The light did little to reveal the nature of their foe, but did sweep across a gaping mouth, complete with razor sharp fangs and thick drool. Cloud ordered James to take cover, and prepared to dodge again as the creature charged. Timing his jump carefully, Cloud leapt to one side as he heard jaws snap shut beside him. Swinging his Ultima Weapon with all his might, he made contact with what he judged to be the creature's midsection. A deafening screech hit Cloud's ears, and blood sprayed across his face. He withdrew his sword quickly and backed off as the wounded beast attempted to bite him again.
Behind him, Cloud heard a female voice chanting, and instinctively covered hit head as Tifa's Bolt2 flashed in the air. As the bright light illuminated the dark forest, Cloud got a look at the beast. It was quite large, and Cloud estimated its weight to be several tons. It body was built like a bull, with broad, powerful shoulders, and thick legs. Its tail whipped about behind it, boasting a sharp spike at the end. But its head was more reminiscent of a dinosaur, with a large, drooling mouth, and eyes set back in its skull. Its teeth were long, round, and sharp, and it's snout stuck out at least two feet, like a huge alligator. Huge, hostile, and powerful, this creature was quite clearly built to kill.
The image lasted only a fraction of a second as the lightning shot from the sky. The creature was fast on its feet, and the Bolt did little more than give it a hotfoot. Kicking its hind legs up, it went for Cloud again. With too little time to attack, Cloud jumped, and heard the thing go under him. As his jump peaked, Cloud twisted around, and landed a few feet behind the creature. Swinging his sword, he felt it make contact, and heard a screech as the severed tail spike fell to the ground. Cloud moved out of the way as the creature attacked again, and it lowed into a tree, sending it crashing to the ground.
"Cloud, get down!"
At the sound of Barret's voice, Cloud hit the dirt and covered his head. The sound of gunfire followed, and the ground shook as the creature moved.
"Shit!" Barret screamed. Cloud couldn't see what was happening, but the gunfire stopped and Tifa screamed. Leaping to his feet, Cloud rushed over to help. Running through the fog, he judged the creature's location by the sound of its heavy breathing. He planted his sword deep in the creature's back. Another screech rang out, and Cloud had no time to back off before he was thrown, sword still in hand, away from the creature and into a tree.
Cloud crumbled to the ground in pain, and heard the creature moving towards him. His mind was racing as he struggled to his feet, but the creature was already only a few yards from him.
It was too late.
Down on his knees, Cloud held up his sword, hoping to split the thing's head as it crushed him. Eyes shut, he waited for impact.
But there was none.
Only a loud, inhuman cry, and a thunderous crash.
Cloud opened his eyes to see the creature lying in a heap in front of him, twitching as its last breaths escaped. Upon closer inspection, he saw the long, shining Venus Gospel through its neck.
"Damn that was close." Cid said, walking over to Cloud to help him up.
Gasping for air, Cloud took Cid's extended hand, and pulled himself to his feet. "Thanks."
"No problem. Watch your ass next time." Cid said.
It took them a few minutes to find the flashlights and locate each other, but when they did, they were relieved to see that everyone was OK. James had taken cover from the battle, and had little more than a scratch. Barret's injuries were nothing serious, and although Shera was shaken from the scene, she assured everyone she was fine.
"I heard you guys yelling over the PHS, so I had Reeve track you down." Cid explained. "We found you just in time."
Cloud nodded. "We'd better let him know we're OK."
"Already did." Tifa said, holding up her PHS.
Cloud nodded and walked over to the corpse of the monster. Cloud noticed that it smelled really bad as he inspected it. "Damn."
Everyone gathered around the thing, except Shera, who hid her eyes from the sight. Cid yanked hard on his Venus Gospel, and blood poured from the wound when it came loose. "What the hell is it?"
Cloud shook his head. "Never seen anything like it before."
"I'm sending some visuals to a computer data base," Cait Sith said, "We can save 'em and figure out what it is."
"Good idea, since we can't carry this thing out ourselves." Cloud said. "Mark these coordinates, and we'll find it later."
"So are we done here?" Shera asked.
"Nope."
"No?" Barret questioned.
"This isn't what killed those men." Cloud said decisively.
"How the hell do you know that?"
Cloud knelt down next to the thing's reptilian-looking head. Cloud noted that while the creature's face looked like an alligator's, there was short, thick hair growing on it. Cloud poked at the creature's mouth with his sword, making sure there was no reflex action. When the mouth didn't move, Cloud reached down and pried it open. "Look at the teeth."
Everyone leaned down to get a better look.
"Oh, sick!" Yuffie groaned as she saw the tatters of flesh hanging from the teeth.
"It explains the gut pile we saw before. This thing has probably been eating the monsters that are usually infesting this place." Cloud explained. "I bet if we cut this thing open, we'd find a few interesting things, but I don't think any of them will be the missing workers."
"But why not?" Tifa asked. "You don't know that."
"Those corpses had not been eaten." Cloud said. He motioned to the creature's open mouth. "Look at the size of this thing. If they had been bitten, there'd be chunks missing."
Tifa grimaced at the thought. "Magic?"
"Doubt it. I've never seen a spell do that. Besides, there was a lot of physical damage that I don't think could have come from being rammed by this thing."
"So what do we do then?" James asked.
"Well, we should be nearing the other end. We get back on track, and get through the rest of this place, and if we find nothing, head to the Forgotten Capital. We can worry about where this thing came from, and if there are any more of them, later."
James nodded as Cloud got Reeve on the PHS. Within a few minutes, they were on their way again.
After a while, Cid's team found themselves at the end of the Sleeping Forest. While the forest appeared to stretch on even further, they knew that it was an illusion. Reeve had pinpointed their location, and they were sure that this was the way out. When Cloud arrived, they would use the Lunar Harp to awaken the forest, and continue on.
"So what do we do now?" Shera asked as she tightened her coat.
"Wait." Cid said, lighting up a cigarette.
"I hate waiting." Yuffie said impatiently. "Can we go without them?"
"Cloud has the Lunar Harp. Can't go nowhere without it."
Yuffie grunted and began to pace. "I hope they hurry. I hate this place."
Yuffie wasn't the only one. Shera was usually cool and composed, but this place scared the life out of her. After seeing the "bulligator", a name Yuffie came up with, nearly kill Cloud, she wished she could just chain Cid to a wall, where she didn't have to worry about him. Of all the things she was feeling, the desire to go home right now was the strongest.
One thing did intrigue her though. She gazed into the point at which Cid said they would exit.
Cid was positive that this was the exit, but it sure didn't look that way. The forest seemed to stretch on endlessly. No matter how hard she tried, she could not see an end to it. Cid told her that if she walked in that direction, she would just keep going, and never find the end. She didn't understand how, but she wasn't about to try to figure it out.
She glanced at her watch. It was 4:46. The sun was up somewhere overhead, but she couldn't see it anywhere. She hoped Cloud would be here soon. The longer she stayed in this place, the less she liked it. She had always heard that the Sleeping Forest was one of the beautiful sights of the world.
"Could there be some kind of curse on this place?"
Shera didn't direct the question at anyone in particular, but Cid answered from behind her.
"I dunno. Maybe. But there's nothin' in here. So whatever it is, it may have left and gone to the city."
Just then, they heard something coming in their direction. Cid jumped to his feet, weapon ready, just in case. The flashlight beams coming through the fog told them that it was Cloud and his team.
"'Bout time." Cid grumbled.
"Hey, it's hard to walk when you can't see where you're going." Tifa said as she appeared. Cloud, Barret, and James were not far behind.
"So what's the story?" Shera asked.
Cloud shook his head. "Nothing. A few more carcasses near the bulligator's lair, but that's it."
"Are you that isn't our monster?"
"I'm sure. Besides, it was too big to get into those tents without causing some damage." Cloud walked over to the exit spot. "We'll head to the city and scour every inch. After that, we'll turn back and spend the night here. If nothing comes up in the night, we'll go through again tomorrow. Eventually we'll find something."
Cloud pulled the Lunar Harp out of his equipment bag. Everyone stood and watched him as he stood in front of the exit, and began to pluck the strings.
Cloud closed his eyes as the Song of the Ancients revealed itself to him. Without thought, he coaxed a beautiful, soothing melody from the instrument. The whole forest seemed to hear it as the wind died down somewhat, and the fog became slightly thinner. The natural seal that kept the Forgotten Capital hidden began to fade, and a sunlit path appeared out of nowhere just as Cloud stopped playing.
"Nothing to it." he said as he returned the harp to his bag.
Yuffie was about to say something when they heard a distant roar from behind them.
Tifa looked at Cloud in shock. "Another one?"
Another roar.
"Sounds like it. Come on, let's move, before it finds us." Cloud quickly ushered everyone through the exit, checking over his shoulder as he followed behind.
His footsteps echoed down the dimly lit corridor as he walked. The air was cold and, except for his footsteps, silent. He carefully eyed his surroundings as he walked. Through the windows in closed, steel doors, he saw men hard at work. Lights from computer monitors and other such equipment shone through into the hallway. But no one noticed him as he walked through the hall, and turned to a security door.
Restricted Area: Level 1 Access Only
He checked over each shoulder before sliding a keycard into a read. The light above the door went green, and it slid open just long enough for him to enter. There was a short hall, at the end of which was another security door. Proceeding through it, he came upon a dark, cold room.
As the door slid shut behind him, he flipped a switch on the wall. Red light filled the room. Inside, enormous machines created ominous shadows on the wall. As he looked around, his eyes came upon a ten-foot long pod, smashed to pieces on the floor. He realized that most of the equipment in the room was severely damaged.
There were smears of dried blood on the walls.
"There's no sign of the subject." came a voice to his right.
Another man wearing thick glasses stepped out of the shadows to his right.
"I can tell that. When did this happen?" he asked in a cold voice.
"During the Jenova incident." said the man in the glasses.
"Sephiroth…"
He walked away from the man in the glasses and toward the smashed pod, crunching broken glass under his heavy boots. He observed it carefully. It was made of reinforced titanium. Inspecting it more closely, he found scratch marks on the inside of it. As he walked around it, he found a large tear in the metal.
The sides of it were bent outward.
"You may have let your one chance at victory slip through your fingers…you fool…"
"I think I may be able to activate the tracer, but…"
"Do it."
"But sir, if I…"
"
I said do it!"
"…Y-yes sir." the man said as he pushed his glasses further up on his nose.
"Get all remaining Level 1 personnel involved with the project together."
"Yes sir."
"This is a loose end doctor. I want it tied up…or cut. Do you understand.?"
"Yes sir." the doctor said as he turned to leave.
"And doctor?"
"Yes sir?"
"Don't become a loose end yourself." the man said venomously.
"…Yes sir." With that, the doctor was gone.
The man knelt down next to the wreckage of the pod. Looking inside, he saw that the scratch marks had blood smeared inside of them. The electrodes that were connected to…whatever was in here were torn apart. The unit had been completely destroyed.
He ran his hand along the outside of the pod.
"Where are you?"
Author's note:
Hmm...mystery...don'tcha love it?
Well, things are getting hotter! The "bulligators" (forgive me for that name, it was late...) seem to be a problem, but are they the main problem? Could they have something to do with the two mysterious men and the destroyed lab? Dunno...
Anyway, I might put this story on a fanfiction site to get some feedback, but if you have any suggestions, ideas, comments, complaints, whatever.......CDenic5@aol.com!!
Thanks,
