The Bandits, Chapter 13

Tension Between Girlfriends

Michele's POV

This has got to be the worst days I've ever had. Living in my basement for a week while everything and everyone I've ever known was destroyed. But then Perry showed up. I thought he was long dead, but he proved me wrong. His friends seem nice, even though they are scaring me. Its like they were from a video game or something. Well at least I slept well.

I woke up around the airship that they all came here on. Everyone seemed to be asleep. I didn't see Tifa anywhere though. "Morning." a voice said from behind me. I was startled to find Tifa was there. "Don't scare me like that." I said holding my hand to my heart. "Sorry, but you should get used to surprises. Our journey is just full of them. Now the reason I'm here is to offer you something." She said. "Offer me what?" I asked nervously. "Training. Just cause you have materia and a weapon doesn't mean you can defend yourself properly." She told me.

I agreed to her proposal and followed her to the back of the ship once again. "I warn you though, this might hurt you a little bit." She warned me. "I'll try. I mean if I'm coming with you guys I'm going to have to endure a little pain." I told her putting my fists up. "Good. At least you realize the danger. Now come at me." She said raising her own fists in the air.

We trained until the rest of the group came back to watch us. I was tired but it felt rewarding. I could at least defend myself properly according to Tifa. "How long have you two been up?" Cloud asked us. "I think a couple of hours. We were just practicing." Tifa explained to everyone. "Smart idea. Michele needs some help. Speaking of which." Perry said walking up to me. "Take this. Just think about using it and it'll happen." He said taking my hand and placing a green orb in it. "What's this?" I asked. "Materia." Yuffie told me. "Where do we go now? And how do we get there? We have no airship." Aeris brought up.

"See. Ol' Cid came prepared. Last night I checked the ship and the emergency ship was still functional." The older blonde told us. I didn't like how he smoked around us. "Emergency ship?" the girl with the long hair asked. "I made a slightly smaller airship that fits inside the larger one. It's like the Highwind after we left the Northern Crater." He told us. Of course I didn't have a damn idea what they were talking about.

"We shouldn't talk like this in front of Michele. She doesn't know about anything we've all been through." Perry said. "Yeah. I'm a new person here." I told them all. "Get used to it. This won't be a walk in the park." The little girl said. "So what!? I just wanna help out Perry okay!" I yelled. "Just me?" Perry asked. "Well I don't know anybody else so why not? And you're the one in real trouble anyway." I said to him.

Yuffie's POV

This Michele girl is beginning to piss me off. I can tell that she has feelings for Perry but I won't let that happen. He didn't endure my father's tests just to give me up! I won't let it happen.

"But where do we head? Aeris brings up a good point." Cloud pointed out. "Well I don't know much about what's happening but I heard over the radio while I was hiding that there was some odd city that was being built. I don't know much about it." Michele told us.

"Oho!" Hazel said. "What?" Barret asked. "Oho. Hester was planning to create her own city that dwarfed New Midgar is size and power. She must be building it here. We can't let this happen." Hazel went on.

"But it takes forever to build a city. She can't make one by then." Michele said. "I wouldn't be too sure about that. Hester can produce millions of soldiers and she possesses the technology to do it with. Where we come from cities are built in weeks. Just enough time." She said. That little girl was so smart sometimes.

"Well why don't we go there and kill the bitch?" I shouted. "Yuffie has a point. We can fly in and then find her and end this." Perry said agreeing with me. I walked over to him and leaded against him, just to give Michele the message that she can't have him.

Cloud's POV

For once, Yuffie has a good idea coming out of that head of hers. "Let's prepare ourselves before we leave." I recommended. "Good plan. Give Michele some HP Plus." Perry said. "Why?" Yuffie asked him. "Her vitality must be way lower than ours so she'll need a boost." He explained. Yuffie seemed to be getting jealous of Michele. Doesn't she have faith in her boyfriend?

We all checked our equipment and Cid prepared the Backup Ship. It looked very similar to the Highwind we used after killing Sephiroth. Once airborne we began to search Perry's planet for this Oho.

"Where do you suppose we find this place?" I asked Cid. "No clue. But we'll keep looking. Sonar is tracking for any large cities." He said guiding the ship.

Looking out the window I saw something that made New Midgar jealous. It was about the size of seven Midgar's all stacked together. "Would this be it?" I asked Hazel. "It must be. No city on this planet looks like that." Michele burst in. "How do we land?" I asked our pilot. "We can sneak in through here and pray they don't expect us." Cid told us.

The ship began to head for the large city. We landed at a docking bay but once we exited the ship soldiers began to pour out from the entrance to the city.

"Company!" I shouted to everyone drawing my Ultima Weapon.

Aeris' POV

I drew my Revolvers and shot at one guard killing him instantly, they soon surrounded Michele, but she threw one of them and knocked down the rest. Tifa is a good teacher. We must have taken out around a hundred of them. Then some strange looking robots flew from below and fired some kind of beams at us. We were caught.

Yuffie's POV

We got caught already? Doesn't this suck? Not only that I was in the same cell as Michele. Well I'd be sure to give her something to talk about.

"These guys are rough! Do you guys go through this often?" she asked me. "Yeah. Don't know why you wanted to come with us anyway." I told her back. "I wanted to help. That strange lady took everything from me too, ya know." She explained to me.

After a few minutes of silence she spoke up again. "So, how long have you and Perry been together?" she asked. "Does it matter?" I snapped at her. "I'm just curious. He's always been lonely. I ignored it though." She said. "Three years." I told her. "That's nice to hear. I was starting to like him just before he left." She said sitting on one of the beds. "Stop talking about him!" I screamed at her.

"What?" she said almost falling off the bed. "Don't try and take him from me!" I shouted. "I don't really want to take him. I just like him that's all." She told me. I wasn't buying this crap. "Well just stay away from him." I told her. "What's your problem? I don't see what you're so afraid of." She asked. This was a topic I didn't like discussing.

"Well if you must know I'm afraid to lose him." I said calming down. "Afraid?" Michele asked me. "You see. I'm like him. I looked for a boyfriend around my town for years. My father kept getting in the way. Training myself was all I had. Then I left town one day to find Materia. Maybe if I had tons of materia boys might like me more. Even if it was only because of the materia I'd still be happy." I continued.

"Oh, I'm so sorry Yuffie." She said standing. "You see if I lost Perry, who else would take me?" I said. "I'm sorry you feel that way. But please understand. Perry is my friend but I won't get in your way." She told me. "Thanks for understanding. Normally I'd just take your materia at this point and run, but I'm starting to like you." I said grinning.

We spend about a day in this cell then we were all brought out to be executed.

Perry's POV

How many times have I been captured like this? Too many if you ask me. If this capture is anything like the last ones then I'll be alive and well.

"Welcome!" Hester shouted from atop a podium. "What do you want?" I shouted. "I already have this world at my mercy. They had no way to stop me from unleashing my supreme weapon!" she said looking to the sky. "Whatever it is we'll stop it!" Michele shouted at her. "Who would you be?" Hester asked her. "Someone you robbed everything from!" she retorted.

"Oh, you must have survived one of my attacks on this world. Well you sure have picked the wrong side to be on." Hester said laughing. "She's on the best side in the world! Besides who's on your side. A bunch of second rate clones of a man we killed about three times." I yelled.

"In any rate you will all be executed. The charge, treason against Siren Corporation." She said signaling the guards to take us away.

I was in a gas chamber similar to the one Tifa and I was in three years ago. Only it was Michele and I in it.

Only one chair. She was on my lap as we were both strapped down tightly.

"We can get out of this one, right?" she said sounding very worried about both of us. "I certainly hope so. I mean I'm not letting Hester have her own way." I told her hearing gas spew in from all sides. "Do something!" she yelled to me. I know my telepathy isn't very strong but I tried as hard as I could to break Michele's strap free. Concentrating I managed to loosen it a bit.

"Michele, try and free your arm. I can't hold it open much longer." I told her straining my brain. She managed to get her left arm free. I was exhausted from holding open steel. She quickly freed her arm from the other side and then she freed me. "How do we turn it off?" she coughed. I looked out the door and saw the switch outside. With my last ounce of strength I turned it off with my mind. I collapsed to the floor after the hissing of poisonous gas stopped.

"You okay?" she asked catching me. "I'll be okay in awhile. It was a large strain on my mind." I told her smiling a bit. "Don't scare me like that! But we're both alive thanks to you. I owe you my life twice." She said. "You don't owe me a thing." I told her. Then the door opened and everyone else was there.

"What happened to you two?" Barret asked crossing his arms. "He saved us from certain death." Michele explained to him. "How? There was like no key or anything this time around." Tifa said noticing no key around the place. "I used my mind to free us. I've been practicing it lately." I told everyone still leaning heavily on Michele. "Mind?" Nanaki asked. "Like when I use my Double Team Limit Break. I control the sword with my thoughts so I figured I could do it with anything else." I told my friend.

"Perry, you really have gotten much cooler since you left here." Michele said giggling. "But people wait. We should find a way to destroy this whole city first." I suggested. "We've been working on that. But there are millions of people being held captive here. Plus they stole Highwind II and have kept it here." Cait Sith began. "So?" "We need to free these people and then escape on the Highwind. That's our primary goal. Need payment?" Reeve offered. "I think destroying Hester's dreams is payment enough for the Bandits this time around." I told him. "Bandits?" Michele asked confused about the FF7 world as you'd expect her to be. "It's our business. We're like mercenaries. Yuffie, sis, and I." I told her. "Well how do we destroy this city and warn the people all at once?" Cloud asked Reeve. "There is a main reactor that powers every part of the city. If we manage to overload it than the city will begin to burn down from the heat and destruction. We can access the citywide intercom and warn all the captive people. There should be enough escape vessels for them all. Hester built them so she would never lose them." Cait Sith said.

"How do you know all this?" Yuffie asked. "I hacked into her data base once I escaped. They can't destroy a stuffed doll anyway." He said laughing from the other end. "I'm still surprised you can still communicate from Midgar." Cid said scratching his brow. "I took a piece of the Otherworld and placed it in the receiver. It should work fine from any distance now." He explained further. "Makes sense. But let's get to work people. We should split into two groups. One overloads the reactor and the other concentrates on freeing the slaves. Agreed?" I asked everyone. "Got it!" they all said in unison.

We split in to Cloud, Barret, Cid, Tifa, Aeris, Yuffie, and Michele for the captives and Vincent, Cait Sith, Hazel, Nanaki, and me going to the reactor. This would be our last mission as Bandits. Once this is over I think a LONG vacation is in order.