Final Fantasy: A Look Of Great Stupidity

Cloud Strife, spiky golden hair and looks that could melt butter, stood glaring in the Shinra company at two Shinra Guards (lowest members of the Shinra company AKA the bad guys) attempts to capture him.

Cloud had taken a stance ready to defend himself from the Shinra Guards, the first guard ran towards Cloud throwing a combination of punches and kicks, unluckily for the guard Cloud had years of training and block all the blows easily and countered with a powerful round-house kick to the face at lightning speed, a loud crack signalled the breaking of the jaw, the guard was blown towards the wall and knocked unconscious, Cloud shot an evil grin towards the second guard which made him shake with fear, the guard took a step back but Cloud wasn't having any of it and charged at the frightened guard and punched him unconscious with a single not to mention powerful blow to the gut not before hearing him crying in intense pain.

Cloud stood breathing hard staring at the two unconscious bodies around him; he closed his eyes to think, "where did I go wrong..."

7 Years Ago...

In the south east of Shia (a term we know as 'Earth'), a large city next to mountains and rivers, that provides power and food, lived the beginning of a big crisis.

Little Cloud aged 10 was playing sword fighting with his friends Toby (short and fat), Borg (tall and thin) and Kea (built and strong but a bit stupid) in the play area near his house (while a girl, who was next door neighbours to Cloud, sat smiling at Cloud all the time he played), two SOLDIER's sneaking into an ally close by Cloud's house caught Cloud's adventurous eyes.

Cloud who was always looking for an adventure followed them while his scared little friends followed behind him (followed by the unknown girl); he finally came to a stop outside the bank in town and saw them capture a villain who was holding hostages inside, from that day as he saw how heroic the SOLDIER's were, Cloud wanted to become a SOLDIER, the beginning of a big mistake.

His friends laughed at him when he told them the news (the girl had disappeared home) because the Shinra registering building was in another far away town called Shigaia, Cloud didn't care, even though he didn't have a lot of money to travel that far (north-west).

As Cloud grew up he grew stronger and stronger, training everyday in hope to join SOLDIER (the strange girl moved away to another town on Clouds 15th birthday, the same day his parents passed away in an accidental fire). By Clouds 17th birthday he gather up his entire life's savings and the money left by his parents, went and travelled to sign up to Shinra in hope of joining SOLDIER, his childhood dream.

Cloud's dream of becoming a SOLDIER flooded his mind, only to be told that he wasn't strong enough to be a SOLDIER and was only enough to become a Shinra guard (a lowly guard that only patrols streets and bullying the weak).

All his training was for nothing and after a couple of months as a Shinra guard he decided to make money by taking on any job suitable to him, so Cloud decided to resign as a Shinra guard. On Cloud's day of resignation, new crew arrived, Cloud felt a strange chill as the leader of the crew shot a look at him then walked past, Cloud turned to look who it was but they were already on the lift going up to the president of Shinra's office. Cloud thought to himself about the people he just saw, especially the leader of the group, as he looked quite familiar, this was giving Cloud a headache so he decided to forget about it.

As Cloud left the Shinra building he over-heard two Shinra guards talking about the group of people that just entered the building, he wanted to hear more, when he heard a loud explosion coming from a nearby subway tunnel, and as always Cloud went to check it out. Arriving on the scene of the explosion he saw, what looked like a shadow of a giant robot with wings, the machine started to fly away, so Cloud chased after it but was then stopped by one of the Shinra guards.

Cloud was pulled into a large empty room close by and locked in where big, strong looking men sat behind a large pine wood table and questioned Cloud, "what did you just see?" shouted the guard slowly but loudly, Cloud knew he would be killed if he saw anything classified by the Shinra co-operation, so he said that he saw a shadow of a giant robot with wings, Cloud paused to think about the answer he just gave, then without thinking he gave the guard a look of great stupidity, the guard paused for a moment thinking of Clouds answer and the stupid look on his face, after a few minutes of thinking (and looking) the guard called in some of the other Shinra Guards patrolling the area after unlocking then shutting and locking the door when the other guards came in.

The guards surrounded Cloud, clicking their knuckles and giving Cloud an evil look. There must have been about twenty or thirty of them, each of them with muscles as big as bulldozers. Clouds knew his days were numbered, but luckily for the years of training he managed to just barely single handily handle the big Shinra guards. The fight was just what Cloud needed to get all the anger out of him for not getting into SOLDIER.

Cloud stood still looking at the many beaten bodies on the cold hard floor and the shattered table in which he continuously smashed a guard through, but unluckily for Cloud the silence was soon broken as more bigger guards came busting through the door towards him, blowing their whistles signalling for more Shinra Guards to come, it appears that his previous fight was too loud and raised suspicion.

Cloud stood tired, breathless and outnumbered by the many approaching guards. Clicking his knuckles, he knew what he had to do.

Laid face down on the cold-ruffed floor was a severely beaten Cloud, blood oozed out of his cuts and nose, laying perfectly still, making sure the guards were looking the other way, Cloud took out a packet of ketchup which he took as a souvenir working as a Shinra guard, smudged the contents of the packed on his throat to fake his death before hiding the empty packet in his pocket.

The leader of the big guards kicked Cloud to see if he was still alive and then turned him over on to his back; he saw the fake blood on his neck and came to the conclusion that he must have died of all the beating or committed a miracle suicide as there were no sharp objects around apart from little pieces of wood on the floor from the shattered table, but the pieces were so small that it could hardly cut anything let alone pick up. The guards exchanged looks, and thought, he must have had small hands to pick up a tiny piece of wood, they all laughed then glanced at Clouds hands, which were twice as large as any of theirs. Coming up with each of their own idea of how Cloud (who was getting impatient waiting) committed suicide they all came to the idea of discarding the body into the ocean.

The cold ocean water washed over Clouds face making him wide-awake as the speeding helicopter overhead sped away, Cloud escaped death, but in his condition now, it was no worse than death. Floating in the ocean, Cloud waited for death to come for him, looking under the dark ocean water below him, he could just make out a great white shark below him, taunting him as it were his final day, if Cloud squinted his eyes long enough he could just make out a dead corpse swimming motionless, his eyes must be playing tricks through all the beating and the waves of the ocean water rushing over his face trying to pull him down.

Cloud looked around in hope to see ships or planes come by, looking over his left shoulder he saw nothing but ocean, to his right he too saw ocean. It was hopeless, to his front came a big wave, than out of the blue, Cloud could see some sort of help coming towards him, a sort of fish splashing its way towards Cloud. Cloud tried hard to see what was coming towards him. As the fish came into focus he realised that the fish was no ordinary fish, but more like a sea serpent.

It was big and scaly, the colour of ocean blue with hints of green around the head, the serpent was getting closer and closer by the second, Cloud didn't know what to do, he could either swim to safety away from the beast or just wait for it to come, Cloud chose the best option of the two, he waited with crossed arms.

The serpent was now face to face with cloud; its big ugly face rose out of the ocean, took one glance at Cloud and died. The serpents body floated in front of a very confused Cloud, the magical creature's scales reflected the midday sun causing Cloud to squint his eyes. Floating for almost a whole minute, Clouds stomach gave out a loud grumble, Cloud was hungry and tired, the beast in front of him suddenly looked tasty. Cloud poked the dead body to make sure it was truly dead and not just teasing him, a movement of an eye confirmed that the beast was not dead.

After squeezing the body to make sure it was soft, Cloud dug in (which made the serpent scream in pain then died). The outer layer of the beast was sour but surprisingly soft and tender; going in deeper the inner layer of the beast was rock solid so Cloud left that area alone. After Cloud had finished his feast he noticed that the remains of the fish stared to glow violently, stunned, Cloud started to move away from the remains, the pieces started to mysteriously float, flashing green and blue, then with a wink of an eye the pieces vanished.

Cloud blinked in confusion then went back to reality; he was now no longer hungry but he was still gonna die if no help came soon.