MARLBORO COUNTRY



"Ugh.." Jeremey said as he pushed his empty plate away. I'm not feeling to well now.." He looked around the small restaurant and sighed. The fading wallpaper was decorated with green and blue flowers. Jeremey didn't like eating here, he always ordered the food to go. But tonight he was in no condition to order his food to go. He went into the restroom to inspect his injuries. He had a long, thin bruise on his side from crashing into the road sign, a boot-shaped bruise on his stomach where Sephiroth had kicked him, and a big bruise on his back where he had crashed into the tree.

"Shat.." Jeremey said as he examined them, "I'ma be hurting for a while.." He poked the bruise on his stomach and grimaced in pain. He pulled his shirt back down and walked out of the shabby-looking restroom shuddering. Jeremey despised unsanitary places or people; they disgusted him.

Jeremey walked back to his booth and sat down looking at his friends. Justin was still munching eagerly on his cheeseburger, while Petey and Kaylie sipped on their drinks. The door to the restaurant opened and Jeremey turned to see who was entering. He smiled as he recognized the face of another friend, Wesley.

"Wesley, get over here." He motioned his hand toward the booth, "How you doin? You come in here to get some food too?" Wesley was about five-foot five-inches tall and had medium length dirty blonde hair and olive green eyes. Like everybody else at the booth, he had a short temper and had a great sense of humor; he also was a big Final Fantasy fan.

"Just roaming man." Wesley said as he sat down beside Jeremey. "Oh yeah, check this out." He held up his hands to reveal black leather weight-lifting gloves with a steel plate on the knuckles. The steel was about a quarter-inch thick, and was oddly pliable. Jeremey raised an eyebrow.

"Aren't these..?" Jeremey's voice trailed off as he looked the gloves over. Wesley smiled.

"Zell's gloves from Final Fantasy 8." Wesley finished the sentence for him. Justin looked over to Wesley.

"Another one?" He asked before looking at the last little chunk of his burger. He wanted to eat it, but his stomach felt like it was about to burst. He finally gave into temptation and grabbed it up and popped it into his mouth, chewing happily. "Don't they have a special name? Ugh..." His stomach suddenly started hurting. He laid his head on the table comically.

"Yeah, but I can't remember the it." Jeremey said raising an eyebrow as he looked at Justin. He looked back at the gloves and smiled. "Wesley, check this out.." He held his hand under the table and summoned his gunblade. Wesley's eyes grew wide.

"Whoa..." Wesley said trying to hide his excitement. "That's the fuggin gunblade dude.." Jeremey nodded.

"And Kaylie's got that pinwheel thing and Justin's got the Brotherhood." He pointed to them as he dismissed his gunblade. Wesley tilted his head over.

"The Brotherhood?" He asked, clearly puzzled. Jeremey laughed and then grabbed his side.

"Ow.." He said, "Yeah, you know, that little blue sword from Final Fantasy 10?" Wesley nodded his head.

"Oh.." He said, "Hey, did you guys hear about that old lady that got killed over by the library?" He asked enthusiastically. Jeremey looked up with a face full of remorse. His stomach pitched suddenly and he ran back to the restroom. He slammed the door, ran to the toilet, fell to his knees, and began vomiting.

"No more.. Please.. No mo--" Jeremey pleaded to nobody before vomiting again. There was a knock at the door. "Yeah?" Jeremey called weakly from the toilet.

"You alright in there?" Wesley asked him. Jeremey fell over onto the wall.

"Yeah, I'm fine.." Jeremey replied weakly. "Ugh... That's never happened before.." He said to himself. The woman's face flashed in his mind again.

"It wasn't your fault dude.." He told himself running his hand through his hair in an attempt to straighten it out. "You didn't know she was there, there was nothing you could do.... I watched someone die... Fifteen year old teenagers aren't supposed to have that happen to them... Why is this happening to ME!?" He stood unsteadily and punched the wall, causing him to lose his balance and fall to his knees again.

"Why me?" He sobbed pounding his fists on the floor. "Why the hell is this happening to me?!" He tried to stand but collapsed. His body felt like it was made of mush, his muscles didn't seem to work. Jeremey seemed to be drowning in hopelessness. He had lain on the floor for over a minute when his cell phone rang. He forced his arm to pull it out of his pocket and put it to his ear.

"Hello?" He said into the phone. The voice on the other line was bursting with excitement.

"Jeremey!" It was his best friend Chas, "Dude, you won't believe what just happened!" Jeremey somehow found the strength to sit up.

"What?" Jeremey asked unenthusiastically into the phone. He had had enough with surprises.

"You know that dude from Final Fantasy 7?!" Chas asked him excitedly. Jeremey's heart skipped a beat.

"Cloud?" He asked. "Not him too.." He thought to himself. Something strange was happening. All of his closest friends had gotten a Final Fantasy weapon of some kind, excluding Petey.

"Yeah!" Chas cried, "Well, um, I kinda got his sword. Don't ask me how it happened. Me and Millie were sitting here watching a movie when our hands started tingling and this HUGE sword appeared in my hand. Oh, Millie got something too. I don't know what is though." Jeremey could barely understand what he was saying he was talking so fast.

"What's it look like?" Jeremey asked standing and walking slowly to the door. He guessed that the rest of the group was worried about him. He opened the door stood outside of it talking to Chas.

"Um.. It looks like a tire iron, but with a hole in the middle and big blades on the ends." Chas reported to Jeremey. Jeremey closed his eyes, concentrating on who had a weapon like that.

"Yuffie!" He cried and scratched the back of his head. "It's like a big ninja star. She throws it at the bad guys." He looked in the direction of his booth and waved at Kaylie and gave her the 'Give me a minute' signal. She nodded.

"Ah.." Chas said. "Really strange looking.." Jeremey could practically see Chas looking it over. Suddenly, a thought struck him.

"Chas." Jeremey started, "Listen, can you meet me at the middle school in about thirty minutes? I think there's something we have to discuss." Why he said the middle school, he didn't know. He guessed it was because he felt comfortable there.

"The middle school?" Chas asked, obviously confused. "Why the middle school?" Jeremey smiled weakly and scratched the back of his head.

"I don't know!" He replied annoyed slightly, "First thing that came to my head." Wesley walked over and asked Jeremey silently who he was talking to. Jeremey mouthed Chas.

"Alright, whatever." Chas replied, "In thirty minutes right?" Jeremey could hear Chas opening the door to his parents' room and asking his dad to drop him off at the middle school.

"Yeah, thirty minutes." Jeremey nodded as he said it. "And try not to be late." His eyes widened as he realized he didn't have a ride. He silently cursed himself.

"He said yeah, as long as I can get a ride back." Chas reported to Jeremey, who instantly said yes. Jeremey kicked himself in the back of his leg.

"Ow." He instinctively said. He had kicked himself harder than he intended to. "Anyway, yeah, you'll have your ride home." He cursed silently again.

"Alright, see you there." Chas hung up and Jeremey did as well. He paused a moment and dialed in a number.

"Maybe... Just maybe..." He said as someone answered. "Erik! Hey pal, hey anything weird happened to you lately? Like a big unusual weapon appear out of nowhere?" He spoke quickly.

"Huh? Jeremey? How'd you know?" Jeremey's close friend asked. Jeremey heard Erik walk into his room and grunt as he lifted something heavy off of his bed. "It's some kind of heavy-ass sword. You're the expert in this kinda stuff. You know what it is don't you?" Jeremey smiled, Erik wasn't into Final Fantasy like the rest of the group.

"Don't worry about it, listen," Jeremey started, "I need you to meet me at the middle school in thirty minutes?" Jeremey could here Erik asking him mom for a ride.

"Yeah, sure." He replied, "I'm gonna need a ride home though, my mom's got some stuff to do and she says she can't wait around while we talk." Jeremey sighed and agreed to give Erik a ride home.

"Dammit.." He said as he cut off his cell phone. "They're gonna be there in thirty minutes and where am I? I'm stuck twenty-five miles away in the smallest town in the world! Shoulda told them to meet me here..." He finished as he sat down at the booth and told the group what was going on.

Even though his back, side, and stomach still hurt and the woman who had died still haunted his thoughts, he found himself wondering if the night could get any better. He had a real gunblade, he had fought and killed arguably the best Final Fantasy bad guy, and now he was on some kind of quest thing. But, he didn't have a ride. He sat pondering his quandary when the door to the restaurant opened and Jeremey turned to see his savior.

One of his brother's old friends Jesse walked into the restaurant and picked up his order. Jesse was short, about five-foot six-inches tall, but he was built like a mini-Arnold. He had very short red hair, olive eyes, and the most explosive temper Jeremey had ever seen. Jeremey chuckled and looked around; it seemed like anybody hardly ate in the restaurant. He turned back to Wesley.

"Dude, go ask him for a ride up there." He nodded in Jesse's direction. Wesley looked over to Jesse and back to Jeremey, his adversity to the idea so apparent Jeremey almost laughed.

"Why me?" He asked quickly, standing up. Jeremey smiled and pointed at him.

"Because you're his cousin and he'll listen to you." Jeremey said firmly, but with a smile on his face, his amusement apparent. "Now go."

"Alright, whatever.." Wesley said as he turned to go talk to Jesse. They stood talking for maybe a minute and Wesley turned to give Jeremey a thumb's-up. Jeremey smiled and stood, walking out the door briskly and awaiting whatever came next with eager anticipation.

* * *

An injured and bewildered Sephiroth stumbled over to the pale green beam light emitting from the floor and going up to the ceiling; the only light in the dark cave. He coughed and blood spattered onto the floor. As he reached the light he stretched out his hand and put it into the light. When he did the wound on his chest healed slowly. Sephiroth looked down to see the skin reattaching itself.

After the wound had healed Sephiroth closed his eyes and took a breath slowly, savoring his first normal breath in over half an hour. He opened his eyes and looked at the light. It gave off a warmth that made him feel secure, like nothing could hurt him. Of course he knew this wasn't true.

"Show me the weapons." He commanded calmly. As soon as he did the beam split into three separate views: One of Chas and Millie, one of Erik, and one of Jeremey and the rest. Sephiroth frowned.

"So, they're all here.." He said narrowing his eyes and leaning forward. "I had hoped that only the boy's and the other two weapons had made it.." He straightened up and turned at the sound of approaching footsteps.

"So," A thick British accent cut through the air, "You finally made it. It seems as though that boy hurt you worse than I thought." The man finished as he stepped into the dim light. He was very handsome-looking, with shoulder length silver hair and piercing blue eyes. He stood about five-foot six-inches tall and was wearing very formal-looking purple and white garbs. He looked at Sephiroth and smiled mischievously.

"Kuja.." Sephiroth growled through gritted teeth, "You saw then? How long have you been here?" Sephiroth despised Kuja, he was too cocky for Sephiroth's taste. Even so, he had to act like he didn't want to kill him for the sake of his plan. If he killed Kuja now, the entire plan would crumple. Sephiroth clenched his fist and took a deep breath.

"Yes, I saw it." Kuja chuckled, "And I've been here for quite some time. I think I arrived directly after you did." He cocked his head to the side and smiled again.

"Well, do you know what they're doing?!" Sephiroth barked angrily. He had no time for silly games. Kuja laughed mischievously and clasped his hands together.

"Of course I do." He said walking to the opposite side of the light. "They're going to meet at they're middle school and discuss what's going on." His face suddenly turned serious as Sephiroth closed his eyes thinking about their next move. He knew Sephiroth had a plan already forming in his head. Kuja tried to wait patiently, but he couldn't stand it when people withheld information from him.

"Send a Marlboro." Sephiroth finally said looking up. "Let's see how they fare against it." Kuja smiled happily and almost jumped for joy, but he held it in. He knew Sephiroth hated that about him. He simply nodded and walked off, disappearing in the darkness.

* * *

Chas looked up as the big, red F-150 pulled into the driveway of the middle school. It was dark, all except for the street lamps standing in various spots around it. The wind blew through the trees and made it seem like something was out there moving. Chas was tall, about five-foot ten-inches tall and had short blond hair and blue eyes. He was really thin and was very athletic. He had a great sense of humor and was very loyal. He looked over at Millie.

Millie was short, about five-foot four-inches tall and had shoulder length black hair and brown eyes. She was also thin, very athletic, and was quiet. Both of them were fans of Final Fantasy. Chas raised an eyebrow as a golden F-250 pulled in behind the red truck. He recognized it as Erik's mom's truck.

"What's he doing here?' He asked himself as Erik stepped out of the truck while Jeremey, Kaylie, Justin, Petey, and Wesley hopped out of the F-150. Erik's mom said something inaudible to Erik and drove off. Jeremey walked up to Erik and playfully punched him on the arm. Erik laughed and acted like he punched Jeremey in the face, to which Jeremey responded by acting like he had a hurt nose. Chas chuckled as the group walked over to him and Millie.

"How's it going?" Jeremey asked Chas smiling broadly. "You guys do know why we're all here right?" He looked the group over. Kaylie, Justin, and Petey responded with nods while the others shrugged and shook their heads. Jeremey smiled, held his right hand out and summoned his gunblade.

"How'd you do that?!" Chas asked him admiring the weapon. Jeremey told him and he tried it, as did the other five, excluding Petey. All their weapons appeared, all of them weapons Jeremey knew. He noted that both Chas and Millie had weapons from Final Fantasy 7. Chas had the Buster sword, Millie had the big ninja star, Jeremey couldn't remember the name, and Erik had Auron's Shimmering Blade from Final Fantasy 10.

The Buster Sword was a huge weapon, the blade alone was five-feet long and about a foot wide. Near the base of the blade it had two holes about an inch in diameter. The blade was a dull silver color with a light blue tint and looked battle-worn. Millie's ninja star did indeed look like a tire iron. It was about four-feet long on each axis including the silver-blue blades, which were about a foot long. The rest was black and had a hole in the middle big enough to barely squeeze two fingers into.

Erik's weapon, the Shimmering Blade was about five-feet long total and had a blade about four-feet. On the dull side of the blade it had a rounded out space near the base. The blade was a dull gray color with a bright yellow floral-looking design near the base. The hilt was decorated with a dark green and red design ending with a golden colored end. Jeremey told Erik how to hold it, with the rounded out space resting on his shoulder and remembered what the instruction manual had said about the sword: "It can easily split boulders in two."

"Or something similar..." He thought to himself, "I can't remember anything nowadays." He looked the blade over again. He thought he heard a rustling in the tree line but counted it off as the wind. He took a few steps back and looked at the group and it's entirety. He slammed his gunblade into the ground, took a deep breath and began his idea of what was going on.

"First off, I'd like to tell you all that you are holding Final Fantasy weapons." He started, looking at the group. "Why we have these weapons I don't know, but I can only guess that they are here to help us combat Sephiroth, or other Final Fantasy monsters or bad guys. Although I haven't seen anything to prove that point, I have a feeling that there are more out there." He paused a moment letting what he said sink in.

"Furthermore, if we are to fight more monsters and crazy power-hungry bad-guys, we are to make up a plan to combat them, considering they could be anywhere in the world." Jeremey began again. "As of yet, I have no such plan and I am open for suggestions." He finished as he looked at the group with his hands behind his back. The group looked at each other searching for a reply.

"Uh, what if we let the bad guys and monsters come to us?" Chas finally spoke up. Jeremey frowned, he had considered that too, but it could take a long time for that to happen.

"That'd take too long..." Jeremey said turning to look at the tree line a little more than twenty yards away. "Did you guys hear that too?" He asked the group. It sounded as if a large creature was moving slowly through the woods. Jeremey squinted and peered into the darkness. His eyes went wide as he heard a sound as if something was spitting.

"Ah!" He ducked as a huge spit ball came from the tree line. It flew past him and landed on Jesse's truck. Jeremey turned to look at the truck and saw that the liquid was burning through the hood of the truck. Jesse got out and began screaming about his truck hysterically. Jeremey raised an eyebrow and turned back to the tree line to see a creature from his nightmares slither out of the woods.

"No way!" Jeremey exclaimed. "It's a Marlboro!!" He reached down and pulled his gunblade from the ground. The creature was bigger than he used to think it was. It stood about fifteen to twenty-feet high. It seemed to be nothing but a large green head slithering around on about fifty tentacles. It had two large tentacles coming from it's side and many more short ones on the top of it's head. It had no eyes that Jeremey could see, but it had a mouth with many, many large teeth that took up most of the head/body.

"I hate these things.." Jeremey said as he looked back at the group. "You guys ready?" He said smiling nervously. Everyone nodded and readied themselves for battle. Everyone except Petey, who simply stood a few feet away with his arms crossed, envy rising in him. Jeremey took a deep breath, nodded and looked back at the Marlboro. It seemed to notice what was going on and growled. The sound reminded Jeremey of a lion's growl, only wet. He shuddered.

"Nasty..." He said as he got ready for battle. "Alright, this is where it gets fun... C'mon guys, let's kill this thing!" He cried as he ran towards the Marlboro, the creature slithering back to keep some distance between them. Jeremey leapt up and swung his gunblade in an upper slice, letting the weight and momentum of the blade carry him up higher than he could jump, but the creature simply leaned back, letting the blade swing mere inches in front it's 'face' harmlessly. The Marlboro growled again and swung it's right tentacle, hitting Jeremey and knocking him away like a rag doll.

"Ah!" Jeremey cried as he landed ten feet away. He looked to see the rest of the group attacking the Marlboro. Chas swung the Buster Sword at the area below the mouth, causing a long bloody line to form. The creature bellowed and pulled Chas off the ground with one of it's arm-tentacles. Chas screamed and hacked off the tentacle. Jeremey suddenly felt hands under his arms and he was pulled to his feet.

"What the?!" He turned to see Petey standing there with his arms crossed. "Oh, thanks.." Jeremey said turning back to the skirmish; he had never been really good at giving thanks.

"You're welcome." Petey replied, his voice without emotion. "Hey, watch yourself out there, next time you might now be so lucky.." Jeremey turned to look at Petey, his friend who had hardly ever shown emotion or concern, with a raised eyebrow. Instead of responding he simply nodded and charged towards the battle again.

Jeremey jumped as one of the smaller bottom-tentacles reached out for his legs. He landed and his legs were suddenly pulled out from under him. The Marlboro lifted him up to the top of it's 'head' where six tentacles about a foot long emerged from the skin. On the end of them Jeremey was surprised to see red-gray eyes; they were about the size of a fist. All of them were focused on him, dangling upside down like a piece of meat.

"Oh no..." Jeremey said as the Marlboro opened it's mouth hungrily. "I'm screwed.." The creature screamed suddenly and Jeremey looked down to see Erik hacking off two tentacles at a time. "Now's my chance..." Jeremey said to himself as he swung the gunblade and cut off 4 tentacle-eyes. The Marlboro screamed even louder and dropped Jeremey to the ground.

"You alright?" Erik asked him helping him up with his free hand and holding on to the Shimmering Blade's hilt with the other. "That looked like a nasty fall.." Jeremey got up and looked to see Justin hacking slowly but surely through the solitary arm-tentacle. The creature, being overwhelmed, slithered back several feet and slapped Justin away with the tentacle hanging loosely off of it's body; strings of meat were all that held it.

"Well," Jeremey said looking at Erik, "We're alright as long as it doesn't use it's...." His voice trailed off as he saw the Marlboro taking in a deep breath. "BAD BREATH ATTACK!!! Everybody get the hell outta the way!!" He shouted grabbing Erik by the arm and running like mad. The rest of the group scattered as the Marlboro blew a greenish-purple fog out of it's mouth. After thirty seconds the fog dissipated and Jeremey looked up from the ground where he had dove.

"Looks like everybody's ok.." He observed. "Wait, is that? PETEY!" He shouted as he got up and ran over to Petey's convulsing body. His eyes were rolled back in his head, foam was coming out of his mouth, his skin looked a sickly green color. His eyes finally righted themselves and he looked at Jeremey with eyes black as coal. He tried to speak, but no words came out of his mouth, he couldn't move at all, although it seemed like he was trying.

"What the hell's wrong with him?" Erik asked Jeremey, who shook his head in disbelief. Chas and the rest of the group ran up to see what was going on. Jesse walked up, looked down at Petey, turned and ran back to his truck.

"Status ailments.." Jeremey looked Petey over. "That attack has a lot of effects on a character's status. Blindness, paralysis, poison, confusion, berserk, silence, and usually sleep.. I need two people to help me out.. Chas, Erik, come with me. The rest of you stay here and look after Petey, we have to kill this thing or he dies.." Jeremey said sternly as he stood and picked his gunblade up.

The Marlboro stood ten yards away peering at Jeremey, Erik, and Chas with it's red-gray eyes. Jeremey looked at his two companions and nodded before the all charged simultaneously. They had a tacit plan that needed to be carried out with the utmost efficiency. Jeremey ran up to the Marlboro and stabbed it in the side while Chas laid the tip of his blade on the ground and held the sword up diagonally. Erik ran and jumped onto the blade using it as a steppingstone to jump over the Marlboro's head and brought his sword down between it's two eyes.

The sword cut through the Marlboro like it was butter, slicing it all the way down to the ground. The creature ceased movement and faded away slowly, firefly-looking lights leaving it's body. Jeremey walked over to Erik and dismissed his gunblade.

"Damn.." He said slapping Erik on the shoulder lightly. "That was cool as hell." Erik nodded. Jeremey turned suddenly and jogged over to the rest of the group. Petey's eyes and skin were returning to normal and he could move his hand and speak a little. He looked around and spotted Jeremey.

"What the hell happened?" He asked Jeremey. "And what the hell do we do next?" Jeremey looked at the groups' faces staring at him waiting for and answer. He smiled nervously.

"Heh," He replied scratching the back of his head. "We need to get the hell outta here first. Everybody ok?" He was greeted by head nods. He nodded his approval and walked over to the truck to talk to Jesse.