Chapter 3

Captain Hamasaki set course for Gaia on request from Cloud, he wanted to see his friends and explain where he'd been and while they were flying through space the heroes were given a tour of the ships facilities. They knew that the tower at the rear of the ship held the bridge and above that the captain's quarters, but they were also given a tour of the med bay, crew quarters, engineering deck, hanger, conference room and observation decks. The same emblem that Cloud had seen on the Council's tower was printed in various places around the ship, the black and white checkerboard with the reversed swords.

Whenever they passed crew members they saluted on queue every time and all seemed to efficient at their respective jobs. The heroes had met the ship's doctor, an old man with greying cropped hair and kindly expression. His name was Dr McNeill, and had served as a doctor for the military for most of his life. He animatedly told tales of how he had once been a combat medic and saved a group of soldiers' lives during a siege at an old outpost that had accidentally been found. He seemed melancholy when he finished the story. "Now, here I am. This'll be last voyage before I retire." He said, "After this I'll have to find a hobby to fill the time, maybe writing a book?"

A day or so passed before they reached Cloud's homeworld, Gaia, the heroes were called to the bridge. Sonic, Mario, Cloud and Sora entered the room and noticed the grim expression on Hamasaki's face. "You might want to see this." He said gesturing out the front window.

"Holy…" Cloud muttered

Floating above the planet's atmosphere, dozens and dozens of ShinRa battlecruisers waited in position. All Monster-Class vessels, they stood their ground, all wearing the ShinRa insignia proudly. Each vessel was an elongated craft cutting downwards at a 45 degree angle with eight large rockets on its rear and command bridge ascending from the back of the cruiser. Three hanger port openings could be seen on each side while the front of the spaceship and finally the front of the cruisers had a large convex plate which formed a point at the very tip.

"That's a lot of ships…" Mario said, dumbfounded.

"Yeah it is, you're lucky this thing has cloaking but I'm not taking this ship into that." Andrea replied, keeping an eye on the various monitors.

"So how do we get down there?" Sora asked.

The captain answered, "We have a small dropship in the hanger, we don't have a pilot for it though but from what I've been told you won't be needing one." He smiled at Sora.

Sora shrugged, "I should be able to, can't be that different from a Gummi ship."

In the hanger, they found a smaller transport shuttle. The same make as the one that Cloud had woken up in only a couple days ago. All four of the heroes climbed inside and Sora took the controls. He was like a boy possessed as his fingers naturally found the right controls as if they were greeting an old friend. Carefully, the shuttle rose from the ground as the hanger doors opened and with the young keyblade wielder at the helm they entered into the outside void.

There was very little that could compare to what they saw outside the windscreen of the carrier. The large ships of the ShinRa's fleet made them feel like they were flying a tin can in-between a school of iron monoliths. Despite being enemy vessels they were truly a sight to behold with their gleaming panels and ShinRa insignia's printed upon their sides. Oddly enough, the ShinRa logos lacked the traditional 'ShinRa Electric Power Company' title and instead kept the kanji writing centred. The heroes supposed it wouldn't be very threatening if they came down from the skies with 'Electric Power Company' plastered on their hulls. If anything it made the company sound like they were going to deliver a hefty power bill, which wasn't too far off the truth if Cloud's suspicions were right.

Eventually, they passed through the hovering fleet and descended through the atmosphere toward the planet's surface. Sora led the shuttle and dove through a thick stretch of clouds and out into the open skies of Gaia. As they hovered, Cloud looked around the landscape below to see where they were. Below he could see a large structure, like a massive tree of steel, sprouting from a large desert wasteland. The Gold Saucer. "We're in the Western Continent." Cloud said, "We need to travel east. You'll know Midgar when you see it."

Sora steered the ship eastwards and headed off. Hours passed as they travelled eastwards over grasslands and seas. The city of Junon passed under them, the city built into the cliff face and former site of the Sister Ray, it was ShinRa's former military capital. Soon enough they reached the Midgar Wastelands as Sora lowered their altitude to avoid detection from the ShinRa's HQ. Cloud advised Sora to park somewhere secluded in the wasteland. Touchdown was tricky, since according to the teen he'd never actually had to park before. The entire shuttle thudded as they touched the ground although Sonic was adamant they'd hit it.

Cloud opened the ship's hatch and stared out into the wasteland. He climbed down the ramp and looked towards Edge. Immediately he knew something was up. He could see ShinRa helicopters hovering above the city and in the distance he saw three of the eight mako reactors spewing smoke into the sky. Cloud thought Barrett was going to be 'heavily annoyed' when he saw this if not already. He signalled for his team-mates to come out and together they made for the city across the lonely wastes.

In Edge, it was just as Cloud had feared. During the time he was gone, ShinRa had put the city under lockdown. There were soldiers everywhere and ShinRa banners hung from rooftops all around the city. Cloud and his comrades, had to sneak down alleyways and past unsuspecting Infantrymen to get finally get to the back entrance of Seventh Heaven. Cloud took out his key, and unlocked the door. Slowly turning the handle not to alert any nearby soldiers and opened the door letting his new team in first before entering himself and locking it behind him.

"Tifa?" Cloud whispered, looking around the backroom, "Tifa, you here?" he continued.

Cloud started to make his way towards the kitchen when a door flew open and he received a punch directly to his chest. The man was knocked onto his back and tried to recover before his assailant was on top of him with her hands grabbing at his sleeveless polo. "Where the hell have you been?!" she cried, "We all thought you'd been captured, or worse!"

Cloud could see the anger in her eyes. One step wrong and she'd kick him into next week without warning. "Sorry, Tifa. Turns out you were right about that last minute pickup. I'll try and let contact you sooner next time."

The mix of anger and annoyance left her eyes as she got off of him while he made his own way off of the floor. "So who are your new friends?" she asked.

"They're my new teammates. That's Sora, Mario and Sonic." He introduced pointing at them respectively.

"I'm Tifa," she said politely, "I own the bar and I've known Cloud since we were kids."

"Sorry we don't have time to stay and chat," Sonic said, "but we're kind of on a mission right now."

"He's right," Cloud continued, "But Tifa, what happened here?"

Tifa turned to Cloud, her expression serious, "You'd better come through. There's a lot to explain" She said.

She led the group through the main dining area, the four heroes at the bar while Tifa poured a few drinks. "It all started shortly after you disappeared, Cloud." She explained, "The soldiers from Midgar all came down into Edge and started taking over. Their trucks and helicopters flooded the town and began enforcing the law. They even set up a mandatory curfew."

"Sounds like they don't want AVALANCHE reforming, or a similar group forming." Cloud mused.

She placed the drinks down in front of the four and continued her story, "And on the TV, President ShinRa appeared. Rufus' father is alive, Cloud. I don't know how but we saw his body didn't we? We saw him impaled at ShinRa Tower five years ago; I wouldn't forget a scene like that."

Cloud managed to sip his drink before looking up at his friend, "He did die that night. But apparently, Rufus brought him back. He's also working with some new friends but we don't know what they're after or why." Cloud said, although he'd tried to come up with some theories during the trip but all he could think of was total domination which seemed unlike the ShinRa Company.

"What kind of friends?"

"I can't really say right now. Have you heard from the others?"

Tifa thought about it for a moment, before remembering something, "Yes, I did hear from Barrett. He called to check on Marlene and began ranting on how they've started up the old reactors again."

"Wait, you mean those smoking towers we saw in the city?" Mario asked.

Tifa nodded, "They said they were renovating them, clearing out all the old Mako Reactor technology. Yet a couple days ago smoke started to rise from Midgar and when I went to look I saw the smoke rising from three of the reactors."

The delivery man rubbed his chin, "I suppose that means SOLDIER will be started up again. Wonderful." He sounded as like all his SOLDIER experiences had come back all at once.

"Cloud, if you're going after to ShinRa. You can't go after him here. Even Barrett is convinced there's no way of getting inside that building and that's coming from a man who, the first time around, said we should crash through the atrium guns blazing." Tifa said pleading.

"We did it with Deepground, why not now?" Cloud asked.

Tifa looked at him like he'd said the stupidest thing imaginable, "When we fought Deepground, we had the WRO on our side. Reeve lost his a substantial amount of his forces when ShinRa started up their army again. Many of his soldiers were former ShinRa infantry and SOLDIER operatives; they also lost a load of their airships as well. Cid was ranting about them and I think the kids learned some new phrases."

"Damn. Well guys? Any suggestions?"

"Hm… I might have an idea about where we can go. I'll tell you when we get back to the ship." Mario pondered, unsure.

"Well it looks like we got ourselves a new destination, time to jet guys." Sonic said jumping off the stool.

The swordsman downed the last of his drink and stood up, "Alright, we're off then."

Tifa came around from behind the bar, "I don't know what this is about a ship, and an organisation and this syndicate but before you leave would you at least talk to Denzel and Marlene. They've been worried too."

He nodded, "Okay," he turned to his friends, "Wait in the backroom for me, I'll be there in a moment."

Cloud ascended the stairs in a doorway off from the bar to the first floor of Seventh Heaven. He made his way up another short flight of stairs to the kids' room. Inside the two children meet him with both shocked and relived expressions. "Cloud, where did you go?" asked Marlene. The little girl wore a sleeveless light grey turtleneck and a light brown skirt with a pink bow in her hair.

"I had some unexpected business to take care of. In fact I still have some business to take care of; I'm just about to leave now." He replied, kneeling down to meet them.

"What kind of business?" Asked Denzel. He was slightly older than Marlene and wore a grey jacket and light grey tee with dark grey trousers.

"The kind that'll deal with whatever's going on outside. I might be gone a while so listen: Stay indoors and look after each other and Tifa. I don't know what the ShinRa are doing, but I'm gonna make sure they don't get away with it." Both children nodded as Cloud got up, "Alright, I'm off. I'll be back as soon as I can."

"We'll be waiting Cloud." Denzel said as the swordsman left.

His three other companions were waiting in the backroom when Cloud returned. He unlocked the door and led them back out into the backstreets and alleyways of Edge and back to the hidden shuttle. Inside, sat down on the seats as Sora prepared the ship for takeoff. "You gonna be okay leaving them in that place Cloud?" asked Mario twilring his thumbs, "With that many ShinRa about, we should've gotten them out of there."

"I wouldn't worry about them, Mario." Cloud replied, "Tifa's strong enough to protect them and she's smart enough to get out of Edge if anything goes wrong. They'll be just fine."

"If you're sure then, I'll trust you." Mario said, entering his own little world.

The ship then began to elevate again as Sora started to pilot it upwards once more into the atmosphere and past the ShinRa battlecrusiers in orbit. The journey coming out was just as nerve wrecking as it was going in. While they weren't being detected the heroes almost expected to get a radio message asking them to cease and desist or surrender and die. Cloud was almost certain ShinRa wasn't going to give them a chance to live if they were caught.

After nearly knocking into the side of a cruiser marked 'Guard Hound' thanks to Sora's 'evasive maneuverer' to dodge a patrolling ShinRa fighter, the shuttle found its way back to the Vir Fortis. Captain Hamasaki was there to greet them, "Any good news?" He asked as they exited the shuttle.

Cloud shook his head, "My friends are okay, but the company has started taking control of the planet. Again."

"Yeah, Tifa mentioned something about Mako reactors. What is mako exactly?" Sonic asked as they walked through the hanger towards a stairwell.

"I'm probably not the best to explain this," Cloud replied, "But Mako is energy that ShinRa extract from the lifestream, the planets life force. They use to power machines and create their super soldiers." They entered into the bridge with its large holographic display dominated the centre of the room showing the universe with all the individual galaxies and sectors mapped out. "The problem with Mako is that while ShinRa use their reactors, the world dies around it. It's the reason the entire area around Edge and Midgar is a dead wasteland. Their reactors sucked out so much life that it's nearly impossible for anything to grow."

"Well that sounds like amazing stuff." Sonic rolled his eyes.

"It's even better when you get Mako poisoning." Cloud half smiled

The captain chuckled, "Well then, where to next. I don't think I need to remind you all that we're on a tight schedule."

"Well let's see. I think we ought to try going to our homeworlds." Sora suggested, "ShinRa Tower might heavily defended, so maybe there's something we can do at one our homes." He gestured around to Mario and Sonic.

"It's an idea, and the only one we have. Captain, can you show us the others worlds?" Cloud asked.

"Aye," he entered some commands into the holographic display and three tiny red dots lit up across the map within the blue and green bands of faint clouds that shimmered in the air. "Okay," the captain said, nervously looking back at the fleet outside the ship "Erm…Andrea d'you think you could move us further away from those ShinRa ships."

She nodded and began to shift the heroes' ship further out in the void, being careful not to alert the company's battleships that they were there. Sighing in relief Hamasaki continued. "We're here." He pointed at Gaia on the map which came up blue. "As of right now, the closest world we have is"

"The Mushroom Kingdom." Mario finished. The happy light had gone out of his eyes, and is replaced by concern.

"Aye. I, eh, I suspect we may run into the kind of a resistance above the worlds surface as we did here so you may have to descent in the shuttle again." There was nervousness in his voice that Cloud seemed surprised to hear but didn't mention it.

Instead, Cloud caught the other heroes' eyes and nodded slightly towards the captain, they returned with confused expressions. "Then we'd better get moving, Andrea," Cloud began, but was cut off by the pilot.

"I'm Already on it. Course plotted, engines engaged, ETA is another two to three days using full hyper mode." She barely looked up from the control panels as she answered.

"Erm, good. Well done." Cloud said a little surprised at the speed Andrea operated. He figured it was enough to outdo or interest Cid. Maybe even both. He smiled at the thought of Cid being overly impressed while Shera stood behind him with arms folded and an annoyed expression.

"I suppose we'll have to get some rest then." Mario said, "Gotta make sure we're ready."

Sora yawned, "True. I am bushed."

Cloud looked around at them. "We barely did anything. I've had to fight monsters, hike over mountains and endure harsh weather conditions before me and my friends were allowed a nights rest."

"Perks of travelling on an interstellar ship, Cloud?" Hamasaki offered.

"No shit." Cloud replied, clearly exasperated.

42 sat alone in the cell. His hands and forearms encased in two cylindrical casings to prevent the use of his newfound abilities. During his time in the laboratory, 42 had become Hojo's favourite test subject. They'd given him injections and surgeries all the while training his body and mind to withstand the experiments. Truth was the scientists were scared of him. They all were aside from Professor Hojo who took so much joy in crafting his abilities. Superhuman is what they called him. A monster is what he preferred since none of his abilities were in any way 'human'; Insane strength, speed, agility and endurance. As well as an advanced healing factor. 'Immortality at its finest' as it was described by the mad doctor. His body had stopped aging apparently not that you could tell. Given ten or twenty years and maybe he'd have looked immortal but not when he was 26. 42 wished they'd given him a clock or something, would've been nice to know the time. That changed when Professor Hojo walked in. "Good evening, 42." Hojo said, his high nasally voice echoing through the lab.

Professor Hojo was a thin man with long black hair tied into a loose ponytail at the back as well as having a circular pair of glasses sat at the end of his nose. He wore a standard lab coat and white shirt with a lavender tie and charcoal slacks. On the outside he was every inch a scientist but in was a little known fact that while Hojo was brilliant in what he could do, he was also genuinely mad. Rumour was that his insanity was the reason President ShinRa let him continue his work for the company. Something about mad scientists being the best scientists. In his experience, 42 couldn't really disagree. He'd seen brilliant and talented men of science go absolutely insane before and their work was still breath taking or in certain cases, life taking.

"Is it? I can't tell since you never let me see outside much." 42 replied. He had a British accent, calm and collected.

"I wouldn't worry about that much, soon you'll be put to work for the ShinRa Corporation and we'll be able to produce more of your kind."

"My kind? You mean monsters?"

"No, my boy, I mean immortal super soldiers. Speaking from a scientific point of view, you are incredible. You're only the second one of your kind albeit with some improvements. Normally, immortality comes with a high price but you my dear subject have gotten it easily."

42 laughed dryly, "Easily? Tch, you weren't the one who was experimented on mate. I'd like to see you go through those surgeries of yours and see if they're 'easy'."

"Ha! Incredible you may be, but you're still headstrong fighter like most soldiers I have the displeasure of dealing with."

The subject picked himself up off the floor. "And that's the difference, professor. I'm not a soldier; I am... was a normal person with a life before your soldiers turned up and brought me here."

"I did hear about that little scuffle. Despite claiming not to be a soldier, you took out twenty of them out before you were detained. That's quite good for a 'civilian'."

"I had decent martial arts training. Never can tell who'll jump you in the middle of the night."

"Sure you did. Not that it matters now. You're ShinRa property now, 42 and that's that. There's one more test we have for you before we ship you out in a few days to our SOLDIER facility." He clicked his fingers and two infantrymen appeared through the doorway. "Escort our dear specimen here to the Mako tanks. It's about time for his bath."

"Ah, wonderful." 42 said as he was led out of the cell, "So which one of you two will be scrubbing my back?" he was hit over the head.

"Humph, little upstart." Hojo snapped.

The days passed by as the Vir Fortis cruised through space towards its destination. All the while the anticipation kept building. Not a one of them knew what they were in for other. King Bowser's 'troopas' as Mario had called them were apparently not much of a threat but the king himself was a ferocious fire breathing beast according to the plumber. He'd explained that there had been many times when he didn't think he would make it out alive despite the turtle's repetitive plans.

In the conference room outside of the combat centre, all the heroes and Captain Hamasaki met. "We're about an hour away from the world, what's our plan?" Sora asked.

"We gotta check the Toadstool Castle first, that's where Bowser would've attacked first. He's always had a thing for Princess Peach. He's never explained why."

"Anything else there other than the castle?" Cloud questioned, trying to visualise the area in his head.

Mario nodded, "There's a small town and my home. We should be able to find my brother…but…"

"But?"

"Well…he's kind of a coward. There have been one or two times he's actually been brave but mostly he screams."

They all exchanged looks of concern while Cloud pinched the bridge of his nose. "Help is help, I guess no matter where it comes from."

Over the next hour they discussed plans and methods. Trying to figure out if the town is covered in Infantrymen and Koopas, could they infiltrate here, or could they sneak through here? Mario had drawn up a very crude map of the area. The sea was out to the east, while the castle sat upon a hill overlooking the bay. A maze of squares dotted the area around a large circle which the plumber said was a fountain, while the rectangles covered the beach area. Again, Mario claimed it was a marina. "My home is about two minutes out from the town." Mario explained.

"Those hills should give you a decent vantage point," Hamasaki pointed at the areas surrounding the squares labelled 'hills'.

Mario nodded in agreement, "Those hills give a great view of the town especially the main square. The only problem will be the castle. Peach only has one entrance and that's through the front doors, well there are two but the other means diving into the moat and I'm not sure we can hold our breath that long."

"This'll be tough. It'd be nice to know what kind of defences this Bowser might've set up but all we have to go on is Mario's word. No offense but I'd like to know more." Sonic shrugged.

"I'm sure Bowser would've left the town alone. For some reason he only ever goes after Peach and takes her back to his castle. Gets kind of repetitive really." Mario stared off into the middle distance for a moment before returning to reality, "Either way, any chance of him taking over the town is low but still…there is a chance."

"I guess we'll see soon enough." Sora said, rubbing his chin.

"There was…one more point I wanted to bring up." Cloud began tentatively, it wasn't a subject he was going to enjoy talking about but it was something that needed to be clear. "Have you ever killed someone before?"

Silence. No-one spoke and all that could be heard was the Vir Forits's gentle hum. Shock was etched onto Sora, Mario and Sonic's faces as if they couldn't believe what they'd heard. Moments passed, before Sonic finally broke the silence, "Kill? I couldn't" he stopped himself, unable to bring himself to say it.

The looks from the other two heroes told Cloud everything he needed to know. None of them were prepared to take lives. It was only him, and even then he only did it out of habit. Not that he went around killing for pleasure, but if his life had taught him anything it was make sure the enemy stays down, even if they return from the Lifestream using remnants. It wasn't something Cloud took joy in. "Fine then. I only wanted to bring it up to see your reactions. I'm a little worried about taking on the Infantrymen and SOLDIER's. They'll kill you without a second thought, I wondered if you could do the same."

"We won't." Sora said simply. "We won't kill them, we just make them hurt so bad they can't get up. We'll be better, we'll be heroes. Not cold-blooded killers like them." There was a fierce determination in Sora's eyes that Cloud couldn't help but respect. He looked at the hedgehog and the plumber. Both of them gave him the same determined look. A thin smile formed on his lips.

"Okay then. Get some rest; we'll probably be arriving soon." Cloud said, "And when we do, we'll show the syndicate what we can really do."

A/N - This is the longest chapter I've ever written. Seriously, this went through some serious re-writes and even still there are a few sections that make me wonder if I could have done better. Also the introduction of 42, the namesake of the account. How egotistical I feel right now. In all seriousness though, while his character does seem a bit OP I think I have a decent enough weakness for him lined up.

Also the scene about killing at the end, I thought was a necessary thing. Cloud is the only character in that team to have killed people which is a hell of a contrast to Mario or Sonic. Maybe the scene could've lasted longer but I didn't want to drag it out although pacing is an issue I think. Or lack thereof.

Either way hope you at least enjoy this.