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August 20th, 2003"Bowser, Aeris and Cloud: The Rescue"Part I: "Reflections on the Flames" In the dimension that was built for the tournament, there were but a few geographical oddities. A forest stretched in one direction, off of the beaten path that connected the mansion housing the fighters with the arena with the other facilities available to them. There were a few small hills, some even overlooking the arena itself, although none well enough to allow any aspiring fans to watch a match without coughing up the price for a ticket first. For the most part, the world seemed like a custom built universe, with little in the way of distractions or ambiance. The fighters had made a few dents in the boring perfection of the woods and the grasslands, due to their occasional scuffles outside the arena, but the dimensions itself had remained largely unvisited and unchanged. Until roughly a dozen days ago of course. If one were to wander far enough away from the folds of the fighters, past the edge of the forest, and across a seemingly endless plane of grass, one might run into a few scorched castles. Heaps of rubble marking struggles and adventures already forgotten as the protagonists moved on to bigger and better quests. And the attempted climax of their efforts could be seen as well... an enormous ship seemingly hovering in the air, that currently contained exactly half of the surviving fighters in the tournament. It was an airship... a contrivance many of the fighters were familiar with in one form or another. But this particular contraption was not intended for use in transportaton, but as a dungeon, and a trap. The bowels of the airship itself were filled with traps, literally endless corridors and bottomless pits, incongrous lava pools, fireballs scorching through the air... everything an evil reptilian turtle needed to welcome his guests, and feel right at home. Revamping his ship had been a construction project that had occupied most of Bowser's time, but the results had left him fully pleased. Inside the airship itself, down a particular corridor, on the other side of a set of fire laced girders and spinning flaming rods, there was a cage. A cage with bars widely spaced enough to squeeze through, but a cage nonetheless. It hung from the ceiling over a pit of lava, with all possible escape routes long since vanished. And inside that cage, a tall blonde haired man was sitting down straight with his head buried in his hands. An enormous sword lay by his side, the weapon useless to him now. The other participants, and the crowds that had come to watch his matches would have known him as Cloud Strife. But at the moment, all he considered himself to be was a slowly boiling canary. He was trapped. The symbolic constraints of his prison surrounded him, mocking his failure to escape after already baking above the lava for a quarter of an hour. He could easily slip through the bars... but he would be out of the frying pan, into the fire. All routes to an exit were cut off from him. He was at the mercy of the turtle king, a virtual prisoner... after coming to rescue Aeris, he had fallen prey to the turtle's schemes himself. His match was today. Against Bowser, ironically enough. If he couldn't show, he would forfeit. Aeris would be forced to forfeit tomorrow... but it didn't stop there. Sonic had also joined in to help Cloud at the last minute... Cloud peeked around in every direction a second time, trying to find any sign of his allies. None of them were anywhere to be seen. He could only assume the worst. And if they did find him... there was no getting back from his trap. They would be better of leaving him there. If Sonic didn't show either, Bowser had a virtual pass to the final four. What can he be thinking? Does he really want to fight Link? This is just a huge joke to him... he's probably laughing his head off right now. Cloud figured it must still be early morning, despite the lack of external light. He buried his face in his hands, wishing he could wake up from the bad dream he was in. It had all been going so well... even without Aeris or any of his old friends, he had done a good job of leading them all, only to wreck their chances. Cloud forced himself to think about everything that had led to this point, forcing himself to recall the painful memories, triumphs and failures. He had to understand... there must have been something he had missed. There had to be a way out. He would never have given up in front of his friends. Barret or Tifa wouldn't have let him. He had to think this through. Cloud let his mind wander back to when he had first heard the news. His first efforts over the whole saga. After losing the memory of several many years of his life, and recovering the missing pieces of his own past, Cloud had been left with a very capable long term memory. His mind was both a blessing and a curse. He let his eyes glaze over as his mind flashed back to how it all began. Next Entry Back |