Chapter 12: Wrath of the Stigma Plant
(This section will focus on Vincent as the speaker) I was sent on a mission by Rufus to investigate a strange encasing of JENOVA cells that suddenly appeared around our current quarters where the new Shinra HQ was built, along with some other rather large safe territory for us. He said it came out of nowhere, and was discovered by a Shinra employee who had come across it by accident before and seemed to die while reporting the finding to Rufus. Likewise, we lack decent intel since whatever this thing was had killed a comrade within a matter of seconds. I didn't like the idea, but I was the strongest ally we had which meant I didn't have a choice but to check it out. I traveled quickly, in my shadow form to make navigating easier. I could even pass through a solid wall in this form. At least that was one thing JENOVA's lackies couldn't do. There were just too many of them, and too few of us with minimal human armies despite the recent success of that experiment on Sephiroth. Our troops were large in number, but somewhat lacking in needed proficiency. JENOVA's pawns were all born elites whether we liked it or not. Somehow, I felt that this war against them would be my fight rather than Rufus's. To me, Rufus and Shinra were nothing more than a useful backup or diversion to clear my route. The only reason I was helping to begin with was to drive JENOVA's legacy back into the abyss. I didn't care about Rufus or any of his crap otherwise. After I'd been traveling some ways, I started to slow down. I had detected a strong presence of JENOVA cells close by and followed where it seemed to come from. As I closed in on it, a unusual force started to breach my shadowy form and pain started to well up inside myself following this. I immediately went back to my human form and sighed "So much shadow sneaking... that thing would tear me apart if I continued in that form. Guess I'll have to go by foot from here..." As I expected, the pain stopped completely. I started running instead, but didn't get far; I stopped when I saw a a slightly large dome of green and black. I also found several bodies around it motionless and looking like severe Geostigma had killed them. I drew closer to all of this, but for some reason this thing I was looking at didn't seem to affect me at all. I said "So this thing right here is it?" I looked around some more, but still didn't feel any pain or obvious harm. Turning back to it, I got out my phone and called Rufus. When he answered, I said "That thing you told me to check out? I found it. Bodies all over the place, too. How in the world did it get here?" Rufus replied "We still don't know, but it's very likely linked to the JENOVA Lifestream that controls the cycle of life on the Planet now. How do they look?" I approached one of the corpses and said "Bad... very bad. You said the guy who reported the sighting died seconds after the call? Well, I don't know how, but it's clearly the stigma that did it." Rufus cried "What?! That fast?!" I agreed "You heard me, Rufus. If you think I'm lying then come see for yourself. Whatever this blob is, it's clearly designed to kill: to kill anything it recognizes as foreign life to JENOVA's kind. How it got here, I'm clueless. But we'd better do something in case it spreads or grows powerful. It may in worst cases swallow all of us whole if it gets too strong." Rufus said "Alright, but what about you? Do you feel anything unusual being close to it?" I answered "Not even a scratch on me... I don't know how, but I'm unaffected by it." Rufus cried "New orders, Vincent: destroy the stigma plant!" I reluctantly said "Tch, fine... but I'm not doing this for you. Don't expect me to like you just because I'm fighting the same enemy." I hung up, then shoved my phone into my pocket. I didn't like working with Rufus, but since everyone else was either dead or converted by the JENOVA Lifestream, there was no choice. I coated both hands in darkness, then touched the ground and extended the shadows to tie with the stigma plant. When they reached and began to leech its power, the ground began to tremble followed by an almost deafening robotic noise that seemed to come from it. I forced myself not to flinch, and instead changed form again, becoming a dark and vicious wolf. I raced directly at it and began mutilating it as quickly as I could. The tremors grew stronger the more damage this thing took. What appeared to be a protective shell cracked and shattered. I was blown back, but quickly recovered and attacked the exposed green core. It broke, and then everything had stopped completely. I reverted back to human form, standing up "Gahh, geeze! Could that thing be any louder?" I sighed "What an annoying blob of trash... Well, at least it's gone now." My phone rang, and I answered it seeing it was Rufus. Rufus said " The signal from the stigma plant is gone. Well done, Vincent. But why was there an earthquake that stopped minutes later?" I replied "I don't know anymore than you about that, but it started after I planted energy-snapping shadows on it and worsened when I attacked it myself. It also made this noisy robotic sound when it took damage. Some defense that is." Rufus said "At least that's out of the way, though. Wait, hold on... I have another call from the emergency line." He clicked off and I sighed "Great, more trouble. How many defense mechanisms does JENOVA need? Aren't her stupid kids enough to satisfy?" Rufus got back to me rather quickly and said "Vincent, I have word of another stigma plant that appeared near Shinra HQ. You know what to do." I protested "But how? I just destroyed it. Don't tell me we have extras..." Rufus said "I'm afraid we do. If these grow like weeds, we're in big trouble. Regardless, you're the only one immune to the stigma, so only you can destroy them. Go after it before we have an entire garden to deal with." Rufus hung up before I had a chance to say anything else. I grumbled "He thinks he's so tough, ordering me around like this... but once we defeat JENOVA, I'm done doing business together. I can't stand this."
To be Continued...
(This section will focus on Vincent as the speaker) I was sent on a mission by Rufus to investigate a strange encasing of JENOVA cells that suddenly appeared around our current quarters where the new Shinra HQ was built, along with some other rather large safe territory for us. He said it came out of nowhere, and was discovered by a Shinra employee who had come across it by accident before and seemed to die while reporting the finding to Rufus. Likewise, we lack decent intel since whatever this thing was had killed a comrade within a matter of seconds. I didn't like the idea, but I was the strongest ally we had which meant I didn't have a choice but to check it out. I traveled quickly, in my shadow form to make navigating easier. I could even pass through a solid wall in this form. At least that was one thing JENOVA's lackies couldn't do. There were just too many of them, and too few of us with minimal human armies despite the recent success of that experiment on Sephiroth. Our troops were large in number, but somewhat lacking in needed proficiency. JENOVA's pawns were all born elites whether we liked it or not. Somehow, I felt that this war against them would be my fight rather than Rufus's. To me, Rufus and Shinra were nothing more than a useful backup or diversion to clear my route. The only reason I was helping to begin with was to drive JENOVA's legacy back into the abyss. I didn't care about Rufus or any of his crap otherwise. After I'd been traveling some ways, I started to slow down. I had detected a strong presence of JENOVA cells close by and followed where it seemed to come from. As I closed in on it, a unusual force started to breach my shadowy form and pain started to well up inside myself following this. I immediately went back to my human form and sighed "So much shadow sneaking... that thing would tear me apart if I continued in that form. Guess I'll have to go by foot from here..." As I expected, the pain stopped completely. I started running instead, but didn't get far; I stopped when I saw a a slightly large dome of green and black. I also found several bodies around it motionless and looking like severe Geostigma had killed them. I drew closer to all of this, but for some reason this thing I was looking at didn't seem to affect me at all. I said "So this thing right here is it?" I looked around some more, but still didn't feel any pain or obvious harm. Turning back to it, I got out my phone and called Rufus. When he answered, I said "That thing you told me to check out? I found it. Bodies all over the place, too. How in the world did it get here?" Rufus replied "We still don't know, but it's very likely linked to the JENOVA Lifestream that controls the cycle of life on the Planet now. How do they look?" I approached one of the corpses and said "Bad... very bad. You said the guy who reported the sighting died seconds after the call? Well, I don't know how, but it's clearly the stigma that did it." Rufus cried "What?! That fast?!" I agreed "You heard me, Rufus. If you think I'm lying then come see for yourself. Whatever this blob is, it's clearly designed to kill: to kill anything it recognizes as foreign life to JENOVA's kind. How it got here, I'm clueless. But we'd better do something in case it spreads or grows powerful. It may in worst cases swallow all of us whole if it gets too strong." Rufus said "Alright, but what about you? Do you feel anything unusual being close to it?" I answered "Not even a scratch on me... I don't know how, but I'm unaffected by it." Rufus cried "New orders, Vincent: destroy the stigma plant!" I reluctantly said "Tch, fine... but I'm not doing this for you. Don't expect me to like you just because I'm fighting the same enemy." I hung up, then shoved my phone into my pocket. I didn't like working with Rufus, but since everyone else was either dead or converted by the JENOVA Lifestream, there was no choice. I coated both hands in darkness, then touched the ground and extended the shadows to tie with the stigma plant. When they reached and began to leech its power, the ground began to tremble followed by an almost deafening robotic noise that seemed to come from it. I forced myself not to flinch, and instead changed form again, becoming a dark and vicious wolf. I raced directly at it and began mutilating it as quickly as I could. The tremors grew stronger the more damage this thing took. What appeared to be a protective shell cracked and shattered. I was blown back, but quickly recovered and attacked the exposed green core. It broke, and then everything had stopped completely. I reverted back to human form, standing up "Gahh, geeze! Could that thing be any louder?" I sighed "What an annoying blob of trash... Well, at least it's gone now." My phone rang, and I answered it seeing it was Rufus. Rufus said " The signal from the stigma plant is gone. Well done, Vincent. But why was there an earthquake that stopped minutes later?" I replied "I don't know anymore than you about that, but it started after I planted energy-snapping shadows on it and worsened when I attacked it myself. It also made this noisy robotic sound when it took damage. Some defense that is." Rufus said "At least that's out of the way, though. Wait, hold on... I have another call from the emergency line." He clicked off and I sighed "Great, more trouble. How many defense mechanisms does JENOVA need? Aren't her stupid kids enough to satisfy?" Rufus got back to me rather quickly and said "Vincent, I have word of another stigma plant that appeared near Shinra HQ. You know what to do." I protested "But how? I just destroyed it. Don't tell me we have extras..." Rufus said "I'm afraid we do. If these grow like weeds, we're in big trouble. Regardless, you're the only one immune to the stigma, so only you can destroy them. Go after it before we have an entire garden to deal with." Rufus hung up before I had a chance to say anything else. I grumbled "He thinks he's so tough, ordering me around like this... but once we defeat JENOVA, I'm done doing business together. I can't stand this."
To be Continued...
