Stargate SG1 Fan Fiction / Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction / Stargate: Atlantis Fan Fiction ❯ April Ninth ❯ Chapter Seven ( Chapter 7 )

Well, I got Mr. Flannigan's autograph at Starfest 2006. He's a really cool guy. Kind of wish I'd shown him this fanfic. However, as he didn't recognize my Reno costume from Final Fantasy VII, I think it's a safe bet he's not a fan. Still, it has given me some new insight into his character.

Oh, and I got to meet Dwight Schultz! Aka, Reginald Barclay from Star Trek: The Next Generation. And the voice of O'akka the merchant in FFX! Weird, huh?

Anyway, enjoy this new chapter. Sorry I'm not going into all the nitty gritty details, but I'm assuming that most of the readers have played the game and can imagine the scenes that are “missing” just fine.

John had seen some messed up stuff ever since he came to the Pegasus Galaxy. Gothic-looking vampire people that ate humans through their palms came readily to mind. But this… Really.

“Potions! Cheap potions! Get `em before the fire starts fightin'!” O'akka. A small, rat-like man dressed as though for a golf course with a backpack, selling his overpriced wares just before the whole of the Crusaders were to go and fight Sin.

A polite term for this kind of business practice would not come to mind.

“Hey! Lucky he's here, we're running low on supplies anyway,” Tidus piped up. Luna shot him a look and rolled her eyes. Tidus blinked.

“What? What'd I say?”

“Ah! Colonel! So glad to see you alive and well!” O'akka caught sight of them, walking over the rocky path clumsily, his steps echoing off the canyon walls all around them. John gritted his teeth.

“Yeah… See… About that,” John began. He cocked his P-90 when he saw O'akka open his mouth again. The merchant shut it.

“Your potions were clearly fourth-hand at best,” Auron growled, his menacing figure poised with his good hand on his katana. Wakka stepped forward, his arms crossed and his brow drawn.

“You're stinking `super ether' was a bunch'a dried beeswax.”

“And your `Onion Knight' was stuffed, not with magic, but with sawdust,” Lulu snarled, her eyes glowing with repressed electricity. O'akka gulped audibly, and backed up slowly.

“Now now… I really… My supplier, see, he's been a bit… Off the bend… What are you doing with that-AUGGHHHHH!”

“I still say that was overkill,” Tidus grumbled as they continued along the grim and dreary Mushroom Rock road. John, leading the group with the flashlight mounted on his P90, snorted derisively. O'akka, in his opinion, had gotten off lightly.

“Sir Auron, I hesitate to ask, but where-?” Began Yuna, before the legendary guardian cut her off.

“Your father had a fascination with rope tying, and their… Uses,” Auron responded calmly. “He was fond of demonstrating it to a number of people he met on our travels.”

“A number of…?” John closed his eyes for a moment. Is she a masochist or what?

“I believe its best you don't know,” Auron replied firmly but quietly. John could practically feel Yuna's `I don't understand, but fine,' look as they continued on. And he could clearly hear Lulu and Wakka's sighs of relief.

“Khimari regrets that Yuna's education was so… Limited,” the Ronso rumbled quietly to John. The colonel nodded.

“We need to do something about that. Without scarring her for life, I mean,” John replied, spying a gigantic platform with lots of Crusaders milling about around the next canyon corner. Khimari made an unusual sound, kind of like a purr.

“Teach her… Of… Bunnies?” John stopped at that. He turned and looked at the Ronso. Khimari looked back. John nodded numbly before continuing.

“Yeah… Bunnies.” Khimari nodded.

“You have much knowledge of bunnies?” John bit the inside of his cheek, getting the distinct impression that he wasn't going to like this.

“I'm… Competent.” Talking about this with another guy? Sure, John could manage that, politely of course. Talking about this with an eight-foot tall cat… The weirdness meter was beginning to edge into the red.

“Then teach Yuna.” John blinked.

“… I was cured from that pollen those ugly-as-sin plant things hit me with before, right?” Khimari made a sound that resembled laughter, coming from an eight-foot tall blue tiger with a horn coming out of his head.

“Khimari trust you. Yuna trust you.” Khimari looked at John seriously. “John not hurt Yuna. Because John enjoy life?”

“I used to,” John mumbled despairingly.

Sin reared up, the Al Bhed cannon shots bouncing off its glistening black armor as it roared, causing a shudder in all who heard it. The mighty beast turned towards the shore where the majority of the Crusaders were frantically battling a wave of Sinspawn, and it's skin began to change color.

“Ah, man, that cannot be a good sign,” John cursed, slamming a fresh clip into his P90 before nonchalantly gunning down a trio of Sin Scales. Nearby, Tidus, Lulu and Wakka battled another Mega-Bug Sinspawn: this one with four heads instead of the usual two. Tidus had emptied four clips into the giant freakish monster, and it still would not die. Even with Lulu blasting it with lightening, fire, water, ice, and wind.

John wouldn't mention Wakka's hitting the creature with a blitzball. It was just too pathetic.

“Tidus!” He bellowed, throwing one of the Al Bhed grenades they'd picked up from Rin's to the blond blitzer. Tidus caught it with ease and pulled the pin, throwing the grenade with the same accuracy as he did throwing a winning pass. The monster caught the bomb in it's mouth… And it's head promptly exploded, as the rest of it's body began to dissolve into pyreflies.

“And exactly why didn't you do this before?” Asked John irritably of Tidus. The blond jerked a thumb at Wakka, who was brooding. John waited.

“… He took my grenades,” Tidus whined. John rolled his eyes heavenward.

“Wakka? Give me the grenades.” Wakka deathglared.

“We can't be having nothing more to do wit' deez, deez-!”

“Give me the grenades or I shoot you,” John snarled. Wakka `eeped', before shakily handing them over. John paused, and looked thoughtful.

“Actually…” John slapped the blitzball out of Wakka's hands, and shoved the grenade sack back into the confused Besaid Islander's hands. “Start throwing them at Gruesome in the bay over there.” Wakka blinked, and opened his mouth-

“Or I shoot you,” John snarled, in precisely the same tone as before. Wakka `eeped!' again, and ran to the edge of the cliff, before hurriedly pulling out grenades, pulling their pins, and throwing them with deadly accuracy at the distant form of Sin. John couldn't help but grin.

“I could get used to this… Gonna need some cough drops though…”

A blinding flash filled the sky, causing John to curse and cover his eyes. Lulu, Tidus, and Wakka nearby made similar sounds. John, as he was trained after such an occurrence, scrunched his eyes tightly and counted to thirty, before opening his eyes again.

Over Sin was an expanding cloud, consistent with a nuclear detonation. Ballpark, John would have to estimate something in the 15-30 kiloton range. Again, judging by the cloud formation… But if that were the case, they'd all be dead by now. John looked out over the cove again, and gaped.

Smoke pouring out of various orifices, the gigantic Sin bellowed in pain and anger, before looking up at the sky. Its skin flashed deep purple, before a beam lanced from its nose far through the cloud cover. After that, it sent a huge wave burst out across the coast, smashing against the cliffs, spilling up and over-

“Oh crap-!”

Colonel Caldwell grit his teeth and tried to retain his focus, even as alert klaxons screamed around him. He clutched his armrests as the Daedalus groaned and shook around him.

“Damage report?”

“Shields are at 50 percent... Weapons and hyperdrive are offline! The EMP spike from that blast was huge, sir,” Captain Lefler reported at his side, bleeding from a small gash on his temple. He shook his head and looked at the colonel with wide eyes. “If our shields were down-“

“Understood,” Caldwell interrupted. Better that he cut that though right out of the equation. “And the entity?”

“… Still alive, but considering that it's moving off from Colonel Sheppard's location…” Caldwell nodded. He then sighed.

“Colonel…” He looked up at saw the concerned face of Aeris Gainsborough, assigned to the Daedalus considering her experience with… unusual Ancient technology remains. Which they had detected when they'd first scanned the planet Colonel Sheppard was on… And trapped, for the moment, since they couldn't use their Asgard transporters.

“I am… I am sorry,” Aeris murmured, her eyes downcast. The colonel shook his head.

“For what?”

“If I had not… I had not indicated…” Caldwell held up a hand, and Aeris stopped.

“The creature would have killed all those people anyway,” Caldwell spoke softly. “At least we minimized some casualties down there, right?” Aeris nodded, and bit her lip.

“The creature… The entire world below us… It pulses, like Planet, but the energy… It is applied in a different way. There is a Lifestream, but not quite like the one back home… And the creature is a part of it, somehow.” Aeris shook her head helplessly.

“It's so difficult to get some kind of reading on it… My `connection' isn't as strong as it is with Planet, but…” Aeris closed her eyes.

“My feeling is that, whatever that creature is, we have to stop it. Somehow. Or at least, find out what it is.” Caldwell nodded, then hit the intercom.

“Engine room… Get us hyperdrive back. And then, set a course back to Atlantis. We're going to need the big guns on this one…”

Mwahahahaha! Cliffhanger! Guess you'll just have to wait for the next chapter… R&R!