37
It's a Material world
Time: Ten minutes later
Place: Costa Del Sol
Susan stepped from the Highwind onto the sandy beach of Costa Del Sol and fell in love.
With all the scantly clad women splashing around in tiny bathing suits.
In reality, she did fall in love, with the place. They had chosen it because it was near to Corel, where they had dropped off Barret, and Yuffie said she knew the owner of the Materia shop. She had worked there some time ago, the first time they had come to the town. Figuring they might get a better answer from an acquaintance, Susan agreed, and Cid had parked the Highwind and told them to go ahead. He was going to stay with the ship and look it over, make sure everything was in place. Arm in arm, the two girls nearly ran to the beach, taking in the sights.
It was sunny, warm, sandy, kids were playing, people were having fun... "This is more like it!" she exclaimed. "Forget ice and snow, why can't Sephiroth come here so we can beat him and work on our tans at the same time?"
"Yeah, he's so inconsiderate," agreed Yuffie. "Come on, Materia shop is over there."
She pointed to a man standing behind a table, parked next to a yellow van. There was a blue and white striped awning keeping the sun off him, and he was totally not dressed for the weather. Of course, he was balding, pudgy, and sweating, and nobody wants to see any more of that than they have to.
"Good day, sir!" she said brightly, stepping up to the man.
"Hello, miss. How can I help you today?"
"I wish to purchase some Materia, and I'm looking to spend a bit of money."
Even as she spoke, the amount of Gil the party had available was going up. With two groups currently wandering the world in search of monsters to kill, and killing said monsters, their money and item totals were steadily being raised.
"Take a look at what I have," said the man, bringing out a long wooden case with a glass panel in the top. Inside she could see six Green Materia and each was labeled. "Fire, Ice, Lighting, Earth, Gravity, Poison." "You don't even have to spend a lot, they're current industry pricing for this type."
"Ah, yes, so I see." Each little card had the price next to it, from 600 to 8000 Gil for the Gravity one. "But I think you don't properly take my meaning. I'm looking to spend a bit more than even that." She pointed to the most expensive one and winked conspiratorially.
"Uh, I'm still not sure what you mean, I'm afraid."
"I mean I want your premium stuff. The stuff for the most discerning customers. The stuff in the back room. The hush-hush stuff. Stop me any time."
"This is my entire current stock, there is no more."
"That always bothered me," said Yuffie, stepping up. "Even when I was working here. He's telling the truth. He can sell you a hundred Fire Materia but not a single Steal Materia. Why is that?"
"I sell what I sell, there's no conspiracy behind it," he said with a forced laugh.
"Come now, you buy Materia as well, don't you?" asked Yuffie.
"You know we do."
"So where does it go? Are you telling me not a single person in the last month has sold you a Materia that's had some growth? You pay enough for them, I figure you would want to resell them and double your money. That is how the industry works, right? You buy at half cost, sell at full cost? We want to see those, so get them out! You must have one! Or other magic apart from this junk we already have tons of!" She waved a hand dismissively.
"I... only sell what you see before you! I guess it's just bad luck you've come when I don't have anything else." The man seemed clearly agitated now, eyes darting about and mopping his brow. "Yes, bad luck, nothing else."
"I don't buy it," said Yuffie, turning to Susan. "I've never thought about it before, but every store in every town we've ever visited only sells a couple of different Materia. And they always have exactly zero AP. You would think you would get them in all ranges, as people buy and sell them. I mean we're willing to pay more for one we don't have to raise as far, but apparently we can't buy anything like that? Even if we're willing to spend more. Because ones sold in shops always start at zero. Can you tell me why that is, Mr. Shopkeeper?"
The man gave a quick shake of his head and took a step backwards, almost seeming terrified now. "Please, I can't say more. If I don't have what you want I'm sorry, but that's the end of it. Now please go away!"
"Very well," said Susan, with a shake of her head. "We just want to give you money, but if you can't take it..."
Both girls turned and walked away, but Sparkle stayed a moment more, looking up at the man. When the two were a fair distance away he dashed into his van and started punching numbers into his phone, which he nearly dropped several times because his hands were shaking so badly.
Curious, thought Sparkle, turning and padding after Susan. Very curious.
The pair checked out the other shops (including the rather depressed looking fellow selling armor inside the bar, of all places) and went down the steps to check out the beach.
"We really should get going," said Susan. "We can enjoy this place when the planet is safe."
"I know," sighed Yuffie. "I didn't get to be the number one ninja by slacking off." Susan didn't need Detect Lies to tell that neither part of that statement might not exactly be the truth. "When do I get to slack off?"
"When you're eighty?"
"How will I enjoy it then, I'll be too old to enjoy it!"
"I wish I knew, Yuffie. Come on."
They boarded the Highwind again, to find Cid examining the control panel.
"You weren't gone long!"
"Not for lack of trying. Hey, have you ever seen a shop that sold anything but zero AP Materia?" asked Susan.
Cid scratched his head. "Now that you mention it, probably not. Never thought about it before, really."
"No, and the man behind the counter seemed very upset that we did. Well, can we get in the air again?"
"Sure, we're already ready for takeoff. Where to now, ladies?"
"Yeah, we checked the easy one, now what about the less than easy one?" asked Yuffie.
Susan flashed a smile. "I can afford to be a bit wasteful with my energy, now that we're not getting into a million combats. I'm going up on deck, just fly to sites that are isolated and look like good spots for Materia to have grown. Hardened? Coalesced? Whatever it is that Lifestream does to make this stuff."
"That's easy enough, but what are you going to be doing?"
"Me?" Susan tried to look innocent. "Cheating, of course."
Susan had Sparkle put Energetic Accumulation on her, then gathered 30 energy. This left her with little more than half, but like she said, it wasn't too much of a concern. That done, she used the entire shot on Augment Skill: Spirit Sense, grating her a total rating of 38. This gave her a range on making Spirit Sense checks from thirty nine to forty eight. As a check of 30 was considered "nearly impossible" she felt she was in good shape. She requested the magic until their hunt for Materia was over for the day, and sat on the deck, feeling the energy of the world flow beneath her.
And so flew the Highwind. Cid checked his maps, hovering the ship over mountains, valleys, islands, and plains. With her energy senses far in access of any human before her, she could feel even the black energy of the Northern Crater, thousands of miles away from it. She found she could point to it with her eyes closed no matter where they were. She could feel lines of energy encircling the world, and in those remote places where there was no life- a tiny spark. For one she had to slip into the water and do a bit of swimming, as the Highwind couldn't land directly near the island where she felt the spark. She climbed up on the beach and headed inside, pulling a Blue Materia out for her own.
For the second she had to fly, the cave where she felt the spark was inaccessible as it was surrounded by mountains and water. So as the Highwind hovered above, she dropped out of the sky and pulled a Yellow Materia from the ground.
And for the third she swam a small river, to another cave surrounded by desert on one side, and high mountains on the other. From there she pulled a Pink Materia, and fairly shoved it into the waiting hands of Yuffie to get rid of it.
"Careful, they can break you know!" she chided, looking it over.
"Sorry, but that one I must never, ever touch again."
"Why? Oh, it seems to switch your MP and your HP. That's... odd."
"You're telling me. I don't have MP, so I have no clue what it would do. Maybe kill me?"
"Oh my gosh, you're right. It just might. Okay, into inventory it goes. How do we decide who gets the other two?" She pulled them out and seemed to balance them between her hands.
"Yellow is best for me, actually, and that one seems particularly suited for me," said Susan, taking it. "If I'm understanding this correctly, whatever someone last did near me, the user of this does that again? I could actually contribute a little more to combat, if I used it right after someone used your kind of magic."
"True." She sighed. "And I suppose Vincent will want this one. Imagine using his Lightning combo four times in row!"
"Imagine doing it eight times, if I Mimic it!"
"Oh yeah, you're right. Nice."
"Of course I think he would have to give up his linked All, because it won't hit all enemies four times. I guess for bosses though, it can't be beat."
"You got that right."
"So are we done for today, ladies?" asked Cid. "It's been hours, the others will want to eat soon, and while we've been racing across the globe, we will need to rest soon. We can make the sun be in the sky wherever we want, but we still have to sleep."
"True. Very well. Captain, let us away to find our companions, and hear the valiant tales of their bravery this day!"
Yuffie laughed. "And don't forget, they will need to hear our story as well, faithful companion!"
"Indeed, faithful companion!"
"To wing!" she shouted, pointing.
"Yeah, yeah, I get it."
So the Highwind picked up both groups, Vincent's group first. He was indeed quite pleased with the new acquisition. "In fact, I may use it all the time," he said, seeming to weigh his options. "We don't run into very large groups very often, where All is best suited. If I can cast once, get MP, HP, and Attack four times per casting... no sorry, that would be one regular attack at the end. Still... having four chances to get MP/HP back? I'm sold. Thanks." He slipped in into his armor and went to settle in while the Highwind traveled to Corel.
"Glad it can help. And Aerith seems quite pleased with herself. Did this little kitty catch a canary?"
"Even better. Vincent loaned me his shotgun. I might give up attacking with the staff and switch to guns."
"Can't beat a shotgun!" Vincent called behind him.
"What's wrong with the staff?" asked Yuffie. "Bonk! I love that sound it makes when you hit something, Aerith. Bonk!"
"That's just it. Take a look at the staff I've been using."
"Okay?" She got it out and looked it over. "Good number of linked slots on this..."
"Sure, but the attack is hardly above fifty. Vincent's Lariat does twelve more, and I have a better chance of hitting with it!"
"That's true. Doesn't the staff raise your Spirit and Vitality?"
"Like that matters."
"Yeah, what do those stats even do, anyway?"
The others shrugged.
"In any case," she said, taking the staff back. "I can also attack from the back row, keeping me safer. It's just a smart move."
"I approve," said Susan. "If you can handle the shotgun, do it. Wait, different staves have different attack? Okay, Sparkle, explain that one. One staff can't be sharper then another, they're all blunt weapons!"
"Weights in the top? I don't know."
"Uh huh. Damage dealing is weird wherever you go, I guess. Shall we head to Corel?"
The group found a small celebration going, centered around Barret.
"Good day, Barret?" Susan asked, looking around the town. Booze seemed to feature predominately.
"Very good!" he exclaimed. "I got the you-know-what, and saved the whole dang town in the process. See that train over there?"
Susan looked, and there were the remains of a train, lying on its side, close to the tracks. "I see it."
"Didn't quite know how to slow it down, so I threw a bunch of grenades under it and blew it off the track. How about that?"
"Good thinking. Dangerous, but good thinking. Or do you people not take damage from falls? Anyway, we're here to pick you up, and we have news! Unless you want to stay the night?"
"Nah, too much celebrating isn't good for you. I'm leaving, everybody! Off to save some more towns, you know?" The people around cheered and toasted him, and the full group was back together.
Susan told them what she had been told by the shopkeeper, and everyone agreed it was probably worth looking into. Sometime, when things weren't so messed up with the world, of course.
With that done, they ate, and Susan finally got her lesson in beginners Ninjutsu from Yuffie. By having a teacher she could spend double on it, and as her REAson allowed her to spend a little more than one XP a day, double that was the two XP she needed to get a one rating in a martial art. She took the two from her Disguise skill, as she wasn't really doing makeup that often now. (And if she did need to do it, that's what Augment Skill was for, right?)
She also, that night, set the Mimic Materia on her book and told it to figure how to replicate it, which it did. In the morning she had a brand new spell of Emulation, from Saturn. It was grade 7, and had some limitations, but Susan hoped to raise this one and make it split, so she could have the "baby." On second thought, I'll take the mastered one. If I leave them the baby, they can easily make another. If I take the one that's split, it won't split again and they'll be stuck.
The next day, Susan spent the morning with the "leveling" group, getting some "fake" XP and putting some AP into Mimic. She had a double AP armor equipped, which her book didn't actually detail. (As only this world had that specific method of doing things) She still felt it was going to take a depressingly long time to raise, but she did have fun doing whatever it was the others were doing, and with Vincent's nearly unlimited MP, they cut a swath across the landscape such as never had been seen before. (Not that it mattered, monsters seemed to exist in unlimited numbers in each area.)
In the afternoon they flew about to various towns, letting Susan see them in case she had to return to one in a hurry. They checked out the shops, bought some stuff with their new Gil, and Susan ignored the dirty looks she got from Materia shop owners and tried to see about getting more information. She tried both Seduction and Persuasion checks under Augment Skill, both higher than normal (but not near the 30s like before). And she still got nowhere. In fact she swore a shop owner she had never, never seen before actually told her he was completely out of stock when she asked.
She went back in, Shape-shifted into someone completely different, and he had plenty of stock to show that girl. But none for Susan, the Inquisitive Girl. Why is that, do we think?
She continued that evening getting some lessons from Yuffie, who seemed rather pleased to have someone to teach. The night before she had been rather show-offy, (Susan didn't care, she was show-offy too. It was just having a teacher that mattered so she could "officially" put the skill down on her sheet and give it the one rating.) She couldn't raise it to two (which cost four) until the next night, but she appreciated Yuffie's commitment to the team. She even showed Tifa some things, as it seemed she had learned a different martial art growing up and was eager to compare them.
Why the men of the group suddenly seemed interested in also being on deck as the three girls jumped around, getting all sweaty and putting each other in throws and such was a mystery. (Okay, that's a lie, it's no mystery at all.) Susan even invited Aerith to change and join them, but she said she would be sticking to guns from now on, thank you very much.
"And quite sensibly, too," said Vincent. "All that rushing about seems rather exhausting. Magic and guns- that's really all you need."
"You don't know what you're missing!" said Yuffie, who was positively beaming. "Come on, Susan, you can get that leg up a little higher on the kick! Come on, stretch!"
The next day Susan dutifully asked her Question of where Cloud was, and to her surprise, got a different answer than Lifestream.
"Anyone know where the town of Mideel is?" she asked.
"Sort of on an island, pretty far south. Why?"
"Let's go there, I have a good feeling."
Tifa bowled her over, running from nowhere. "Did you find him? Did you find him?" she was saying, grabbing Susan's shoulders.
"And what shall we have for breakfast today, do you think? Or would you like to wait and have it with Cloud?"
Tifa gave a whoop of joy, hugged Susan tight, and ran to the cockpit to watch the approach.
"I guess that's a yes?"