Final Fantasy VII: Lifestream - Book 2: Aftermath

THIRTY-ONE

The underground section of the storehouse shook around us as the black metal guard scorpion opened fire. I spun right, using the motion to start a chain of quick jabs into its side while Barret fed bullets into it, Lena did the same, and Red shocked it with a sizzling fork of lightning, sending smoke into the air and blowing off a few panels in a shower of sparks. My own blows hadn't made much of a dent so far, but I couldn't let up. I wouldn't. This thing had to go down.

"Keep it up with that lightnin', Red!" Barret called. "Cloud said the thing's insides could be overloaded."

Red unleashed another blast of electricity. "On it!"

I glanced at Barret. "Any other ideas?"

"Don't get killed," he snorted.

"I think I can manage that," I quipped.

As if to emphasize my point, I drove a pair of diving kicks into the scorpion's body, then backflipped away before it could retaliate, leaving it shooting at the floor where I'd just been. Then, while Lena fired blast after blast from her gun while circling around the mech, I unloaded on it with a burst of magical fire from my materia—I'd swapped mine with Aerith's this morning, wanting to try something else besides the Ice I'd been using, and she'd been happy to give me the Fire materia. I liked it so far, and I could see why Barret did, too.

The flames blazed brightly across the scorpion's metal skin, frying wires and driving it back, and although it didn't pack quite as much of a punch as Red's lightning, it still did plenty of damage. Barret added a large blast from his gun-arm, the searing orange fireball slamming into the mech's body with a bang. But we all knew it wasn't gonna go down so easily. It shuddered but held, and then it jumped up past the rail and clung to a nearby wall like a giant spider.

"Better watch out, guys!" Barret called. "Incomin'!"

We understood what he meant right away when the scorpion fired a volley of missiles straight at us. Barret immediately grabbed Lena and dove aside with her while Red and I sprang out of the way and a series of explosions tore into the platform just behind us. And as if to remind us of our situation, the whole complex rumbled again as a fiery orange glow began to sweep through the cluster of equipment and machinery below the platform. We didn't have much time.

Since the scorpion was still on the wall out of range, I sent another blast of magical fire into it while Red hit it with more lightning. Barret and Lena poured bullets into it as well in a steady stream. The scorpion held, damaged but not down yet, and jumped back toward us, spinning through the air to land squarely in front us, its tail up and glowing with a bright, wicked blue light. As Barret had told us, there wasn't much we could use for cover, just a few crates of supplies.

Red and I skidded behind them just as the scorpion fired, the tip of its tail pulsing with energy for only a few seconds before it unleashed a searing, bluish-white laser beam that swept across the platform. Barret managed to dart up the ramp toward the monster storage area to avoid it, but Lena wasn't so lucky. I watched helplessly as the blast caught her before she could get away, hurling her through the air like a rag doll to crash into the metal floor with a startled shout.

"Lena!" Barret and I yelled.

She didn't move, not at first, and I was afraid she'd been badly hurt. But then she stirred, grimacing in pain but very much alive, and rolled from her side to her back just in time to see the mech charging toward her. Lena grabbed her gun from where she'd dropped it and, while still on her back, fired again and again at the scorpion, damaging it but not slowing it down. It trained its weapons on her and prepared to trample her to death as it moved steadily closer.

I got there first, though, springing out from behind the crates in an instant and slamming my fists and feet hard into the side of the mech's body again and again while Barret let loose with a volley of devastating shots to drive it back. As Lena quickly darted out of the way, Red leapt on top of the scorpion and started clawing at the exposed circuitry, and it faltered, thrashing about and trying unsuccessfully to shake him off. But that wasn't happening. Then, with a flash and a low hum, the mech surrounded itself with some kind of energy field.