A/N: Wow, I know it's been a LONG time since I last updated this story, but school is
finally over, and I have time to write. This is one story I've always felt the need to finish
because I have so many ideas for it! Okay, this chapter deals more with the plot. Enjoy!

## Red's POV ##

Bruce decided to take us to his house after we ate. He led us to his car in a parking
garage. His car did not look like the others on the streets. His was more technologically
advanced. It was also a smooth red color. Much lighter than my coat. Of course, the
others gawked at this piece of equipment.

"Where the $#% you get somethin' as fine as this?!" Carter exclaimed, eyes bulging. "Even
my car is not as hot as this!" Carter got in the front passenger seat and proceeded to look
at the shiny buttons in Bruce's car. "You must have a bangin' stereo system!"

"Yes, it's pretty loud...just the way I like it," Bruce commented, looking at Tifa and Yuffie
when he added the last part of his sentence. The girls giggled. Bruce got into his car and
gave a demonstration of how his car and his stereo system worked. Bruce pressed a
couple of buttons and from the rear-view windows CD-sized speakers popped out. There
were also speakers in the back and front of the car for everyone's enjoyment. "Now, these
speakers may look small, but they pack a lot of sound."

"C-Can I?" Carter asked, switching glances between Bruce and the on/off button for the
stereo system.

"If you must," Bruce said reluctantly. Carter pressed the button and almost immediately a
loud racket blasted through the speakers. Everyone outside of the car was literally blown
away by the speakers.

"Turn it off!" I yelled over the music. "It's hurting my ultrasensitive ears!" I yipped a couple of times before Carter finally got the message to turn the music off.

"Heh heh," Carter said as he turned the music off. "Sorry to those of you who could not
handle it. I thought it was great! Good job, Bruce," Carter said, patting Bruce on the back.
"Good job."

"Thanks," Bruce replied. "Now, if it's not too much trouble, could the rest of you pack
into the car so we can go to my house?"

"Oh, no problem," Cid volunteered. He proceeded to get everyone in the car with the
most comfortable fit, seeing as how the car was only supposed to seat five people and we
had seven. I figure he must have had to fit many people on the Highwind on occasion and
knew what he was doing, so I went along with it. Once everyone was properly situated,
we started off for Bruce's house. After about twenty minutes we arrived in his
neighborhood. All of the houses were very big. I'd never seen houses that big in my life.
They were very tall and very wide. The designs of the houses were beautiful, too. No one
house looked like another. It was a sight to behold.

"Wow," Tifa breathed. "These houses are gorgeous. Back in the slums NOTHING looks
like these houses."

"Forward in the future, NOTHING looks like this!" Barrett whispered. We all laughed and
continued to gaze at the sight before us. Not too long afterward we arrived at Bruce's
residence...if you can even call it that. It was a mansion!

"Bruce," I started, "your home is incredible!"

"Daaaaang," Carter and Barrett said at the same time.

"Gor-geous!" Tifa breathed again. A wide smile came across her face and she turned
around. "You must have a pretty happy Mrs. at home!"

Bruce laughed and shook his head. "Well, I do. You may see her in there
unless she got held back at work." Bruce began to get out of the car and we did the same.
"So, then," Tifa began, " why were you flirting with Yuffie and me?" Tifa grinned evilly
with folded arms.

"I can't trust anyone anymore, so I pretend I live another life outside of my home," Bruce
replied. He began to lead everyone up to the front steps. "But since I brought you to my
house I guess I can't do that anymore, can I? I just have to hope you guys aren't going to
turn on me."

"You're willing to take that risk?" Yuffie asked.

"You bet I am," Bruce quickly replied, turning around to face us. With your fighting
skills, my knowledge, and an enemy like Prizmle, I'm almost ready to trust anyone who
will fight with me against him."

"Well," Barrett started, " you can trust us."

"Without a doubt, man," Carter added.

"Thanks," Bruce said. He turned around to unlock the door. He opened the door and we
all walked in. Everyone gasped at the sight in front of them. The floors were marble. The
walls were holy white. In front of me was a winding staircase with a statue at the top.
Bruce gave us a tour of the first floor, which consisted of a kitchen, laundry room, living
room, dining room, and game room. At the top of the stairs was a statue of two people. It
looked as if one was on a knee and holding something up to the other.

"What is this a statue of exactly?" I asked. Bruce hesitated and then blushed. He looked
down as he explained the statue was him proposing to his wife, Shannon.

"Oh my gosh," Tifa squealed, covering her mouth. "That is so romantic!" She punched
Bruce lightly in the arm. Bruce just smiled and gave us the rest of the tour. On the second
level were four bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a balcony that overlooked the swimming
pool in the backyard.

"Now that you've had the grand tour," Bruce said, "let's get down to business." Bruce led
everyone back downstairs and into his basement. This was were Bruce held all of his
weaponry. We all looked around, very interested in that this time period had to offer.
Yuffie was particularily excited. Bruce had much armor, swords, and guns, but I didn't see
any potions or materia.

"Where do you keep all of your materia?" I asked.

"Materia?" Bruce asked, cocking one eye. Everyone stopped what they were doing and
turned to look at Bruce. Bruce just shook his head. "Should I know what that is?" Yuffie
looked as if she had just seen a ghost.

"Materia?" Yuffie said, walking over to Bruce. "You know, MP Plus? Enemy Lure? Sneak
Attack? Materia!" Yuffie was looking desperate.

"Sorry," Bruce shrugged. "I don't have any materia." Yuffie fainted. Everyone looked
worried because we could each only carry so much materia at a time. We all checked for
what materia we brought with us and put them in a pile. We had five revive materias, a
transform materia, a sense materia, two steal materias, a poison materia, a luck plus, a
speed plus, and three enemy skill materias. It was an odd bunch, but they would have to
do for the time being. They could become helpful in the final battle between Prizmle and
AVALANCHE. We equipped ourselves with the materia we felt we needed for the battle,
whenever that prime battle was to occur. Bruce was given a revive materia along with an
enemy skill materia. We figured he'd be able to use one of Prizmle's skills during battle.
We hoped Cloud was holding on his own with whatever materia he had with him.

"Okay," Yuffie finally said, "problem solved." She smiled as if she had accomplished
something huge. We all continued to look around. I came across a sword in a holding case
with a light shining on it. It was a big sword, but not nearly as big as Sephiroth's
masamune.

"Bruce," I began, "what is so significant about this sword?" Bruce walked over to me and
looked at the sword for a moment. He then looked down. "Is something wrong?" I asked.

"No," he replied. "I was just thinking about the last time I used this sword."

"When was the last time you used this sword?" I inquired.

Bruce hesitated for a moment. "With Prizmle..." he took another pause. "...Against
Shanrya." Everyone turned around at this piece of information. They all walked over to
Bruce and me to look at the sword.

"Would you mind telling us about it?" I asked. Bruce nodded.

"As you know," Bruce started, "Prizmle and I were friends. He got involved with Shanrya
while we were in college. I was his only friend and he wanted to feel like he belonged
somewhere because I was dating Shannon at the time and wasn't always there to hang out
with him. Shanrya gave him somewhere to belong. He didn't make friends, he made
partners...and after a while he wouldn't do anything unless it was for his partners. Our
friendship took a back seat in his eyes, but I was growing more worried as the months
went on. Finally, in our junior year I was really starting to get on him about the gang. He
didn't look healthy anymore. He had bags under his hazel eyes." Everyone looked at each
other.

"Brown eyes?" Tifa asked. "I thought he had green eyes."

"Before he was infused with mako, he had hazel eyes, brown hair, and he was about Cid's
height," Bruce explained.

"Oh, okay," Tifa said. "Please continue."

"Thank you," Bruce replied. "Anyway, I guess my badgering finally got to him because
around Christmas time that year, Prizmle came to me. He wanted my help. Shanrya was
getting him in so deep that he was afraid he wouldn't be able to get out. I agreed to help
him if he promised to leave the group alone. He swore that he would..." Bruce hesitated a
moment. "The next day," Bruce began again, "we made plans to fight Shanrya and get
them to leave him alone. A couple of weeks later we had our chance to fight. Shanrya had
come to campus to find out why Prizmle hadn't been at meetings. 'Are you blowing us
off?' one of them asked Prizmle. Prizmle said he had had enough. He wasn't going to be
one of them anymore. Then the fight began. One of the men started in on Prizmle, and I
unsheathed this sword. I beheaded a couple of them and stabbed some others. I used my
karate skills to knock out some more, you know, fight, fight, fight. The details aren't
important. What happened after both of us fought off almost all of them is the important
part." Bruce hesitated again.

"So," Carter said, "bring it on! I'm too anxious for you to just stop there!"

"Sorry..." Bruce apologized. "It's just kind of unbelievable what happened next."

"Don't interrupt!" Yuffie hissed at Carter.

"One of the Shanrya employees, I guess the leader of the pack, got angry when we were
winning," Bruce explained. "He started yelling things at his men about how weak they
were and the boss wouldn't be happy with their fighting that day. Then he looked at
Prizmle and smiled real evilly...like he knew something we didn't. And he did. And he told
us. 'Prizmle,' he said. 'Prizmle, Prizmle. You don't know why we're following up on you
do, you?' Prizmle didn't. 'Usually, when someone bails out on us we just find him and kill
him, but you're different. I'm sure you know that by now.' Prizmle didn't. 'You're not like
the other men. You're unique. The average gang member is a regular human. Do you
follow?' Once again, Prizmle didn't. 'You're not the average human, Prizmle. You have
strengths like no other. Haven't you noticed how easily you can slay many people with one
blow?' Prizmle said he did know, actually. He hadn't really thought about it. He just
thought fighting was something that was in his blood. 'That's right,' the soldier said. 'It is in
your blood. It's been proven that your father had abnormal strengths like you.' Prizmle
didn't believe him. 'Shall I prove it to you?' the soldier asked. Prizmle wanted proof. 'Your
friend here,' the solder said, pointing to me. 'Would you say he is an excellent fighter?
Prizmle said I was. 'Then let's put the two of you to a little test, hmm?' He looked to the
rest of his men. 'Prizmle and friend, you'll each take on ten of my remaining men. If
Prizmle dies, finishes at the same time or after his friend, then Shanrya will leave you
alone. We took the test. I was so busy fighting my ten, I almost didn't hear Prizmle yelling
that he had already finished. 'Prizmle is done,' the employee said with satisfaction. I
whipped around. I couldn't believe it. Prizmle was looking around him in disbelief. He said
it was luck. 'Finishing your opponents in less than fifteen seconds is hardly luck,' the
employee countered. I looked over to Prizmle. Could it have been true? Why hadn't I
known what he was capable of earlier? We had taken karate classes in grade school, and I
never saw ANY of that! Prizmle was so angry that this was true that he started to
shake...like, REALLY started to shake. I thought he was about to simultaneously combust
or something. Little did I know what would happen next. He jumped up into the air and
spun around. He created this yellow wave-thing around him and arched his back back. The
wave-thing sped up around him and he leaned forward, spinning towards the employee.
He hit the employee, killing him and the remaining members with him. The damage was
pretty bad within a hundred feet radius. Everything was pretty much scorched. I found
myself on the ground rolling in the dirt to get the flames off of me. I blacked out. I found
myself in a hospital room the next morning. Prizmle told me he had gotten me there when
he saw the damage he did to me. He apologized countless times and explained how he had
no idea he could do that. I told him I'd be fine in a while, and in the meantime he should
work out a plan for us to leave the state. He did, and within a few weeks, we were on our
way to North Carolina. That's about it for that story." Bruce held the sword in his arms
and swung it a few times, as if to remember the fight.

"That's quite a story," I remarked.

"Man," Carter said. He looked like he was in disbelief. "It's amazing how your views of
life can change in a matter of days!"

"I know this is a lot for you to handle Carter," Bruce told him. "It's hard for me, too. We
just have to keep an open mind and go with the flow."

"Aight...I can go with the flow." Carter replied.

"All that listening has made me tired," Barrett commented after a moment of silence.

"Shall I show you to your rooms?" Bruce asked.

"Yes, please," everyone answered. Bruce led us to the second level and we all paired off
into bedrooms. I don't know what everyone did before they went to bed, but I'm almost
positive they were all replaying the story in their heads.

A/N: Yay! Another chapter completed! Please review and I'll put the next chapter up in
a few days or sooner (depending on if I get reviews!!).