Sage Frontier Fan Fiction ❯ A Tale of two Fakes! ❯ Security Breach: Alkaiser appears! ( Chapter 11 )

DISCLAIMER: I don't own SaGa Frontier. SquareSoft does.

 

Minutes passed as Blue and Rouge stood in the lobby of the CIC building, staring almost hypnotically into the light emitted from the large crystals protruding out of the walls. Instantly, Blue could smell the dangerous magic that he felt near the city, and it threatened to choke him. He forced his leg to step forward, though it was a struggle. The magic in the building was so thick that it was holding him in place, but he managed to break free of it in a minute. Rouge, on the other hand, wasn't having any luck. After stretching out, Blue walked over to see what he could do.

 

"Rouge, can you move anything?" Blue asked, trying to move Rouge's right arm, "Try to fight the magic coming off of the crystals! That's what's holding you down." But no matter how much strength he applied, Rouge's arm refused to budge. Blue cursed and struck one of the crystals, as Rouge yelped and fell down. Blue blinked, and turned around to see a very grumpy Rouge lying on the floor.

 

"Did you HAVE to hit that particular crystal!?" Rouge asked, rubbing his back, "That hurt!" Blue smiled nervously, as he knew he freed his twin with sheer luck. He gave a soft chuckle and patted the crystal.

 

"Sorry, Rouge. I didn't know that was the one holding you in place," Blue stated, walking back to help Rouge up, "But the magic's unusually strong here. No doubt, we're on the right track. Chances are we stumbled into more than just a simple theft, too." Rouge nodded slowly, staggering a bit as his legs had fallen asleep. Blue led him to a chair near a desk and let him sit down. Then Blue went around the desk and turned on the security system. He switched one of the cameras to show the front gates. Red was still sitting there, but the button was almost fixed.

 

"Looks like we'll get some backup soon, eh?" Rouge replied, massaging his leg, "Too bad there's no one else we can call. So, what do we do? Should we wait here or head on up?" As Blue clicked the system off, he thought about their next move. Whatever he chose next was critical and would decide if they were successful. Rouge needed to rest, and he wasn't doing so well himself, but if they waited, Anita might get away. But with just the two of them, going up was dangerous. And without their magic, they'd be trapped. Blue knew that the force he felt would bar his magic. Despite that, part of him wanted to go ahead.

 

"I don't know..." Blue said, defeated, "There's too many risks on both sides of this decision, and I don't know which one has worse consequences. Rouge, what would you choose?" Rouge stopped rubbing his sleepy leg and stroked his chin. At least he seemed to come to a decision easily enough as he snapped his fingers.

 

"I think we need to head up," Rouge stated, standing up, "Even if the consequences are bad, we did take an oath to stop evil. And this is evil, through and through. Red looks like he's nearly done, he should be up soon enough. We should try to clear a path so he can reach us faster." Rouge stumbled a bit on his first step, but maintained his balance after that. Blue was proud of Rouge's decision, but he also wanted to remind Rouge of their situation with weapons.

 

"We still don't have magic on our side, though. What can we use in its place?" Blue asked, "Our blasters only have limited ammo, so we need a backup weapon." Rouge nodded, as he already figured that problem into the plan. He told Blue to stay put as he rummaged through another desk for something Blue couldn't yet see. As soon as Rouge stopped, he pulled out a large pole. It was cast iron, with a blunt shaft on either side. Granted, it was meant to hold curtains in place, but it looked reliable enough. Rouge twirled it like a baton and strapped it across his back.

 

"There's stuff all over we can use. Here, take this for instance," Rouge said, tossing an old clock-tuning chain to Blue, "That could make a suitable nunchuck if you wield it right." Blue laughed as he caught the heavy chain in his hands. There were two large, oval-shaped orbs on the ends of the chain, one each, and as Blue tested it out, he accidentally smashed a chair to pieces. It would definitely be useful. He strapped it to his belt, and laughed again.

 

"I'm impressed, Rouge. You certainly find a use for everything," Blue commented proudly, "I think that'll be what saves us again." Brotherly, he ruffled Rouge's hair. Rouge laughed and ran up the large staircase toward the elevators.

 

"Lucky for you, I'm resourceful!" Rouge shouted, pressing a button, "Last one inside pays for our next coffee break!" Blue narrowed his eyes and dashed up the staircase towards Rouge as the elevator door opened. The two rushed inside, and both made it in at the same time. As the door closed, both agreed to pay for their own coffee, and nothing more was said as they rode up to the 13th floor. But as they reached the 10th floor, something crashed up above, and the elevator suddenly stopped. The lights shut off, and the buzzing of the elevator ceased. Blue grabbed his flashlight out of his belt and turned it on, looking around. The LED that displayed the floor they were on was shut off, and none of the buttons Rouge was pressing worked. Rouge looked at Blue with worry.

 

"Nothing's working! Is the elevator busted for good?" Rouge asked. Blue furrowed his brows in concentration, as he walked over to the fuse box under the buttons.

 

"I might be able to get it running again. Hold on," Blue replied, opening the box. But as he looked, nothing indicated that the elevator was stopped. All of the switches were on, and everything stated that the elevator was working properly. And yet, nothing was happening, even when Blue flipped them off, and then back on. He checked the wires, but they were all connected, and none were cracked or leaking sparks. So then what was causing the elevator to stop?

 

"Anything?" Rouge asked, as Blue shut the fuse box and wiped his forehead.

 

"No. Everything's connected and switched on. By all scientific and technologic standards, we should be moving right now," Blue stated, deep in thought, "So what's shutting the power down?" Rouge sat on the floor and unstrapped his pole.

 

"Could it be the radiation from the crystals?" Rouge suggested, "Or the magic? It IS jamming up our power, so why should it stop with electricity?" Blue turned the flashlight off and sat next to Rouge, as he tried to string what he knew into an answer.

 

"Strong magical streaks throughout history have been known to short-circuit mechanical appliances or anything relating to technology," Blue started, tying his hair back up into a ponytail, "And magic was based on an electrical discharge concocted by the first wizards, so it is possible... But we still don't know how whoever is behind this managed to tap into so much power." Rouge nodded, and stood up. Blue watched in pure confusion as Rouge took his pole and shoved it toward the ceiling until he successfully broke the elevator's roof escape hatch off its hinges. Then he took hold of a small ladder on the side, that Blue finally realized was for emergencies.

 

"And we won't know if we stick around here," Rouge said, climbing up and crawling through the hatch, "If we can't get this thing moving, we should climb up ourselves." Blue nodded, and proceeded to follow Rouge. On the roof, the air was lighter, but it smelled of grease. Light came through shafts built into the walls, so at least the two could see the ropes holding the elevator in place. Rouge grabbed one and tried to climb up, only to slide right back down. He let go, and wiped his hands on his pants.

 

"Ew! This is disgusting!" Rouge cried, as Blue raised an eyebrow, "The ropes are covered in slime!" Blue didn't seem overly surprised to hear that. They were in an elevator shaft, after all. They'd be lucky if they weren't already stepping in some form of slime.

 

“Everything's probably covered in slime,” Blue stated simply, grabbing the rope and flinching at the texture of it, “But get over it and pull yourself up. We have work to do.” Rouge watched in speechless annoyance as Blue pulled himself up the rope, climbing at a steady pace. Then Rouge himself took another swing at the rope and heaved himself up, keeping a safe distance from Blue in case he fell. The going was rough, as it was difficult to keep a grip on the slippery rope, but somehow the two managed.

 

“I suppose this is the fun of being a cop,” Rouge commented, as they passed a shaft of light, “Can you imagine Fuse climbing through this? Or even our own boss?” Blue snickered as the thought of Fuse sliding down the rope and swearing profusely reached him. It wouldn't be surprising if that was truly Fuse's reaction.

 

“I could imagine it,” Blue replied, chuckling, “I just wouldn't want to be near him if it does happen.” Rouge nodded in agreement, before remembering Blue couldn't see him. But he ignored that part, as they focused again on climbing up the shaft. He noticed that the higher they climbed, the less grease appeared to be on the rope, which made it increasingly easier to get up. Soon they passed what they hoped was the 11th floor, then the 12th, and when they didn't stop at the 13th floor, Rouge once again demanded an inquire.

 

“Blue, what floor are we going to?” Rouge asked, perking an amused, yet perplexed brow as he pulled himself up another foot or so. He could hear Blue panting a bit above him, as though he were having some trouble moving. He must've been getting tired.

 

“We'll go as high as this shaft takes us,” Blue replied, though his voice sounded strained and he did sound tired, “The longer we stay in here, despite the disgust, the better off we are. No one can see us, though my arms are getting incredibly tired.” Forcing himself to keep moving, Blue pulled himself up another couple of feet. He took a small glance down, and guessed that they must've climbed at least 50 feet. But who knew how much more they'd have to go?

 

“Maybe we should stop on the next floor,” Rouge's voice came from below Blue, “You're not sounding good, and we shouldn't kill ourselves over this.” Blue knew Rouge had a point, but he still couldn't think of slowing down while everyone else outside suffered. But Rouge still had a point. Besides, he knew they could climb the shaft later if the building proved too heavily guarded.

 

“All right, we'll stop here,” Blue called down as he reached the 14th floor platform. He kept one hand tightly gripped on the rope as he felt for the edge of the platform with his free hand. When he felt the cold metal, he pulled himself up and sat on the narrow platform, if it could now be called that. He made sure to give Rouge enough space to climb, who came up only a few minutes later. Like Blue, he also pulled himself up and sat down. The two sat in silence for a moment, recovering the energy they spent traversing the shaft. Then Rouge looked at his brother.

 

“You feeling rested?” he asked, panting a bit. Blue laughed genuinely, but nodded. He took out his blaster and turned to the tightly shut elevator door behind them and turned his blaster on, emitting a purple glow. Rouge watched in mild interest as Blue began to melt a decent-sized hole through the metal doors, then stick his hand through and slam a button. A small bell chimed and Blue took his hand out just before the elevator doors swung open. Instantly fresh… or as fresh as it could be… air flowed through and greeted the twins as they rushed out of the shaft and into the building. But whatever breath they recovered was instantly taken away from the sight of the 14th floor. If the radiation and lighting was amazing down below, this seemed almost mythical. Not only did pure white light flow out of the green crystals, but particles of radiation drifted through the air like moon glow, and resembled snowflakes. Though they knew it was a dangerous sight, it was tranquil as well.

 

“Keep your guard up, Rouge,” Blue whispered sternly, readying his blaster again, “Don't let the light draw you in.” Rouge nodded and saw Blue stalk down the long hallway, so he took out his own blaster and followed close behind. He didn't want to lose Blue in this place. Blue suddenly stopped and pulled Rouge close to the wall, and both saw why. Something came out into the hall, looking like a cross between a large dog and a huge machine. Liquid oozed from its mouth.

 

“What the hell is that thing?” Rouge whispered, eyes wide with wonder, “Should we shoot it?” Blue looked at him with narrowed eyes and gently smacked his head.

 

“No!” Blue hissed as quietly as he could, “Let's avoid as much battle as possible. For all we know, that may just be a security dog.” So, as per Blue's instruction, they waited. The doglike creature sniffed around as steam issued from its nostrils, but then it seemed to have found whatever it was looking for, and went back to the room it was in. As soon as the door behind it closed, Blue dragged Rouge across the hall as fast and silently as they could go. Nothing stopped them as they rounded a corner, except for an intersection. Blue finally realized something about this floor, and he didn't seem happy to have stopped now.

 

“Rouge, this is a maze!” Blue cried, letting go of his brother's hand, “I bet it's like this on the next floor, too. With even more guards lurking around.” Rouge snapped his fingers and cursed.

 

“Of course. Why can't it ever be easy?” Rouge asked, “Why couldn't Anita keep her office on the first floor? The top view is so overrated, anyway!”

 

“Should we try the elevator shaft again?” Blue asked, genuinely thinking that might be a better answer. But Rouge quickly shook his head, and Blue dropped the thought.

 

“No. It was hard enough climbing four floors. Imagine having to climb another forty,” Rouge said, and when Blue gave him a skeptical look, he added, “Okay, forty might be over-exaggerating, but we both know it'll be at least another six floors.” Blue nodded and his expression softened, obviously he agreed with Rouge. He looked around each corner, but judging by the fact that no route showed more than five feet ahead, they were in the middle of the current floor. Closing his eyes, Blue focused on the source of magic they felt down below. It was dulled up here, but still visible to his mind's eye. And it was coming from the left path.

 

“Come on. The elevator or stairwell must be this way,” Blue said, heading left. Rouge looked like he had no idea how Blue could know this, but shrugged and followed Blue anyway, knowing best not to just argue. After all, Blue was right about directions over ninety percent of the time. The path Blue took was curvy and twisting, but it ended up being the right one. At the end, or entrance depending on how you entered, was the stairwell. It led both up and down, but Blue ran up the stairs, Rouge by his side. They stopped on the landing, and Blue sniffed the air again. Something bothered him, as he turned to Rouge.

 

“Can you smell the magic in the air?” Blue asked, and Rouge closed his eyes and sniffed around. He opened them and shook his head.

 

“Just barely,” he replied grimly, “Is something masking it?”

 

“Either that or it's naturally dissipating from the air flow up here,” Blue stated, “The higher we go, the more noticeable the change is. It'll be harder to find the exit here.”

 

“Should we risk using our magic then?” Rouge asked, turning down his blaster, “After all, if the veil is thinning, we should be able to pull of an Energy Chain.” Blue thought about it, and nodded slowly.

 

“We'll use it if we have to,” Blue finally said, “But let's stick to our blasters until then.” Rouge agreed, and Blue opened the door to the next floor. Like the last, it was also a maze, or it appeared to be as it opened to a long hallway dotted with intersections here and there. And it was suspiciously quiet again. Blue kept his blaster at the ready, and crept along as silently as he could with Rouge doing the same. When they came to the first intersection, Blue signaled for Rouge to wait, and snuck along to look over each corner.

 

“Which way do we go?” Rouge whispered, as Blue came back.

 

“Straight. The sides lead to large rooms,” Blue replied, and with a wave, they crept down the hall again. The next intersection was the same, with them having to keep going straight. Rouge was getting restless by this point.

 

“Blue, tell me you know this is suspicious,” he said, not even trying to be quiet any longer, “This is a little too easy. Why haven't we run into any guards or security bots?” Blue snickered, and although he wasn't facing Rouge, he raised an amused brow.

 

“Did you want security to snag us?” Blue asked sarcastically, “I'm sure if we yell louder, that'll alert someone somewhere and they might send a handful of goons up to at least investigate.” Rouge tightened his grip on his blaster, annoyed with Blue's lack of taking him seriously.

 

“I'm serious here!” Rouge cried, which made Blue stop and turn around, crossing his arms… crossly as his brother continued, “This isn't a good thing if we haven't hit a security breach yet! Aren't you even worried!?” Blue sighed, and shook his head, though it was more in frustration than in an actual answer.

 

“Of course I am. But I'm also counting our blessings, because it's making our job a hell of a lot easier for right now,” Blue pointed out, “Right now, we need to focus on climbing up the floors. We'll worry about the guards when we see them.” Blue turned around again and continued to walk down the hallway. Rouge followed reluctantly, and within just a minute, they were standing at the elevator. Blue pressed a button, but all that happened was the display screen on the LCD turning blue.

 

“It's locked,” Blue said distastefully, “I shouldn't be too surprised, yet I am.”

 

“Looks like we'll need a keycard to get it to work,” Rouge observed, and punched his fists together, “It could be in any of these rooms! It might even be on a different floor altogether!” Blue gave him a side glance, and turned on his blaster to a higher setting.

 

“Relax. I'm going to try and hack the lock. If I can't hack it, or melt it, then we'll look for the key,” Blue assured, and pointed the blaster directly at the lock. Rouge watched in mild interest as Blue fiddled around with the buttons, while simultaneously tinkering with the blaster.

 

“Where'd you learn to do this?” Rouge asked, thinking it highly impossible for Blue to have learned during their short time at IRPO. Blue gave an odd, confident smirk.

 

“Emelia taught me a while ago when I was chasing down the Gold card in Baccarat,” Blue replied shyly, “It came in handy quite a few… DAMNIT!” Rouge jumped at Blue's sudden outburst as Blue withdrew his hand and blew on it, dropping his blaster. Rouge immediately conjured a Starlight Heal and used it on the large burn on Blue's hand.

 

“What happened!?” Rouge asked urgently, eyeing the burn with worry.

 

“That lock has a nasty firewall on it,” Blue grumbled, rubbing his hand, “If we try and hack it, it'll zap us. We need that keycard. Another shock like that, and I might not survive this mission the same way I came in.” Rouge's expression deepened, and he understood what Blue meant. He looked at the lock more closely. It seemed completely unaffected by the hack, save for a small corner where the blaster had melted it.

 

“Where do we start for the key?” he asked, picking up Blue's blaster. It was busted for good, no doubt fried to a crisp because of the shock. Parts fell off as Rouge picked it up. Blue was nearly defenseless now. Blue was about to answer when another voice, deep and menacing, sounded.

 

“It would be wise to start here,” came a cold, robotic voice. Blue could barely stand, and Rouge snapped around protectively as, right in front of them, stood an estimate of 15 robots. Not one of them was under 5 feet, and they were made of platinum steel alloy, the very best of metals available. And they had Hyperion Bazookas equipped. The leader held a small card attached to a chain, which gleamed in the light.

 

“The card key!” Rouge cried, and stepped forward, “Hand it over!” He lunged for the robot, but it simply strode back, and Rouge fell to the floor.

 

“Ridiculous human,” the robot said, its eyes glowing red, “If you want the key, you must fight us all! Prepare to be annihilated!” Rouge scrambled to his feet as the bazookas behind the robots all began to click and take aim at both him and Blue. There was no way to survive fifteen blasts of Hyperion toxins. But just as the first rocket was about to hit Rouge, something stopped it and repelled it in a flash of blazing light.

 

“In the word of all that is holy and honorable, I shall not let you win!” as Rouge opened his eyes, he saw that Alkaiser was standing in front of him, with shattered glass around them. Obviously, he'd come in through breaking a window, but it didn't detract from the luminous glow of holiness that was Alkaiser.

 

“So you think, puny mortal,” the robot said, completely unfazed by the appearance of the superhero. It aimed another rocket at Alkaiser, but the rocket was vaporized in a holy shield before it hit.

 

“Give it up, you bucket of vile bolts!” Alkaiser boomed, punching the robot with such force that it crashed through another window, taking four more with it. If his initial appearance didn't scare the robots, his attack definitely did. The robots instantly withdrew, drawing in their weapons.

 

“Retreat!” one of them yelled, as they began to run away, “Retreat! Warning! Error! Danger!” As it yelled, alarms and sirens were going off. Rouge swore as he helped Blue up, who was still quite unsteady from the heavy shock.

 

“Shit! We have to get out of here!” Rouge cried, “Alkaiser, what do we do!?” Alkaiser, who had gone after another robot, decided to come back and heed the call. He pointed majestically to a window.

 

“We shall do the clichéd ideals and climb the walls to the roof!” Alkaiser cried, with much more dramatic heroism in his voice than Rouge felt comfortable with, “But we shall do it with HONOR!” Before Rouge could even protest, or get Blue out of the way, Alkaiser picked them both up with little effort and crashed through another window, despite the fact that there were six other perfectly broken windows right there to climb through. Then, through some odd magic, he began to walk… or more, run up the wall as though it were horizontal. Blue had blacked out from another shock of having crashed through a window, and Rouge was too busy screaming to observe the most obscure magic that Alkaiser seemed to possess.

 

“Alkaiser!! Stop! Put us down!” Rouge yelled, struggling to get himself freed, “Blue's not strong enough for this kind of activity! PUT ME DOWN OR I'LL KILL YOU!” Alkaiser seemed to be ignoring all types of threats issuing from Rouge's mouth as they continued at a fast run.

 

“I implore you, innocent citizen, to cease your yelling at once!” Alkaiser called, “We could be alerting the enemy!” Rouge stopped screaming for a minute and twitched wildly, enraged both at how he couldn't do anything for the minute and at the lack of concern for Blue that Alkaiser had.

 

“What part of Blue is injured do you NOT understand!?” Rouge yelled back, “He could die of shock! I don't want that! I don't even want this!” Alkaiser, unfortunately, was just about as moronic as Red was, and still didn't see the problem.

 

“Sometimes the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few,” Alkaiser said, as they passed what must've been the 30th floor, “If Blue must be sacrificed to save the world, then so be it.” This time, Rouge let out a blood-curdling scream, a scream so harsh and angry that even Alkaiser had to jump and land on a balcony and set Blue down before he stopped. Even then, Rouge screamed a sentence that, if Blue wasn't sure that Rouge cared about him before, then he was definitely sure now.

 

“I will NOT let anything harm my brother!” Rouge cried out, his eyes glowing red with anger. Alkaiser seemed to finally get the message, and took off his helmet to reveal Red, who was pale with worry now. He had never seen Rouge so angry.

 

“Rouge, relax!” Red called, “My personality is in control! Alkaiser fled when he felt your strength! We'll go up when Blue wakes up!” But that didn't calm Rouge in the least, as he repeated what he had said, in a more dangerous tone, if that was possible.

 

“I WILL NOT LET ANYTHING HARM MY BROTHER!”

 

-----------------------------(End Chapter)

 

Well, at least Blue and Rouge managed to get through most of the building unharmed! And Alkaiser, or Red, joined them once again! But, with Rouge in a fit on anger, can they take on Anita and stop the rancid magic? Or will Rouge return to his old ways and attack his friends, endangering his brother's life before they can stop Anita? Find out next chapter, so click that Review button!