Part 10 : Saving the World (again)?
"We're In Mortal Danger and everything... it's really boring."
"Tifa? You OK?"
"Ow... Yeah... I'm fine, just tripping on a rock here..."
Other than that, there hadn't been any obstacle, and there was no way of telling how far they'd walked. It was probably only a few metres, but it felt weird.
"Ow!" It was Yuffie again, half a minute later. "Hey, guys, I've hit a wall!"
"Ow," echoed Nanaki from the other end of the line a second later. "Me too."
"OK," said Cloud, "Then - move in together, towards the middle. That's where the way out is gonna be."
If there is one, Tifa couldn't help thinking.
Soon, Vincent, Barret, and Shera had all run into various bits of rock and they were now moving in three lines, hands on each other's shoulders, headed by Cid, Cloud and Tifa. But they were still moving forward, Tifa reflected, which was definitely a plus point. Possibly, this was some sort of a tunnel, and they were now walking along it, but no one seemed to want to say anything in case it ended any second.
"What's that?" said Red suddenly.
"What's what?"
"That... Light!"
"Where?"
"THERE!"
"O-oh, right..."
Red's eyes were more sensitive, but they all soon saw it. A tunnel, lit up in front of them. Light. Green. Light.
"...Lifestream..." breathed Cloud.
The others looked at him.
"Um..." said Barret. "It's a rock, Cloud."
Cloud, by the light of the greenly glowing rock, looked sheepish. "Sorry - I, um, just kinda thought - er, never mind."
"Anyway..." said Tifa, not sure whether to laugh.
"Phosperescence?" said Shera, and bent down to have a look at the rock.
"PhosphoWHAT?" asked Barret, "It's a rock, ain't it?"
"Phosperescence: the persistent emission of light following exposure to and removal of incident radiation."
Said Yuffie.
Tifa was glad to see by the eerie greenness that hers wasn't the only mouth that had just dropped open.
"...You feeling alright, Yuffie?" asked Cid.
"Hey!" she said indignantly, "What, you all think I'm an airhead or something? You think I don't know stuff? I'm allowed to know stuff about stuff, OK?"
"...OK..."
"Full of surprises," murmured Vincent, smiling.
"It's quite a strong glow..." said Shera, still examining the green.
Cid nodded, scientific interest aroused. "I guess it-"
"Guys," interuppted Barret, "It's a rock."
"We've heard," said Shera dryly, standing up.
"Then what are we doing standin' around starin' at it?"
"Nothing, nothing... alright, let's go..."
"Great," was Cloud's sarcastic comment.
Barret and Cid soon followed up with their own more colourful interpretations of irritation.
The tunnel had split into four, clearly visible by the now omnipresent green glow.
"It's not so bad..." said Tifa. "We can divide into the same groups as before, and use the PHS..."
Cloud shook his head. "We can't have two or three people fighting that thing - and the other groups could be miles away by the time anyone found it..."
"So whaddya we do?" asked Cid, starting to tap his spear impatiently.
"Just pick one and hope?" suggested Shera, hopelessly.
"No good. I just bet we'd miss it completely."
"Yeah, with our luck..."
Yuffie slumped against Vincent and started to make loud snoring noises. "Come on... sometime today, guys?" she yawned.
Cloud rounded on her. "Well what do you suggest?" he snapped.
"Geez, easy!" said Yuffie, trying to hide that his sudden outburst had kind of scared her. "OK... well... I suggest... um... does anyone have any chalk or something? Then we could mark the ways we go and use the PHS so someone could follow when we found it -"
"-that still involves some people alone against the monster-thing."
"I don't think we're gonna avoid that," she fired back.
"Look, look," said Shera, trying to by pacifying. "It's a good plan..."
"With one tiny flaw," said Barret. "We ain't got no chalk, idiot."
"OK, so maybe... we could unravel a jumper or something!" Yuffie continued eagerly.
Everyone stared at her and the knitted tanktop she was wearing.
"You volunteering, Yuff?" Cid asked.
"No! This is all I'm wearing, guys!" Then seeing Cid's mouth start to open. "Oh, just leave it, Cid! No, I'm not counting underwear, and yes I mean just on top. ...And they call me immature," she muttered as she sat down and started to snore again.
"...So much for that plan..." concluded Tifa, sighing. "Anyone else got any ideas?"
"Yes!" said Cait, bouncing up and down.
"What? You've got a plan?"
"No!"
"...What?"
"No, I mean, we're gonna do Yuffie's plan -"
"Alright!" yelled Yuffie jumping up again. "My plan rules!"
"...Yes, Yuffie."
"ANYWAY," said Cloud sternly. "Cait, what is it?"
"I've got these!" Revealed within his black paw were four wax crayons.
"OK, where the hell did you get those from?" Cid obviously couldn't help asking.
"The Golden Saucer! Y'know those colouring packs you give to the kids? ...Well, maybe you don't know... but I do cos I worked there!"
"Alright, alright!" Tifa was relieved, but was starting to wish like Yuffie that they could actually get on with it. "So we give out a crayon each to the groups, split up and call on the PHS with our colour to follow if any of us see the monster?"
"Right," nodded Cloud. "And - DON'T actually get into a fight with it if you can possibly help it until everyone else arrives."
"Got it. Can we GO now?"
"...Yes... Right, take a crayon each."
"I want yellow!"
"OK, Yuffie can have the yellow one..."
So Yuffie grabbed the yellow (Vincent actually was asleep and so didn't object), Tifa the red one for Cloud and herself, Cid and Shera the blue one - which left Red, Cait and Barret with:
"PINK?" yelled Barret, causing the most spectacular echo effect yet. "No £ing way am I using a £(ing PINK crayon!"
Tifa tried not to giggle. Yuffie didn't try.
"Shut up! Aw, c'mon, someone's gotta swop with me... Tifa? Pwease?"
"Well, Oka-" began Tifa, heart softening to Barret's obvious agony.
"No!" Cloud suddenly held onto the red crayon for dear life. "I don't want a pink crayon!" he hissed.
"That is SO £&ing immature Cloud!" sighed Cid. "Just take the damn crayon already!"
"Hey! WHY is everyone siding against me?"
"We're not ALL -" began Tifa, only to be cut off by -
"Well..." began Yuffie, relishing the moment. "If you want a list, I could -"
"No!" said Cloud hurriedly. He sighed, very heavily. "Fine," he said after a moment of intense inner struggle, "I'll take the pink crayon. And I'm only doing this because I'm a good leader and want what's best for the group in general!"
"Sure."
"Well, what else -"
"SHUT UP!" Barret's gun-arm looked very threatening, the way he was waving it around crazily. "Let's GO already!"
"Um... Vincent, how long has this tunnel thing been going?" Yuffie asked, as not-nervously as she could manage.
"I'm not sure," Vincent said, continuing to dot yellow marks along the wall.
"That's helpful."
"Sorry."
Yuffie sighed. "You know something? This is actually getting boring now. Considering that we're trying to Save The World Again, and we're In Mortal Danger and everything... it's really boring."
"Well.. we're probably nearly there by now."
"Nearly where?"
"Um..." said Vincent, thinking fast, and eventually coming with the wonderful: "I don't know. Er... wherever the Thing's got to, I suppose."
"That's... good... I guess..."
They kept walking.
"Are we there yet?"
"...No."
"Are we there yet?"
"...No."
"Are we there yet?"
"...No."
"...I'm bored."
"Yeah, I noticed."
"Are you bored?"
"...No,"
"You're lying," Yuffie announced conclusively. "You're just bored out of your messed-up mind, but you don't wanna say anything cos you'll offend me!"
"Well, actually-"
"And because you know that I am armed and dangerous if I get offended!"
"-that's exactly it," he said hurriedly.
"So you are bored!"
"...Did I say that?"
"Yes!"
"Oh. Er, I'm very confused now."
"Haha!"
Vincent couldn't help chuckling slightly too. "Yuffie, I'm not bored now. I think it's physically impossible to be bored in your presence."
"Is that a compliment?" she demanded.
"You could take it as one, I suppose."
"OK, I will!"
"...This is a very odd conversation," Vincent observed solemnly.
"Yeah. Umm... what were we talking about?"
"...I'm not a hundred percent sure..."
"Hmmmm... I know! Let's talk about materia!"
Vincent's laugh echoed a bit freakily off the walls, so they engaged their next ten minutes seeing who could do the evillest laugh.
In the the end, it was Yuffie with her unbeatable "Nyuk nyuk nyuk!"
...okey day, that's it for now! I would love you to leave a review!
