Deepground Attacks!

Farther down the street, people are running and screaming. Soldiers wearing weird armor with blue lighting through it comes charging out not far behind. After a moment a few of them raise rifles and begin to open fire on the screaming civilians. Cecil reacts first, drawing his sword and rushing to the rescue before the others can stop him. Fortunately, he wasn't going to be alone for long. The night before, Tifa has passed out the rest of the materia she had bought:

Tifa: Lightning, All, Cure

Cecil: Fire, Cure (Natural)

Quistis: Cure, Ice

Ace: Barrier (Natural), Fire (Natural), Lightning, Ice

Fran: Fire

As Cecil charged, Tifa shouted an order and the remaining party followed her lead. Her right arm shot up and she called lightning down on the weird soldiers with her combined All and Lightning materia. Quistis, Ace, and Fran each unloaded one spell before everyone but Ace charged after Cecil. Because Ace had the highest ability with spells, he had been elected to act as the artillery for their team. Quistis was the next weakest attacker, so she had been given one of the Cure materia to act as their main medic. Fran was gifted with great knowledge of both close and long range weaponry, even if she only had a bow right now, but had still taken a Fire materia at Cecil's urging.

The soldiers were caught off guard by the sudden magical onslaught and those that were not killed off in the barrage were open to the next attacks. Cecil cleanly cut through the first of the soldiers and was about to follow up with a second slash to another when an arrow suddenly split the man's helmet and pierced into his brain before Cecil could even attack. The soldier fell to the side and Cecil gave Fran a nod.

Quistis and Tifa were now in the fight as well, both moving with quick and practiced strikes that left several enemies scattered and broken. Quistis saw some odd dog sized beast in similar armor jump from an alley towards her, but a bolt of fire knocked it back against a wall. This was followed by a spear of ice that finished if for good. The AVALANCHE trio weren't on the same level as the Chosen, but that didn't stop them from joining in as well, accounting for at least four more enemies.

The fight lasted only a few moments and soon the group found that the street was littered with the dead and dying. Quistis and Tifa healed a few of the civilians, but many were beyond saving.

"This is horrible," Quistis said.

"Agreed. Who are these people Tifa? Their tech seems almost the same as what we've seen from your world so far."

"I'm not sure Cecil. This armor isn't like anything I've seen before."

"And that dog thing..." Ace looked to where he had speared the creature with Ice before shaking his head.

"We need to move," Fran said as more gunfire erupted from several different directions on other streets. More explosions could be heard in the distance and some of it seemed to be getting closer.

"I hate to say it, but the best way to save anyone right now is to finish our mission, and that means leaving this city," Cecil said, feeling guilt settle in his stomach at the suggestion of leaving people to die. The others felt it too, but they all knew it was for the best.

Following Cecil's lead, the group tried heading away from the growing sounds of fighting, looking for a road out of the city. They were finally putting some distance from themselves and the fighting when just as they were rounding a corner, Fran's ears picked up something. She tried to yell for Cecil to wait, but there was already a gun pointed at his face. Tifa took one look at the person holding the weapon and was shocked to see the person holding it.

"You?"