With the mountains behind them, they had only one way to go. And that was across the strait.
"So Gary, you wouldn't happen to have another trick under your sleeve that could get us out of this mess, could you?" Jason jokingly inquired.
"Surprisingly enough," the team looked at him, "...I don't." He grinned back at the annoyed faces.
"We have to cross the strait. Just look at the map." Jason unfurled it for all to gander at.
"Yeah, look at it." Gary pointed at the x that was Wutai. "This used to be a detailed drawing of Wutai. Now it's just an x. What's going on here?"
"Magic." Megan gasped.
"Yeah, but who's controlling the power that regulates it?" Gary asked.
"This is an interesting dilemna, huh?" asked Harold. Buffie suddenly froze.
A whisper escaped her lips. "We're being watched. He's in the trees right behind me. I knew that I'd heard someone else, but I ignored it. But now I'm sure there's someone there..."
Harold cocked his gun, getting ready for a confrontation. Suddenly he appeared above the trees. His lance at the ready. He came flying down upon the party. Jason unsheathed his giant sword in preparation for the fight. He had always favored this sword of Aeris'. It was a huge sword that was nearly one and a half meters long, but it's amazing factor was not the length, but the depth of the blade. It was nearly 40 cm deep at the hilt and it extended out for about a meter until it tapered at the end creating a fine point. The blade was kept extremely sharp. It was also rumored to be nearly 500 years old. But the ancient steel still shone like new in the noonday sun.
The assailant was nearly upon them now. The clash of the steel resounded against the cliff faces around them as the lance and sword met. The lance's course towards Jason's heart was now averted to his hips. Jason was not quick enough to dodge the strike.
It didn't connect. Jason sidestepped in haste as the lance ripped off his materia pouch scattering all the loose materia he had. A red orb glimmered in the sunlight. Jason's eye didn't catch it, but Buffie's did. Apparently, so did the thief's. He dove for it as Buffie fired her shuriken at the thief's hand. It missed its mark by mere centimeters. The thief reeled his hand back, as Buffie ripped her shuriken back, with the wire it was attached to. She stared him down, shaking her head. "Nuh-uh."
The party was now surrounding the thief. He may have been able to jump into this mess, but he wasn't going to get out of this.
"What do you want?" Jason asked, furious on the attempt at his life.
"Actually, some gil would be nice." The thief smiled.
"Yeah, right. You nearly kill our leader and you expect some gil in return." Megan was ready to take on this crazy guy. Who did he think he was?
"Well, I didn't kill him, did I?"
"I deflected that shot. You missed my heart."
"But apparently someone didn't miss your brain. The pouch wasmy target. I let you read that move from the moment I jumped." This took Jason a second to process.
"Are you saying that you let me win?"
"Duh, fool. You're lucky you have an experienced thief or I would have gotten away with your Ifrit summon."
Gary gawked at him. "How do you know it's an Ifrit summon?"
"I got within 10 centimeters of the stone didn't I?" The thief now had his back on Jason. Jason motioned to Buffie to try and rope the materia. With Buffie's attention averted, the thief cartwheeled over to the materia and grabed it.
"Ha!" He began to leap until Gary's staff knocked the lance out from under him.
"I don't think so." Buffie and Harold readied their weapons waiting for the thief to move.
"Alright, let me cut you guys a deal. I know that you're trying to get across the Wutai strait. You know that I want this materia. I'll help you get to where you're going if you give me this materia."
"No deal." Jason said. "I owe you a good beating. You can't expect to surprise someone and then call yourself a superior fighter."
At this the thief smiled. "So you want a duel? What are you willing to wager on it?"
"If you win, you take our materia. Both the one you have now, and one of the ones lying here in the sand. Your choice. But in return you give us that help across. But if I win, I take back my summon, and you give us that help across, to the Western continent."
"Deal."
"Alright guys, no funny moves. Harold, if he tries to escape before the battle is over, take him down. Buffie, the same goes for you." Harold and Buffie both nodded.
"You think that a punk such as yourself can beat me? I cna't wait to see this."
"Let's just go!" Jason dashed at the thief. He had already drawn his sword and it was above his head, ready to strike. He brought it down into the lance. The thief deflected Jason's shot and smiled. He had this grin, as if he was just toying with Jason. The materia, now imbedded in his weapon, was glowing a bright red. He jumped back as a giant hole opened up in the earth. Jason jumped back. From the depths came a great demon. Its long horns and fierce teeth were nothing compareed to its flaming breath and intimidating claws. The great demon roared menacingly and stared at its opponent. He breathed out a little, the fire escaping his lips surrounding his head until he decided to fly towards Jason could only proect his face with his sword as the beast ripped towards him, leaving a path of fire in the sand behind him.
When the beast disappeared, all that was left were trails of glass where the fire had lit the sand, and Jason, his blonde spiky hair a little singed, and his body covered in burns. His blue eyes stared defiantly back at the thief, "Is that all you got?"
The thief dashed towards Jason, a little mifed that the boy had withstood the attack. Jason, a little weary form the attack managed to send his own summon. He leapt up high, as the chocobo dashed at the thief. The mog on its back screamed in joy as the thief halted. He couldn't even stop before the chocobo crashed into him, head on. The mog fell off, and wobbled around a bit until the chocobo picked him up in his beak and threw him back on its back, riding off, back into the woods.
The thief shook off any feeling of paralysis that the chocobo could have left him. Suddenly JAson hit the ground, the three pieces of materia near him flew into the air. The thief ignored them, but Jason watched the yellow one land. The thief smiled. "Time for a little taste of..." Jason began dashing towads the spot. "my POWER!" A green materia lit in his bangle. "CONFUSION!!!" The wispy spell hit Jason squarely in the side of the head. He reeled back, trying to figure his bearings, it was difficult with the whole world spinning around him. The thief stood a moment, and then leapt at Jason. He cut along the side of him as Jason swayed out of the way. The hit threw the thief off balance as he fell over.
The pain snapped Jason back into reality. It wasn't a deep cut, but it had sliced a large part of his side. Jason leapt for the materia as he reached to dislodge the summon materia that was now spent inside his sword.
The thief wasn't going to let his enemy just lie there. As soon as he got up he fired at Jason. "ICE!!!" A block of ice began to form around Jason. It's biting cold chilled him to the bone. He shattered the block, but not before he had begun to feel it drain his power. He dashed at the thief who was trying to gather his thoughts after the spell. The thief couldn't lift up his lance, so instead he kicked up sand in front of him to obscure Jason's view. From inside the sand cloud the party heard both the thief and Jason yell at the same time.
When the dust settled the lance was lying on the ground next to the kneeling thief. His screams of pain had now dulled to a heavy breathing through his teeth. Megan looked at him. Jason couldn't have inflicted that much damage with just one attack. The thief seemed to defy Megan's thoughts as he keeled over, onto his back revealing two large slices to his shins. Jason smiled a this handiwork. The double cut materia had worked. There were two slices along the thief's knees, running in opposite slants.
The thief pulled out the Ifrit materia, and threw it at Jason. "Amazing fucking blow kid." Then he passed out.
--------------------------------------
"We're going to cross in that thing?"
"You have a better suggestion, Megan? I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that I'm the one who can captain this ship, not you. I mean, I do have a little experience on the high seas, where you don't."
Jason grinned and continued to sharpen his blade. Megan must have woken up oin the wrong side of the bed. She was happy that we had finally finished the boat last night, but I guess that her temperment was acting up again, because she was really trying to give it to Mac this time.
"Alright, would you two cut it out. If you start fighting now I don't want to know what it'll be like on the trip."
"I'm going to have to agree," piped in Harold who had momentarily put his gun cleaning on hold, "If you two don't shut your mouths I'm going to be forced to shut them for you." He didn't even wait for a response to go back to cleaning his gun.
The team was basically silent, except for an explanation or two from Mac about what to bring and what not to. By mid-morning they had successfully packed and stored everything on their humble craft. Mac smiled and shook his head as they launched the small craft. It wasn't his best work, but it would get them across the strait. And the weather felt perfect for a small two-day crossing. These were interesting kids, but that Jason had a fire in him that wasn't going to be extinguished easily. This was going to make for an interesting journey.