"There's something's wrong, isn't there?" Cid guessed. Aerith and Guido had remained mostly complacent during the flight back to Costa Del Sol, when compared to the excitement of the rest of the party -- with the exception of Rufus, who was still moping about the destruction of the Shinra Building.
"Too bad we didn't tape that whole sequence, we could have made a Surge commercial out of it," Cait Sith was saying.
"I guess I'd better tell you about it," Aerith said. "It's Jill."
"Jill?" Vincent's head snapped up.
"It was Wesker," Aerith explained. "Jill was down on the beach yesterday, and Wesker just snuck up behind her and shot her in the back." Aerith added hastily, "She'll be all right, but she's not going to be doing anything for a while."
"And what happened to Wesker?" Vincent asked. Despite just finding out that his sister had nearly been assassinated, he was as detached as usual. Some things never changed.
"He got away," Aerith said. "There was a motorboat there just waiting for him. We're pretty sure Zenogias was behind it."
"Zenogias," Vincent spat. "One of these days he's gonna get what's coming to him."
"Let's hope it's sooner rather than later," Rufus amended.
* * *
The other members of the party had gathered to greet Cloud and Rufus on their return to Costa Del Sol. "We've got the Zodiac Stones," Cloud said, holding up the bag containing the Stones.
"And we gave the Umbrella the boot off this planet," Rufus said.
"Did Aerith tell you what happened?" Cecilia asked Vincent.
"Yes," Vincent said quietly.
"Do you want to talk to her?" Cecilia said. "She's awake."
"All right," Vincent said. He followed Cecilia into the villa.
"So what's our next move?" Rudy wondered.
"Our next move?" Barret demanded. "We just be bustin' our asses gettin' that job done. I ain't thinkin' 'bout no next move. I'm beat."
"We haven't had our break today," Cait Sith explained.
* * *
Jill looked up in as the door to her room opened. Vincent stepped in. "Hello," Jill said weakly.
"Yo," Vincent replied.
"I guess I should have known better than to trust Wesker," Jill said with a self-mocking laugh. "He was working for Umbrella the whole time."
"We got the Zodiac Stones," Vincent reported. "And we blew up the Shinra Building on accident too."
"I've heard," Jill said.
"So, how are you doing?"
"Better," Jill replied. "Cecilia says that I'll recover fully, but I'm going to have to sit the rest of this out."
Vincent fumbled in his cloak for something. "I brought something back for you," he said. He produced some medium-sized metal pieces and showed them to Jill. "A guy called Daravon gave me these Mugnum Parts he'd found. I thought you could use them..."
"Keep them," Jill said. "I don't have any use for them."
"All right," Vincent said. He drew his Death Penalty gun and examined it. He'd already upgraded it from its original form as the Life In Prison Without Parole, but perhaps he could make a few more adjustments. Vincent attached the Mugnum Parts, transforming it into a full-fledged Ultimus Gun.
"Shouldn't that be Artemis Gun?" Jill asked.
"No, these are Mugnum Parts," Vincent explained. "Mugnum Parts make an Ultimus Gun."
"Oh. I see."
Cecilia appeared in the door, carrying a bottle of medicine. "Excuse me," she said, squeezing by Vincent. Cecilia poured some of the medicine out into a glass and handed it to Jill, who sipped it down.
"If you wanted to help, you could help me make more of this stuff," Cecilia said to Vincent.
"All right," Vincent consented. He followed Cecilia out of the room to the villa kitchen. "What do you want me to do?" he asked while Cecilia took a bowl out of a cupboard.
"It's simple," Cecilia said. "Just follow what I do. Crack crack crack the egg into the bowl..."
* * *
"I sense a disturbance in the Force," Hart said.
The rest of Domino's band seemed to ignore him, continuing their trek back towards Romanda City in silence. "What?" Mukki said eventually.
"Somebody, somewhere in the universe, is involved in a PaRappa reference," Hart said.
"Hart, do you realize that your hatred of PaRappa references has gotten to be a much more annoying, overused, and stupid running joke than the PaRappa references ever where?" Domino said.
Hart considered this. "Gee... I, uh, I guess you're... right. Hmm."
"Are you going to stop?" Domino pressured him.
"I guess I'd better," Hart sighed. "Wow. What am I going to do now?"
"You gotta believe!" Domino and the others all exclaimed.
Hart opened his mouth, but remembered his new precepts and resignedly closed his mouth. The crusade of the PaRappa Jihad was over.
* * *
"I'll add another two hotels to Park Place," Rufus said, taking two of the plastic building and setting them down on the board of his favorite game, Monopoly (made by Parker Brothers, a division of Umbrella Corp.).
"You're too good," Guido whined.
"All you damn Shinra be too good at this game," Barret grumbled, staring at his measly three houses on Baltic Avenue.
Rudy entered the room. "It's been almost a week since you got back from the Shirna Building," he said. "Surely you're not still exhausted."
"Of course we are," Guido said. "And stop calling me Shirley."
"We need to find out more about Zenogias," Rudy said. "And you FF7 characters are the only ones who know where this lost city place is."
"Yeah? And who appointed you main character, Mr. Watermelon Head?" Rufus shot back.
"At least I don't have Popeye arms," Rudy retorted.
Cloud was walking down the hall and overheard the conversation. "Hey, guys, no fighting," he said. "You've got too much else to worry about. If you want to beat Umbrella, you're going to have to work together."
"And what about yourself?" Rudy asked.
Cloud shrugged. "I've done my part," he said. "We got the Zodiac Stones and that's it. It's up to you guys now."
"$%*(&$%!" Barret shouted. "I thought you'd gotten over that! Don't you even care about those damn Umbrella?"
Cloud just shrugged. "That does it," Rufus snapped. "I'm going to the Forgotten City, just to show you Mr. Hotshot Hero here who the real heroes are."
* * *
A door creaked open and a nervous Mustadio peered through. Seeing himself in the right room, he came in and took a seat in the small, rectangular, office of the Romandan Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. "Mr. Bunanza," the woman said in condescending tones. "Would you care to explain your little rampage last week?"
"Ma'am, there was a chocobo carriage with a bomb strapped to it," Mustadio explained. "If it had crashed, it could have blown up the whole city."
"Do you really expect me to believe that?" The secretary of housing and urban development reached under her desk and held up a live chicken. "And how do you explain what happened to this unfortunate police officer?"
"I am a chicken, and I ain't kiddin', although nothing is written," the chicken said.
"That was Beowulf," Mustadio said. "He can do that to people. It wears off after a while."
The chicken flapped its wings angrily. "The other day I was called a little turkey!"
The office door flew wide open and Domino, Hart, Butch, Mukki, Johnny, Ramza, and Alma stormed in. "Now look what you've done," Mustadio said. "You've brought the Society For a PaRappa-Free Ivalice in here."
"Actually, I've given that up," Hart said.
"Animal, plant, or mineral?" Butch asked Mukki.
"All we want is for you to teleport us after Cloud," Ramza said. "We've got to get the Zodiac Stones back."
"He needs those Stones," Mustadio replied calmly. "He explained it all to me."
"I'm a chicken, got it? Ya beef jerky!"
"I thought we were friends," Ramza said. "I wouldn't to have to fight you. Just do what we ask, all right?"
"Yeah." Alma seconded her brother's thoughts.
"Oh, all right," Mustadio said. He got up and followed Domino and Ramza out of the office, leaving an irate chicken behind.
* * *
Rufus, Aerith, and the ubiquitous Cait Sith made their way through coral-covered cliffs to the Forgotten Capital of the Ancients. When they arrived, however, they found it was no longer all that forgotten -- the place was swarming with platoons of camera-toting tourists. A sign at the entrance proclaimed it to be a "National Historik Site."
"What have they done to this place?" Aerith gasped.
"They spelled 'historic' wrong," Cait Sith noted. "Whoever 'they' are." Then he noticed the smaler print at the bottom of the sign: "Owned and operated by Jenova World Parks, a division of Umbrella Corp."
Aerith noticed the type at just the same time C.S. did. "Umbrella," she sighed. "I should have guessed."
They pushed their way through the throngs of tourists all snapping pictures of the scenery or examining video screens displaying Aerith's death FMV. "Hey, Rufus, look, we can get a penny stamped with a picture of the Forgotten City," C.S. said.
"Forget it," Rufus said.
Leaving the penny-stamping machine behind, the trio proceeded to the altar in the back of the city. There were fewer tourists back here, but it was still a far cry from the quiet solitude of the city a mere week ago. "If nothing else, this should be the nail in the coffin for Sephiroth," Rufus said. "That is, when I get Shinra back and re-open the trial."
"It's not Seph's fault," Aerith disagreed. "When I was here before you guys left to get the Zodiac Stones, it was the same before. Umbrella must have just taken this place over."
Aerith knelt down and pointed at the markings on the floor surrounding the altar. "See, here," she said. "This talks about Zenogias. But to get the real message, we're going to need the Zodiac Stones."
Before Rufus had a chance to use the Stones, a park security guard tapped him on the shoulder. "Excuse me," the guard said. "This area is off limits.... especially to Shinra scum like you." The guard grabbed Rufus's shoulder and thew him to the ground.
Cait Sith whipped out his blowgun and shot the guard in his forehead. The guard's face turned purple and he crumpled over, dead. "I should have known Umbrella would be looking for us here," Rufus muttered to himself as he procured the guard's jacket and put it on.
Posing as park security, Rufus grabbed Cait's megaphone and stepped onto the altar. "Attention K-mart shoppers," he shouted through the megaphone. "This area is being closed for renovation. Please clear the area."
Rufus repeated the message several times until the area was vacated, then he stepped down. He reached into his coat pocket and took out the bag containing the Zodiac Stones, which he handed to Aerith.
One by one, Aerith inserted the twelve main stones into the thirteen holes around the top of the altar, and Serpentarius into a hole on the top. As soon as the last one was inserted, all the stones flashed with light and the sound of running water began. Soon, a vast torrent of water poured down from some unknown source above, surrounding the altar in a waterfall.
An image appeared on the waterfall. It was the logo of the Cetra Broadcasting System, CBS. "CBS -- Can't Broadcast Sports," Cait Sith chuckled.
The CBS logo disappeared and was replaced a yellow rectangle. While a voice spoke in Cetra, the words "JENOVA" and something in Cetran appeared in place of the rectangle. "What did it say?" Rufus asked Aerith.
"I think it said, 'Cetra Geographic presents an award-winning documentary... Jenova: Plague From the Skies.'"
"Oh."
The image on the water became staticy, whizzing by various images of Ancients, Jenova, and the Weapons at high speeds. "What's going on?" Rufus demanded.
"Looks like it's fast-forwarding," Cait explained. Rufus and Aerith stepped forward to watch as the tape started to slow to normal space. "Hey! Down in front!" C.S. shouted. "I can't see!"
The tape returned to normal speed, showing the Promised Land. A voice-over started speaking in Cetra. Rufus understood nothing, except for one word... Zenogias. "Do you have a pen and paper?" he asked Aerith. "Are you writing this down?"
Aerith quickly translated the narration aloud. "About five months after Jenova was sealed away, another being crashed down onto the Planet, calling itself Zenogias.
"At first, Zenogias did not appear to be a threat to the Planet. He claimed he was a space traveller whose craft had suffered an explosion in the left fuel tank and crashed. Then he began to inquire about Jenova."
Cait Sith wriggled between Rufus and Aerith, sat down, and started munching on some popcorn while watching the interviews with Cetra elders.
"Then it was discovered that Zenogias was not all he claimed to be. Underneath his skin, his body was composed of metal, just like Jenova's. Furthermore, he exhibited superhuman powers, such as the ability to fire lasers from his eyes, change the appearance of his face, and speak in an unearthly dialect."
This last statement caused Cait Sith to explode in laughter, and even Rufus chuckled. Aerith continued to translate. "The elders probed Zenogias's mind and discovered that he was in fact sent to find and liberate Jenova. However, Zenogias unleashed a psychic energy against two of the elders, Wedgan and Vicksa, killing them.
"Zenogias, knowing he had been discovered, tried to flee. He fled towards the west mountains, where he had originally come from. By the time our depleted forces discovered his escape, he was already gone. But there was another weapon against Zenogias.
"...the Topaz Weapon. Foreseeing this threat from the beginning, the Planet had created another Weapon to combat Zenogias. While Zenogias was contending with the Topaz Weapon, a small force of warriors tracked Zenogias to Cosmo Canyon. The powers of the Planet were already depleted by Jenova's arrival, and, like Jenova, Zenogias was only sealed away , not destroyed. His memory, however, was stripped. The Topaz Weapon, too, sealed itself away at Cosmo Canyon, awaiting the return of its quarry."
The video shut itself off as a promo for When Chocobos Attack began. The water stop pouring down and the area was back to normal. "That's it?" Rufus said, disappointed. All this work for just that short video.
"Damn," C.S. said. "I wanted to see that chocobo show. That looked awesome."
"Wait a second," Aerith said. "The Topaz Weapon was created to destroy Zenogias. That means wherever the Topaz Weapon is, we'll find Zenogias."
* * *
"All right, stand next to the machine," Mustadio said. Domino, Ramza, and their cohorts did as he instructed. Mustadio punched a few buttons on his teleportation machine and then flipped the lever. Lightning zapped out and teleported Domino's posse away.
"That's taken care of," Mustadio said, grinning slightly. He walked outside of the Byblos' cave and found himself confronting an angry Delita.
"Did you just send them after Cloud?" Delita said. "You can't do that!"
"Oh, of course not," Mustadio said. "I sent them back in time. They won't be bothering us anymore."
* * *
The Highwind and Protowing streaked through the sky next to each other. "Who would have thought one Weapon would be so hard to find?" Hanpan said.
"There!" Alucard said, pointing at an orange speck in the distance.
Rudy slammed the gas down. Over in the Highwind, Cid's pilot did the same. The two vehicles chased after the Topaz Weapon, which appeared to be flying in circles over Mideel Island. Barret look out the window. "Mideel," he observed.
"Zenogias is down there somewhere," Vincent said needlessly.
They circled the island, looking for a landing spot, and found one near the ruins of the village. Rudy slipped a Club into the steering wheel of the Protowing, aware of the ever-present danger of airship thieves, and they headed for the pool of Lifestream that was formerly Mideel.
The first sign of civilization they spotted was a sign on the outskirts of the ruin, reading "Welcome to Mideel Village. This site under construction." Below the text was a small yellow construction sign with a picture of a man digging.
"This is going too far," Jane said. "That little digging 'under construction' guy is a gross crime against humanity." Jane blasted the sign to bits with her shotgun.
Then came the ruins themselves. Since the AVALANCHE crew had last seen them, the town was in better condition. There were a few buildings that were actually fully reconstructed, and others that were well on the way. However, there was still a lot of broken wood lying around or floating in the Lifestream. "This shouldn't be too hard," Rufus said. "We just talk to everybody in town 'til we find the one with Zenogias's accent."
"I don't think that'll be necessary," Jack said. "Look." He nodded towards the high cliff to the west of the village proper. Standing alone on the top of the cliff, watching the Topaz Weapon circling in the sky, was Zenogias.
An involuntary chill ran down Rufus's back. This was it. The final confrontation, and Zenogias was waiting for them. He took the lead as the entire party -- Rufus, Barret, Vincent, Sephiroth, Aerith, Cait Sith, Red XIII, Rudy, Jack, Cecilia, Elmina, Jane, and Alucard -- approached the cliff.
Zenogias turned. A brief expression of surprise crossed his face. He was obviously not expecting them to come. "No," he said under his breath. Then he regained his composure and assumed a villainous-looking pose.
"See this gun?" Vincent shouted, raising his new Ultimus Gun. "I made this gun with some Mugnum Parts. I was going to give those parts to my sister, but your crony shot her. And that's not all you did. You bought up every known company in the space-time continuum. You're in league with Jenova. And you revived a crew of evil, despicable, bastards from every corner of the universe. We killed all of them. And now you're going to join them."
There was silence. After about a minute, Zenogias spoke. "That's the most ridiculous melodramatic crap I've evoi hoid in my life."
"Evoi hoid," Cait Sith tittered.
"Sssh," Aerith silenced the cat Esper.
Vincent raced towards Zenogias, firing his Ultimus Gun. Zenogias flashed his eye lasers at Vincent, catching Vince in the chest and knocking him to the ground. Vincent picked himself back up and aimed his gun for another shot.
Cait Sith hopped up onto Barret's shoulders. "Oooh! Oooh! Can you teach me how to do that eye laser trick?"
Zenogias fired his eye lasers again, this time at the ground. The lasers carved a thin, but clearly visible, line in the rock. "That's my range," Zenogias said. "Anybody who crosses is dead. Now stand back and you can watch the completion of my mission."
Nobody moved. It was one of those eerie pauses before chaos ensues. "I could hit him with an Arch Smash," Rudy whispered. "Should I take a shot?"
"I've got a better idea," Jack said. "Let's all rush him on the count of 3. Ready? 1... 2... 2 1/2..." The party started to dash towards Zenogias, but froze when they realized Jack had said "2 1/2" and not "3". Elmina, however, apparently didn't get the joke, and charged up the cliff, raising her sword aloft.
Everything started to happen at once. Vincent started firing at Zenogias. Elmina continued to run. Zenogias's eyes lit up in preparation to fire his eye lasers. Then the Topaz Weapon came swooping down, screeching. The Weapon's huge barbed tail smashed directly into the cliff.
The top half of the cliff broke away from the ground and collapsed into a huge rockslide. As Vincent, Zenogias, Elmina were thrown into the Lifestream, Zenogias fired his eye laser at the Topaz Weapon's chest. The blast caught the Weapon off balance and it tumbled out of the sky and sunk into the Lifestream.
"Elmina!" Jack shouted, racing to the top of the shattered cliff. It was too late. All four beings had disappeared beneath the surface.
* * *
Vincent lay adrift in the Lifestream, floating through a great green sea of nothingness. Thoughts raced through his head... Where is this?... What went wrong?... Why do you drive on a parkway and park on a driveway?... but they were not his thoughts. It took Vincent a while to realize exactly whose they were. They were Zenogias's.
As Vincent continued to float, he seemed to being pass through various parts of Zenogias's mind. Some images appeared ahead of him, and Vincent realized they were his memory.
* * *
To seek out and destroy healthy new worlds... to boldly go where lots of people but no demons have gone before... these are the voyages of the Metal Demons.
It was the twilight of the planet of Hiades. Its life had been nearly sucked dry by the demon queen Mother, just one of her many stops. The majority of the demons, however, were under the impression that the planet was dying of its own accord and that Mother was seeking a new home. Only a few knew that Mother was really seeking a new victim. These few demons banded together to form a group called Radio Free Hiades to distribute the secret.
There was one other demon that knew of Mother's mission: me, Zenogias -- the president of a Hiadian biotech firm Umbrella (Umbrella being the demon word for "This word doesn't translate very well"). I learned of the secret through an unusual phone call that went like this:
Me: Hello?
Caller: Agent Butterknife, your mission is to distribute our Radio Free Hiades leaflets explaining Mother's secret agenda to destroy Hiades around the city.
Me: What the hell are you talking about?
Caller: Oops, wrong number. Don't tell anybody about this, okay?
I, of course, traced the call and reported it directly to the authorities. Radio Free Hiades were forcibly disbanded, and I received an Imperial Medal of Honor and an honorary military rank. Attention was also called to my ability to alter my facial features, and Quarter Knight leader Alhazad, seeing the usefulness of this ability, drafted me into the military. Umbrella was left in the care of my former vice-president, Alwesker (or just "Wesker").
I rose quickly in the military through a combination of my skill and monetary incentives, until I became one of the four Quarter Knights, along with Alhazad, Belselk, and the old guy from the Nissan commercials. Shortly before the Filgaian invasion, known inexplicably as Operation Rewind Kangaroo, I received my first major assignment: being the only one who knew of Mother's secret, I was to investigate the disappearance of a similar planet-decaying being, Mother's "sister" Jenova (or as we called her, Aunt).
And so I was trucked off to an unnamed planet in a small transport pod. Upon arrival, I conversed with some of the native inhabitants about Jenova. This made them quite upset, and some of them tried to read my mind. I zapped them, but I knew I had to run. I returned to my pod, but before I could escape, I was sealed away.
Many years later, the seal on my cave finally wore off. Unfortunately, I had no memory, except for the word Jenova, so I just wandered into the nearest town. I eventually got hooked up with Shinra and became a Turk. I swiped a file about Jenova, which was enough to remind me of my mission to locate Jenova. However, the Turks' leader, Vincent, found out what I was up to and chased me to Nibelheim, where my pod was located. I escaped just in time, but then I ran out of fuel and I crashed on another planet.
I was stuck in my pod, but I wasn't totally out of action. I knew Shinra was the key to Jenova; so I telepathically contacted ol' Wesker, who was still running Umbrella, which had taken up business on some planet called Earth. I instructed him to search for the planet where Shinra was and buy out the company. Then I waited until I could escape my entombment in my pod....
* * *
Vincent drifted out of Zenogias's mind and towards a dark green platform floating in the Lifestream. Lying there were the bodies of Zenogias and Elmina. Vincent directed himself towards the platform and landed on it. The ex-Turk first bent over Elmina. She was still breating -- alive, but unconscious. Vincent then checked Zenogias. He appeared dead.
"You fool!" Zenogias's voice shouted. This being the Lifestream, he had read Vincent's thoughts. "I'm not dead! I've merely changed residence... heh, heh."
Vincent turned just in time to see the Topaz Weapon winging up towards the surface.
* * *
Meanwhile, in Mideel, the rest of the gang was trying to figure out how to fish Vincent and Elmina out of the Lifestream. "Let's throw Rufus in and have him bring them back up," C.S. suggested.
"Har har," Rufus said sardonically.
While the group was thinking, the events took care of themselves. The Lifestream started to bubble and then the Topaz Weapon burst out. Or at least, it was the body of the Topaz Weapon. The bird opened its mouth and began to speak in Zenogias's easily-recognized voice. "Hellloooo!" it said. "How do you guys like my new body? Mwah ha ha!"
"Yeah, mwah ha ha yourself," Jane said. Wasting no time on chatting, she took a shot at Zenogias's new body with her shotgun. The shells merely bounced off its protective armor.
"Zenogias took over the Topaz Weapon's body?" Jack said, scratching his head.
"No, that's the milkman," Hanpan said sarcastically.
"You be right!" Barret said. "Remember tha' message we got sayin' the milkman be a spy?"
"Shut up, Barret," Hanpan said.
Although Zenogias had a new body, he had still retained a few tricks from his original body, evidenced when he flashed his eyes and blasted Red XIII with a laser. Indeed, the lasers were even stronger than before, due to the fact that the former Topaz Weapon had much larger eyes.
Vincent's head poked out of the Lifestream. "Hiding in a new body, eh?" he said. "That's low... of course, I'd expect that from a double-dealing, backstabbing, sicko like you."
"I am rubboi, you are glue, evoithing you say bounces off me and sticks to you," Zenogias retorted, sticking out his metallic tongue.
"Then bounce this off!" Vincent took a few shots at Zenogias with his Ultimus Gun, doing little noticeable damage.
"Nyah nyah, can't hit me," Zenogias chuckled. He waved his spiked tail, dropping bolts of lighting on the Lifestream. The current zipped through the green water and zapped Vincent -- just as he transformed into Death Gigas. All the electricity was absorbed by Vincent's spark plugs, and he then sent it back in a ball of lightning at Zenogias. The lightning crackled around Zenogias's body, temporarily paralyzing him.
Vincent, still in Death Gigas form, swam quickly to the shore and climbed up to join his friends. Zenogias recovered from his temporary shock and started charing up a Topaz Ray on his head. "Sonic Booooom!!" a female voice yelled. Elmina leaped out of the Lifestream and whirled her sword. A yellow wave of energy exploded out and coiled around Zenogias. Zenogias was sent spinning around in the air. Elmina grabbed onto the broken cliff and hauled herself up.
Zenogias swung his tail, but Elmina dodged out of the way and countered with a Magnum Fang. Alucard chucked a boomerang at Zenogias just to show everybody that he did do things occasionally. Suddenly, Zenogias unleashed his Topaz Ray and blasted the rest of the cliff away. Elmina leaped off and landed next to the other Wild Arms characters. "Garret..." she began hesitantly.
"Elmina," Jack said. "Your memory...?"
"Stop right there!" Zenogias boomed. "This is supposed to be a comedy! I can't allow any of this mushy stuff!" His eyes flashed black and a black beam zipped out towards the Wild Arms characters. It coagulated into a blue portal, sucking Rudy, Jack, Cecilia, and Jane through.
Zenogias started to charge another Topaz Ray. Sephiroth cast Comet 2 on Zenogias, only to discover that Zenogias absorbed non-elemental damage. Zenogias fired his Topaz Ray, frying Barret. Aerith quickly cast a Full Cure on him.
Cid tried to summon the Knights of the Round, but nothing happened. Apparently the Knights were still unhappy about the Orlandu incident. "There's no way we can beat this @#$*&!" Cid said.
"We'll have to cheat," Cait Sith said. He reached back into his cloak and yanked out a Super NES controller. "Let's see... up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, A, B, select, start."
Nothing happened. "That only works for Konami games," Rufus explained.
Cait Sith shoved the controller into Alucard's hands. "Here, you're a Konami character. You try it."
Before Alucard had a chance, Zenogias flew off on his own accord. "I don't have any more time to waste on you," he shouted back as he flew away.
"Suit yourself," Rufus shrugged. "Let's go back to Costa Del Sol. We have to find Rudy and those guys."
| Next chapter: Enter the Wu-Tai |