom, but fairly hopeful to hear an idea to get her up and moving.

“Dolly, she tore someone to shreds and ate chunks of them, yes that Elise got better, but you have to realize the psychological issues she’s going through with actively eating an intelligence beings flesh instead of accidentally for someone who is supposed to be an obligate vegetarian. Obligate meaning that she’s shouldn’t be capable of handling meat, she’s more like an omnivore now considering she hasn’t actually thrown it up.” Dormarch looked over Pom with his claws carefully check her legs and body. “At least her body is healing well after the stress she put it through. Those Sitrus Berries really are something else. Mentally she needs a lot of support, as if her trying to keep her anxiety issues crushed down wasn’t bad enough. Really wish I didn’t have an entire database of a hospital to know all this stuff…”

“Pom isn’t the only one with psychological issues here.” I decided to finally throw it out there. “Jeanne seems to be ignoring the conversation about not being a Steel Type bothering it more than it should.”

Jeanne didn’t look anyone in the eyes.

“Sami has Post Traumatic Stress Disorder form the previous wars she fought in, but she’s been saving dealing with that trauma for a quiet moment like now.” I pointed out and Sami was currently relaxing with a bottle of digital alcohol from the bar.

“He’s not wrong, I’m drinking to all the friends I’ve lost over the digital years.” Sami hiccupped slightly. “Including the one I had to shoot... being a veteran of any kind of war or fighting isn’t a good thing. I’m definitely still happy to just be alive though.”

“Dolly is the most positive of us all and she can’t support us all and even she knows she can’t keep it forever, but goodness knows she’ll try for us. Shine seems to have a history with this kind of cloak and dagger stuff as Snake has pointed out and we don’t know how being here is effecting her mentally. Goodness knows what the Zealots feel about all this, but I’m starting to think the APs on our side have more intelligence than we might give them credit for.” At least that was a suspicion Pom has shared with me that the APs do respond better to positivity. “There’s my personal stake in all this of eventually reuniting with my team no matter where they are. Plus a variety of people in Castle Alexander counting on us, so I’m surprised that emotions aren’t running higher.”

“That’s likely because our emotions are all on the lower end of things. That’s actually a good thing, because we really can’t afford to do something dumb here in a heated manner.” Dormarch stated tiredly while side eyeing Dolly. Dolly looked offended for a few seconds while putting her paw to her chest, but then nodded and seemingly admitted to the likelihood of doing something dumb and grinned a little. “We need rest after going through so much, which isn’t going to come easy behind enemy lines. I’ll try to find a few recordings of Tianhuo’s voice to help mom relax to like Mr. Thunderbeak suggested.”

This reminds me of all the numerous promises I made.

Like telling Mallory’s father I’d help take care of her before he was taken out. He was one of the last military personnel still fighting in the resistance, owned the last viable military gunship too which we used to finally deal with those Saurians.

There’s Tanya who just wanted to be a lab technician or working on cutting edge technology, instead she had to be a part of our rebel operations taking out some major issues to make inroads to what was our final successful mission. Making explosives was not how she wanted to live her life. If I had anything to say about it, she’d get her laboratory and then some.

Grin, now there’s a guy that wanted to live in peace and not fight, he certainly brought a lot of strength to the team. He could live in peace in his own little out of the way place, someone that big and packed with muscles deserves a little solitude.

Duke L’orange, nobody exactly knew what I promised the once thief from the brotherhood of blades to get him to join our rebellion, but I hope he’s living up to his commitment to do better in life.

My brother in all but name Wildwing just wanted a free world and the ability to just play hockey.

Nosedive, Wildwing’s little brother, he wasn’t supposed to be there with us when we carried out our plans, but I think a wild card always helps if it can be played well.

At least they know I’m alive and I’m not about to let a psycho computer do me in, not after so much time in the digital realms. This is just another speed bump on the road that is my life, I gripped my hockey stick tightly and looked at the monitors showing our surroundings. I’ve played every position imaginable, whether it be forward offensive, back defense, even as goalie and I could see that it was all paying off even now.

I moved off to the side and brought my hockey stick in front of me.

“I pray that we can continue to be a team, which we’ll come together and score a goal against all our difficulties ahead with all we have.” I prayed quietly to the almighty puck and the crossed sticks of deliberation.

-Plains of Midgar, Castle Alexander, a few hours later, Ocellus-

The Valora teams were currently out and helping in the defense of anything that can get past the Magitek Armors the Zealots were piloting.

We were constantly hammering the enemy with infinite missiles, but they had infinite numbers to throw at us unless we could take care of the territories spawning said enemies. We couldn’t get the missiles within range of the walls, so we weren’t capable of taking out the cannons or dropping shots onto the PLANTs beyond the walls.

I didn’t even know what was going on with Pom’s group, all I could do is keep the defensive efforts in working order. Mare Melum had been absolutely unfocused chaos around the castle, which is why we did so well, here we’re the focus of a constant assault of machine based EPs.

Every time we had to replace a Magitek Armor was excruciating amount of time to repair or build a new unit for the Zealots to use, Skein Flyers were easier to replace and could at least stop missile bombardments from hitting us. The constant artillery barrages were a different story and only our shields could take the punishment.

The Commandramon were okay with holding the walls and the castles turrets were good at stopping the smaller things that got by the Zealot defense line.

Tensions were as high as the emotions around us, even with help from the harmony programs we were not holding very well and retreating was going to be rough on Pom’s group if they were still alive in there. They probably were, Pom doesn’t seem like someone to be killed so easily and they had reviver seeds right?

There was movements in the upper city, Moby Dick seemed to be on the move and going on the offensive against someone. I don’t know who else it could be other than Pom’s group, maybe Fou or anyone else invading Moon Cell’s realms like Mirage Mew? I doubted that Pom’s group made it up to the second tier of the city high above them already, at least not without their Skiff or Skein Flyer or informing us. Their job was to at the very least get the front gates to Midgar City open, the only reason for any deviation from that admittedly lofty goal was to return back to the castle and think of something else provided it was impossible to do so in their current position.

Yet… we had no reports of territories opening up beyond our defensive lines. We were in dire need of some information about what was happening in there.

“Welch, quick order, long range telescope that can get us a visual on the city from this far away on a Skein Flyer.” I wasn’t bereft of ideas to pull here, I just didn’t have any idea of how we could push forward. “How soon can you do something like that?”

“A long range super scope scout adaptation? Give me thirty minutes.” With Welch taking care of it, I decided to call in to engineering to see how Cid was doing.

-Somewhere inside Midgar, a few more hours later, in a heavily fracturing containment cell, Ifrit Lu Bu-

You can’t keep me contained forever!

“ERRAGGGHHHHAHHHHHHH-…!” White hot energy flash boiled all the water and the containment cell bent outwards and when it looked like it would hold, it didn’t and the explosion could be felt as much as seen from Castle Alexander from across the plains.

Lu Bu had broken free and was ready to go on a flaming warpath, the flaming minotaur like bipedal flaming demon bursts his way out of an energy production plant in a raw fury.

He began tearing apart any EP on sight that was stupid enough to be with half a mile of him in this moment. There were a lot of stupid EPs around and they couldn’t control the volcano levels of heat from Lu Bu’s rage and fury.

-Seventh Heaven Bar, a minute after Lu Bu breaks loose, Shanty-

I be waking up with a start as something be shaking the whole city, I can be feeling something quite horrible was happening… it is being almost too familiar to me to be unknowable.

“Who in the world can be putting out that kind of… no… it can’t be… not him!” I be feeling Lu Bu and he is being back, I thought he would be being gone for good. Then again, what be happening with souls around here, I should be being less surprised.

“Shanty… okay?” Pom asked dazedly as she woke up, oh she be talking again. That is being a good sign at the very least.

Trying to lift her head, Pom looked at everyone that she could be seeing in her current position that be using her as a pillow and sighed audibly, she used her wool to shift the visor from her head where I could hear the faint sweet words of Tianhuo speaking softly trying to keep calm Pom down. It appeared to have mostly worked or else she wouldn’t be in such a talkative mood.

“Are you?” I asked back with worry while not moving too much, Pom’s body was hard real estate to get a nice restful sleep on.

“No… not okay… getting better… always getting better.” Pom had a tired look in her eyes as she be looking away from my bar shaped pupils. “Never fine…”

Dormarch and Dolly were snuggled up against Pom’s belly, Elise had the back her head resting on Pom’s back with Cruel and Crazy laying across her torso, Shine was resting her head at the back of Pom’s neck and Jeanne had Pom’s flank. I be resting my head on Pom’s shoulder and leg, sure it be covered in that strange gold wool and that is being bad for Pom, but it is making for a good rest and it be looking pretty.

“… Does anyone even care that I ate a part of an intelligent being?” What did Pom be expecting, a harsh word for doing so? No we were more worried about her mental health than her eating someone to life… that is being a weird way to be putting it and an odd sentence I never thought I’d be thinking.

“Yes, but we be worrying more about you than about what you’ve done, it wasn’t like it was being permanent damage.” If it was permanent damage however, that would be a little bit harder to contend with. How would we be trying to solve this situation in that case? “Elise still be willing to use you as a pillow, I think she is being more than alright with it.”

“Wait… Elise is?” Pom tried to turn her head and woke up shine who yawned and got up to move away from Pom allowing her to see that Elise was sleeping soundly and snuggling Cruel and Crazy to her body in her arms. Shine waved at Pom in a friendly manner and then dove into the nearby shadows to go investigate what that city rumbling noise was. It would be taking too long for her to be going back up the tunnels by herself and we couldn’t be sneaking a Skein Flyer through the EPs patrolling the area. We figured it was being better that Shine stuck with us. “You’d think she’d be more afraid of me after what I did.”

“She be saying it is not even rating her top ten worst moments in her life.” I be stating dryly, I’m wondering what my top ten currently were… or if I’ve yet to be feeling them. That would be an adventure I should continue to be avoiding for a while. “Also I be thinking Lu Bu is back.”

“What makes you think that?” Pom certainly seems to be chattier than usual, she probably be needing a distraction from the horrors of what she did.

As long as nobody be being stupid enough to draw attention to what she did, unless Pom wanted to be absolutely discussing it, then Pom should be being mostly fine with ignoring it for the time being. It still needs to be being talked about so Pom doesn’t be bottling all that stress… she really be needing a good cry at this point.

“Call it a big feeling and that I can be feeling his malice from here, is this what Ocellus is feeling like all the time with those malice machines? I don’t be liking it one bit and it is being scary, because I think he is being the one that caused all that violent shaking a minute or two ago.” That and there’s something that I really wanted to be discussing with Pom in private… I should probably ask. “Can we be talking later, alone? There’s something I want you to be checking with me, I’m kind of scared that I might be something other than a goat.”

“Sure thing Shanty, also you look like a goat, have eyes like a goat and definitely a cast iron stomach. So you’re still a goat to me.” Hugging Pom for those kind words with a hoof, I be getting up to be taking less space on Pom’s body. Also I be needing to use the little goat’s room, as I be walking away I be hearing Pom lament her current sleeping arrangement. “Always everyone’s favorite pillow… I’m surprised anyone wants to be near me, especially after all the blood I had covering me and I ate someone to… life? That’s a weird thought and odd sentence.”

Hah, I definitely be taking after Pom! Also scrubbing the blood out of her wool wasn’t being too hard with water I can be controlling, it be helping me with staying clean now.

-Pom-

It didn’t take long for Dolly or Dormarch to wake up. Dormarch’s three fluffy fish tails were happy to see me aware and up, I pointed out the visor and he made it stop softly quoting Tianhuo’s words. I really shouldn’t and couldn’t shut down now and Dolly was on a snuggle assault with wrapping her paws around my neck and hugging me.

“What’s our situation?” I asked after a moment to appreciate having Dolly snuggled against me. Tearing someone’s heart out with your teeth really makes you learn to appreciate life of those closest to you.

Now if only Elise would wake up so I can move… and apologize profusely for what happened. I’d lost control of the bloodlust for a few seconds and I had really wanted to stop her from reviving Crazy or Cruel, which would have ruined my plan. My plan apparently succeeded.

Sounds like things were mostly fine if Elise was here, with us, not bleeding out from a gaping hole in her chest that… right steer away from it Pom, steer well away from it for the time being. It’s going to be like sixteen or twelve hours before I can do the beast thing again anyway… so I’m mentally unsound, but I at least won’t hurt anyone unless I go into that transformation again.

My control over my wool has advanced quite a bit… I’m once again seeing myself as terrifying, but in this situation I really needed to be. The naga couldn’t do a thing to me, but the Behemoth, those needed me to actively move my body to deal with and darn it if I don’t feel sore… Sitrus Berries can only do so much for the healing process.

“Just relax mom, everything is going to be okay.” Dormarch stated softly as he nuzzled against me.

“Yeah, so you’re a vegetable eating person that started eating flesh while going all werewolf… without the accidentally scratching someone so they turn into a werewolf thing. Wait, wouldn’t that mean that every werewolf is technically a cannibal because everyone they attack could technically turn into a werewolf if they don’t kill them all the way?” Dolly received a scathing look from Dormarch and I could feel my eyes dull. “What, it’s a serious concern that if they don’t kill a target quickly enough that it too becomes a werewolf and then does the original werewolf just give up on eating that person just like that? Or can they eat that person before they fully turn and would that make it alright and not cannibalism? I’m being serious here, considering all the spooks in the night things exist with my father likely being descended from a hell hound!”

“Dolly can we get things back on track and not stuck on such a touchy subject.” Dormarch tilted his head towards me in reference, he was such a good boy.

I snorted and started laughing, Dolly was so horrible and so silly at the same time! My laughter woke up Elise, who was cuddling what was a pair of snakes that had to be Crazy and Cruel, and Jeanne who looked like she had a good night’s sleep.

“You seem to be in a good mood.” Jeanne stated cautiously.

“Oh no, I’m not, trust me on that, very far from it actually… it’s just that Dolly is trying to make a serious discussion and it drove me over the edge considering how silly it is sounding.” I was still giggling like a tiny ewe about it. “In any case I would think it’s about surviving the werewolf makes you as strong as the werewolf and the like, it’s a fairly interesting way to for a magical wolf to build a pack from the strong.”

“Now you see that wouldn’t make sense though, a werewolf is only as strong as their increase from base form would allow, at least that’s how Poodle Wolf mechanics work anyway I did pay some attention when husky werewolves were involved.” Yep, Dolly still had a thing for Huskies a mile deep even if she was unlikely to be with one particular Husky, I had to remember that she chose me over most of the things in her life. It’s the fact that Dolly was still here and trying to cheer me up, and poorly at that, that had me going with the giggles. For this topic of discussion Dolly had chosen is so ridiculously bizarre a thing to bring up… well the silliness of it is very much appreciated at the moment. “I mean really, can you imagine some fatty surviving a werewolf and then having all that fat turn into muscle? The poor werewolf that tried to eat the guy would be stuck with them as a pack mate for the rest of their life and the fat guy is now an Alpha… maybe that’s why all those werewolf stories have it take while for them to fully turn into a werewolf so that the wolf in question still has a chance to stop that from happening… at that point would it be considered cannibalism since the person they attacked are becoming one?”

“For some reason, I’m currently glad I can’t understand her.” Jeanne stated with grin.

“You’re not really missing much at the moment.” I said flatly.

“Hey, come on Pom!” Dolly barked angrily.

I snorted again and sighed.

“She wants to talk werewolves, I’m game if you can act as a translator for me!” Elise seemed to be particularly perky for some reason. “Also you have got to be the comfiest pillow in existence.”

“It’s the magical wool.” Being a fluffmancer did tend towards being cuddly soft.

“We need to move and soon!” Canard stated as he rode the pinball machine down into the room with Sami at his side. “Something has most of the EPs forces distract and now would be a good time to split up and try to figure out how to achieve our objectives. We don’t have much time to act on the distraction that is drawing most of the EPs away from the area.”

“Back to it then…” I sighed audibly. “I hope you got some rest, because I certainly did for however long I’ve been out of it. What are we doing?”

“Good question, we need at least some of you to draw the EPs from the walls and door, we’ll use the hover skiff and Skein Flyers to try to get the door open and then we’ll figure out how to deal with the wall cannons aimed at Castle Alexander. Shine at least confirms they are holding, but being constantly pummeled can’t be good for their morale after that last eight or so hours.” Canard answered, his beak softened as he looked at me. “How you feeling?”

“I’m up for the distraction team.” I immediately volunteered and suddenly got sandwiched between Dolly and Dormarch. They didn’t say anything as they pressed against me, they didn’t have to. “Sami is definitely on the demolitions, she generates explosives. Which means you’re going with Sami… Jeanne decide the split up from that.”

“All the Zealots will go with the demolition team of Sami, Canard, Snake, Shine and Peppercat to work out the wall situation. Thankfully there are no cannons pointing inwards so you should be able to figure something out when you arrive with the skiff.” That got some nods, didn’t sound too bad to give the demolition team some hefty numbers with the five skein flyers available to lend fire support and the skiff, Sami should be able to find something to destroy to help Castle Alexander out. “I, Pom, Shanty, Krosserdog, Dolly and Dormarch will run distractions… Elise do you want to assist distractions, go with the demolition team, stay here or leave to somewhere safer?”

“I’m with the distraction team, I’ll at least draw Merak’s ire if he sees me fighting the local EPs alongside you.” Elise didn’t even blink at fighting alongside me or show a hint of fear. “Also Pom, I’m so sorry that I put you through all that.”

“What?! Why are you apologizing to me, I should be apologizing to you!” What happened was still fairly upsetting to me and fresh.

“I accept you’re apology.” Elise stated cheerfully. “Also thanks for fixing my broken soul, don’t know anybody else that would do that.”

“Guys there’s a flaming monster wrecking Midgar city and that thing is absolutely terrifying! It’s big, has muscles and is covered in flames and has big horns, it’s basically a bipedal demon and tearing through EPs without pause or tiring… so what are we doing?” It was odd to hear how quickly Shine switched gears and said that last part pleasantly.

“We’re avoiding that thing as much as possible, it's likely already drawing more attention than we will be soon with trying to draw attention from the gate and wall cannons, you are going with Canard’s team.” Jeanne was up and moving over to our supplies chest to tuck away a few berries for herself and one of the two remaining reviver seeds, the other seed she tossed to me with a nod. The seeds were rare, but fairly powerful for our needs and we need every advantage we could get. “Everyone stock up on supplies and let’s move, we might not get another opportunity like this one!”

Once we got to the doorway of the Seventh Heaven bar we all stopped when we heard the whaling call of Moby Dick, something was going on in the upper tier of the city, but that wasn’t exactly important at the moment while we were below it all.

“Get ready… distraction team goes out first and starts taking it to the EPs to draw them off.” Jeanne stated while holding the banner spear tightly in her right claw. "This is going to be rough... demo team wait until things are clear, then move out."

At least Jeanne was starting to take more charge of things. I gripped the paralance and mentally prepared myself to start blocking tons of projectiles.

-Jeanne-

Just had to stay positive we could do this, nobody is dying on my watch... I even arguably chose to be on the team with the harder job and a higher mortality rate possibilities. Hopefully Elise was willing to supply resurrections to us without us asking.

In fact, let's see just how much fight there is in me to see us all through this alive, for our threatened homes and friends I would do my best to see us to a bright future from the darkest depths this Moon Cell can throw at us.

The rallying cry in my heart will pulse ever brighter, I could even already feel the surge in my blood as I held the banner spear aloft and charged out those doors ready to face any enemy that threatened all of existence with my head held high and my spirit swelling!

Comments

[talontitanbane]

“I’m with the distraction team, I’ll at least draw Merak’s ire if he sees me fighting the local EPs alongside you.” Elise didn’t even blink at fighting alongside me or show a hint of fear. “Also Pom, I’m so sorry that I put you through all that that.”

Typo spotted. Two thats.

[ScarfStar]

I should really get round to this one day

[Booster Spice]

Given Luu Buu Balrog form wants Shanty, that would be an intresting way of dealing with the wall, gates, cannons and pretty much evreything else in the area? Then again, just how much trashing does the Mid tier require?