Ok, I gave BA since January 27 to beta this chapter, and he did not do it. Life just comes first, plain and simple and I don't blame my brother.
So, I am posting it Raw, again, with some minor differences.
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Chapter 2:
Dr. Hojo was resting his eyes, which did not happen very often. He slept three hours a day, to a man like himself sleep was a waste of time. Even if he took great pleasure in it. So, it was understandable that he grabbed his pistol the moment he heard glass breaking.
It wasn’t because he had two experiments that could wreak the town if they got out, or because of Vincent Valentine potentially getting out. It was because he was going to kill the little fucker that interrupted his favorite time of the day. Nap time.
Dr. Hojo smiled at his pistol, it was a modified Turk Pistol, the 9mm Requiem. It was originally Vincent's hand gun, and just like with Vincent's relationship with Lucrecia, he made it his own and improved upon it. He didn’t like the name, but considering that the sound of the pistol was the last thing their victims heard before dying, the name Requiem was fitting since a Requiem was a funeral dredge.
This pistol used the user’s Mako to make the bullets move faster, a special adaption that he did himself. Each bullet was harder than the average bullet, nigh indestructible. Each bullet contained two small Materia, a Fire and a Drain Materia, which would embed itself into the target.
The Drain Materia would siphon Mako from the target automatically, channeling the Mako into the fire materia, which would overload with Mako in .2 seconds of starting with enough force of a Firaga spell. The whole process took .3 seconds, and normally killed most monsters considering the bullets were normally five-six inches inside of the most armored of monsters.
So, you can image the good Doctors surprise when he saw both monsters, dead, with three bullet wounds to the head each when he was expecting a little scuffle, and two children standing near by a very familiar tri barreled pistol.
“Sir! Help, we’re hurt!” A blonde haired little boy yelled, holding his wrist.
“WAHAHAHHHHHHHHAAAAAA” A little girl with long black hair cried, holding her wrist.
As far as Dr. Hojo could tell, they came down here, woke up the monsters, one killed one monster with a head shot, but dropped the pistol when the kick broke the child’s wrist. Likely the little girl. Then the boy, at least he guessed the boy, picked up the gun and killed the second monster with a headshot when it was about to attack, breaking his wrist as well.
Well, at least they can replace the two test subject they just killed. That was the least they could do for interrupting his sleep time.
“It’s alright children, I got just the cure…” Professor Hojo said, going to a cabinet with two syringes and a few materia, a Cura spell should help them sufficiently. He put down the gun, this was going to be too easy.
“Alright, I’m going to heal you two. But I have to give you a shot, those bad monsters you killed were poisonous, I’m giving you the antidote, ok?”
The two children nodded, snot was dribbling out of the girls nose as she hugged the little boy. Dr. Hojo smiled, healing the two children. The Synge was filled with a cocktail that should knock them out.
“Thank you mister!” The little girl cheered, holding her wrist up in joy.
“Thanks.” The little boy said, clearly unsure of the needle in his hands.
“Ok, now to make sure the poison doesn’t kill you.” Hojo said, feeling a bit of a rush from lying to these children. How much mileage could he get out of them before they became insane?
“But it didn’t touch us.” The little boy said, holding the little girl back.
“It was a gaseous poison, in the air. You can’t smell it, taste it, or feel the effects.” He lied easily.
“Then how come you didn’t inject yourself first?” The little girl asked, now confused. The made Hojo hesitate.
“What…HOJO!” A voice from the hallway yelled in anger.
Hojo looked, and saw the one person he thought was asleep for sure.
“Vincent.” Hojo said calmly.
“What are you doing to these children?” He asked, gesturing for the children to come to him. They did, the little bastards. The worst part was the fact they gave him his pistol back.
“I healed them when they broke their wrists defending themselves with YOUR pistol. I never thought you would so easily give a child a gun that would destroy their wrists like that.” Dr. Hojo snarked, inching his way to the Requiem.
“I didn’t. They stole it from me.” Vincent gave both cowering children a dark look.
“Ah. Thieves. I will turn them over to the authorities at once.” Dr. Hojo said calmly, now so close to his pistol. He made it to kill Vincent if he ever had to fight him, but was going to discontinue doing so since he believed that Vincent would never wake up. Good thing he didn’t.
“We both know what you do to people. I won’t let that happen again.” Vincent said, pointing the Cerberus at him.
“Now, now. We both know that you are just mad that Lucrecia chose the better man.” Vincent’s eyes turned red. Well, redder.
“Wrong answer.” Dr. Hojo dove for the Requiem, but he heard a gunshot, and closed his eyes grasping for his gun.
Wen he opened them, he was in the middle of grasping for the gun while floating in the air, over his dead body, then stared to sink into the ground.
“I’m dead...I am now in the lifestream…” He pondered, going into the ground, now surrounded by green energy.
“How interesting…” He then felt himself being tugged, and decided to go to the object tugging. Maybe it was the reincarnation calling to him, then realized what it was when he heard the sound of the Mako reactor.
“NO! I will not end like this!” He yelled, now unable to escape the reactor.
The Doctors at ShinRa corporation would notice that the reactor at Nibilhim had some strange readings at the at that time, but it was duly noted.
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“Now give me my Materia, and you can leave.” Vincent said to the two children.
“What! No, it’s MY Materia now!” Yuffie said, completely forgetting about the dead body infront of them at the mention of Materia.
“Yuffie! Do what he says!” Cloud said with fear.
“Oh, alright. HERE.” She handed Cloud the three Materia, who quickly gave them to Vincent.
“Now go home. I will be going back to sleep.” He twisted around, not even realizing that his cape was bellowing in an overly dramatic way that would scar Cloud’s mind and make Yuffie gush about how cool he was.
He heard the children run by the door to the coffin room as he closed it behind himself, smiling, but then frowned.
“I must now sleep…I still must repent for what I have done…” He said with a deep sadness, as he mentally demanded for the coffin to open.
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“Yuffie, HE KILLED THAT GUY!”
“So? He was going to stick us with those BIG needles! Who knows what he was going to do to us.”
“Yuffie…You know what, I give up.”
“YES! One more victory! V!” Yuffie yelled, giving the victory sign.
Cloud sighed, climbing the stairs carefully.
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“You burned down Nibelheim.” Tifa asked as they walked away from the smoking ruins of Nibelheim.
“I DID NOT! That big bird did!” Yuffie defended.
“That was the town summon!” Tifa yelled right back. “One of the town mysteries!” She added.
“Phoenix. And it’s not a mystery if everyone knows about it.” Cloud said, clutching a bright red Materia.
“Ok, back up. How did this happen? I was training with my Sensei by the water tower.” Tifa said as they got to a river, sitting down after what seemed to be hours of walking. Her Sensei was near by, looking for food.
“Alright, well, Cloud asked me how I knew where we were going…”
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“Yuffie, how do you know where to go?” Cloud asked, walking back home from the mention.
“I don’t know, I guess I got a good sense of direction! And if that fails me, I can get someplace up high and look around, here, let me show you!” Yuffie yelled, she decided to stop hiding her presence and was out in the open. She quickly, a little too quickly, climbed the Water Tower in the middle of the town.
“I can see every…HEY A RED MATERIA!” Yuffie yelled.
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“Hey, wait a moment, I remember you yelling that, I was training with my new sensei, Zangan.”
“We were using the water tower as a punching post!”
“Oh! That must be how the tower collapsed!” Yuffie yelled, smacking her fist into the palm of her hand in a threatening manner.
“Yes, I did collapse the tower, I lost focus when I heard someone above me scream.” A voice said right behind her.
“Heh…heh…Cloud, go ahead and continue the story.”
“Alright.” Cloud said, shaking his head at their antics as Zangan gave the girl the hairy eyeball.
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Yuffie grabbed the Materia, and the tower started sagging to the left.
“It’s going to hit my house!” Cloud yelled, panicking as Yuffie made the beginnings of a graceful landing on the ground, then fell on her butt comically.
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“HEY! I did NOT fall on my butt!”
“Relax, he said it was graceful.” Tifa said reassuringly.
“Exaggerated.” Zangan muttered.
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“HOLY!” Tifa yelled, diving out of the way of the tower with her sensei, landing right next to Cloud and Yuffie, who’s newly acquired red Materia was glowing. A Large red bird appeared out of nowhere, and the whole town, a dry, wooden town, suddenly caught on fire at the same time of the Water Tower collapsing on Clouds house.
“DEAR GOD! I’M ON FIRE!” Tifa’s father screamed, yelling out of his home, then he fell down, dead. Tifa tried to run to him, yelling out "Daddy!", not understanding what was going on. Then he stood back up, no longer on fire.
“What the…I…how am I not dead? I’m not even burned!” He yelled in amazement. Yuffie quickly gave Tifa the Materia.
“Tifa! You used the Phoenix! Oh no…You need to go, now! Before the town tries to get justice on you! Go, leave now! Zangan, please take Tifa with you!” He begged.
“Very well. I will go.” He said, bowing his head slightly.
“Tifa, I love you. Have a good life.” He said, tears threatening to leave his eyes as he ran away from her to go help the other towns people who were burning alive, then coming back.
“Yuffie? Hold on a moment, I gotta go get my stuff before the town raids my house. We gotta go, soon.” Cloud said, quickly going to his home.
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“I thought you took everything to the mansion!?” Yuffie yelled, clearly annoyed.
“No, I only took a few things. I don’t have magically expanded pockets, remember?” Cloud said, not worried that Yuffie was annoyed.
“The Mansion and Cloud’s home were the only place’s to not burn down.” Tifa muttered.
“Cloud, please continue the story.” Zangan requested.
“Alright…”
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“Mom!” Cloud yelled, coming inside the house. Miss Strife looked from out of the kitchen, and called back to him.
“Welcome back son! How was your first dat..Day, I mean day, with the princess?”
“It went alright mom, look, we need to get ready to go…” Cloud said nervously.
“Yes, but you all MUST pack an umbrella, that sudden downpour might happen again!”
“Yeah, mom, about that…”
“I gotta wonder how that could have happened, I swear I heard thunder, and so close by! Then water started leaking in the house! I had to rush to get buckets there, then clean it all up. I am so glad I have the Haste Materia…it makes cleaning so much easier. Then it got hot, and I saw steam getting into the house!”
Cloud shook his head as his mother continued. “It was like a Sauna, I had to start taking off clothes…By the way, don’t come into the kitchen just yet.”
“MOM! I get it, I really do, but I need to tell you about what just happened!” Cloud was now embarrassed, if anyone came into the house right after the town burned down she would have been caught with her pants down, literally.
“Yes honey, you will in a moment…when I come out of the kitchen. I swear sweetheart, we need to fix those holes in the walls and ceiling…” Cloud sighed in frustration, yes, the town was going to help fix that in a month, but not anymore he bet.
“And did you notice how hot it got around here?” His mom asked as she came out of the kitchen, now fully dressed.
“Mom, it didn’t rain, and that wasn’t thunder. The water tower fell onto the house on accident and Yuffie accidentally used the town summon and burned down every house BUT ours.”
“Oh. I guess we got lucky with the water tower huh?” His mother said, smiling.
“Yeah, but I need to go now. Yuffie handed Tifa the Materia, and she is being sent off by her dad to prevent the town from lynching her if they thought she did it.”
“Oh. And since she must go with Yuffie…”
“I gotta go mom.”
“Alright…Good by my son, I will miss you.” She gave him a bear hug, and he choked out a simple phrase.
“Mommy…”
“I packed a lunch for you, and things you will need. I also magically expanded you’re backpack and lunchbox, you have enough peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to last you a week, don’t worry, they won’t go bad in there. I also got you three things for your journey.” She let go of him, and walked to a closet.
“This is a FunPop .22 long rifle, you can’t do much to hurt monsters, but you can hunt with it.”
“I thought a .22 was practically worthless for hunting?”
“Yes, but this is where the ‘FunPop’ comes in, Dr. Hojo, the professor that visits ShinRa Mansion, did me a favor after I did him a favor, let me tell you he is quite the charmer.” She gushed.
“Mom!” Cloud complained. That creepy guy? A charmer?
“Oh, alright. You can make the bullets go faster by channeling Mako into it, and the bullets will blow up when they hit their target if you put the maximum amount of Mako in it.”
“Thanks mom, sorry you had to go near that guy.”
“Don’t worry, I enjoyed it.” She said, blushing a little and putting her hands on her cheeks. That made Cloud cringe.
“Mom, Dr. Hojo is dead.”
“What?”
“When Yuffie and I went into the Mansion, we talked with him for a little bit and a Vampire came down and killed him.”
“A vampire? Don’t be silly, you must be talking about Vincent Valentine. Don’t worry about him, I warned Dr. Hojo that working near by a man that would want to kill you is a dumb idea, but he wouldn’t abandon his laboratory.” Miss Strife said, not caring that Dr. Hojo was dead, nor that his killer was in town.
“Right.” Cloud said, and the awkward silence took supreme rule for about a minute.
“OH! Right, here is a machete, good for exploring.” She handed Cloud the rifle and the Machete, putting the rifle across his back after checking for the safety, and putting the Machete on his belt, it was like a real sword for him.
“And here are a few Materia, I don’t need them.” She offered, handing Cloud a cigar box. He opened it, and found six Materia inside. Four Green, one yellow, and a blue one.
“What are they?”
“Touch them and find out.” And cloud did, reaching for a green one.
“Fire. It makes fire.”
“Yes, now the others?”
“Ice…lightning…this one heals, this one…multiplies a spell across an area of effect?” Cloud looked at her mother.
“It’s called All, and it lets you pick your targets. With the Cure Materia, you can heal all of your friends. With the Fire, Ice, and Lightning materia, you can hit all of your enemies, or just some of them.”
“Cool…and this one let’s me do ventriloquy?”
“Yeah, try it out later, its fun at parties.” Cloud looked doubtful, but took the cigar box, unsure of where to put it.
“And I got you a Tent, some supplies, and a thousand Gil.” She handed her son the Backpack and a money pouch, he smiled at her, and put the Cigar box into the backpack.
“Take care son, I love you.”
“I love you too mommy…” They hugged, and Cloud went out the door.
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“You got sandwiches? Share!” Yuffie demanded, as Tifa’s stomach growled.
“Good, we can save the Chocobo I hunted for later.” Zangan said, that was when everyone noticed the very much so DEAD Chocobo behind Tifa’s sensei.
“That’s messed up.” Yuffie muttered.
“I also got a large egg for breakfast tomorrow.” He added, taking out an egg about the size of Cloud’s head.
“Omigash! You KILLED a mommy bird?!” Yuffie yelled, almost at the verge of crying. “And now you want to eat her, AND HER BABY!!!” They waited for a moment, and Yuffie started waling.
“Oh please. You go out into the wild all the time, what do you do for food?” Tifa asked, but privately agreeing that this was kinda messed up.
“I look for my food and hunt male animals and fish!” Yuffie yelled, the tears stopped pouring almost immediately while pulling out a Kunai and throwing it into the river, then pulled the string that was apparently attached to it and a fish came out, stabbed through by the kunai.
“Very good! I might teach you some martial arts young one.” Zangan praised, rubbing his beard.
“Hey, wait! I thought you only did it for money?” Tifa asked, sounding hurt.
“I do. But she is a princess, I’ll bill her later.” Zangan said, thinking of adding a zero for all the trouble she was going to give him.
“Bill me for two, if I learn I want Cloud to learn too!” Yuffie yelled, then the egg was gone, Yuffie had it.
“Steal Materia. Temporarily becoming a master thief. I hate that Materia. You will use no Materia while learning from me.” Zangan said sternly.
“WHAT! How do I even know your lessons are WORTH no Materia!” Yuffie yelled in anger.
“I have 129 students around the world and am the undisputed finest martial arts instructor though out the land. I never pick a student out casually, and even then I must be paid to teach my way of life.”
“So you wouldn’t take a guy with no skill, regardless of how much money they throw at you?” Cloud asked.
“Exactly.” He answered, sounding pleased.
“Sir, what about outside of lessons?” Tifa asked.
“Good question. Use the Materia, they will come in handy in tight situations, especially for lighting the Camp Fire, and making beverages cold on a hot day.”
“Alright, fine. But this better not take too much of our time! I gotta explore the world!” Yuffie yelled, raising a fist into the air.
“Why?” Zangan asked, curious. He himself traveled the world at a young age, not that young but still.
“It’s on my bucket list.” She replied with a grin.
“Stop right there.” Cloud interrupted.
“Oh! I was just about to tell a good joke though!” She complained.
“No, it didn’t work last time.” Cloud said firmly.
“Bleh! Your no fun!” Yuffie said, turning her back to Cloud.
“Moggles.” Cloud muttered loud enough for her to hear, but Tifa also heard and Zangan's trained hearding allowed him to hear it also.
Yuffie snorted, trying to hold back laughter.
“Alright! Your fun!” She gave in, laughing hard.
Tifa and her Sensei just stared at Yuffie who was almost on the ground from laughing.
“Ah…Inside joke.” Cloud explained, and Tifa just put her hands on her hips and gave Cloud a look.
“Sorry?” He said uncertain of what to do, Zangan just looked on with a smile. So, this boy had Tifa’s affections? And this Yuffie girl didn’t have any idea of anything like that, but Tifa thinks she like’s Cloud?
Well, this is going to be interesting.
“HEY! That Egg Shook!” Cloud yelled, staring at the large egg. Then a beak popped out, and Tifa picked up the egg and sat it down in her lap.
“There, there…it’s ok.” She crooned softly.
“Whhhubbrwb!” The Egg shattered, and the new born Chocobo looked around, then stared Tifa in the eye and rubbed it’s head against her head.
“It thinks’ your it’s mother.” Zangan commented.
“What are you going to name…him?” Her Sensei asked, checking the gender real quick.
“Choco.” She said, and Yuffie rolled her eyes.
“Original.” Yuffie muttered. That just made Tifa want the name even more.
“Choco…I like it.” Cloud said, then ‘Choco’ saw Cloud, and squawked.
“What the!” The little bird leapt up, and landed gracefully on top of clouds head, and started scratching lightly.
“HEY!” Cloud yelled, picking up the bird, and it squawked again.
“It was trying to roost, you’re hair is remarkably like a chocobo’s in color.”
“Gee. I feel special.” He muttered, as the bird ran over to Tifa, asking to be picked up, and she obligated her.
“He will grow fast, three months he will be ready for you young ones to ride, one at a time of course.”
“What about food?”
“He will eat the grass, and find Gashyle Greens naturally.” Zangan said, now thinking about getting Chocobos for the others too. That way they could all ride.
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In the middle of the night, Zangan smiled, staring at the Wutai Warrior underneath him, he was asleep in a very well laid out trap; the only way to get to him was by alerting the Wutai Warrior. At least by conventional means.
But Zangan was by no means conventional. But, as he was about to get answers from this man, he sensed someone, prompting him to hide himself quickly. The Wutai warrior snapped to attention, facing towards where that exact moment a howl erupted in the night.
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Cloud stirred in his sleep, and woke up to a howl, Yuffie’s foot was on his arm again and Tfia was in her sleeping bag on the other side of the tent.
He noticed that Zangan was not outside of the tent, and poked his head outside.
Only to meet two bright red eyes and a ball of orange slamming into him.
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Veni, vidi, vici. [I came, I saw, I conquered
Quote from Julius Caesar
So, I am posting it Raw, again, with some minor differences.
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Chapter 2:
Dr. Hojo was resting his eyes, which did not happen very often. He slept three hours a day, to a man like himself sleep was a waste of time. Even if he took great pleasure in it. So, it was understandable that he grabbed his pistol the moment he heard glass breaking.
It wasn’t because he had two experiments that could wreak the town if they got out, or because of Vincent Valentine potentially getting out. It was because he was going to kill the little fucker that interrupted his favorite time of the day. Nap time.
Dr. Hojo smiled at his pistol, it was a modified Turk Pistol, the 9mm Requiem. It was originally Vincent's hand gun, and just like with Vincent's relationship with Lucrecia, he made it his own and improved upon it. He didn’t like the name, but considering that the sound of the pistol was the last thing their victims heard before dying, the name Requiem was fitting since a Requiem was a funeral dredge.
This pistol used the user’s Mako to make the bullets move faster, a special adaption that he did himself. Each bullet was harder than the average bullet, nigh indestructible. Each bullet contained two small Materia, a Fire and a Drain Materia, which would embed itself into the target.
The Drain Materia would siphon Mako from the target automatically, channeling the Mako into the fire materia, which would overload with Mako in .2 seconds of starting with enough force of a Firaga spell. The whole process took .3 seconds, and normally killed most monsters considering the bullets were normally five-six inches inside of the most armored of monsters.
So, you can image the good Doctors surprise when he saw both monsters, dead, with three bullet wounds to the head each when he was expecting a little scuffle, and two children standing near by a very familiar tri barreled pistol.
“Sir! Help, we’re hurt!” A blonde haired little boy yelled, holding his wrist.
“WAHAHAHHHHHHHHAAAAAA” A little girl with long black hair cried, holding her wrist.
As far as Dr. Hojo could tell, they came down here, woke up the monsters, one killed one monster with a head shot, but dropped the pistol when the kick broke the child’s wrist. Likely the little girl. Then the boy, at least he guessed the boy, picked up the gun and killed the second monster with a headshot when it was about to attack, breaking his wrist as well.
Well, at least they can replace the two test subject they just killed. That was the least they could do for interrupting his sleep time.
“It’s alright children, I got just the cure…” Professor Hojo said, going to a cabinet with two syringes and a few materia, a Cura spell should help them sufficiently. He put down the gun, this was going to be too easy.
“Alright, I’m going to heal you two. But I have to give you a shot, those bad monsters you killed were poisonous, I’m giving you the antidote, ok?”
The two children nodded, snot was dribbling out of the girls nose as she hugged the little boy. Dr. Hojo smiled, healing the two children. The Synge was filled with a cocktail that should knock them out.
“Thank you mister!” The little girl cheered, holding her wrist up in joy.
“Thanks.” The little boy said, clearly unsure of the needle in his hands.
“Ok, now to make sure the poison doesn’t kill you.” Hojo said, feeling a bit of a rush from lying to these children. How much mileage could he get out of them before they became insane?
“But it didn’t touch us.” The little boy said, holding the little girl back.
“It was a gaseous poison, in the air. You can’t smell it, taste it, or feel the effects.” He lied easily.
“Then how come you didn’t inject yourself first?” The little girl asked, now confused. The made Hojo hesitate.
“What…HOJO!” A voice from the hallway yelled in anger.
Hojo looked, and saw the one person he thought was asleep for sure.
“Vincent.” Hojo said calmly.
“What are you doing to these children?” He asked, gesturing for the children to come to him. They did, the little bastards. The worst part was the fact they gave him his pistol back.
“I healed them when they broke their wrists defending themselves with YOUR pistol. I never thought you would so easily give a child a gun that would destroy their wrists like that.” Dr. Hojo snarked, inching his way to the Requiem.
“I didn’t. They stole it from me.” Vincent gave both cowering children a dark look.
“Ah. Thieves. I will turn them over to the authorities at once.” Dr. Hojo said calmly, now so close to his pistol. He made it to kill Vincent if he ever had to fight him, but was going to discontinue doing so since he believed that Vincent would never wake up. Good thing he didn’t.
“We both know what you do to people. I won’t let that happen again.” Vincent said, pointing the Cerberus at him.
“Now, now. We both know that you are just mad that Lucrecia chose the better man.” Vincent’s eyes turned red. Well, redder.
“Wrong answer.” Dr. Hojo dove for the Requiem, but he heard a gunshot, and closed his eyes grasping for his gun.
Wen he opened them, he was in the middle of grasping for the gun while floating in the air, over his dead body, then stared to sink into the ground.
“I’m dead...I am now in the lifestream…” He pondered, going into the ground, now surrounded by green energy.
“How interesting…” He then felt himself being tugged, and decided to go to the object tugging. Maybe it was the reincarnation calling to him, then realized what it was when he heard the sound of the Mako reactor.
“NO! I will not end like this!” He yelled, now unable to escape the reactor.
The Doctors at ShinRa corporation would notice that the reactor at Nibilhim had some strange readings at the at that time, but it was duly noted.
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“Now give me my Materia, and you can leave.” Vincent said to the two children.
“What! No, it’s MY Materia now!” Yuffie said, completely forgetting about the dead body infront of them at the mention of Materia.
“Yuffie! Do what he says!” Cloud said with fear.
“Oh, alright. HERE.” She handed Cloud the three Materia, who quickly gave them to Vincent.
“Now go home. I will be going back to sleep.” He twisted around, not even realizing that his cape was bellowing in an overly dramatic way that would scar Cloud’s mind and make Yuffie gush about how cool he was.
He heard the children run by the door to the coffin room as he closed it behind himself, smiling, but then frowned.
“I must now sleep…I still must repent for what I have done…” He said with a deep sadness, as he mentally demanded for the coffin to open.
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“Yuffie, HE KILLED THAT GUY!”
“So? He was going to stick us with those BIG needles! Who knows what he was going to do to us.”
“Yuffie…You know what, I give up.”
“YES! One more victory! V!” Yuffie yelled, giving the victory sign.
Cloud sighed, climbing the stairs carefully.
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“You burned down Nibelheim.” Tifa asked as they walked away from the smoking ruins of Nibelheim.
“I DID NOT! That big bird did!” Yuffie defended.
“That was the town summon!” Tifa yelled right back. “One of the town mysteries!” She added.
“Phoenix. And it’s not a mystery if everyone knows about it.” Cloud said, clutching a bright red Materia.
“Ok, back up. How did this happen? I was training with my Sensei by the water tower.” Tifa said as they got to a river, sitting down after what seemed to be hours of walking. Her Sensei was near by, looking for food.
“Alright, well, Cloud asked me how I knew where we were going…”
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“Yuffie, how do you know where to go?” Cloud asked, walking back home from the mention.
“I don’t know, I guess I got a good sense of direction! And if that fails me, I can get someplace up high and look around, here, let me show you!” Yuffie yelled, she decided to stop hiding her presence and was out in the open. She quickly, a little too quickly, climbed the Water Tower in the middle of the town.
“I can see every…HEY A RED MATERIA!” Yuffie yelled.
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“Hey, wait a moment, I remember you yelling that, I was training with my new sensei, Zangan.”
“We were using the water tower as a punching post!”
“Oh! That must be how the tower collapsed!” Yuffie yelled, smacking her fist into the palm of her hand in a threatening manner.
“Yes, I did collapse the tower, I lost focus when I heard someone above me scream.” A voice said right behind her.
“Heh…heh…Cloud, go ahead and continue the story.”
“Alright.” Cloud said, shaking his head at their antics as Zangan gave the girl the hairy eyeball.
-0-0-0-0-0-
Yuffie grabbed the Materia, and the tower started sagging to the left.
“It’s going to hit my house!” Cloud yelled, panicking as Yuffie made the beginnings of a graceful landing on the ground, then fell on her butt comically.
-0-0-0-0-
“HEY! I did NOT fall on my butt!”
“Relax, he said it was graceful.” Tifa said reassuringly.
“Exaggerated.” Zangan muttered.
-0-0-0-0-0-
“HOLY!” Tifa yelled, diving out of the way of the tower with her sensei, landing right next to Cloud and Yuffie, who’s newly acquired red Materia was glowing. A Large red bird appeared out of nowhere, and the whole town, a dry, wooden town, suddenly caught on fire at the same time of the Water Tower collapsing on Clouds house.
“DEAR GOD! I’M ON FIRE!” Tifa’s father screamed, yelling out of his home, then he fell down, dead. Tifa tried to run to him, yelling out "Daddy!", not understanding what was going on. Then he stood back up, no longer on fire.
“What the…I…how am I not dead? I’m not even burned!” He yelled in amazement. Yuffie quickly gave Tifa the Materia.
“Tifa! You used the Phoenix! Oh no…You need to go, now! Before the town tries to get justice on you! Go, leave now! Zangan, please take Tifa with you!” He begged.
“Very well. I will go.” He said, bowing his head slightly.
“Tifa, I love you. Have a good life.” He said, tears threatening to leave his eyes as he ran away from her to go help the other towns people who were burning alive, then coming back.
“Yuffie? Hold on a moment, I gotta go get my stuff before the town raids my house. We gotta go, soon.” Cloud said, quickly going to his home.
-0-0-0-0-
“I thought you took everything to the mansion!?” Yuffie yelled, clearly annoyed.
“No, I only took a few things. I don’t have magically expanded pockets, remember?” Cloud said, not worried that Yuffie was annoyed.
“The Mansion and Cloud’s home were the only place’s to not burn down.” Tifa muttered.
“Cloud, please continue the story.” Zangan requested.
“Alright…”
-0-0-0-0-0-0-
“Mom!” Cloud yelled, coming inside the house. Miss Strife looked from out of the kitchen, and called back to him.
“Welcome back son! How was your first dat..Day, I mean day, with the princess?”
“It went alright mom, look, we need to get ready to go…” Cloud said nervously.
“Yes, but you all MUST pack an umbrella, that sudden downpour might happen again!”
“Yeah, mom, about that…”
“I gotta wonder how that could have happened, I swear I heard thunder, and so close by! Then water started leaking in the house! I had to rush to get buckets there, then clean it all up. I am so glad I have the Haste Materia…it makes cleaning so much easier. Then it got hot, and I saw steam getting into the house!”
Cloud shook his head as his mother continued. “It was like a Sauna, I had to start taking off clothes…By the way, don’t come into the kitchen just yet.”
“MOM! I get it, I really do, but I need to tell you about what just happened!” Cloud was now embarrassed, if anyone came into the house right after the town burned down she would have been caught with her pants down, literally.
“Yes honey, you will in a moment…when I come out of the kitchen. I swear sweetheart, we need to fix those holes in the walls and ceiling…” Cloud sighed in frustration, yes, the town was going to help fix that in a month, but not anymore he bet.
“And did you notice how hot it got around here?” His mom asked as she came out of the kitchen, now fully dressed.
“Mom, it didn’t rain, and that wasn’t thunder. The water tower fell onto the house on accident and Yuffie accidentally used the town summon and burned down every house BUT ours.”
“Oh. I guess we got lucky with the water tower huh?” His mother said, smiling.
“Yeah, but I need to go now. Yuffie handed Tifa the Materia, and she is being sent off by her dad to prevent the town from lynching her if they thought she did it.”
“Oh. And since she must go with Yuffie…”
“I gotta go mom.”
“Alright…Good by my son, I will miss you.” She gave him a bear hug, and he choked out a simple phrase.
“Mommy…”
“I packed a lunch for you, and things you will need. I also magically expanded you’re backpack and lunchbox, you have enough peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to last you a week, don’t worry, they won’t go bad in there. I also got you three things for your journey.” She let go of him, and walked to a closet.
“This is a FunPop .22 long rifle, you can’t do much to hurt monsters, but you can hunt with it.”
“I thought a .22 was practically worthless for hunting?”
“Yes, but this is where the ‘FunPop’ comes in, Dr. Hojo, the professor that visits ShinRa Mansion, did me a favor after I did him a favor, let me tell you he is quite the charmer.” She gushed.
“Mom!” Cloud complained. That creepy guy? A charmer?
“Oh, alright. You can make the bullets go faster by channeling Mako into it, and the bullets will blow up when they hit their target if you put the maximum amount of Mako in it.”
“Thanks mom, sorry you had to go near that guy.”
“Don’t worry, I enjoyed it.” She said, blushing a little and putting her hands on her cheeks. That made Cloud cringe.
“Mom, Dr. Hojo is dead.”
“What?”
“When Yuffie and I went into the Mansion, we talked with him for a little bit and a Vampire came down and killed him.”
“A vampire? Don’t be silly, you must be talking about Vincent Valentine. Don’t worry about him, I warned Dr. Hojo that working near by a man that would want to kill you is a dumb idea, but he wouldn’t abandon his laboratory.” Miss Strife said, not caring that Dr. Hojo was dead, nor that his killer was in town.
“Right.” Cloud said, and the awkward silence took supreme rule for about a minute.
“OH! Right, here is a machete, good for exploring.” She handed Cloud the rifle and the Machete, putting the rifle across his back after checking for the safety, and putting the Machete on his belt, it was like a real sword for him.
“And here are a few Materia, I don’t need them.” She offered, handing Cloud a cigar box. He opened it, and found six Materia inside. Four Green, one yellow, and a blue one.
“What are they?”
“Touch them and find out.” And cloud did, reaching for a green one.
“Fire. It makes fire.”
“Yes, now the others?”
“Ice…lightning…this one heals, this one…multiplies a spell across an area of effect?” Cloud looked at her mother.
“It’s called All, and it lets you pick your targets. With the Cure Materia, you can heal all of your friends. With the Fire, Ice, and Lightning materia, you can hit all of your enemies, or just some of them.”
“Cool…and this one let’s me do ventriloquy?”
“Yeah, try it out later, its fun at parties.” Cloud looked doubtful, but took the cigar box, unsure of where to put it.
“And I got you a Tent, some supplies, and a thousand Gil.” She handed her son the Backpack and a money pouch, he smiled at her, and put the Cigar box into the backpack.
“Take care son, I love you.”
“I love you too mommy…” They hugged, and Cloud went out the door.
-0-0-0-0-0-
“You got sandwiches? Share!” Yuffie demanded, as Tifa’s stomach growled.
“Good, we can save the Chocobo I hunted for later.” Zangan said, that was when everyone noticed the very much so DEAD Chocobo behind Tifa’s sensei.
“That’s messed up.” Yuffie muttered.
“I also got a large egg for breakfast tomorrow.” He added, taking out an egg about the size of Cloud’s head.
“Omigash! You KILLED a mommy bird?!” Yuffie yelled, almost at the verge of crying. “And now you want to eat her, AND HER BABY!!!” They waited for a moment, and Yuffie started waling.
“Oh please. You go out into the wild all the time, what do you do for food?” Tifa asked, but privately agreeing that this was kinda messed up.
“I look for my food and hunt male animals and fish!” Yuffie yelled, the tears stopped pouring almost immediately while pulling out a Kunai and throwing it into the river, then pulled the string that was apparently attached to it and a fish came out, stabbed through by the kunai.
“Very good! I might teach you some martial arts young one.” Zangan praised, rubbing his beard.
“Hey, wait! I thought you only did it for money?” Tifa asked, sounding hurt.
“I do. But she is a princess, I’ll bill her later.” Zangan said, thinking of adding a zero for all the trouble she was going to give him.
“Bill me for two, if I learn I want Cloud to learn too!” Yuffie yelled, then the egg was gone, Yuffie had it.
“Steal Materia. Temporarily becoming a master thief. I hate that Materia. You will use no Materia while learning from me.” Zangan said sternly.
“WHAT! How do I even know your lessons are WORTH no Materia!” Yuffie yelled in anger.
“I have 129 students around the world and am the undisputed finest martial arts instructor though out the land. I never pick a student out casually, and even then I must be paid to teach my way of life.”
“So you wouldn’t take a guy with no skill, regardless of how much money they throw at you?” Cloud asked.
“Exactly.” He answered, sounding pleased.
“Sir, what about outside of lessons?” Tifa asked.
“Good question. Use the Materia, they will come in handy in tight situations, especially for lighting the Camp Fire, and making beverages cold on a hot day.”
“Alright, fine. But this better not take too much of our time! I gotta explore the world!” Yuffie yelled, raising a fist into the air.
“Why?” Zangan asked, curious. He himself traveled the world at a young age, not that young but still.
“It’s on my bucket list.” She replied with a grin.
“Stop right there.” Cloud interrupted.
“Oh! I was just about to tell a good joke though!” She complained.
“No, it didn’t work last time.” Cloud said firmly.
“Bleh! Your no fun!” Yuffie said, turning her back to Cloud.
“Moggles.” Cloud muttered loud enough for her to hear, but Tifa also heard and Zangan's trained hearding allowed him to hear it also.
Yuffie snorted, trying to hold back laughter.
“Alright! Your fun!” She gave in, laughing hard.
Tifa and her Sensei just stared at Yuffie who was almost on the ground from laughing.
“Ah…Inside joke.” Cloud explained, and Tifa just put her hands on her hips and gave Cloud a look.
“Sorry?” He said uncertain of what to do, Zangan just looked on with a smile. So, this boy had Tifa’s affections? And this Yuffie girl didn’t have any idea of anything like that, but Tifa thinks she like’s Cloud?
Well, this is going to be interesting.
“HEY! That Egg Shook!” Cloud yelled, staring at the large egg. Then a beak popped out, and Tifa picked up the egg and sat it down in her lap.
“There, there…it’s ok.” She crooned softly.
“Whhhubbrwb!” The Egg shattered, and the new born Chocobo looked around, then stared Tifa in the eye and rubbed it’s head against her head.
“It thinks’ your it’s mother.” Zangan commented.
“What are you going to name…him?” Her Sensei asked, checking the gender real quick.
“Choco.” She said, and Yuffie rolled her eyes.
“Original.” Yuffie muttered. That just made Tifa want the name even more.
“Choco…I like it.” Cloud said, then ‘Choco’ saw Cloud, and squawked.
“What the!” The little bird leapt up, and landed gracefully on top of clouds head, and started scratching lightly.
“HEY!” Cloud yelled, picking up the bird, and it squawked again.
“It was trying to roost, you’re hair is remarkably like a chocobo’s in color.”
“Gee. I feel special.” He muttered, as the bird ran over to Tifa, asking to be picked up, and she obligated her.
“He will grow fast, three months he will be ready for you young ones to ride, one at a time of course.”
“What about food?”
“He will eat the grass, and find Gashyle Greens naturally.” Zangan said, now thinking about getting Chocobos for the others too. That way they could all ride.
-0-0-0-0-
In the middle of the night, Zangan smiled, staring at the Wutai Warrior underneath him, he was asleep in a very well laid out trap; the only way to get to him was by alerting the Wutai Warrior. At least by conventional means.
But Zangan was by no means conventional. But, as he was about to get answers from this man, he sensed someone, prompting him to hide himself quickly. The Wutai warrior snapped to attention, facing towards where that exact moment a howl erupted in the night.
-0-0-0-0-0-
Cloud stirred in his sleep, and woke up to a howl, Yuffie’s foot was on his arm again and Tfia was in her sleeping bag on the other side of the tent.
He noticed that Zangan was not outside of the tent, and poked his head outside.
Only to meet two bright red eyes and a ball of orange slamming into him.
_____________
Veni, vidi, vici. [I came, I saw, I conquered
Quote from Julius Caesar