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Chapter 9: Who are you again?

By  Dave G.

Elena looked adoringly across the helicopter at Tseng, not noticing
the cold cross breeze snaking through the bottom of the cabin door on
the chopper. She smiled warmly at him; he looked away and out theHiy
window, toward the nondescript trees beneath the aircraft.

Elena sighed. /That's that way it always is./

There were four of the five Turks in the mid-sized machine; Elena,
Tseng, Reno, and Edwyn. They had been informed that Rude was on a
special mission.

They were running, and they all knew it. It didn't particularly bother
them, though- the Turks ran away a great deal. All except the new
addition. Edwyn stirred uneasily in his seat.

"Shouldn't we go back and try to help the rest of our forces? We
shouldn't leave friends behind," he said, his mind starting to clear,
be it in just a minute amount.

Tseng rolled his eyes. "Look at that!" he said, directing Edwyn to
look out the window.

"What?" Edwyn sighed through his breath as Tseng deftly administered a
hypospray into his shoulder, rendering him unconscious.

"The drug seems to be wearing off." Commented Reno, absentmindedly picking
lint off his jacket.

"Yeah, and we don't have any more with us, the supply was in the fortress."
Tseng replied.

Interjected Reno, "Crap. And I'd imagine Unright is dead, too. That means
within a week, Edwyn will revert to normal, or, at least what's normal for
him..."

Elena summarized: "And in his normal state, he'll side with the AGFFers,
futile as it may be."

Tseng concentrated on the stygian night below him, his mind entertaining
all possible courses of action and their repercussions, and finally
arriving at a conclusion; "We take him with us. He'll make a valuable
hostage, and could, with the proper motivation, give us information to
bring AGFF down from the inside. And we all know, when AGFF falls, the
rest of Usenet will soon follow."

They sat in the chopper, silent, for the next few minutes.

Finally, Elena spoke, somehow breaking the very space/time of the cabin;
"What about our mission? Do we still go through with it, even though Mr.
X is dead?"

Tseng replied, "There are forces larger than Mr. X who want the Gunslinger."

"Dead?"

He shook his head in the negative.

She nodded.

======

Dave, the Gunslinger, sat in a small clearing in the middle of a forest.
In his right hand, he held a large revolver. Its barrel was 8 inches
long, and was stocked with hot lead nearly a half inch in diameter. Its
handle was of a green onyx, and in it was set two pieces of materia, the
summon Hades and an added effect. Under the remnants of Dave's tattered
and blood-soaked shirt, there was a neatly wrapped cloth bandage. Although
it was not long since he had been nearly killed by the dragon, Dave was
nearly healed. Most of his health, he knew, he owed to Dana, who slept but
a few yards from the rock on which Dave was perched, keeping watch.

Dave had heard of the fall of Mr. X's forces, and the deaths of Mr. X and
Kain. Also, he had heard of the absence of several of the AGFF task force.
He had tried to leave the healing camp then, but Dana had detained him.

"Dana, man, I'm fine. They need more people in the attack and rescue."
Dave had implored.

Dana had been resolute in not letting him leave until he was fully healed.

Dave's night of being a watch was uneventful, and he was ready to go early
the next morning.

"Glazer, wake up man," Dave said in a low whisper.

"Muguhh.. What's the deal?" countered the drowsy Lord Of Boredom.

Dave asked, "Can you travel, and can you fight?"

Eyglazer blinked several times, shaking the sleep from himself. "I
suppose."

Dave pulled him to his feet. "Let's go then."

======

They walked for a time, encountering no one, when, as if out of no
where, Greg limped toward them from a niche in the trees bordering the
path.

Dave stopped in the path to speak, "Greg! Glad to see you! How'd the
invasion go?"

Greg grinned, "We won. Mr. X is crushed, Relm is safe, Kim finally
bought into magic. Damn, but I was glad to see you coming down this
trail. We need your help, though, because there are still a good deal
of mechanical soldiers out there."

Dave and Glazer nodded.

"I'm going back to the wounded camp, myself," said Greg, "this leg is
killing me."

Dave smirked, "Lucky it's not your third, huh?"

Greg stood impassive, "Yeah, I suppose that is lucky."

The company parted, Greg heading back down the path; Dave and Glazer
heading up it to the castle.

======

They were greeted by Mary, who briefed them further on the occurrences.

"He went down very easily," Mary said, "and we were able to retrieve
Relm from his dungeon within the hour."

Dave shrugged, "So it was easy?"

Mary agreed, "Damn easy. All We're doing now is simple clean up. C'mon,
help me down in the last of the dungeons - there are still quite a few
prisoners in them."

They made their way down labyrinthine corridors, hewn before time from
the living rock that was the foundation of the castle. Soon, both Dave
and Glazer became thoroughly lost, and had only Mary to guide them.

Finally, they emerged into a small, well lighted chamber. In lieu of
the small, ancient bulbs which had so far lined the walls, this room
was illuminated by bright fluorescent tubes.

"What the hell?!" exclaimed Glazer, as his eyes took in the room. In
it were many stasis tubes, all filled with AGFF regs and various Final
Fantasy characters.

Glazer made a motion to draw his sword, but the Mary clone swiftly
clubbed him on the back of his head with her... tonfa?

Dave was slightly more successful, shooting the clone right between
the eyes, leaving a green spray on the wall behind it.

"Ewww, that's kinda disgusting," thought Dave, as he contemplated the
mess left on the wall by whatever substance had been used to create
this facsimile of Mary.

Dave checked to see it Eyeglazer was seriously hurt, which he was not.
Deciding that Glazer was fine where he was (and not caring to drag him),
Dave looked down the long gallery. There were 10 tubes. He finally
found a computer terminal for control of the devices, it had a read out
of each occupant:
 

Dave stood, slightly breathless, "So, they replaced key AGFF figures
with clones, one of whom is behind me. Ah, fuck."

With uncanny speed, Dave drew his revolver, and quickly advanced on the
prone Eyeglazer. Drawing a small knife from his belt, Dave made a quick
incision on the clone's palm. When it bled green, Dave shot it, making
yet another mess.

"Damn.. Everywhere I go today."

Dave returned his attention to the computer display. He worked on the
machine for a few moments, and finally succeeded in initiating the
shutdown sequence of the tubes.

Slowly, the people inside began waking up, and, before long, there were 10
very groggy people sitting on the floor as Dave explained what happened.

"It seems," he said, "that you have all been captured by Mr. X, placed
in stasis, and cloned. A few moments ago, I shot clones of both Kain
and Eyeglazer."

Glazer swore.

"Also," continued Dave, "Your clone, Greg, is now in our base, which is a
bad thing."

Dave thought back, thinking he should have picked up on the signs sooner -
Greg not getting Dave's GFS laden comment was the first sign.

Lost in thought, Dave barely heard the chirp of the small computer behind
him; the mail control of this basement level. He turned around to press
alt+f4, but, in haste, missed. Hitting alt-f3 caused the computer to
execute a macro.

This message appeared on the screen: EMRG. DIMENSIONAL GATE OPENED, PREPARE
FOR EVAC TO SAFE GROUPS.

Then, a bright blue ball began sucking the people of the room into itself.
It defied the laws of physics, and actually bent Usenet upon itself. For a
brief instant, alt.flame and AGFF occupied the same space and time, letting
several of the demonic denizens of that realm egress to AGFF, as well as
sending several AGFFers to alt.flame. It was in the latter group that Dave,
Eyeglazer, and Celes (2) were part of. The rest of the people in the room
were more fortunate - being drawn into other groups on the way from AGFF to
alt.flame. They would wake up in distant lands, unsure of their location.
 

As for Dave, Glazer, and Celes (2), they awoke on alt.flame within minutes
of being transported there. Contrary to the name, alt.flame is neither
bright nor warm, though its wretched inhabitants claim it has a red aura.
When the three awoke, they were met by naught but a clammy cold and utter
darkness.

"Hello? Is anyone there?" Celes (2) asked.

Dave groggily shook his head back and forth, "I am. Who's this?"

Eyeglazer chimed in, "Ditto. Is that you, Dave?"

"Yeah, It's me. Where the hell are we?"

Glazer answered: "You mean, we aren't in hell?"

Celes (2) finally broke the silence that ensued, but only by a small
amount, "LAMP!" she chanted, bringing the arcane spell into good use.
A miniscule amount of light appeared around the party, just enough to
let them see each other.

Eyeglazer saw it first - a green trickle of fluid from Celes' forehead.

Reaching for his sword, he found it wasn't there.

"Wait!" Dave called, pulling his own weapon (which he still retained),
which he leveled at the Celes clone.

Celes herself took a defensive stance, "Don't shoot, I can explain."

Dave had always had a soft spot for Celes, so he held his fire.

"I was the prototype," she said, sighing softly, "I was the first clone
Mr. X made. Only, he did it too well, and captured my. the real Celes'
neural synapses. The only difference between me and.. well, myself, is
this green stuff in my veins.. Kill me if you will, because I still exist
in my original form, but I could be of help to you two.."

Dave glanced at Glazer, who shrugged in boredom. He looked at Celes,
who looked back with her pretty eyes.

As I've said, Dave had a soft spot for Celes, "Alright, let's go. Keep
in mind, though, if you're lying to me, I'm the only one in our party
with a weapon."

She nodded, and the three of them sat in the darkness of alt.flame,
contemplating what they would do next.

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