Chapter 4: On the Way Back to Balamb Garden

[miyavi]

Wow! Sho got the first post in the new page again!!

---

Sho nodded to Vanesse, putting the chocolate bar back into his pocket and giving her a lopsided grin. And then the airship suddenly lurched, and before he knew it, Sho was beginning to slide down an incline. He knew absolutely nothing about airships, but even he knew that airships weren't supposed to fly at an incline...not one this steep.

He heard a feminine voice and whipped his head around to see Stella, unholstering a pair of gold and silver pistols and making her way somewhere, he wasn't quite sure. But she looked like she was ready to battle with whatever the hell had attacked the airship.

<Aa!> Sho moved away from Stardust and jumped to his feet, stumbling slightly as the ship rocked precariously once more. Stella was almost out of sight, and Sho sprinted after her, but not before catching a glimpse outside a large window.

<Oh man!> Bahamut was opening its massive jaws, a jet of energy beginning to gather in its mouth. <It's gonna shoot us!>

Sho stopped short, and facing the Guardian Force, and opened his mouth to yell a warning to his teammates---

The ethereal image of a large, green, four-winged bird, completely transparent, surrounded Sho's body before flapping large wings and passing through the solid walls of the airship. Zephyr materialized just as Bahamut fired, and the blast caught the green bird, obliterating a wing. Zephyr let out an birdlike screech and vanished.

Sho stood rooted to the spot, wide-eyed. <Zephyr! ZEPHYR!!>

There was no answer. The defensive Guardian Force had forced itself into the material plane to save its master and the airship, at the expense of its life.

Sho tore his eyes away from Bahamut, and ran after Stella. Bahamut was sure to attack again, and it had to be stopped. Sho scrambled after Stella, all too aware of the empty feeling in the back of his mind.

Zephyr was definitely out for this battle. Sho had nothing to go on but magic and his fists.

[Polaris Lyn]

Polaris slid. She crashed into the opposite wall with a loud grunt just as Sho let out a half-yell that made her turn her head. Amidst the chaos, she could just barely see a ghostly figure of an immense bird surround the martial artist and vanish once more. Then there was more yelling, and both Stella and Sho had vanished, presumably to fight Bahamut.

Polaris forced herself to her feet, the X-Potion obliterating the last remnants of her bullet wounds. She was completely healed, but tired, still feeling the effects from all the casting she had done for the day.

"We've gotta move!" she shouted above the noise, as Bahamut struck the airship with a massive claw. "Stella and Sho need backup! They need people with long-range weaponry!!"

The airship continued to fly at an incline, and Polaris blinked. Why hadn't it stabilized itself yet...?

<The pilot!!>

Polaris ran to the door that led to the cockpit, opening it and stumbling through. The damn ship wouldn't stop moving...

"Hey!" she shouted, spying someone sitting in the pilot's seat. She made her way to him, balancing herself easily enough. "You need to get this thing stable," she yelled. "We've got people fighting outside!!"

She made her way over to the pilot, and stopped short. He had a bloody gash on his forehead, but he looked furiously wide awake. Apparently, he was staring Bahamut down, hoping to kill the GF with his glare. Polaris nearly jumped when she saw the dragon GF resiliently pounding on the front window of the airship.

"Regen!" she commanded, feeling the sudden flush of power rush to her palms, and she cast the magic on the pilot, before turning her attention to Bahamut.

<Obsidian.>

Bahamut roared in fury.

[stardust]

Omg Page 4 already?? We rock....SO bad! XD ROFL

And oh yeah, one more page with your post being the first and you win the jackpot, Sho!! Think of it as triple 7 thing! AHAHAH
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Stardust had to grab onto a rail to prevent herself from rolling down the floor. Her wound eased already but not completely. It was probably because of the fact that she only drank half of the potion. However, that wasn't important, she could move now and that was all that mattered. From the manner the airship was rocking right now, something was definitely attacking them. The red alert pulled by the pilot just confirmed it.

"What happened? What was that?!" she said, looking around.

"All right, we've got to get him off our tail or else this was all for nothing. I need two or three of you that can fight to come with, we are going up" She heard Stella announced right before hurrying towards the exit. She was heading for the rooftop.

"Him?" she whispered, maintaining her balance.

Seconds she noticed, Sho was following her, opening the door and disappearing through the hallway.

"Bahamut's chasing us!" Hadrian announced as his eyes were fixed through the small window of the hold. "That Weiss moron just doesn't give up, does he?" he spat, pounding the glass window.

Just then, Sho's cry was heard from a distant and it was evident that they needed to hurry. Stardust pushed herself off the rail she was leaning on only to find herself being knocked against the glass window when the dragon struck another blow to the airship.

"We've gotta move!" Polaris shouted above the noise. "Stella and Sho need backup! They need people with long-range weaponry!!"

Stardust struggled to hold her balance. Legendary as this GF may seem, Bahamut was going down. She cast a quick glance at her remaining teammates inside the hold. Jun, Rayden, Blaze, and even Gemma couldn't possibly take on Bahamut with their stupid close-range weapons. While Hadrian, what was Hadrian's weapon in the first place? He was probably the most useless of them all. And lastly, the Opps...she wouldn't bother to ask one of them to fight since they didn't have to. They weren't SeeDs afterall.

/So I'm assuming you need my help, right? Come on, admit it./ Diwata talked for the first time...after a short while. And it was annoying how she sounded like nothing was happening at all.

If you don't wanna help then don't!

/Crybaby./

"I'm going!" she spat, and trudged towards the hold's exit. Just as she sprinted along the hallway, Stardust felt the warmth of Diwata's magic rejuvinating her. If she would've just done this earlier, then she didn't have to bleed.

You're such a stupid GF. Stardust told her.

/I know, I love you too./

Summoning Ciceronian, Stardust went into the elevator and was taken to the rooftop. The door opened and the first thing she saw were Stella and Sho, getting ready to face the looming dragon that was flying towards them.

"Sorry, I'm late," she said and ran beside them.

Bahamut's deafening roar was more teeth-gritting upclose, especially now that it had spotted them. It opened its mouth and a big ball of energy started forming. He was going to unleash Mega Flare upon them.

"You damn dragon!!" Stardust aimed at the dragon's eye and shot her energy-filled arrow. "We gotta attack it with all we have! Don't worry about your HP, I'll have my GF support us." She then proceeded to fire several more arrows consecutively.


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OOC: You guys can write the Bahamut fight too! Feel free and be creative! ^.^

[miyavi]

Sho: Jackpot? Hotcha! *crosses fingers for a giant cheesecake*

---

Bahamut roared, already charging up its Mega Flare attack. Stardust had wasted no time, already sending volley after volley of arrows at the dragon, but Bahamut barely flinched; it was the King of Dragons, and it wasn't going to get taken down by a few arrows.

Sho grit his teeth, but knew that summoning Zephyr was going to be useless. Zephyr was gone until Sho found a Cottage or something to revive him with.

<Which leaves...>

Sho took a deep breath. He'd have to fill in as a caster. <Where's Curly Fries when you need her?> he thought ruefully as he focused his thoughts into casting.

"Triple! Haste!" The power of Triple refreshed him and the feeling of Haste followed soon after. Stella, Sho and Stardust all glowed with a faint light.

Sho felt lightheaded---he was unused to casting so quickly. <Man, my casting capabilities suck,> he thought, before Bahamut pierced his mind with another reptilian screech. <Crap!>

Bahamut flew backwards then, effectively putting a greater distance between it and Stardust's attacks. Sho frowned, and cast the final spell he had stocked.

"TORNADO!!"

The winds whipped around Bahamut, enveloping him in a trio of cyclones. Sho hesitated for a moment before casting again. Perhaps if he ruined Bahamut's flight pattern with enough Tornado spells, the airship could outmaneuver the dragon.

[Myacu]

Everything was in utter chaos. A heavy metal bin skidded off its shelf and crashed into Gemma's back. Slammed into the floor, face down, she struggled to support herself against the violent tremblings of the airship. She could hear the others shouting from above and the roar of Bahamut as the powerful creature pummeled the airship. The sound of Stella's gunshots rang through the air; Sho yelling for more back-up.

The airship began to level itself. Grabbing onto the stair well, Gemma made her way to the top of the stronghold, where she could see Bahamut in full view.

Had their lives not been at stake, she would have marveled at the creature's majesty. Its crimson wings and the gold fire of its eyes explained why Bahamut was so legendary. What kind of person could have harnessed such power against them?

"We gotta attack it with all we have! Don't worry about your HP, I'll have my GF support us," yelled the pink-haired Seed.

But what did she have? Her flails were useless in such a battle, and Calypso's magic would have little effect on such a deity.


Bahamut reared back its head, charging up for another Mega Flare. It was crucial that they bring down the winged-beast before it unleashed its devasting attack, but there simply wasn't enough power. A rapid volley of arrow and gunfire hardly made even a dent in the GF's scaly side.


To her left, Gemma saw a SeeD casting Tornados, at an incredible speed, one right after the other. For a brief moment, Bahamut's hold on the airship was disrupted, as it spiraled in the speeding cyclone.

<He's trying to destroy Bahamut's flight pattern.>

Gemma thought that his plan might work, if Jax can take advantage of it to break away the airship. However, Gemma could sense that the man was growing fatigued from his casting. If he kept this up, he ran the risk of a serious injury. Running up to him, she shouted, "Let me draw from you!"

[miyavi]

"Let me draw from you!"

Sho turned his head, and found himself looking down into a girl holding a menacing-looking spiked weapon and the biggest eyes he'd ever seen. <How old is this girl?> he wondered momentarily, before nodding his consent. She was probably going to be better at casting than he was, and maybe, if the both of them were lucky, their combined spells could overwhelm Bahamut and give their pilot time to evade the dragon.

"Go 'head," he shouted over the din of the cyclones he had cast. They were already fading; his casting power just couldn't make them hold for more than a couple of minutes. "Good luck!"

[Stella]

This isn't happening.

But it was. Stella couldn't tear her eyes away from the beast as it was tossed and turned by the tornadoes. If I could just get a clear shot...

She stood stark still the wind whipping around her, the ship roaring beneath them. Suddenly everyone else seemed to slip away, it was just her and Bahamut. They were like tiny voices in the back of her head some where else.

Stella slowly lifted her guns. The sun glinted off of them beautifully. A few more moments... that's right...

She shot. The sound rung out through the air, the bullets spiralling through the air. With a loud crack the bullets slammed into the connection bone of Bahumat's wing. The GF roared and tossed its head back as blood splattered from the room across the sky.

[Blaze Sanaku]

wow... so many posts

---

Blaze hesitated about joining the others. If there was one combat weakness that she had, it would most definently be long-ranged battling. She couldn't even toss a ball into a basket without missing by three feet. But when Stella called for three people and everyone rushed up, there was no way in hell that Blaze was going to miss the fight.

She got there just in time to see Stella cripple one of Bahamut's wings. Stardust was to Blaze's right, madly shooting arrows, and everyone's hair was flying around. The dragon vigorously pushed itself upwards with the use of its non-injured wing, determined to take the seeDs down. He looked mere seconds away from using his power blast.

"It'll be too hard to kill it, just take out the other wing!!" Blaze yelled at Stardust, Stella and Sho. She took her own advice and began firing up one of her famous firaga spells.

Blaze looked foward and saw that Balamb was straight ahead. She hoped the pilot wouldn't screw up the landing.

[Myacu]

With one of Bahamut's wings taken out, and Blaze's firaga cast, crippling the remaining wing, Gemma knew that now was the time if their plan was ever to work.

Setting her mind into a stage of deep concentration, Gemma shouted, "Draw Tornado!" She braced herself for the shock, as the stream of magical energy was channeled into her own body. She smiled back at Sho with a knowing look.

With more conviction in her voice then she thought possible, Gemma shouted, "Everyone get down into the lower levels!"

This was it. The tri-cyclone that Sho had cast on Bahamut was now reducing to a single gust of wind. Her mouth pursed in determination, Gemma sprinted towards the writhing beast.

Raising one hand towards the sun, she cried out, "Tornado!"

Electric green light flowed from the tips of her small hands and the ray of energy transformed into a mighty funnel of wind, entrapping the great Bahamut into its clutches.

She didn't stop to think, but simply continued casting as the magic poured out of her.


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The creature was too close in proximity to the airship. With no route of escape, the most Jax could do was keep the airship steady in the air, as it was being nearly dragged alongside Bahamut across the sky. The bleeding from the laceration on his head had stopped, now only replaced with a minor throbbing. His rifle next to him, Jax couldn't help but consider the irony that the group's long-range fighter was trapped in the cockpit. Looking ahead, he could tell that Balamb was near, only a few hundred miles away.


Suddenly, Jax felt a pressure being lifted from the airship. Could the beast have relinquished it's grip on them? Not wasting a second, he shifted the controls into attack position, and fired two booster rockets.


The airship was now shooting across the sky, with a raging beast in its smoky trail.

[Hadrian D'arcell]

Hadrian pressed his head on the window and the faint figure of Balamb Garden caught his eyes. They were almost there. He knew he had to do something.

/This is not a bad time for a distress signal./ CQ reminded. Hadrian knew she was being sarcastic despite of her dead tone.

"All right, I'm contacting Garden," the hacker announced as he wore his hacking gloves and virtual goggles. In an instant, a holographic keyboard appeared before him and he started typing. "More welcoming party for our stinkin' ol' drag'n, Bahamut."

Take that Balamb Garden, your precious SeeD-lings need some backup. He pressed the enter key. That should get Garden's attention all right. Pressing the sides of his virtual goggles, he looked out the window to get a view of Bahamut being fired at with missiles.

[stardust]

Stardust was surprised when she noticed that too many people were coming up on the roof. The space was getting much smaller. However, this might probably be a good thing since her limit break wasn't available. And she was right. Their party was able to retaliate more with more firepower. Stella managed to hit the wing while Gemma was wildly casting Sho's Tornadoes. Bahamut was indeed taking damage, but was it enough?

It'll be too hard to kill it, just take out the other wing!!" Blaze yelled and fired her famous Firaga spells as well. Stardust aimed once again at Bahamut's wing, purposely stalling some time to charge the arrow that she was bound to fire. With the Tornado, Firaga, and the bullets flying around, she definitely could lower her defense for a second for a larger damage.

Bahamut flew from side to side for an attempt to evade. Its wings flapped with sheer force, blowing the SeeDs' wave of attack into nothingness. That was when two lone missiles shot through and went straight to Bahamut. The missiles exploded on his thick scales and he roared.

The pilot...? Surprised, Stardust assumed he was definitely doing the assist down there.

Seeing this as an opportunity, Stardust finally let go of her arrow and delivered another blow on its other wing. Her arrow malevolently exploded on Bahamut's wing, squeezing another round of blood bath onto the shiny airship.

The cry of the legendary dragon was unmistakable. It definitely had been angered greatly. A bluish aura appeared around it and it quickly forced open its mouth to release a raw and powerful flare beam along their way.

"Diwata!!" Stardust shouted and the fairy materialized from nothingness to hover above the SeeDs swiftly. The determination in the Fairy's eyes were evident as she blew a kiss from her hands and stretched it, filling the SeeDs with immense healing light as the fiery flare of Bahamut struck for a complete ten seconds. The SeeDs were fine, but the exterior of the airship was half-melted. Stardust knew that if the dragon kept with this kind of attack, Diwata wouldn't be able to hold out at some point, especially the airship.

But we're almost there!

[vanesse]

Vanesse cowered as she saw the intense bluish beam Bahamut had fired outside the window. The airship shook violently once again. She wondered if the SeeDs on the rooftop were okay. She could hear Hadrian swearing and cursing like a pirate from across her.

"What do we do? We couldn't just sit here!" Vanesse stated, sounding anxious. She glanced at the other SeeDs, then to Deo and Jaime.


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Someone just write the part with Garden firing at Bahamut to shoo it off in case you're tired playing with Bahamut ^.^ Write away!XD

[waterlily43]

WOAH Look at the number of posts!!! >_< I wanna play with Bahamut too XD
Jun: Why do these people like Dragon GFs so much -_-

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Jun and Rayden bumped their heads against each other as the airship lurched dangerously, earning Jun a spell of dizziness that wouldn't go away no matter how she shook her head, while Rayden had banged his head on a table edge and fell unconscious. For an excruciatingly long period of time, Jun could only grip onto something while waiting for it to pass. It seems that Bahamut was attacking them from the air and everyone was already rushing up to battle him except for Hadrian, the pilot and the Opps.

THen Hadrian announced that he was contacting Garden.

"I'll inform the rest!" Jun replied, and turned to look at Vanesse. "Don't worry! We'll reach Garden soon and then he can't touch us! He'd be stupid to do that!" She nodded slightly, and hastened towards the door, stopping to glance out of a window as the sky was bathed with an unnatural blue.

Without a doubt, she knew Bahamut had just unleashed his mightiest attack. Fearing for the rest, Jun burst onto the rooftop like a roadrunner on steriods, releasing a relieved breath when she saw that none of them were hurt.

"Everyone! Hadrian has contacted Garden so we should be expecting some backup soon." Jun yelled, straining her voice against the wind so that all of them could hear. "And Bahamut will take a longer time to recover from his Mega Flare. So we've got to stall him until we reach Garden!!"

And then Garden's reinforcements will do the rest, or we're dead.

"I'll help." A hoarse voice sonded from behind. Rayden's mug appeared in her vision, devoid of its usual playfulness. A painful-looking bump graced the right corner of his forehead.

Ignoring her questioning glance, he brushed past her before assuming his casting position. Channelling all his tension for not doing anything in the last two battles, Rayden could feel the flow of magic surge through his body to the fingertips, bursting forth into a powerful Flare spell.

"Ultima!" Jun shouted as she cast the forbidden magic, a little of the dark energy still tingling in her fingers even as it hurtled in a ball towards Bahamut. She was confident that even if Bahamut could evade the Flare, he wouldn't have enough time to escape from the Ultima . "Give him all you've got guys! And don't worry my GF will revive us if anything happens so no holds barred!!!!"

You will, right....Sapphy?

His short grunt was answer enough.

[Polaris Lyn]

Holy crap! The posts tripled since last night!

---

Polaris made her way to one of the giant windows in the cockpit to watch the others fight Bahamut. It had relinquished its hold on the airship, and she had watched the pilot fire at the Guardian Force, but that couldn't mean it was dead. There was an inhuman roar of fury that shattered the air, and Polaris frowned. Bahamut was a bitch to kill.

But killing it was out of the question; the King of Dragons was too powerful, and the airship was no stable battleground. The best they could do was immobilize Bahamut. But how? Even with broken wings it was still going after them. Polaris turned her head to look back the pilot, Ajax, who was too focused on piloting to fight. And she...well, she was a short-range fighter; she couldn't very well go up to the roof with the other SeeDs and hack Bahamut to death with her axe. And all she had was Support-Mag; what was she gonna do, use healing spells on the bastard to kill it with kindness?

There was another way...

<It's out of our range now,> Obsidian said shortly. <If you want to summon me, you'll have to go on up to the roof so I can get my attack within range.>

<That's not true...I'm sure with enough focus--->

<---you'll strain your heart? That's right. You can't summon me and expect me to fight him.>

<Yes I could.>

<...You crazy bitch, there's no arguing with you.> But Obsidian sounded amused. <And I suppose I'm your best bet...being a Gravity-enhanced Guardian Force and all. Bahamut looks like he's been putting on some weight, anyway; shouldn't be too hard to get him down.>

Polaris smirked. Pressing her hands against the cool glass, she summoned forth her GF.

Outside, the air surrounding Bahamut grew dark and heavy. A wraith appeared from the sky, a winged angel that surveyed the King of Dragons with a sadistic smile playing on its face. Obsidian streaked down from the heavens, its sable wings unfolding like a black cloud, and Bahamut saw it, screeching its displeasure. It called forth its Mega Flare attack, but Obsidian did not flinch; if anything, it flew quicker.

Bahamut fired; the bright ball of scintillating energy blew straight towards Obsidian, and suddenly there was a cawing of ravens and the Gravity GF vanished. But the intense pressure of Gravity-Mag soon followed, pushing down onto Bahamut. It forced the dragon down, and with its crippled wings, Bahamut could barely stay aloft. It fell for a few moments before regaining control of the air.

But it was enough. Bahamut had fallen over a hundred feet beneath the airship, leaving the airship completely free from the dragon's clutches.

In the cockpit, Polaris sighed, one hand pressing on her chest. Her heart was beating much too quickly. "Ngh.."

<Take that, Weiss.>

[Diego Stanton]

Deo slammed the last cupboard open, allowing all of the contents to slide out and tumble across the room.

"Are you kidding me?!? How can you have a ship with no explosives on it?!!!?" Deo yelled at no one in particular.

"What do we do? We couldn't just sit here!" Vanesse panicked. Deo frantically looked around the room.

"I have an idea!" Deo said. He disappeared to the ship's cargo room for a few minutes, before returning with about four gallon filled cartons of airship fuel.

"Follow me!" he said to Jaime and Vanesse and joined the rest of the seeDs outside on the deck.

"Where's the dragon?!?!" He yelled above the wind. Somebody pointed downwards and Deo saw that Bahamut had fallen about 100 feet below the ship.

perfect. If my plan works, the ship will be too far away from Bahamut to be harmed.

"Stella, Stardust and Van!!!!" He yelled as loud as he could, "In three seconds I'm going to throw these cartons overboard. Shoot them open!! Once that's done, Jaime, cast Flare and Blaze, cast firaga!! We can kill this thing!!"

"WHAT?!?" Blaze shouted.

"CAST FIRAGA."

"WHA-" Blaze began to say but Deo had already tossed the cartons of gas overboard.