Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VII or Power Rangers.
Intro: After the Machina War, after the Magi War, after the downfall of the Magitek Empire, the planet was threatened again. This time, it's not some super force, or the upheaval of magic. The planet's life is sustained by the Lifestream, a current of all life-force on the planet, and of the planet itself. The Shin-Ra Electric Power Company, the planet's newest threat, is slowly, passively killing the planet by draining the Lifestream, and processing it into Mako, a source of energy and power. To protect their operations, they have formed an elite group called SOLDIER. Shin-Ra is opposed by the rebel faction known as AVALANCHE, lead by Barret Wallace. He plans to destroy the eight reactors around Shin-Ra's capital city, Midgar, to stop them from sucking the life from the planet. To this end, he has hired a mercenary, an ex-SOLDIER named Cloud Strife, to help them. His knowledge of Shin-Ra, not to mention his SOLDIER skills, should prove invaluable in AVALANCHE's long-term campaign. To further their cause, they are creating special weapons to help them overpower their mega-corporation enemy.
-Episode I: AVALANCHE, Part I-
"Got it!" Jessie's excited cry made the occupants of AVALANCHE's hideout turn toward her in expectation. Barret Wallace, the group's leader, stood by her side and glanced at the five devices she had been working on for the past few days. They resembled the bangles they all used for armor, but everyone could see that they were different. They showed traces of power, technology, and a little bit of the magic born from the Lifestream.
He eyed them, a little suspiciously. "What are they? And what do they do?" he asked.
Jessie looked at them all in turn. "I've made Power Morphers. They'll let us morph into Power Rangers!"
Wedge and Biggs looked at each other excitedly. They had all heard of the legends of the Power Rangers. Twice in the planet's history, many millennia ago, they had protected the planet against their greatest enemies. Now, they'd be able to use similar powers to defeat Shin-Ra and save the planet!
Jessie handed them out. They all accepted them, putting them on their left arms except Barret, who put it on his right, just above the gatling gun. Jessie turned and grabbed five more items from the table. She held them up one at a time. "These are special materia," she explained. "They'll only work in these special bangles, which are our morphers. When activated, they'll call our powers, and we'll become Power Rangers. Each materia is bonded to a specific element, so we'll need to invoke our elements to morph. The morphers also have a communication system built in. We'll be able to keep in touch with each other."
She began passing them out. "Barret, yours is green. I don't know why, but its element is fire. Mine's silver, and it's thunder. Wedge, this yellow one is water. Don't ask. It's the same with the green. Biggs, yours is ice, the blue one." She held the last one, which was a shining gray. She stared at it intently, as if seeing something there she hadn't ever seen before. The look passed, and she handed it to Cloud, saying, "This one's the power of pearl. It's similar to the holy element, but not quite. It's like a mix of holy and gravity." Cloud nodded as he accepted the gray orb. "Alright, everybody ready?" she asked.
Everyone nodded, and held up the arms with the morphers. They took the special materia, inserting it into the slot while calling their elements.
Jessie was first. "Power of Thunder!" As the materia activated, she threw her arms out to release the effect. Bright rings appeared at her wrists, and white gloves covered her hands. The rings traveled up her arms, leaving a black material where it passed. The rings reached her shoulders, then became one large ring. It traveled down her body, this time leaving a white material, which covered the rest of her body. White boots that matched the material and design of the gloves appeared on her feet. As the ring reached her feet, it faded. Then her chest glowed, leaving an emblem of a thunderbolt on her chest. Then her head became encased in a white helmet, which bore a strange symbol resembling an old, wizened face.
"Power of Fire!" Barret's cry came a split second after Jessie's. When the rings appeared, only his right arm gained a glove. The gun-arm attachment glowed brightly before changing shape. It elongated, becoming longer than his left arm. It appeared to be a long-barreled cannon. The tip of the barrel glowed a soft green, punctuated by arcs of energy. The light expanded, and four rotating machine-gun barrels extended from the sides of the cannon. When the light faded, the weapon started reconfiguring itself. Within a few seconds it became a mechanical arm, complete with a hand and all five fingers. When the rings joined at his shoulders, the color of the material became a normal shade of green, the arms being a dark forest green. At the neck, a white triangle formed on his front and back, so that they formed a diamond when viewed from above. When his chest glowed, a flame symbol appeared when the light faded. His green helmet bore a bestial face, and long horns curved around the helmet, slightly extruded from the smooth green surface.
"Power of Ice!" Biggs' voice followed Barret's, tying with Wedge's call, "Power of Water!" Their transformations resembled Jessie's, except that Biggs' outfit was two shades of blue, while Wedge sported two varieties of yellow. Both also bore the white neck diamond. An ice crystal appeared on Biggs' chest, while Wedge's emblem was a drop of water. Biggs' helmet was blue, and the face suggested a feminine face wreathed in ice. Wedge's took on an almost fluid appearance, resembling a creature that suggested a fish, a snake, or a dragon, or a combination of all three.
"Power of Pearl!" Cloud's voice rang out last, almost hesitantly. The rings left gray sleeves on his arms, leaving the rest of his body black, except for the white gloves, white boots, and the white diamond. A light gray orb appeared on his chest, almost white, resembling materia. His black helmet design heavily suggested a dragon.
As the lights of the materia dimmed and faded, they looked at themselves in awe. "It worked!" cried Jessie, looking at herself and everyone else. Barret admired his new arm, flexing it, and watched it transform into the large cannon with three gun barrels rotating around it. With a little concentration, he willed it back to the arm shape it had held before. When it became a hand and arm once more, he experimented with it, finding it to be just as useful as his real arm, and just as responsive as his gatling gun.
Emboldened by Jessie's success, AVALANCHE hurriedly finished its plans for the assault on the No. 1 Mako Reactor, at the northern edge of Sector One.
-That night-
The train pulled in, on schedule. The two guards on duty just watched with bored expressions on their faces as the train slid to a stop. Within a few minutes, their replacements for the night would step off the vehicle and relieve them for the next day. There were a few noises inside one of the cars, but the guards didn't pay any heed. "It's just the night shift, bumping into things," they told themselves. Then they saw lights through the dimmed windows. Soon the lights faded, but now the guards were staring at the door nearest the windows the light had shown through. What were they doing?
Suddenly, the door in question burst outward, landing two feet from the guards. They looked up in time to see a white-clad individual throw one guard to the floor. Another one in yellow appeared as the remaining guard ran to help his comrade. The yellow being threw a leg out, catching the guard where his leg and hip met. He dropped, his head hitting the ground and knocking him unconscious.
As the first guard lost consciousness, a blue-clad man walked out, joining his white and yellow companions. A green-suited man walked out of the train, and turned. He gestured as the guard's vision went black.
Cloud saw the signal, and jumped down from his position atop the train. He didn't ride the train with the others because of his identity. His discovery too early in the mission would have meant failure. So, he had jumped onto the last car as it passed him on the way out of the Sector Seven station, hiding as it stopped along the central pillar below the upper plates and Shin-Ra HQ before continuing to its destination.
As Cloud landed, Barret gruffly told Cloud to follow him. He then turned and ran down the platform, disappearing around a corner. Cloud dusted himself off, and then ran after Barret. When he reached the end of the platform, two more Shin-Ra guards appeared, weapons aimed. Cloud pulled out his Buster Sword and cut one down. He turned to the other as he fired his gun. The bullets hit Cloud square in the chest, throwing sparks as the power of the suit protected him from the bullet impacts. While the guard gaped, stunned by Cloud's apparent immunity to bullets, Cloud brought his sword to bear, slicing the guard down as he had the other. He replaced the sword, and continued running in the direction Barret had taken. He encountered guards here and there, but he didn't even need to use his sword again. A few kicks and punches, and they went down easily in various stages of unconsciousness.
Cloud caught up to Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie at a closed gate. Jessie was typing codes into a keypad to the left of the gate. "A lot of people risked their lives, just for this code," she mumbled as she finished the sequence. The gate slid open as Barret came running from a side alley. "What're you doin'? I told you to never move in a group!" he said tersely, not wanting them to all be together if they were caught.
They all ran through the gate, only to be confronted with another. Jessie typed in another code for this gate, and ran through it. There was another gate, and Biggs went for this one. While he was working, Barret was confronting Cloud about his past as SOLDIER, but Cloud simply shrugged. "I'm not in SOLDIER anymore, right? Why should it matter?"
Barret shook a fist at him. "Once a SOLDIER, always a SOLDIER. Isn't that how it works?" Cloud shrugged again. "Not really."
Barret folded his arms. "So, what? You hate 'em now? Want to destroy them for killin' the planet? That why you're here, and not with them?"
Cloud shook his head. "Nope. I'm here because I was hired. I don't care about Shin-Ra anymore. I also don't care about you, AVALANCHE, this city, or the planet. Once I get my pay, I'm outta here."
Barret began shaking in rage. "That's it, hot stuff! Yer comin' with me fer the rest of the mission!" He turned and stomped through the gate to the section beyond. Cloud merely shrugged again before following.
Jessie was examining a door at the far end of the area. She turned to the group. "We have to demorph to get in. This elevator won't work if it contains too much energy. It's meant to safeguard from potential harmful discharges inside the reactor. Just remove the materia, and we'll demorph." Jessie, Barret, and Cloud removed their materia, and felt their extra energy drain away as their suits dissolved into nothingness. Biggs and Wedge stayed outside to keep watch while the other three stepped into the elevator.
A/N: I can't remember the argument Cloud and Barret had in the elevator, so I'm skipping it for now. I'll add it in when I get the script for disk 1 again.
They left the elevator and proceeded down a flight of stairs. They reached a ladder and a walkway beyond. When they reached the walkway, Jessie stopped to keep watch there. Cloud and Barret climbed down another ladder and walked up the last walkway to the reactor.
Barret turned to Cloud and handed him a small object. "Here, Cloud. You set the bomb." Cloud stared at it a moment, then looked back up at Barret. "Shouldn't you do it?" Barret huffed. "I gotta watch you, make sure you don't pull nuthin'." Cloud shrugged. "Fine. Be my guest."
Cloud walked up to the reactor, bomb in hand. Before he got there, his vision faded out, and a voice entered his mind, filling his entire head. "Watch out," it warned, "this isn't just a reactor!" It was gone before Cloud could think to respond. He shook his head, and set the bomb onto the reactor. Before he could set the timer, alarms went off. Barret's morpher beeped. "Barret! We've got incoming!" Wedge's voice shouted through the communicator. Barret readied his gun-arm. He was about to tell Cloud to finish setting the bomb when Jessie's voice came through his wrist. "Barret, they're coming! They've got a robo-guard!"
Barret swore, then gestured to Cloud as the first guards rounded the corner. Cloud ran up to Barret, sword drawn. Barret opened fire on the guards, dropping six of them before they all dove for cover. A few seconds later, crashing sounds became audible as the robo-guard appeared. It stood about ten feet tall, with four legs and a nasty-looking tail. It had guns as arms and was covered in a thick, red metal armor. Barret turned his attention to it, unleashing a hail of bullets, which bounced off harmlessly. By then, another squad of guards had rounded the corner, firing at the exposed pair. They dove for cover of their own, and Barret turned to Cloud. "What the hell is that thing?" he demanded. Cloud glanced back at the robo-guard, who was using a sensor scope to find them.
"It's a Guard Scorpion," he replied. "Heavy armor, machine guns on its arms, and a beam cannon fired from the tail."
Barret sighed in frustration. "Can you handle it? I'll take the guards." Cloud nodded, and they both pulled out the morphing materia, inserting them into their morphers.
"Power of Fire!"
"Power of Pearl!"
As the light of their morphing subsided, Barret clenched his mechanical fist, and then leapt from his hiding place. With almost superhuman speed he rushed toward the guards. He knocked out the first two before they even realized he was there. The next two he dispatched by knocking their heads together. A punch to the chest sent another one sprawling. By then the rest had their guns aimed. They fired as Barret noticed their guns were up. The first few rounds struck his chest, sending him to the ground as sparks erupted from the suit, his power protecting him from any major damage. He quickly rolled to his feet, mobilizing his new arm cannon. He aimed at the remaining guards and opened fire. The four barrels rotated at high speed, spitting out a hail of bullets that quickly dropped most of the guards. Three of them had managed to dodge the gunfire, and were preparing to return fire. He rushed to one, picking him from his feet. He threw his unlucky opponent to the other two hard enough that they all were knocked unconscious when they hit the ground. He turned to see how Cloud was doing, and decided to try out another function of his new toy.
Cloud had leapt from his cover with his sword out, blocking the first round of gunfire from the Guard Scorpion. He found his reflexes enhanced as he dodged a few more bullets, and even jumped around the robot's tail as it was jabbed toward him. Cloud tried a few experimental attacks with the Buster Sword, but they bounced off of the red armor. He dodged another round of gunfire and tail-jabs, and ended up behind the robo-guard. He jumped up, higher than he normally would have been able to, and landed on the machine's back. He slashed down with his sword, throwing his enhanced strength into the blow. It broke through the armor, and tore into circuits below. A shock of electricity threw him off, and he landed with a dull thud. He raised himself slowly, amazed that he wasn't gasping for air through the fire of his hard landing. As he made sure he wasn't badly injured, the scorpion tail struck again. Cloud rolled to the side as the tip punched through the walkway. As the tail returned to its overhead position, it was hit by a large, orange ball of energy. It staggered to the side as the armor on its right side fell away, partially melted.
"Hell, yeah! Who's yer daddy, now!" Barret yelled, pumping his fist into the air. As the Guard Scorpion regained its balance, Barret moved to stand next to Cloud, both brandishing their weapons at their foe. Without warning, the tail glowed a soft blue before unleashing a beam of condensed laser energy. It swept across the path, hitting the two at chest level. The attack spread sparks everywhere as they were knocked to their backs. The rebounded quickly before the machine could attack again. Barret charged another shot, this time with blue energy. The blue ball slammed into the Guard Scorpion, and sparks flew from the impact point. Energy arcs caressed the robot's body, shorting out any exposed circuits. The emitter in the tail whined, then fell silent, and its energy glow faded. Without hesitation the tail was brought around, low to the ground. Cloud jumped over it, and he felt energy fill his arms and sword. The weapon flashed for a brief instant, and then Cloud brought it down to slam through the tail. The tip was severed, and both severed ends emitted sparks as their energy connection was lost.
"Allow me." Barret picked up the tail with his mechanical hand. He cocked his arm, then threw the tail at its owner, tip first. The tail punctured the armor that still remained on the scorpion's chest, throwing more sparks and arcs of electricity everywhere. The Guard Scorpion lost all of its functions, falling down in a heap. When the energy discharges reached its central processor, the entire mechanism exploded in a fireball that consumed every trace of the mechanized being.
Cloud and Barret ran back to the reactor, checking on the bomb. It was still attached to the reactor, unset. Cloud bent over, and set it for 10 minutes. "Alright," he said, "that should do it. Let's go!"
They ran down the walkway, and up the ladder. They found Jessie there, her foot caught in a pile of rubble. Cloud stopped to help her up, then they all continued, demorphing when they reached the elevator. The ran through the gates, fighting the few guards that were still hanging around. They ran out of the main reactor complex, turning down a side path which ended in a small building, a warehouse or storage facility. They looked at a timer, the remote to the bomb. They watched the last seconds count down in silence. The numbers reached zero, and a massive shockwave rocked the area. The quake could be felt throughout the city of Midgar, and the bright illumination of the explosion could be seen by everyone on the upper plates. The rumbling carried on for a few more minutes.
When the quaking stopped, Jessie tried the door. It was jammed shut, presumably by debris on the other side. Undaunted, she pulled out a small detpack, and set it on the door as she said, "Well, that should keep the planet going, at least a little longer." They all stepped back and covered their eyes as the detpack detonated, blowing the door open and blasting away everything blocking it on the other side. They all jumped out, bushing themselves off as they stood straight and turned to Barret.
"Alright, everybody! Meet up at the hideout! And take different routes. Don't be scared of that explosion, 'cause the next one'll be bigger than that! Now move out!" They all turned and left, each taking a different direction. Barret began to move off when Cloud stopped him. Barret turned, annoyed. "If this is about your money, save it 'til we're back at the hideout!" Then he marched off, going down a narrow street, headed for AVALANCHE headquarters. Cloud sighed and shook his head. He had wanted to get his pay and then leave. Oh, well, he thought. Guess I'll just have to meet up with them to get it.
He took an alleyway that none of the others had taken. He emerged from it into a plaza strewn with minimal rubble. The surrounding buildings had blocked most of the shockwave from the blast, so only minimal damage was done, physically anyway. There were people in the plaza, running around like headless chickens.
He saw a girl in a pink dress standing calmly, the only one not running around yelling about the apocalypse. She was just looking around, trying to understand why everyone was screaming their heads off. Her calm expression as she studied the rubble on the ground made Cloud study her a moment. She wore a bright pink dress that went down to her brown boots. She also wore a red denim jacket that was open in the front. Her hair was a soft brown, but not light. It curled down the side of her face, and was also drawn into a braid at the back of her head with a ribbon. Her eyes glowed green. Not the glow of Mako-infused SOLDIERs, but not quite normal, either. Cloud thought he recognized those eyes. Before he could try to remember, the eyes left his field of view. One of the headless chickens had run into her, knocking her to the ground. The man didn't even glance to see what he had hit, just kept running.
Cloud walked to the woman and helped her to her feet. He then saw a basket hanging from her arm. In the woven basket lay flowers, many of them, in various shades and hues, ranging from white and yellow to blue and purple. She dusted herself off. "Thanks. What happened?"
Barret had reminded them all, before the mission, that they should remain secret. Part of the mission objectives included not being captured, and not letting anybody know they were AVALANCHE. So, Cloud had to lie. "Nothing, really." He looked at the flowers again. He hadn't seen flowers for awhile. He definitely hadn't seen them in Midgar. They reminded him of his home, Nibelheim. Or, what was once his home. He pushed the memories away. The woman noticed Cloud's attention. She plucked one from her basket, and held it up. "Do you like them?"
Cloud followed the flower, then looked at her. "You don't see many of them around here."
She nodded sadly. "Yeah. They don't grow well in Midgar. Would you like one? They're only a gil?" She asked, and Cloud noticed the hopeful look she tried to conceal in her eyes. He stared at the flower. The memories of his home burned in his mind again, and Cloud tried to push them away again. He put the image of the flower in his mind, and the memories faded, replaced with a calm feeling. He looked back at the hopeful flower girl and nodded, pulling a coin from his pocket. He eyes gleamed with thanks and happiness as she traded the coin for the flower in her hand. He took the flower, safely tucking it away.
"Thanks," she said with a smile. "Most people here just don't seem to appreciate flowers anymore."
Cloud met her eyes, a slightly distant look on his face. "I'm not most people," he said, looking past her at nothing before starting off in the direction he'd been heading. The flower seller looked after him for a moment, then turned and headed out of the plaza, wondering why that man had seemed so familiar...
Cloud walked through an empty street on the edges of Sector 8. Soon he would get on the train that would take him to Sector 7, and the AVALANCHE headquarters. As he continued down the empty, narrow street, he got the feeling that he was being watched. The fact that the street was dead quiet wasn't helping matters. A glint caught his eye. He looked down a narrow alleyway, and saw nothing, just a small metal pipe, reflecting a street light. He was about to turn his attention back to the road in front of him when the pipe moved. Then he saw an arm resting under the pipe. He then caught a dull reflection of light in a darkened visor. It took only a split second to recognize it. It was a helmet for a Shin-Ra guard. Without warning he broke into a run. He fled down the street as fast as he could.
He reached an open spot, where the road converged with another, and an overhang marked the exit of a train tunnel. When he reached the open area he stopped, removing his Buster Sword as he saw guards cutting him off at all corners. He leapt at the nearest ones, cutting three down in one stroke. He turned, blocking a blow from the butt of another guard's gun. He leapt over the guard, cutting across as he landed. Two more guards went down. With a sweep kick, another fell. When he got back up, Cloud sheathed his sword, and punched the guard in the gut. He doubled over, but regained himself quickly enough to pull his sword. Cloud gave him a spinning kick in the face, and he went down, staying on the ground. Then he noticed quite a few guns were pointed in his direction from all sides. The lead soldier kicked Cloud in the chest, making him fall to the ground, closer to the overhang.
"No sense running. We've got you cornered," the guard said with arrogance.
Cloud felt a slight rumbling beneath him as he regained his feet. He heard the rattling of the tracks below him, and smiled inwardly. To his opponent he replied, "Not today!" Without warning, he spun on his heel and vaulted over the overhang, hoping he had timed it right. He had, for he landed on the roof of a train car as it sped out of the tunnel. Bullets bounced around him as the guards leaned over the railing, firing at him. He quickly ducked down the side of the car, and made his way to the rear of the train once the guards were out of sight.
Barret had gone down his route without incident. He reached the Sector 1 Rail Station with nothing amiss. He met up with AVALANCHE there, but the mercenary was nowhere to be found. When the train called for final boarding to Sector 7, Barret just sighed angrily. "Well, if he doesn't wanna show, then fine! He can't get paid if he doesn't meet us at the hideout! Let him find his own damn way back." With just one more angry glance behind him, he boarded the train after his teammates.
They seated themselves in the last car, which happened to be a storage compartment. There they could pass some of the journey without any chance of raising suspicion, until they reached the first checkpoint. Barret kept fuming, angered at the mercenary's nerve, putting pay before all else. The rest of the group just looked sullen, as though they had failed the mission. They were impressed by Cloud's abilities, and were worried that he hadn't made it, though none of them wouldn't say it aloud. So Biggs though of a happier topic.
"Hey, Barret. What about our money?" Barret slammed the crate next to him with such force and vehemence that they all flinched and shrank back.
Jessie opted to steer their thoughts away from money. "Do you think he made it?"
Barret glared at her, expressing vehemence equal to what his fist had shown moments before. "How the hell should I know?!" he yelled, making them flinch and turn away, absorbed in their own thoughts once again. A few times they heard thumps on the roof, and even a soft patter that sounded like rocks tumbling on the roof. When they heard a large thump right above them they all looked up. They didn't see anything, and heard nothing more, so they returned to their brooding.
A metallic screech and a gust of wind made everyone turn to the door. At first, it looked as though the door had opened on its own. Then a human form swung down into the car. It straightened, and the light caught his face. It was Cloud. He casually dusted himself off as Barret stepped up to him and exploded. "What's the matter with you! Gettin' us all worked up, then make a grand entrance like that?"
Cloud let a bemused expression show. "You mean you were worried about me?"
Barret blinked dumbly, then replied with his previous force. "I'm takin' that outta yer pay, hot stuff!"
When Cloud just shrugged, Barret simply turned and headed out of the car, signaling them to follow. They couldn't be in cars marked "Storage" when they reached the checkpoint. To Shin-Ra, that screamed stowaways. They filed out after him, until just Cloud and Jessie were left. Jessie shut the door, then turned to face Cloud. She wiped a cloth over his face, explaining, "Your face is covered in soot." Then she too left the car. Cloud followed in silence.
They all arrived at the Sector 7 Rail Station safely. They moved through the slums, heading for a bar named Seventh Heaven. The owner was Tifa Lockhart, Cloud's childhood friend from Nibelheim. He hadn't seen her for five years, until he ended up in Midgar as a mercenary looking for work. Tifa had told him about AVALANCHE, and convinced Barret to hire him for the raid on the reactor. She was part of AVALANCHE, though not in any official capacity. She tended the bar, and the bar served as the headquarters of AVALANCHE. It was one way to recruit potential AVALANCHE members. Biggs and Wedge had been hired that way. In a roundabout way, so had Cloud. He had stumbled into the bar after a long trip to Midgar on foot. He had ordered a drink, but had passed out before getting it. Barret's daughter, Marlene, thought he was dead, so she had called Tifa over. Tifa had recognized him at once, with his spiky blonde hair. She had dragged him to the bar's basement, which also served as housing for AVALANCHE, Marlene, and Tifa. It was after he woke up that they talked, and Tifa talked Cloud into joining AVALANCHE for the mission.
Barret entered the bar, and found it nearly empty. None of them were AVALANCHE, however, and he needed a meeting. He raised his gun-arm to the ceiling and fired a few shots. The occupants sobered up instantly, running out of the bar as if Barret was shooting directly at them. Barret then stood outside the bar and told his team that a meeting would start soon. He remained outside to prevent others from entering until the bar was closed. Cloud entered the bar, and at first saw no one. Then he heard a young voice cry out "Papa!" The voice's owner ran to him, but stopped as soon as she saw it wasn't her papa. It was a little girl, about four years old. She had short brown hair and wore a pink sleeveless dress and a white shirt underneath. It was Marlene. She stared at him with apprehension in her young face. She remembered him as the man she'd thought had died in the bar a few days ago. She knew nothing about him, except that he knew Tifa and he worked with Barret at the moment. Then another figure came out from behind the counter, wearing a short black skirt and a sleeveless white shirt, sporting long, dark hair. Tifa walked toward Cloud, a smile on her face. "So, you're back," she said simply before turning to Marlene.
"Have you said hello to Cloud yet, Marlene?"
Marlene looked at Tifa, then back to Cloud. She smiled like all shy kids do. "Hi, Cloud!"
Cloud smiled at the little girl, and her smile turned into a happy grin. Cloud picked out the flower he had bought from the flower girl, and handed it to Marlene. "Here you go. A pretty flower for a pretty little girl."
Marlene's grin became a squeal of delight as she took the flower and hugged it to herself. "Thanks, Cloud!" was all she had time to say before rushing off to find a vase to place it in.
Tifa watched her go, then turned to Cloud with a small smile. "Never pegged you as a kid person."
Cloud shrugged. "I didn't think I was, either, but I like her."
Barret chose that moment to step through the doorway. "That's a good thing, too. I don't like people who don't like Marlene. Why do you like her?"
Cloud shrugged again. "She seems smart. And she doesn't seem to be like the greedy obnoxious brats you seem to find everywhere else."
"Of course not," Barret said, "she's my kid! I don't raise no snobby brats! And she gets her smarts from me, too!"
Marlene came back after hearing Barret's voice, vase in hand. "Welcome home, papa!" she greeted as she jumped into Barret's outstretched arms. She showed him the vase, careful not to spill the water inside. "Look what Cloud brought me!"
Barret looked from Marlene to the flower, then turned to Cloud. But Cloud was already descending to the basement, so he turned back to Marlene. "I hope you thanked him." Marlene nodded vigorously, she liked pleasing Barret without being told what to do. He put her down, and she went behind the counter to find the perfect place for her flower to bloom as Barret followed her with his gaze. Maybe Cloud wasn't such a cold-hearted jackass like he claimed to be. Maybe he could be persuaded to care about the planet.
Cloud rose from his slumber stiffly, his joints and muscles complaining as they abandoned the positions they had held all night. Cloud was one of those people who slept without moving at all, and only the rise and fall of his chest as he breathed told you he was still alive.
He looked around the room, watching all the other occupants of the bar's basement, which doubled as a bedding area for AVALANCHE at night. Jessie and Tifa slept in one corner, away from the guys. Biggs and Wedge slept along the wall in another corner. Barret and Cloud took the remaining corners. Since Cloud was an early riser, the others were still asleep. Except for Tifa. Just looking at her, you really couldn't tell, but Cloud had known Tifa long enough to tell when she was sleeping or not. She, like him, usually slept completely still. At the moment one of her arms was hanging off her pallet, and it was moving back and forth ever so slightly. If you got close enough to see her eyes, they were half open, staring at the ceiling. Tifa always did this when thinking about something that had held her attention for most of the night. Cloud could guess what it was. Him and his tendency to disappear without notice.
He sighed gently to himself and got up, careful not to make a sound. He snuck into AVALANCHE's meeting room, the only other room in the basement. He gathered his equipment, wondering whether to take the morpher as well. No, he thought, it belongs to AVALANCHE. I'm not one of them, just a mercenary they hired for one mission. He set the morpher down with the others, and placed his morphing materia next to it. He put on his pauldron, and grabbed his Buster Sword, hefting it onto his back before stepping onto the pinball machine that served as the secret elevator between the bar and AVALANCHE's HQ.
TO BE CONTINUED...
Next time, on Final Fantasy: Advent Rangers: AVALANCHE plans its next mission, an assault on the Mako Reactor in Midgar's Sector 5. Will they succeed? Can they take down the mega corporation Shin-Ra? Find out next time on Final Fantasy: Advent Rangers!