Chapter 4: On the Way Back to Balamb Garden

[ST]

harharhar the ebil ST beat Sho's winning streak >D

---

Jax
As you got closer and closer to Balamb Garden, you realized that the airship is picking up too much speed to land safely. When Bahamut used Mega Flare, he must have damaged the thrusters. If you don't think of something soon, the airship will crash straight into the Garden.

---

Out of nowhere, missiles began firing from Balamb Garden, courtesy of Hadrian. Bahamut saw these and dodged them with precise accuracy. He is so preoccupied from dodging missiles, however, that he doesn't see the gallons of gas being chucked at him.

[vanesse]

Awww better luck next time Sho! XD *hugs him*
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Vanesse followed Deo's lead and scrambled up the rooftop where Jun and Rayden had gone too. Once there, Vanesse quickly noticed the number of people on top. Isn't this dangerous? Someone might be pushed off. she thought, but quickly cast it away. How much danger could they all be in right now, seriously. She saw that Bahamut was flying a little lower than it was before. This would be a great chance to outrace it. Vanesse heard Deo device a plan, a plan in which she was a hundred percent sure would work.

"Okay!" She nodded and furrowed her brows. The petite girl pulled out her twin boomerangs. Just as the carton Deo threw was about to hit Bahamut, she slung a boomerang towards it, completely shattering the cardboard exterior and splashing the sleek fuel on the dragon.

"Someone ignite it! NOW!" Vanesse shouted to anyone in particular, keeping her hair from covering her eyes by the strong wind.

[waterlily43]

"Someone ignite it! NOW!"

"Flare!" Jaime blasted off the spell the moment those words had left Vanesse's lips. The Opps may not be as large or skillful as the Elite SeeD team but their chemistry was flawless. Whenever carrying out a plan, even an impromptu one, they could count on each other for support.

But maybe this will be the last time...cos Opps is no longer Opps with half its members gone... Jaime blinked hard, brushing an errant tear from her cheek with a hand.

Somewhere below them, Bahamut evolved from fearsome Guardian Force to an orangey ball of flames shrieking his agony for all from heaven to hell to hear.

[ST]

Hadrian ran to the cockpit to just find ANYTHING else to do since everyone were doing it. "Hey, everything okay here?!" he asked the pilot and Polaris. The sight before him clearly told him that everything was other than okay. The airship was headed straight from Balamb Garden!

"Holy sh*t!" he blurted out. "What are you doing, man?!" He glanced at the pilot's reaction. He wasn't taking any action, either that, or he didn't know what to do. Maybe he would just take matters into his own hands. Running beside the control, he wasn't no aerodynamics freak, but he did have a basic idea about how an airship worked. He checked the meters on the control, keeping an eye at the altimeter gauge. It was dropping! They were in a for a nosedive all right.

"Thruster's damaged!" he announced, eventhough the pilot was already aware of it. Hadrian knew he was probably going to be pissed with him for stealing this job as well. Reaching for the microphone, he spoke.

"SeeDs on the rooftop? Still alive?!" Hadrian started. "Well, I've got news for ya. The thrusters are damaged and we're colliding with Balamb Garden all thanks to Bahamut! Now, if you please go back inside and get your own parachute. We're jumping off!" It would take too long if he tried to configure the airplane.

Hadrian looked at Ajax. "Heh...Sorry. Can you change the direction of this airship atleast? We don't want Xu raving at us for causing a dent on Garden y'know?"

Meanwhile...

Hadrian's announcement reached all of you on top as you watched Bahamut writher in pain as the flames engulfed him all the while receiving missiles from Garden. The airship was now starting to gain some distance from the shriveling dragon. That would probably keep him busy for a while. Now must probably be the time to head on the hold for evacuation.


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Sorry if Hadrian's is such an ass, myacu >.<

[Blaze Sanaku]

Blaze casted Firaga to combine with Jaime's flare spell as soon as the cartons were busted open. Bahamut was definently out of the picture now. Blaze thought it was kind of fun watching him wither and roar in pain like that. One more missile from the Garden was all it took to make the giant beast plummet down into the ocean and disappear into its depths.

"SeeDs on the rooftop? Still alive?!" Hadrian's voice came from inside of the ship, "We're jumping off!"

Blaze rushed back into the cockpit and saw the pile of parachutes in the corner.

"There's only four left here!" she said to Hadrian.

[waterlily43]

Jun rushed to the cockpit at Hadrians announcement. Blaze had just told Hadrian that there were only four parachutes left which was hella not enough for all of them.

"Maybe we could contact Garden and ask them to navigate away from their spot? They can stop firing those missiles now cos Bahamut isn't the immediate problem. Even if there's only time to move by a little it could help." Jun glanced over at the control, her eyes landing on the radio. "Pray to Hyne that radio's still working."

[Polaris Lyn]

Polaris joined Blaze, Jun, and Hadrian near the front seat. "How quickly can Balamb Garden mobilize, anyway?" she asked quickly, glancing from Blaze to Jun. "It might be too late to move B. Garden; we'll have to just make sure the airship doesn't hit it."

She turned her head. "And our most immediate problem is bailing out. There are about a dozen of us and four parachutes, and unless we can all fly we're dead."

[stardust]

Stardust headed back down to join others as soon as she heard the announcement. The news of the airship having only four parachutes ticked her.

"Four?" she spat in disbelief. "Just four? This big airship only has four parachutes?!" Stardust looked at the new SeeDs.

/Quick Stardust! Go grab one before someone does...!/ Diwata chided in. She sounded like a devil's advocate. Stardust rubbed her forehead.

"Yeah, we're approaching too fast for Garden to evade us at this rate," Stardust headed over to one of parachutes and took one parachute. The thought of sharing entered her mind but--. Tch, the others could shar--Wait, the ruby! The pinkhead looked behind her. The ruby should be their first priority no matter what.

"Sho, give me the ruby, I'll hold on to it," Stardust said and stretched out her hand. "No matter what happens, the ruby will have to get out of this airship safe and sound."

[Stella]

Stella stood still among the chaos. It was as if she could hear a clock ticking away in the back of her mind, counting down to what she didn't know. And then she had an idea.

Holstering her guns in a smooth movement she headed back down into the cockpit area. The one with the pink hair seemed to be in charge of this ragtag group of SeeDs. She was the one to talk to.

"GFs. Don't any of you have a GF that can fly? Perhaps a few of them could be strong enough to pull the ship off course. Or at least carry some of us off of this death trap" Stella addressed Stardust trying to ignore the sky outside careening past them.

[Hadrian D'arcell]

Stella baby! XD
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Amidst the discussion, Hadrian looked at the controls, as if thinking, if ever, maybe he could have CQ manipulate the airship controls into swerving down the ocean. But before that ever happens, they had to get out of here as soon as possible. Stardust could be heard yakking about the ruby. He turned to see that she already grabbed a parachute.

"Hey hey, wait," he said, stepping towards the parachutes. "--we're supposed to share that."

"GFs. Don't any of you have a GF that can fly? Perhaps a few of them could be strong enough to pull the ship off course." It was Stella who spoke this time. Hadrian gotta admit, that was one hella good point.

"Yeah, that was what I was thinking," he said indignantly. "The GF thing...and all..." He loosened his collar. "Er...I can get my GF to control this airship to self-destruction if we can't evade through manual controls." He pointed his thumb at the controls. "Only problem is, my GF doesn't have wings, so, someone else?"

[vanesse]

Vanesse was already squeezed inside the small cockpit together with everyone else. If they wanted a GF that had wings, Paridge could pull that off. She was actually thinking of making him an "escape pod" for the Opps, but it looked like the SeeDs needed help.

/So I'm just a escape pod.../ Paridge replied sluggishly.

"My GF has wings." Vanesse spoke up. "Besides us three, I can get four more people to ride on Paridge's back." The Opps sometimes used Paridge as a vehicle once in one of their missions. Having six people on his back was already a full load for Paridge, this Vanesse was sure of, but maybe she could push that a little further with seven. "So uhm, some of you can settle with the parachutes?" She grinned apologetically. Maybe there was another one of the SeeDs that had a flying GF?

[miyavi]

Sho: *mourns his lost cheesecake jackpot*

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Sho crossed his arms and quite childishly stuck out his tongue at Stardust. "Hey you, you're not the only one who wants to make it outta here alive. I think the Ruby's pretty happy with me, so I'm keeping it!"

He raised his arms above his head, stretching. "Aa," he continued, "I have a Wind-type, winged Guardian Force, but he's knocked out right now." He felt a twinge of sadness at being unable to help Zephyr when he was struck, but now was NOT the time for useless angsting. "If anyone can loan me a Cottage or something, I'm sure he'll be alright with playing Magic School Bus for the people Pixie's GF can't carry."

[Myacu]

Jax realized that the thrusters had been blown out by their skirmish with Bahamut. This airship was going to plummet to the ground and an incredible speed. For a moment he froze, the cells in his brain in a mad frenzy, as he racked his thoughts together to formulate a plan that would save the SeeDs.

Must slow down...slow down....friction...more friction..

< Cast Protect on the ship.>

What? No way is there anyone with strong enough Mag. to cast that...plus, it can't stop an airship like, especially at this rate of acceleration.

< You don't need to stop the airship completely. Just reducte its speed to enough to time to reconfigure the flight coordinates, away from Garden.>

Then he remembered the properties of Protect. He had always disliked using it in battle While its defensive properties deflected enemy blows, the huge amount of energy surrounding the body, in a barrier-like manner, often created an intense heat, and stimulated friction between the person and the atmosphere. Most of the time, this decreased your agility and speed.

All right maybe you have a point, but who do you propose, will perform this magnificent feat? It has to be cast from the exterior.

But before he received an answer, Jax was pushed to the side by a SeeD wearing some sort of electronic visualizer. Eitherway, the man was rapidly speaking to Jax, almost unintelligibally, as well as making wild hand gestures, that seemed to be getting bigger and more frantic. Before he knew it, the SeeD had rushed towards the pilot speaker, an action Jax was not too thrilled about. Clutching it tightly to his mouth, he was yelling something about a parachute. Then Jax heard him say, "We're jumping off the ship!"


And you thought you were the pilot.



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Jax has taken a blow to his ego.

[Myacu]

Her hands were caked with dirt and sweat. After casting for a full ten minutes straight, a naseous feeling overcoming her head, Gemma felt a great weight lifted off her chest at the sight of the once, omnipotent Bahamut, now curled into a fire ball as it plummeted to the earth. A breeze unraveled her tightly wound bun, brown tendrils flying everywhere in disarray. Closer to her, the golden rings of Balamb were getting closer and closer. The wind picked up speed. Her hair was almost fluttering like a flag. They were traveling fast..at an alarmingly rate.

Scratching noises were emitted through the speakers fixed on tall white poles on the deck.

Then silence. Then more scratchy noises.

I can see Jax is having some technical difficulties

Finally, a voice emerged. To her surprise, instead of the usual cocky banter that often came from her little brother, this voice came from an entirely different person. She recognized it to belong to the "hacker", as she never picked up his name.

And she could sense the panic that consumed his voice.

The projection was staticy, but through the bits of feed, she could make out what his announcement.

Grab a parachute. Jump! There was a mad rush by the few remaining SeeDs towards the lower levels, leaving Gemma by herself.

Well no use in staying up here.

As Gemma ran down the stairs, she overheard someone yell that there were only four remaining parachutes.

Joining the others in the cockpit, surrounded the frazzled Jax, she heard Sho ask around for a Cottage.

Yes! You have one!

Ripping open the flap to her sack, Gemma plunged her hand in, probing around, and triumphantly whipped her arm into the air, holding a.......G-Mega Potion?


God Dammit.

[Polaris Lyn]

Polaris thoughtfully chewed a thumbnail, looking eerily composed although the giant airship she was currently inhabiting was in danger of crashing into a Garden that was at least three or four stories high. It was like a Marlboro engaging a T-Rexaur in battle; it was going to be bloody and messy, and no one will ever be sure who actually won.

She heard Sho's voice as if from a distance, talking about his Wind GF. Polaris quickly calculated the amount of people in the airship.

< Blaze, Stardust, Sho, Gone, Rayden, Jun, Hadrian, myself...then there are the Opps and these three new SeeDs... >

Fourteen people in all. < Van can take up to six or seven people, leaving seven or eight people stranded here...four parachutes, leaving three or four...unless Miyavi finds a way to wake up his Guardian Force... >

Polaris blinked, turned around. "If anyone's taking the parachutes, it should be the Opps and Miyavi," she stated. "The rest of you can argue over who gets to ride Vanesse's GF. Unless someone here has the tendency to lug around a Pet House or, as Miyavi stated, a Cottage."

< Why do the Opps get the parachutes? > Obsidian queried.

< They didn't sign up for this. >