Well, we're back and in business! Sorry about the mammoth delay in between chapters, but I haven't had motivation to write for this in a looooong while. But, that's changed, and I'll be putting out chapters more frequently now. You'll notice that from this point on I'll only be releasing one chapter each post, unlike the two I've been doing; each chapter will also be MUCH longer than they have been. Well, time to get to it. Platypus. (You didn't really think I wasn't going to mention everyone's favorite duckbilled creature, did you?)
Final Fantasy: Legends of the Zerg Invasion
Chapter 11: Setting Up Shop
"Not bad, not bad at all," the Queen of Blades said of her temporary new home. She had managed to slip an Overlord containing her and 7 Drones onto this planet, and ended up touching down in the Northern Crater. She had found an...attraction in the Northern Crater, something that drew her to it. It turned out that her feeling was well justified, for the Northern Crater was the perfect place for a base; it was very hard to get to, and once you got to it it was rough going within the Crater and its cave system. Also, while not finding any minerals or Vespine guysers of the variety found in her home sector, she found possible substitutes scattered throughout the crater, indeed this whole world.
The minerals were very curious. They tended to form round crystals, of several colors ranging from blue, to red, to yellow, to green, to purple, to pink. They were quite abundant in the crater, and she couldn't help but feel unusual emanations from them.
The gas...well, there weren't any gas guysers at all. What there were instead were areas of rock with cracks in them, and from these cracks drifted a green-white mist. It didn't seem to have the characteristics of Vespene, but then again, Zerg were highly adaptable. Kerrigan was sure her new Brood she was forming would be able to assimilate this substance for the higher order functions that Vespene is usually required for.
There was one other reason that she loved this Crater. The creatures she encountered inside! The sheer amount of new mutations she could introduce into the Zerg to strengthen her ranks was mind boggling. In fact, when she killed those unusual blue creatures wearing robes and carrying a lantern and knife, she took the liberty of assimilating the DNA from it, and implanting it into the drones that would become the Hatcheries here.
"Now, let's see about figuring out how to turn a Drone into an efficient extractor of that mist," Kerrigan mused aloud. Conquering a planet isn't just about who's got the bigger army, after all; you need a foundation to work from, and someone has to do the dirty work.
***
Ryoga Hibiki was lost.
That in itself wasn't unusual, as this is his natural state. However, he usually recognized things such as flora and fauna as being from a certain country, or region. He wasn't recognizing anything here now; the trees were too yellowish in their bark for any tree he had ever seen. In fact, everything about this place seemed weird, as if it wasn't even Earth.
"Oh come on, snap out of it Hibiki!" Ryoga berated himself. "It's not that bad. It's not as if you can get lost so badly that you wind up on a whole 'nother planet."
Well, actually Ryoga....
(Flashback to 12 hours ago)
Ryoga was walking along a highway, staring at a map, totally lost, trying to figure out if he needed to take a left turn at that sign up ahead. As he approached the sign, he noted in passing that it said "Welcome to Alberquerque, New Mexico!"
"Well, that silly American rabbit is always saying to take a left turn here...." Ryoga thought aloud. He thought he should comply, so he decided to turn left. When you consider where he ended up, it makes you wonder what would have happened if he actually ended up going left, instead of turning right.
After walking for about a mile into the desert after his unfortunate wrong turn, he ended up at a gas station. Perfect, he thought, I need to go to the bathroom anyway. As he entered the Porta-Potty by the far end of the station, he heard some strange noises coming from outside. Had he not been in the middle of answering Nature's call, he would have tried to exit, and failed. Chalk it up to Ryoga's horrible luck, but he ended up taking an unscheduled dimensional trip, thanks to an incident involving a supercollider directly underneath the gas station, a crack in the foundation of said gas station, and the nasty wicked sense of humor of the Gods that make them pick on poor Ryoga so damned much.
He ended up in a forest when he walked out of the Porta-Potty. Shrugging, he headed off towards the huge ship he saw in the sky; it was flying low enough that he could reach it by jumping if he climbed up a nearby ridge. "Maybe they know how to get back to Nerima from here."
(And now, back to our regularly scheduled fanfic)
Ryoga noticed out of the corner of his eye a large forest with a small settlement at it's edge. The forest looked rather deep behind it, so he decided to get some supplies in the village before trekking into the forest. A nice walk into a forest sounded good about now to clear his head.
***
"Gawd, those things are icky," Yuffie said in a disgusted tone, wiping some Hydralisk entrails off her arm guard.
"Well, what do you expect? They're bugs," Cid said, equally disgusted but not as eager to show it as Yuffie was.
AVALANCHE was standing around the clearing where they had their first encounter with the Zerg. It was a resounding victory, thanks to Knights of the Round. A bit of overkill, yes, but they didn't know that yet. Cloud walked over to a tree to lean on, as he was a bit tired from the exertion of casting Knights. "Well, that's that. Told you that would be easy," he proclaimed, loud enough so that he could be heard over the communicator Raynor gave him.
"Yeah, I'll say. What the hell was that you blasted them with?" Raynor asked excitedly. "I've never seen something like that before."
"Oh, that was just Knights of the Round. What, don't you have Summons where you come from?" Yuffie asked, as if they were retards for not knowing what a Summon was.
"No, young lady, we have not seen something of that power before, at least not wielded by a baseline human being," Zeratul said carefully. "In fact, I daresay that there are very few things I have ever seen that powerful."
"Well, there's all sorts of things you can do with Materia," Tifa said by way of explanation. "We can show you if you like, it might help you guys to fight these monsters that are coming."
"Hmm, yeah, that might help," Raynor said. "Plus, you guys can check out what we can do too. We have all sorts of little gadgets and gizmos that would help you guys do...whatever it is that you do."
"What we do," began Cloud, "is save the Planet. Which means we'll be working together for a bit Commander. I'm sure there's plenty for us to help each other with."
"I like the way you think son. Well, first things first. Do you know a good mineral deposit around here, where we could set up base?"
"Ah..." Cloud scratched his head. "The only ones I can think of are in the vicinity of Nibelheim, and that's all Materia. Would that be able to work?"
"From what I've seen of it, it seems close enough to our minerals that we should be able to adapt to it. What about gas, what do you do for that?"
"I think there are natural gas deposits around there too, Cloud," offered Tifa. "They should serve well, right?"
"Well, we'll see when we get there. Now, where's this Nibelheim?"
Yuffie glanced at Vincent, then at Cid. She then said, "I'm stuck with you losers for LONGER!?!? When can I get my Materia and get the hell back to Wutai??"
Red looked pointedly at Yuffie, muttered something about impetuous youth, and walked towards the Dropship that was coming to pick them up.
***
It was a pretty glowing green. Soft swirls of light all around, a warm greenish glow, and pure and tranquil silence pervaded the area. Normally, most people would kill to be in such a serene setting; in this case, however, Aeris just wanted to get to the damned Promised Land.
"Um, wasn't I supposed to go to the Promised Land after I helped stop Meteor?" Aeris said loudly, to the rest of the Cetra. "You said after I helped do that, I'd go to the Promised Land."
"Well," boomed a loud, deep voice, "we did say that. But, there's been a change of plans. It seems that where Meteor was destroyed a large hole has opened up in the fabric of space, and an evil entity has made its way to the Planet. We need you to help stop her."
"But how?" Aeris asked. "It's not like I can summon the Lifestream to surround and kill this thing, not like I did Meteor."
"True," the Cetra mused. "Which is why we're bringing you back to life."
Aeris blinked. And blinked again. And said, quite intelligently, "Huh?"
"Oh, you didn't know?" the Cetra said matter-of-factly. "If a Cetra's body is near the City of the Ancients, all its wounds are healed, and the spirit of that Cetra can rejoin it's body. However, most choose to go on to the Promised Land. In this case, it is very fortunate that you were killed here, as the waters of the Underground Shrine healed you fully, and you can rejoin your body."
Aeris's face went through three changes. One was shock of learning this, two was the joy of returning to the world of the living, and the third was....rage. "Why didn't you tell me this earlier?? I could have been with my friends and Cloud when they needed me the most!!"
The Cetra was unimpressed with her outburst. "Ah, but you were with them when they needed you most. Even though you weren't a physical prescence, your help in destroying Meteor was where you were able to help the most people, namely the whole planet."
"Oh..." mumbled Aeris. "I guess your right. But I get to go back! Yessss!!!!!"
The Cetra was taken aback by her sudden outburst of cheeriness. "Yes, well, you better get going. When you awaken, you'll be in the City of the Ancients, and you'll have a guide back to civilization, of sorts."
"Of sorts?" Aeris queried. "What do you mean, of sorts?"
"Well....he tends to get lost...."
***
Aeris's eyes flew open. She sat up, and took a deep breath. Then another deep breath.
She smiled, looking for all the world like the Cheshire Cat. She was alive. She was alive!
"I'm alive!!!! Yesssss!!!!!!"
"Hello!!! Who's there!!!!!!!"
"Eeep!" Aeris squeaked. Apparently, the guide was here. She looked down to make sure she was decent, and found herself wearing her typical pink dress and jacket. There was a hole in her dress where Sephiroth's Masamune ran her through. She shuddered and decided she didn't want to think about that, instead concentrating on finding her guide. She looked around, found her Princess Guard next to where she was laid out, and all of the Materia she had. She quickly placed all the Materia back into the staff, gave it a twirl to make sure it was still in one piece, and ran out towards the voice.
When she left the shell that served for a house where she had woken up, she noticed a boy, slightly dusty from travel, off to her right. As she approached him, she noted several outstanding features in the dimming light. First, he wore a yellow bandanna with black spots all over it. Second, he wore a yellow and green long-sleeved shirt, with ties instead of buttons to close it. Third, he had a gigantic backpack on, with a red umbrella strapped across it. And finally, she noted when he turned his head and looked at her, he seemed to have a look on his face that said "I have no idea where I am".
"Guess this must be my guide," Aeris noted. Louder, she said, "Hi! I'm Aeris, who are you?"
Ryoga looked at her quickly, decided she wasn't another illusion like he found in the forest, and said "Ryoga Hibiki. Do you know how to get to the Tendo Dojo in Nerima?"
Taken aback, Aeris said, "Um, I don't know of a place called Nerima. Is it by Gold Saucer?"
Ryoga frowned. "I've never heard of Gold Saucer. What is it?"
"You've never heard of Gold Saucer? It's this great amusement park, everyone's heard of it."
"Well, he wouldn't have."
Aeris and Ryoga both jumped. When Ryoga turned, he whipped his umbrella around and wielded it like a sword. "Who said that??"
Aeris, however, recognized the voice after her initial shock. "What do you mean he wouldn't have?" she asked patiently of the Cetra that had spoken.
"I mean, he is not of this world. He was brought here by accident in much the same manner as the evil that came through the portal Meteor caused. He can provide much help to you on your journey back to your friends. However, you will have to make sure not to let him out of your sight, as he has a tendency to get...misplaced."
Aeris raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean, misplaced?"
"He means that I get hopelessly lost," said Ryoga dejectedly. When Aeris turned around to acknowledge him, she noticed that he was glowing a sickly greenish-blue. "Excuse me, Aeris."
With that, he turned around, brought his hands together, and screamed, "SHI SHI HOKODAN!!" A giant green beam flew from his hands and into the sky, where it lit up the night for about half a mile all around.
Aeris looked amazed. "How did you do that??"
"It's simple once you know how to control your ki. I'll explain on the way. You'll have to lead though, cause I don't know my way around here, and even if I did I'd probably wind up somewhere totally different."
"Um, ok. Listen, before you get to telling me about ki, why don't you tell me about yourself, and how you came to be here?"
"Hmm? Oh, sure. It all started a few years ago, when I met this kid in junior high named Ranma...."
With that, Aeris and Ryoga headed out of the City of the Ancients, towards Bone Village. Because Aeris was leading, they were actually going in the right direction.
***
Vincent walked around the Terran base that was being set up. He watched as SCVs set up a Factory and a Starport, all the while wondering what all the buildings were for. Off towards the distance, he peered off to watch the Protoss base get set up.
"Amazing the differences in technology, isn't it?" Red crept up from behind. Vincent calmly turned around and said, "From ours to our Terran counterparts, or from the Terrans to the Protoss?"
"Hmm, didn't quite think of which I meant. But in either case, it's a large advancement. I'm beginning to wonder whether we have the ability to keep up with these Zerg they talk about."
"How do you mean, Nanaki?" Vincent was pretty much the only AVALANCHE member that referred to Red by his actual name.
"If you think about how advanced the technology is for both the Terrans and Protoss, and then think that the Zerg beat both soundly back in their dimension, it makes us look like a sapling caught in a Zerg hurricane, a hurricane that can uproot oaks such as the Protoss."
Vincent stared at Red XIII for a beat, then said, "Technology in and of itself means nothing. Sure, to a point it is very helpful, but in the end it's how you use what you have. It's the person wielding the implement, not the implement that is doing the killing. The implement needs to be controlled, and controlled properly, before it's of any use."
Red sighed. "You, of course, have a point. Still, I can't help but think that maybe we've become obsolete, and we need to upgrade."
Vincent unstrapped his Death Penalty from his back, gave it a good long look. "No, I don't think so. I have no doubt that these Terrans and maybe even the Protoss can contribute to our cause, but in the end, we'll do fine without drastic changes."
"I wish I had your confidence. Though, I wonder...if you look at the weapons we in AVALANCHE wield, you and Barret are the most technologically advanced, with your guns and such."
Vincent didn't look up from his rifle, but gave a rare smile. "You, of course, have a point."
Meanwhile, off in another part of the Terran base...
Yuffie was bored, so she decided to search the base for some goodies. It wasn't long before she stumbled upon the Academy, newly built and supplied.
"Hmm, wonder what's in here?" asked the inquisitive teen ninja. She wandered down a series of corridors, with several doors branching off. Finally, she came to a heavy door at the end of one long corridor, marked 'Top Secret: Ghost Training and Supplies'. "Ghost? Wonder what they're talking about? They can't mean actual ghosts, unless they're doing research in the Cave of the Gi," posited Yuffie. "Well, let's see if the door's open..."
Sure enough, it was (after a quick swipe with her Conformer to cut the lock). She crept in, surprised to find the room empty. One side of the room immediately caught her attention, as it had many gadget-like things along the tables and cabinets along it.
"Hey, what's this thingie?" she asked as she grabbed a disk-shaped object. It was about the size of an armlet, and looked like it could attach easily to her armguard. There were two buttons on it, one blue marked 'On', and one red marked 'Off'.
"Wonder what happens if you turn it on?" she wondered as she attached it to where she normally kept her armlet. She pressed the button marked 'On'.
She suddenly felt a small tingle throughout her body, then nothing. Shrugging, she started to walk out, until she passed a mirror near the entrance of the room. She saw nothing at all, which wouldn't be expected if you were standing in front of a mirror. Paniced, she fumbled down to her armguard to hit the off button, to find that she couldn't see her arm. She felt around till she found it, and pressed the off switch. When she looked back at the mirror, she saw herself fade back in.
She blinked. "Whoa, that was awesome! I can go invisible! This is sooooo cool!!" With that, Yuffie turned the cloak field back on, ran over to the table to look for more stuff, found nothing beyond a set of goggles, took it, and ran out. When she got outside, she turned the cloak field back off, put the goggles on her head, and walked towards the tent that AVALANCHE had set up. On the way, she ran into Tifa, who was hurrying towards the Terran Command Center. Sensing something developing, she yelled after her "What's up Tifa? Some meeting type-dealie or something?"
Without stopping, she called "Yeah! Hurry up and get to the Command Center, Cloud and Raynor want to discuss how we're going to deal with the Zerg!"
Grinning, Yuffie adjusted her new goggles and ran after Tifa.
***
Final Fantasy: Legends of the Zerg Invasion
Chapter 11: Setting Up Shop
"Not bad, not bad at all," the Queen of Blades said of her temporary new home. She had managed to slip an Overlord containing her and 7 Drones onto this planet, and ended up touching down in the Northern Crater. She had found an...attraction in the Northern Crater, something that drew her to it. It turned out that her feeling was well justified, for the Northern Crater was the perfect place for a base; it was very hard to get to, and once you got to it it was rough going within the Crater and its cave system. Also, while not finding any minerals or Vespine guysers of the variety found in her home sector, she found possible substitutes scattered throughout the crater, indeed this whole world.
The minerals were very curious. They tended to form round crystals, of several colors ranging from blue, to red, to yellow, to green, to purple, to pink. They were quite abundant in the crater, and she couldn't help but feel unusual emanations from them.
The gas...well, there weren't any gas guysers at all. What there were instead were areas of rock with cracks in them, and from these cracks drifted a green-white mist. It didn't seem to have the characteristics of Vespene, but then again, Zerg were highly adaptable. Kerrigan was sure her new Brood she was forming would be able to assimilate this substance for the higher order functions that Vespene is usually required for.
There was one other reason that she loved this Crater. The creatures she encountered inside! The sheer amount of new mutations she could introduce into the Zerg to strengthen her ranks was mind boggling. In fact, when she killed those unusual blue creatures wearing robes and carrying a lantern and knife, she took the liberty of assimilating the DNA from it, and implanting it into the drones that would become the Hatcheries here.
"Now, let's see about figuring out how to turn a Drone into an efficient extractor of that mist," Kerrigan mused aloud. Conquering a planet isn't just about who's got the bigger army, after all; you need a foundation to work from, and someone has to do the dirty work.
***
Ryoga Hibiki was lost.
That in itself wasn't unusual, as this is his natural state. However, he usually recognized things such as flora and fauna as being from a certain country, or region. He wasn't recognizing anything here now; the trees were too yellowish in their bark for any tree he had ever seen. In fact, everything about this place seemed weird, as if it wasn't even Earth.
"Oh come on, snap out of it Hibiki!" Ryoga berated himself. "It's not that bad. It's not as if you can get lost so badly that you wind up on a whole 'nother planet."
Well, actually Ryoga....
(Flashback to 12 hours ago)
Ryoga was walking along a highway, staring at a map, totally lost, trying to figure out if he needed to take a left turn at that sign up ahead. As he approached the sign, he noted in passing that it said "Welcome to Alberquerque, New Mexico!"
"Well, that silly American rabbit is always saying to take a left turn here...." Ryoga thought aloud. He thought he should comply, so he decided to turn left. When you consider where he ended up, it makes you wonder what would have happened if he actually ended up going left, instead of turning right.
After walking for about a mile into the desert after his unfortunate wrong turn, he ended up at a gas station. Perfect, he thought, I need to go to the bathroom anyway. As he entered the Porta-Potty by the far end of the station, he heard some strange noises coming from outside. Had he not been in the middle of answering Nature's call, he would have tried to exit, and failed. Chalk it up to Ryoga's horrible luck, but he ended up taking an unscheduled dimensional trip, thanks to an incident involving a supercollider directly underneath the gas station, a crack in the foundation of said gas station, and the nasty wicked sense of humor of the Gods that make them pick on poor Ryoga so damned much.
He ended up in a forest when he walked out of the Porta-Potty. Shrugging, he headed off towards the huge ship he saw in the sky; it was flying low enough that he could reach it by jumping if he climbed up a nearby ridge. "Maybe they know how to get back to Nerima from here."
(And now, back to our regularly scheduled fanfic)
Ryoga noticed out of the corner of his eye a large forest with a small settlement at it's edge. The forest looked rather deep behind it, so he decided to get some supplies in the village before trekking into the forest. A nice walk into a forest sounded good about now to clear his head.
***
"Gawd, those things are icky," Yuffie said in a disgusted tone, wiping some Hydralisk entrails off her arm guard.
"Well, what do you expect? They're bugs," Cid said, equally disgusted but not as eager to show it as Yuffie was.
AVALANCHE was standing around the clearing where they had their first encounter with the Zerg. It was a resounding victory, thanks to Knights of the Round. A bit of overkill, yes, but they didn't know that yet. Cloud walked over to a tree to lean on, as he was a bit tired from the exertion of casting Knights. "Well, that's that. Told you that would be easy," he proclaimed, loud enough so that he could be heard over the communicator Raynor gave him.
"Yeah, I'll say. What the hell was that you blasted them with?" Raynor asked excitedly. "I've never seen something like that before."
"Oh, that was just Knights of the Round. What, don't you have Summons where you come from?" Yuffie asked, as if they were retards for not knowing what a Summon was.
"No, young lady, we have not seen something of that power before, at least not wielded by a baseline human being," Zeratul said carefully. "In fact, I daresay that there are very few things I have ever seen that powerful."
"Well, there's all sorts of things you can do with Materia," Tifa said by way of explanation. "We can show you if you like, it might help you guys to fight these monsters that are coming."
"Hmm, yeah, that might help," Raynor said. "Plus, you guys can check out what we can do too. We have all sorts of little gadgets and gizmos that would help you guys do...whatever it is that you do."
"What we do," began Cloud, "is save the Planet. Which means we'll be working together for a bit Commander. I'm sure there's plenty for us to help each other with."
"I like the way you think son. Well, first things first. Do you know a good mineral deposit around here, where we could set up base?"
"Ah..." Cloud scratched his head. "The only ones I can think of are in the vicinity of Nibelheim, and that's all Materia. Would that be able to work?"
"From what I've seen of it, it seems close enough to our minerals that we should be able to adapt to it. What about gas, what do you do for that?"
"I think there are natural gas deposits around there too, Cloud," offered Tifa. "They should serve well, right?"
"Well, we'll see when we get there. Now, where's this Nibelheim?"
Yuffie glanced at Vincent, then at Cid. She then said, "I'm stuck with you losers for LONGER!?!? When can I get my Materia and get the hell back to Wutai??"
Red looked pointedly at Yuffie, muttered something about impetuous youth, and walked towards the Dropship that was coming to pick them up.
***
It was a pretty glowing green. Soft swirls of light all around, a warm greenish glow, and pure and tranquil silence pervaded the area. Normally, most people would kill to be in such a serene setting; in this case, however, Aeris just wanted to get to the damned Promised Land.
"Um, wasn't I supposed to go to the Promised Land after I helped stop Meteor?" Aeris said loudly, to the rest of the Cetra. "You said after I helped do that, I'd go to the Promised Land."
"Well," boomed a loud, deep voice, "we did say that. But, there's been a change of plans. It seems that where Meteor was destroyed a large hole has opened up in the fabric of space, and an evil entity has made its way to the Planet. We need you to help stop her."
"But how?" Aeris asked. "It's not like I can summon the Lifestream to surround and kill this thing, not like I did Meteor."
"True," the Cetra mused. "Which is why we're bringing you back to life."
Aeris blinked. And blinked again. And said, quite intelligently, "Huh?"
"Oh, you didn't know?" the Cetra said matter-of-factly. "If a Cetra's body is near the City of the Ancients, all its wounds are healed, and the spirit of that Cetra can rejoin it's body. However, most choose to go on to the Promised Land. In this case, it is very fortunate that you were killed here, as the waters of the Underground Shrine healed you fully, and you can rejoin your body."
Aeris's face went through three changes. One was shock of learning this, two was the joy of returning to the world of the living, and the third was....rage. "Why didn't you tell me this earlier?? I could have been with my friends and Cloud when they needed me the most!!"
The Cetra was unimpressed with her outburst. "Ah, but you were with them when they needed you most. Even though you weren't a physical prescence, your help in destroying Meteor was where you were able to help the most people, namely the whole planet."
"Oh..." mumbled Aeris. "I guess your right. But I get to go back! Yessss!!!!!"
The Cetra was taken aback by her sudden outburst of cheeriness. "Yes, well, you better get going. When you awaken, you'll be in the City of the Ancients, and you'll have a guide back to civilization, of sorts."
"Of sorts?" Aeris queried. "What do you mean, of sorts?"
"Well....he tends to get lost...."
***
Aeris's eyes flew open. She sat up, and took a deep breath. Then another deep breath.
She smiled, looking for all the world like the Cheshire Cat. She was alive. She was alive!
"I'm alive!!!! Yesssss!!!!!!"
"Hello!!! Who's there!!!!!!!"
"Eeep!" Aeris squeaked. Apparently, the guide was here. She looked down to make sure she was decent, and found herself wearing her typical pink dress and jacket. There was a hole in her dress where Sephiroth's Masamune ran her through. She shuddered and decided she didn't want to think about that, instead concentrating on finding her guide. She looked around, found her Princess Guard next to where she was laid out, and all of the Materia she had. She quickly placed all the Materia back into the staff, gave it a twirl to make sure it was still in one piece, and ran out towards the voice.
When she left the shell that served for a house where she had woken up, she noticed a boy, slightly dusty from travel, off to her right. As she approached him, she noted several outstanding features in the dimming light. First, he wore a yellow bandanna with black spots all over it. Second, he wore a yellow and green long-sleeved shirt, with ties instead of buttons to close it. Third, he had a gigantic backpack on, with a red umbrella strapped across it. And finally, she noted when he turned his head and looked at her, he seemed to have a look on his face that said "I have no idea where I am".
"Guess this must be my guide," Aeris noted. Louder, she said, "Hi! I'm Aeris, who are you?"
Ryoga looked at her quickly, decided she wasn't another illusion like he found in the forest, and said "Ryoga Hibiki. Do you know how to get to the Tendo Dojo in Nerima?"
Taken aback, Aeris said, "Um, I don't know of a place called Nerima. Is it by Gold Saucer?"
Ryoga frowned. "I've never heard of Gold Saucer. What is it?"
"You've never heard of Gold Saucer? It's this great amusement park, everyone's heard of it."
"Well, he wouldn't have."
Aeris and Ryoga both jumped. When Ryoga turned, he whipped his umbrella around and wielded it like a sword. "Who said that??"
Aeris, however, recognized the voice after her initial shock. "What do you mean he wouldn't have?" she asked patiently of the Cetra that had spoken.
"I mean, he is not of this world. He was brought here by accident in much the same manner as the evil that came through the portal Meteor caused. He can provide much help to you on your journey back to your friends. However, you will have to make sure not to let him out of your sight, as he has a tendency to get...misplaced."
Aeris raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean, misplaced?"
"He means that I get hopelessly lost," said Ryoga dejectedly. When Aeris turned around to acknowledge him, she noticed that he was glowing a sickly greenish-blue. "Excuse me, Aeris."
With that, he turned around, brought his hands together, and screamed, "SHI SHI HOKODAN!!" A giant green beam flew from his hands and into the sky, where it lit up the night for about half a mile all around.
Aeris looked amazed. "How did you do that??"
"It's simple once you know how to control your ki. I'll explain on the way. You'll have to lead though, cause I don't know my way around here, and even if I did I'd probably wind up somewhere totally different."
"Um, ok. Listen, before you get to telling me about ki, why don't you tell me about yourself, and how you came to be here?"
"Hmm? Oh, sure. It all started a few years ago, when I met this kid in junior high named Ranma...."
With that, Aeris and Ryoga headed out of the City of the Ancients, towards Bone Village. Because Aeris was leading, they were actually going in the right direction.
***
Vincent walked around the Terran base that was being set up. He watched as SCVs set up a Factory and a Starport, all the while wondering what all the buildings were for. Off towards the distance, he peered off to watch the Protoss base get set up.
"Amazing the differences in technology, isn't it?" Red crept up from behind. Vincent calmly turned around and said, "From ours to our Terran counterparts, or from the Terrans to the Protoss?"
"Hmm, didn't quite think of which I meant. But in either case, it's a large advancement. I'm beginning to wonder whether we have the ability to keep up with these Zerg they talk about."
"How do you mean, Nanaki?" Vincent was pretty much the only AVALANCHE member that referred to Red by his actual name.
"If you think about how advanced the technology is for both the Terrans and Protoss, and then think that the Zerg beat both soundly back in their dimension, it makes us look like a sapling caught in a Zerg hurricane, a hurricane that can uproot oaks such as the Protoss."
Vincent stared at Red XIII for a beat, then said, "Technology in and of itself means nothing. Sure, to a point it is very helpful, but in the end it's how you use what you have. It's the person wielding the implement, not the implement that is doing the killing. The implement needs to be controlled, and controlled properly, before it's of any use."
Red sighed. "You, of course, have a point. Still, I can't help but think that maybe we've become obsolete, and we need to upgrade."
Vincent unstrapped his Death Penalty from his back, gave it a good long look. "No, I don't think so. I have no doubt that these Terrans and maybe even the Protoss can contribute to our cause, but in the end, we'll do fine without drastic changes."
"I wish I had your confidence. Though, I wonder...if you look at the weapons we in AVALANCHE wield, you and Barret are the most technologically advanced, with your guns and such."
Vincent didn't look up from his rifle, but gave a rare smile. "You, of course, have a point."
Meanwhile, off in another part of the Terran base...
Yuffie was bored, so she decided to search the base for some goodies. It wasn't long before she stumbled upon the Academy, newly built and supplied.
"Hmm, wonder what's in here?" asked the inquisitive teen ninja. She wandered down a series of corridors, with several doors branching off. Finally, she came to a heavy door at the end of one long corridor, marked 'Top Secret: Ghost Training and Supplies'. "Ghost? Wonder what they're talking about? They can't mean actual ghosts, unless they're doing research in the Cave of the Gi," posited Yuffie. "Well, let's see if the door's open..."
Sure enough, it was (after a quick swipe with her Conformer to cut the lock). She crept in, surprised to find the room empty. One side of the room immediately caught her attention, as it had many gadget-like things along the tables and cabinets along it.
"Hey, what's this thingie?" she asked as she grabbed a disk-shaped object. It was about the size of an armlet, and looked like it could attach easily to her armguard. There were two buttons on it, one blue marked 'On', and one red marked 'Off'.
"Wonder what happens if you turn it on?" she wondered as she attached it to where she normally kept her armlet. She pressed the button marked 'On'.
She suddenly felt a small tingle throughout her body, then nothing. Shrugging, she started to walk out, until she passed a mirror near the entrance of the room. She saw nothing at all, which wouldn't be expected if you were standing in front of a mirror. Paniced, she fumbled down to her armguard to hit the off button, to find that she couldn't see her arm. She felt around till she found it, and pressed the off switch. When she looked back at the mirror, she saw herself fade back in.
She blinked. "Whoa, that was awesome! I can go invisible! This is sooooo cool!!" With that, Yuffie turned the cloak field back on, ran over to the table to look for more stuff, found nothing beyond a set of goggles, took it, and ran out. When she got outside, she turned the cloak field back off, put the goggles on her head, and walked towards the tent that AVALANCHE had set up. On the way, she ran into Tifa, who was hurrying towards the Terran Command Center. Sensing something developing, she yelled after her "What's up Tifa? Some meeting type-dealie or something?"
Without stopping, she called "Yeah! Hurry up and get to the Command Center, Cloud and Raynor want to discuss how we're going to deal with the Zerg!"
Grinning, Yuffie adjusted her new goggles and ran after Tifa.
***