Heart of the Warrior

Chapter 8 - Palumpolum

I do not own Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy XIII, the Final Fantasy series or any official characters featured within this project. The Final Fantasy series is owned by Square-Enix, Hiranobu Sakaguchi, and Tetsuya Nomura. Please support the official release.

Insanity, absolute insanity! The entrance to the city of Palumpolum was overrun with Sanctum soldiers. Any fugitive trying to find refuge would have seen this and hightailed it in the opposite direction; the band that Cloud was with, however, was charging straight at them! The trio dodged out of the sight of a platoon of Guardian Corps soldiers being briefed by a PSICOM officer.

"We can make it" said Hope quietly, cautiously on all fours and looking around Cloud's knee towards the soldiers, recapping their mission goal: "Get to the station, and board the train for Eden."

"You think it's still running?" asked Cloud incredulously, ducking his head back as a gold and blue, armor-clad soldier looked their way.

"If it isn't, we'll make it run" said Hope determinedly.

"Then punch straight into the heart of the Sanctum? Now you're thinking like a Pulse l'Cie" said Lightning sarcastically. Cloud gave her a disapproving look but quickly replaced it with a reminiscent grin from his own suicidal adventures.

"Well, this is Operation: Nora"

Cloud's grin quickly faded at the boy's comment. "It's not just Snow I'm after; the Sanctum's got to pay too." Cloud and Lightning exchanged looks.

"Hey, you're the one who said we had to fight" Hope hissed to Light "Every minute we waste, we're tempting fate." Cloud felt his shoulder muscles tighten, Hope didn't know anymore than Light did about his situation but his comment hit home for him.

"Look" said Hope, continuing on and snapping Cloud back to reality "There's some underground tunnels not far from here, I used to play in them when I was a kid." He pointed towards the eastern side of the city "No one uses the entrance anymore, so even the army doesn't know about it. But I know where it is, so we can sneak in unnoticed."

Cloud's eyebrows went up in impression; it was a pretty well thought out plan!

"Sounds good," said Lightning with the same impressed face as Cloud.

"Great!" replied Hope as he took in a deep breath.

"Okay," said Cloud "Hope you know the way so take point, Light watch our six." Both of them nodded in concurrence. "On my mark" said Cloud holding up three fingers; he put down his ring finger first and then quickly followed with his middle finger. He paused with a quiet sigh and finally put down his last finger; Hope charged forward, Cloud followed suit and then closely by Lightning.

The trio weaved through the convoy of trucks and boxes of cargo, dodging the vigilant eyes of the surrounding soldiers. Making their way forward, as stealthily as possible, Cloud's eyes widened in terror as Hope tripped over some cables and stumbled headlong into one of the crates, knocking off a smaller box on top of it. Cloud's instincts kicked in; throwing himself onto the truck behind the crate (dragging Hope with him) and slapped a hand over the boys mouth (Lightning quickly mimicked his movements). Releasing Hope and pressing a finger to his lips, Cloud peered around the crate: a group of PSICOM and Guardian Corps troops had paused in their patrolling and had turned towards their direction. "You two check it out" barked the whip-like voice of a female commander.

Cloud stiffened; two soldiers were heading their way and they were trapped! A sudden pressure quickly took hold of Cloud's ankle (it took every ounce of his self-control to keep from making a peep). Shifting his gaze downward, he found Hope, on his belly, underneath the truck. He put a finger to his lips and gestured Cloud to follow; dropping quickly to his shoulder, Cloud rolled across the underside of the vehicle. Following Hope out of the corner of his eye, he launched himself into a large hunk of circular metal and watched, his breath held tightly. The feet of the two soldiers stood where he was standing a few seconds earlier before they headed back towards their group speaking some odd dribble about the cause being a cat.