After Meteor: Rise from the Ashes
Hojo worked hard into the night on Device. He sat in his new office in his new office chair at his new desk with various nuts, bolts and wires all over the desk. Hojo tweaked at the entrails of his creation with a screwdriver.
"Just one more wire to go…" he said to himself. "Eureka! I am a genius!" He held up Device and admired it. "The President will be very pleased. I might even get a raise, or better…a PROMOTION!" Hojo cackled to himself. He put Device in a safe and locked it. The lights flicked off as Hojo left the room and hit the switch on the way out.
AVALANCHE rose bright an early in the morning and met in the lobby of the hotel. They headed out to the Kalm Rent-a-Chocobo and headed off to Midgar. They stopped at the gates to Sector 5.
"How the hell did they get through THAT?!" asked Wedge, gesturing to the wreckage.
"Who knows, but the Chocobos can take it..." said Cloud and with that he kicked the bird in the ribs and it headed off over the debris field. The others followed and in no time flat, they were at the front door of the newly finished lobby of the ShinRa building. AVALANCHE tied up their respective chocobos and Cloud walked up to the lobby's sliding glass doors.
"Wait Cloud. Reeve probably installed cameras. Better not go in the front entrance…" warned Tifa.
"Very good Tifa, I DID install video cameras…" piped up Cait triumphantly.
"Let's just go the way we did last time." Barret said.
"Oh no…not the stairs AGAIN!" complained Cloud. Tifa, Barret and Cloud winced at the thought of having to go through that again.
"No choice." Barret said and headed for the back stairs.
"Dammit."
The eleven AVALANCHE members ran up the stairs. About 15 floors in, they started to slow down…and about 20 floors up, they were practically crawling up the stairs.
"This…isn't….fun." noted Wedge, who was huffing and wheezing.
"No….shit….Sherlock…" retorted an equally tired Biggs as he collapsed on the 21st staircase.
Cloud casually walked by them. "Aw, this is nothing. You guys were out of shape from the start." About ten deathglares were now pointed in his general direction. "What? Was it something I said?"
"Cait, what floor are the offices on?" inquired Tifa.
"Thirty-nine. Hojo's is on the fortieth."
"Aw…man…" whined Wedge as he looked up the stairs.
The next 10 minutes were filled with huffs, puffs, and wheezing as AVALANCHE ever so slowly made their way up the staircase. Finally, the first of them, Cloud, came to the door marked '39' and reached for the handle.
"So what are ya' gonna do, just waltz right on in their and say 'May I please have Device so that we can destory it along with any hope for world domination?'?" I don't think so, hot shot…" said Barret as he knocked Cloud's hand away from the knob.
"It should be okay. They don't wake up until noon, we've still got 3 hours. I haven't hired any guards yet so, that should be a problem. Hojo probably has Device in his office, on floor 40." Cait Sith informed. AVALANCHE broke into their respective groups and Barret opened the door a crack and peered out.
"Coast is clear…" he announced and they stepped out into the hallway. "Okay, we each go our separate ways. Rendezvous on the 40th floor, now, let's go…"