Summary: This is not an in game status change. But it should be.
Several crashes, loud bangs, strange mechanical noises and the eardrum killing sound of tortured metal was what drove Avalanche out of their beds at the Gaia-forsaken hour just before dawn.
"Cid, what are you doing?!" Rubbing her eyes with one hand and trying to clutch her bathrobe closed over her impressive chest, Tifa glared at the pilot, backed up by the rest of the group none of who were amused by the early hour.
All of them recoiled slightly as the pilot looked up from the mechanical gadget he'd been hammering into submission on the kitchen table. Cid's eyes were huge and frantic, the pupils so dialated the normal blue colour was all but gone. Strange twitches of nervous energy made small muscles tick under his eyes and his hands were shaking badly as he held up the object he'd been working on for them to admire.
"The toaster! Improved it! Took too long! Far too long! Now mako-powered! With Ifrit! Guaranteed to burn your bread in two seconds! Huh?! Huh?!"
Avalanche collectivley tok a step back from the frantic man and the toaster which now looked like it was ready to laung its own missile defence system.
"This is my fault." A dark voice said next to the door where a morose Vincent Valentine had been lurking in the pre-shadows. Tifa and Cloud exchanged a look and a sigh and the martial arts fighter gently placed her hand on Vincent's arm.
"Vincent….you don't really have to take the blame for everything that happends in the world. Cid's obviously….in a bit of a state." She said delicatley as the pilot suddenly grabbed Nanaki and crammed something on his head that looked like the mustant bastard offspring between a Conquistador helmet and a television.
"New weapon! For you! Much better! Much better than combs! How the hell do you fight with combs anyway?!" Cid tried to light a cig but was shaking so bad he almost put his nose on fire instead.
"Mr. Highwind I can't see a thing." Nanaki whined under the weight of his new battle helmet. "And I think I'm getting in radiotransmissions from a local church station."
Vincent buried his face in his hands.
"My fault," he repeated with hanging head.
Not listening and unable to stand still for one second Cid bounced over to Cait and pushed a megaphone at the magic-mechanic critter.
"Try this!"
Frightened by the hysterical look in Cid's eyes, Cait raised the megaphone and whispered in it.
The effect was instantainous; all windows shattered as did all the glasses in the cupboard and Nanaki howled and fled, trying to cover his ears. Unfortunatelly, since he still had the battle helmet on and couldn't see, he knocked over Yuffie and Barret before managing to claw the helmet off and run off. The last they saw of him was the firey comet of his tail dissappearing in the distance.
"What did you do to him?" Yuffie hissed at Vincent as she jumped to her feet and nimbly dodged Cid's twitching hands grabbing for her own weapon. "Did you hit him with a Hyper or something?"
"No." Awkward, Vincent tried to explain. "You know how the chief always drinks tea?" He watched with exasperation as Cid tried to wrestle Barret's gunarm from him while the big man screamed and flailed and made a remarkable impression of a startled chocobo. "There is a reason for that." He switched position, gently and stiffly. "Of which I was not aware. So I gave him a cup of expresso last evening." Vincent sighed. "He's been like this since then."
"Since last evening?" Cloud frowned, wtaching Cid wrestle down the screaming Barret and start working on his arm. "But we only heard him this morning. What's he been up to all night?"
"Poor Vincent, you are feeling guilty again, aren't you?" Tifa patted him on the arm.
"Guilty enough that I wont be able to sit down today," Vincent muttered inaudible.
"What?"
"Nothing."
A/N: This is it. I almost quit last time due to the low respons I get here. If these three new updates to as poorly I'll just withdraw to my normal hunting grounds.