I sat up to find myself in a small,
enclosed room with a window and a door; I tried to think to myself about what
had happened in the past night, but failed miserably. I decided to try and
stand up, which I did… and open the door to the right. The door was unlocked
and I walked out into a small hallway with some very nice décor, there were
some pictures of fighting masters and a few certificates scattered around, the
walls were a pale brown and the lights were dim… "Good décor…" I said to
myself… totally by mistake
"Thanks!" Someone said behind me, I
quickly turned around and stood with my fists up, I would have preferably used
a sword, but I didn't have it with me, for some unknown reason. All I got from
the man in black was a small laugh
"Do you know me!?" He said in a
loud, obnoxious voice
"No, am I meant to?" I enquired,
scowling at him
"I am Zangan! The best self-defense
trainer in this world. I hope, for your sake, that you have come to train with
me!" He replied boastfully. I thought about what he just said for a little
while, while surveying the area again.
"Fine" I said quite simply
"Good!" He exclaimed, "Follow me!"
I follow Zangan into a room
with a practice dummy, which looked pretty beat up, some orbs, which were
glowing, and two other people in. One was female, black hair, blue eyes and the
other one was Male, brown hair and a light green shade of eye color.
"Holly, Heichi… this is…" he started
"Rich" I said quickly, I hoped I
wouldn't have too much of a reaction from him, but he seemed not to care much
"Yes, well… I hope you two give him
your full co-operation in helping me train him and please, Rich, this way"
Sorry about the cliff-hanger, I just
didn't want to go that far, in case people didn't like it… SORRY!
render_chaptermenu(chaptermenu_array,1,178947);
I walked into a small room with Zangan, I was quite happy about all
the weapons and materia I saw… There were quite a selection too, swords, guns,
hand stuff, spears, axes, you name it, he's got it. Also the materia selection
was quite good, I looked at him again, and he pointed to the weapons "Rich,
pick two of these, and 10 materia, go on!" he started to push me towards the
weapons that I was looking at. I looked at the weapons carefully, and wondered
what weapon I should get… I automatically picked out a Shotgun, since they were
cool, and I picked out a huge, double-sided sword. He then pushed me towards
the Materia. I looked blankly at them, not knowing what they were, so I just
picked out 5 Green, 2 Yellow, A blue and two red, He looked at me proudly and
walked out of the room
I walked out a couple of
moments later with my new stuff, and Holly handed me a sheath and a belt
"Zangan told me to give you this, he's gone for a nap"
"Oh" I replied simply, I
took the belt from her and then the sheath
"Um…" she looked up to me,
I started to look worried "Why have you got a Green glow in your eyes" she
asked finally
"It's a long story… I don't
think you'd be interested" I said, with no emotion in my voice
"I want to
hear it!" she said quite franticly, I sweat dropped
"Well… Um… I was part of an
experiment" I started
"Experiment?" She asked
"Let's just say it didn't
go well… the scientist got calculations wrong and I was given green eyes"
"Um…" She said again "Who
was the scientist?" She asked
"That one, you will find
out another day… when I feel up to it" I replied, and I walked off
I sat down in a corner of
the room and started looking through the orbs, I didn't know what they meant or
what they did, but I was pretty sure I was going to find out. I noticed
however, that there were holes, or slots in my sword and even in the gun. 'This
is going to be a long ride' I thought to myself
Many Years Later
Zangan was reading a paper,
Holly had left, and Heichi had died a few weeks ago through old age, so it was
just me and him, I had figured out what the Materia does and I figured out what
they meant. I also had mastered them. My sword had been upgraded by putting
Diamond edges on each side, so it could chop through anything and my gun what
now an Auto-Shotgun! I walked up to him nervously, seeing what he was reading.
The title said 'Sephiroth Defeated – Avalanche win!' He seemed to be smiling at
this, and I continued to beat the crap out of Dummy "Rich" Zangan said, I
walked up to him
"Yes?" I asked
"I'm too old to train now;
I want you to take all the materia, and the weapons, and travel the world,
seeing what you see"
"Yes… okay" I said, quite
shocked about what he just said
"I also want you to find an
older Student of mine, you don't know her"
"What's her name?" I asked coldly
"Tifa, also, Holly should
be with them!" He replied
"Okay… I'll go and gather
my stuff together," I said, as I walked into the small room
I didn't know what he was
thinking, sending me out into the wilderness like this, but at least he was
giving me stuff, all the materia, and that was a lot, and the weapons, maybe he
wants me to train more people, maybe he wants me to sell them, I didn't know,
but I knew he wanted me gone. I started to put each materia orb into the
correct hole in my belt, and the weapons in a backpack I found earlier at the
entrance. I put the backpack on my shoulders, gathered my pride together and
walked out into the main room
I was shocked at what I
saw, the glass to the window had been smashed, and there was a tall man with a
very long blade. His blade held the remains of Zangan's Body, and I was utterly
shocked at him. I dropped the backpack, drew my sword, and stood in a battle
position! "Who are you?!" I said quickly
"You need not know my name"
He said, very coldly, I scowled at him "Let's just say, we will fight soon!" he
said as he ran off! I picked up my backpack and chased after him, but he was
gone, vanished without a trace. The town seemed to be lively with the annual
carnival going on; this is probably why it was so easy for me to lose him. I
sat down on one of the curbs, thinking to myself. I wondered why my master was
killed, what had he done to deserve this. I didn't know, but I wanted bitter
revenge for his death. I stood up once again and looked around at the crowd.
Then, out of the blue, one person caught my eye. His was male, around 5'9 and
has major whacked out blonde hair. I stared at his for a little while and
noticed a girl standing next to him, same height, but black hair and blue eyes.
I knew it wasn't holly, because she always had her hair done differently… but I
couldn't help myself. That guy looked like the one in the newspaper. I picked
up a newspaper that was nearby and looked at the picture. I was the same guy! I
read the article carefully
'Cloud Strife (32) has
defeated the one called Sephiroth!' so, it was the same guy who killed the guy.
I was shocked by it, but his eyes had the same glow as mine did… Green! I
looked at him very strangely, and cocked my head slightly, and started to walk
over to him, he seemed to have a lot of Friends and I looked at the newspaper
again.
'Tifa Lockhart and Cid
Highwind helped destroy the monster'
I looked at the girl and
saw the major resemblance to the photo and walked over with pride. He looked at
me, and I looked at him. "Cloud Strife, Correct?" I said at last
He looked at me "What if I
am?" he said back at me, I felt like he was challenging me
"I'm looking for a Girl
called Tifa Lockhart" I said coldly, my eyes twinkled with the green of Mako;
he looked at me very worried
"Who are you with?" He asked
"I'm with myself" I replied
"What's with the eyes?" He
shouted at me, I was taken back, but not defeated
"I was part of a Human
Experiment!" I shouted back, the crowds were gathering around us, I looked in
dismay.
"I don't trust you, prove
your worth!" he said, drawing his sword, the crowd stood back making a 20 meter
circle around us, I decided to use my hands, with my sword as back-up, he
looked kind of surprised at me, but that didn't hold him back
"Prepare to die!" he said,
charging at me
"I'm warning you not to
mess with me!" I said, going into a defensive position, Tifa looked stunned,
but I believed that she was with Cloud
I jumped up in the air and
jumped back down with agility and grace, Cloud turned around and took a slash
at my back, and I jumped backwards and ran back at him. Cloud jumped sideward
and slashed the side of my stomach, it hit and I stared at the blood, I wasn't
going to let him get away with this, so I stood up and a red aura surrounded
me. Cloud stood back quickly, seeing something he had never before seen in a
fight. "Now, my unpleasant friend, your turn!" I charged at him, and flew a
flurry of punches his way, he dodged them expertly, but I wasn't going to give
up there. I decided to use my limit break (same as Tifa's) and I ran up to him
once again.
I punched him three times,
and somersaulted his chest. He flew back again and I drew my sword. Our swords
looked exactly the same, huge swords, double-edged… I swiped at his chest, and
it connected, making the wound spew with blood. I felt sorry for him, beating
him like that wasn't fun and I thought I had to do something… I pulled out a
green materia and cast it upon him, he laid there for a bit, and stared into
space before getting up, and I scowled back at him and put my sword back. He
did the same.
"So, which one of you in
'Tifa'?" I said to them, Cloud looked at me blankly
"Why do you want to know?"
He asked, still in pain from the fight we just had… I stared around and noticed
that the crowds had gone back to the party
"I have a message, Zangan
sent it" Tifa suddenly popped her head out
"You know Zangan?" She
stared at me blankly and I smiled, which was quite rare
"Yeah, I know him, he
trained me…" I said with no emotion to my face
"Well then!" she started
"What's the message!"
"Well… um… it's not a
message, just an event" I said, lowering my head. Tifa figured out what I meant
and lowered her head also. It was quiet throughout the seven or eight people.
"Well, someone black cape killed him, really long sword too!" Cloud looked back
up quickly
"It's can't be!" He
shouted, I looked at him, cocking my head
"What can't it be?" I said
to him
"He's back!" He shouted,
before running of towards the big airship that had landed towards the center of
town
As Cloud was running towards the huge airship
that lay in the center of town, I wondered why has was. I know that they had
fought quite a lot of people in the past, but could this really be the same
guy? I shivered to myself as I fought my way through the crowds. I looked over
to the left, and saw there were some new people running after him with us. One
looked like a dog that was on fire, another was a huge brown guy, with a
gun-arm on his left hand. I looked at that arm and wondered what had happened
there, why he had it put in, in the first place. Again I shivered that the
thoughts that were going through my mind, then I had to concentrate harder on
my running, since the crowds were thickening up. I kept my head up, looking at
the ship and barged through the crowds.
After about ten minutes, I stood before the
airship. It was a sight to behold. The deck was about two hundred meters up,
and a small ladder was descended from it, I started to climb the ladder with
the other group, and another girl joined us. She had vibrant red hair, and a deep
brown color eyes. She looked like someone I had seen before, but I put the
ideas out of my head and continued climbing up the huge ladder.
As I reached the top, I climbed over the deck
and a man, middle aged was waiting, and I thought he was probably one of the
men who looked after the ship. I nodded to him, and he nodded back generally.
Everyone was up the ladder now, and the ship started to take off. I decided I
couldn't be of much use, so I stayed down on the deck, everyone else went
upstairs, probably into the cockpit to discuss something.
I looked up into the sky, I'd never been out of
the town, and it was a new experience to me, although I was strong, I was very
bad-tempered, which seemed to drive people away from me. I thought about
Zangan, and his death. The next person I have to find is Holly, but I had no
idea where to look. My Mako eyes twinkled in the sunlight, and my hand ached a
bit. I had a gut feeling that something has going to happen, but I didn't know
what.
Then suddenly, the Red haired girl came
downstairs onto the deck, and I looked over in her general direction. She was
quite thin, and had a good complexion, but she did look like someone I once
knew. Her eyes twinkled in the sunlight as mine were doing and she walked over
to me. I cocked my head a little bit, but continued on with my thinking. She
smiled at me and started to back off a little bit; I raised an eyebrow, but did
nothing. Then she ran at me, I had to be quick and jumped to the side. She
stood up again and stared, then walked over. I looked at her strangely, and
then she hugged me. A girl I didn't know was hugging me, what the hell was
wrong with the world, and then she backed off
"Welcome back Rich" she stated softly
"Do I know you? Who are you?" I asked
"You know me quite well" Her eyes flickered
"and my name, is Holly" I looked up suddenly. She had changed dramatically
since I saw her last.
"Hey! I like the hair!" I said
"Thank you…" She blushed "what are you doing
here anyway Rich?" She asked
"Well, has Tifa told you the bad news" I asked
"Yes she has, it's such a shame…" She trailed
off; I looked at her once again to see a tear in her eye
"Here, take this" I offered her a tissue and
she accepted, then on the Loud-speakers Can everyone please come to the
cockpit, I repeat, Can everyone please come to the cockpit I looked up at
the mega-phone and scowled
"Seems like Cloud wants us, come on!" She
nodded to me and we walked up the stairs.
We ran up many stairs and took a right and ran
up some more stairs and reached the cockpit, it looked very technical!
Computers and machines all over the place, I looked in awe at the amount of
machines that were here, and then Holly grabbed my attention. I looked over in
Cloud's direction
Cloud was standing at the front of the room
with Tifa's arms around him, he looked kind of confused. I giggled a bit and
smiled at the thought of Cloud and Tifa, Holly elbowed me in the gut and told
me to shut up, and I complied and rubbed my stomach, and listened to Cloud
"As you all my have gathered, Sephiroth is
back" He started, there were some 'hmms' "Well, we are going to kill him again,
and there will be two groups 3 people in each group, anyone who's not picked
will remain here or join another group" I smiled "Now, who wants to be the
other squad leader" No-one stood forward, so I did. Cloud looked at me and
nodded "Rich will be the other squad leader, you must listen to him"
I looked at everyone and smiled "I have some
weapons and stuff in my bag, if you want to borrow one of them, please do" I
said, everyone 'hmmed' again, I looked over to Cloud and he pointed to the
others "Pick 5" he said
"Okay, Holly, Cid and Vincent are with me" I
said, those people stood beside me
"Alright, Tifa, Barret and Nanaki are with me!"
he said, those people walked over to me
"Okay!" he started "Let's Mosey!" Cid scowled
at him and he corrected himself "Okay… let's move out!!!"
