CALM BEFORE THE STORM
"NO!" Sephiroth bellowed in anger, "No! Damn them!" He summoned the Masamune and severed a nearby boulder in half. It slid apart slowly as Kuja approached Sephiroth warily, twiddling his thumbs.
"Please Sephiroth, calm down.." He said nervously, his voice shaking with apprehension. Sephiroth spun around to face him angrily. His hand found Kuja's throat, lifted him up, and slammed him into the wall of the cave easily. Kuja fumbled for Sephiroth's arm and he struggled for breath.
"CALM DOWN?!" Sephiroth roared, "CALM DOWN?! Can your infantile mind even comprehend what this means?! Those children just defeated a Marlboro with weapons they haven't even had for two hours! Even the most experienced warriors have fallen to a Marlboro! No! I will NOT CALM DOWN!!!" He released Kuja suddenly and turned back to the beam of light in the middle of the cave. Kuja stood coughing and gasping for air, his face blue and his hair disheveled.
"It will..." He panted, "It will be alright Sephiroth. Beginner's luck. But that's all they have.. Beginner's luck. But that luck will wear off soon.." He strode over to Sephiroth and peered into the light, which showed the group quarreling. He found himself smiling in spite of the pain in his neck and his lungs. Sephiroth's entire body was shaking with a restrained rage.
"Kuja.." He said closing his eyes and inhaling deeply, "Find Garland, tell him his presence is requested immediately.." He finished shot Kuja a glance that would make any normal man recoil in fear. Kuja simply bowed and turned to walk away.
"Yes sir." He said smiling like a child that had just gotten a new toy. When he had gotten out of Sephiroth's line of vision, he found himself skipping with joy.
* * *
"So, uh, we're stuck here?" Erik asked scratching the back of his head, "That sucks." He turned to the rest of the group and shrugged his shoulders. They had finally gotten a verdict from Jesse. The spitball had eaten through the hood and had corroded almost a fourth of the engine.
"Yeah it does." Jesse said as he stood and wiped his hands off on a cloth, "I really liked this truck too. What the hell was that thing?" Chas shrugged, kicked a small rock, and turned to walk to the side of the road. He sat down and looked around. Jeremey, Justin, Kaylie, and Wesley were helping Petey recover from his recent ailments. Millie was nowhere to be found.
"This has been a hell of a night.." He told himself putting his hands behind his head, laying on his back, and looking up at the stars. They seemed brighter than he had ever seen them. Jeremey walked over and sat beside Chas, who looked over at him with his eyes.
"So we're stuck here?" Jeremey asked Chas, who nodded. "Hell, I coulda seen this coming.. So, what do you wanna do? Try and get a ride outta here or just hang out here till morning?" Chas shrugged and closed his eyes, thinking.
"We can try and get a ride outta here," Chas said opening one eye and looking at Jeremey, "But then, there's nine of us, including Jesse and Petey, so we're gonna need something big, like a truck or maybe even a bus." He finished, closing his eye back. Jeremey nodded and looked down the road. It seemed like an endless stretch, he could see no headlights.
"Usually this road's busy as hell." Jeremey said turning back to Chas, "But where are the cars and stuff when we really need them? This is bull." He stood, "I'ma go practice, I'm still not too used to the gunblade, wanna come?" Chas smiled, his eyes still closed and offered his hand to Jeremey, who helped him up. They started out to the field behind the woods where the Marlboro had come from.
"Hey, can you guys try and get us a ride outta here?" Chas called to the rest of the group. The wind blew, ruffling Chas's shirt making it seem as though a wave was rolling through the tall grass. The rest of the group looked up and Justin raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah, sure." He said, "Where are you two going?" He stood, getting ready to follow them. Jeremey's eyes went wide.
"Uh, we're gonna go look for a house back here." He replied quickly pointing to the tree line, "You stay here and wait for a ride." Justin stopped and turned toward the road with a defeated look on his face. Chas and Jeremey hastened their steps and didn't slow down until they had reached the edge of the field. They looked at each other and smiled.
* * *
"They want us to watch for a car while they go looking for a house?" Justin asked rhetorically, "That's bull. They get to have all the fun.." He sat down beside Petey. "How you feelin?" Petey looked at Justin as if he were stupid.
"How the hell do you think I'm feeling you little bastard?!" Petey said through gritted teeth, "I was just blind, speechless, paralyzed, and poisoned! I was dying Justin! Do you know what that's like?! I don't think you do!" Petey stood and walked away angrily. His legs almost gave out underneath him, but they held.
"Geez, what's his problem?" Justin asked embarrassed. The rest of the group simply looked at him. Erik stood and walked to the road, followed by Millie and Kaylie. Wesley sighed and laid on his back. He was tired, he had only had about nine hours of sleep in two days.
"So tell me Justin." Wesley said staring up at the stars, "Where do you think this will lead?" It was a question he had thought about extensively since he had met up with Jeremey and the rest of the group. Justin shrugged his shoulders and laid on his back putting his hands behind his head.
"Hell, I dunno." He said, "But wherever it leads, it has to be better than where we've been before. I mean, we might even save the world. How cool would that be?" Justin could already see it. They would be heralded as heroes. He had been waiting for this for years.
"Whatever." Wesley said, "I could care less about saving the world, I got me some bad ass souvenirs, that's all that matters right now." He said looking at his gloves. Justin looked over and cocked his head to the side.
"Are those things uncomfortable?" The question had been bothering him since he had seen Wesley wearing them. Wesley sat up and started taking one off.
"Actually, no." He said handing it to Justin, "They have a lot of padding in there. It's quite comfortable." Justin put the glove on and opened and closed his hand.
"Sweet." He said giving the glove back to Wesley. He was about to say something else when he heard Kaylie, Millie, and Erik flagging down a truck. The truck pulled over and Kaylie talked to the driver, who nodded. It was a big truck, a F-350, white with red lightning bolts stretching the entire length of the truck.
"Hey Wesley, go get Jeremey and Chas, tell them we got a ride." Kaylie called to him. Wesley nodded, waved and started jogging off into the woods. Justin trudged up to the truck and began speaking to Erik.
* * *
Jeremey ducked as the Buster Sword swung toward his head. He stumbled back a few steps and stood in a defensive stance. His breath was labored and he was sweating like he had just run a marathon. He might as well have, Chas and him had been sparring against each other for almost five minutes.
"Hey man." He panted, "You coulda taken my head off with that. You should be more careful, this isn't a real fight. You dunce." He laughed and charged at Chas, who was sweating profusely as well. Chas swung his weapon at Jeremey's legs and Jeremey responded by leaping into the air, spinning, and bringing down the blade of his weapon. Meanwhile Chas used the momentum from his attack to bring the Buster Sword up to block Jeremey's attack. The blades collided and sparks shot in all directions. They smiled at each other competitively.
"That one coulda took my legs out." Jeremey said pressing down on the Buster Sword. Chas laughed and wiped the sweat on his forehead off on his left bicep.
"I knew you'd jump." Chas replied changing the tide, now he was bearing down on Jeremey, who was smiling, happy to have some competition. Jeremey took a step back, the weight of Chas's weapon was immense.
"What if I didn't jump? What then?"
"I'da stopped."
"Yeah right, not the way you were swinging!" Jeremey laughed as he pushed Chas off and backed up quickly, "Whew.. What do say we call a truce for now? I'm exhausted." Chas replied by nodding and sitting down.
"Hey, how do you use the trigger on your gunblade?" Chas asked pointing to the weapon, "It's been bothering me for a while." Jeremey looked at it and rocked his head back. He looked back at Chas with a puzzled look.
"Ya know, I haven't tried." He replied looking at the gunblade again, "In the game if you pull it when you attack something a small explosion thing happens." Jeremey then looked at a nearby tree. He charged the tree at full speed and when he reached it performed a diagonal upward-slash, pulling the trigger as he did. White light emitted the cut mark on the tree for a split second before a small explosion, like that of a cherry-bomb, occurred.
"Sweet..." Jeremey said, looking at the hole in the tree. He heard Chas clapping and whistling and bowed mockingly. He heard a rustling in the trees behind him and took a defensive stance. Wesley emerged swatting at some mosquitoes. He looked up at Jeremey.
"What the hell was that?" He asked looking at the hole in the tree. Jeremey laughed and dismissed his gunblade.
"Oh, I was seeing what would happen if I pulled the trigger on my gunblade." He explained. Wesley nodded, still staring at the hole in the tree, deep in thought. Something suddenly shook him from his thought.
"Oh yeah, we got a ride." Wesley pointed in the direction of the school with his thumb. Jeremey nodded and looked at Chas who was already getting up.
"Let's go then." He said and all three of them started back to the road. Two minutes later they were walking up the hill to the road. A huge F-350 was what met them as they crested the hill. Jeremey's eyes widened.
"That's a big truck." He said as he walked up to it and peered into the truck to meet the driver. He raised an eyebrow when he saw that nobody was in the truck.
"Hey, I guess you're Jeremey." He heard a gruff voice call from behind him. Jeremey turned to see a tall man, about six-foot four-inches tall, walking up the hill. He had short brown hair with a receding hair line, stubbles on his face, making it seem like he hadn't shaved in a couple of days, and piercing blue eyes. He had a pair of goggles like old airplane pilots used to have on the top of his head. As he approached Jeremey noticed that he had a US Air Force necklace on.
"That's me." Jeremey answered, "This is Chas and Wesley. I supposed you are the owner of this truck?" The man nodded and extended his hand.
"That I am." He said as he shook hands with the three, "Name's Cid and sorry I wasn't actually here to greet you, I had to go... You know.." Cid pointed behind him with his thumb. At first, all Jeremey could think about was that he had shook this man's hand after he had relieved himself and there wasn't anywhere to wash his hands. But then, realization dawned on Jeremey.
"You said your name's Cid?" Jeremey asked looking at the necklace as Cid nodded, "Were you in the Air Force?" Cid looked down and picked the necklace off his chest with his thumb and forefinger.
"Yeah, I was in R&D." Cid said looking back at Jeremey, "They said I was a damn good pilot and mechanic too. I've looked at your friend's truck and unfortunately there's nothing I can do except call a tow truck, which I've done. " Jeremey smiled without realizing it. The rest of the group approached and Jeremey looked at them, then back to Cid.
"So you're gonna betaking us home?" He asked Cid, who nodded, "Well, can we leave now?" He finished, still smiling. Cid nodded again and walked around to get into the driver's seat. Chas nudged Jeremey.
"Why are you smiling?" He asked. Jeremey opened the passenger side door, waved goodbye to Jesse, who waited impatiently for the tow truck to arrive, and looked at Chas.
"Dude, Cid." Jeremey said as he smiled at Kaylie, "Cid in the Final Fantasy video games is a pilot, mechanic, all that good stuff and this Cid is too." There was no more room in the back seat so Cid told Chas and Wesley they could sit in the bed of the truck.
"Yeah, so?" Wesley asked as they walked to the tailgate. Jeremey closed his eyes and chuckled.
"So, this could be a very lucky break for us." He replied as Chas and Wesley hopped into the bed of the truck. Chas waved him off.
"Whatever." He said dismissingly, "Get in the truck so we can go." Jeremey smiled and walked back to the passenger side, hopped into the front seat and closed the door. Fifteen minutes later Jeremey and Cid were deep in conversation about Cid's work in the Air Force and after the Air Force. Jeremey was amazed at Cid's accomplishments and how unbelievably smart Cid was.
"So, you starting developing aircrafts for NASA?" Jeremey asked Cid, his curiosity and excitement rising. Cid nodded.
"Yeah, they wanted me to make a design for the fastest aircraft in the world." Cid replied, "It could go as fast and slow as you wanted and as low and high as you wanted. I drew up the design, it looked like something out of a futuristic movie. NASA said that they would not build it if it looked like that or some stupid crap like that; I don't get those people. So I told them to fund me and I'll build it. They gave me the funds and I started working on it." Jeremey's eyes were wide.
"So what are you doing here in South Carolina?" He asked, "More importantly, in a rural area like this?" Cid laughed. Millie told Cid what road to turn down to get to her house.
"I'm kinda on vacation." He replied, "Plus, I put the finishing touches on the air craft yesterday. I'm going up there tomorrow to test it out." Jeremey could barely contain his excitement.
"Hey, would you mind if we tagged along tomorrow?" He asked Cid quickly, "I mean, we'd like to see it and, if it's not too much to ask, ride in it.." Cid looked at Jeremey as Millie told him where her driveway was. He pulled the truck into the driveway.
"Um.." Cid thought about it, "Sure, I guess. If you kids don't mind getting up about 7:30 on a Saturday?" Jeremey got out and opened the third door for Millie to get out.
"Not at all." Jeremey said looking at the group, who shrugged their shoulders and nodded. Jeremey looked back at Cid, "It would be a pleasure."
* * *
Sephiroth looked into the beam of light and mulled over what had happened in the past four hours. He heard footsteps approaching and turned to see Kuja coming hastily. Sephiroth cocked his head to the side.
"Where's Garland?" He asked. Kuja was about to speak when they both heard more footsteps approaching, these with the distinctive clank of someone wearing a suit of armor. A man stepped into the dim green light and Sephiroth smiled. The man wore a light blue suit of armor, the helmet with large, yellow, bull-like horns protruding from the sides and the front covering up his entire face except for the area around the eyes about two inches in diameter around each eye with a small open space on the bridge of the nose going from one eye to the next. Inside those openings one could see nothing but darkness and the man's eyes glowing a dark yellow.
"You called for me?" The man said in a deep voice that sounded as if there were two people speaking, one talking regularly and one whispering. The man looked as if he could bench press over 300 pounds. He turned to peer into the beam of light.
"Yes Garland, I need you to help me." Sephiroth started, admiring the hulking man before him, "As I'm sure you know, the weapons seem to have gotten into this dimension as well, and we've been having some trouble exterminating the current owners. I want to have a crack at them." He pointed to the scene in the light, which showed Chas getting out of the bed of the truck. Garland looked from the scene to Sephiroth.
"Children.." He said slowly, "You want me to fight children..?" Surely Sephiroth must be joking.
"They may only be children," Sehpiroth replied slightly annoyed, "But they have already managed to kill a Marlboro." Garland's yellow eyes seemed to glow brighter at hearing the news.
"A Marlboro you say.." He said looking back at the scene, " So be it... If you so want these children dead, I shall make it so." With that, he turned and walked back into the darkness, his ragged purple cape flowing behind him. Kuja turned to Sephiroth.
"I'll go with him." He said starting to follow Garland. Sephiroth clenched his fists.
"No you won't!" He bellowed angrily. Kuja turned back to Sephiroth with the face of a child who had just been told they couldn't have any candy.
"But why not?" He asked with the same tone, "What if he can't handle them?" Sephiroth laughed.
"You obviously don't know Garland like I do." He answered, "He will take care of them, trust me."
"NO!" Sephiroth bellowed in anger, "No! Damn them!" He summoned the Masamune and severed a nearby boulder in half. It slid apart slowly as Kuja approached Sephiroth warily, twiddling his thumbs.
"Please Sephiroth, calm down.." He said nervously, his voice shaking with apprehension. Sephiroth spun around to face him angrily. His hand found Kuja's throat, lifted him up, and slammed him into the wall of the cave easily. Kuja fumbled for Sephiroth's arm and he struggled for breath.
"CALM DOWN?!" Sephiroth roared, "CALM DOWN?! Can your infantile mind even comprehend what this means?! Those children just defeated a Marlboro with weapons they haven't even had for two hours! Even the most experienced warriors have fallen to a Marlboro! No! I will NOT CALM DOWN!!!" He released Kuja suddenly and turned back to the beam of light in the middle of the cave. Kuja stood coughing and gasping for air, his face blue and his hair disheveled.
"It will..." He panted, "It will be alright Sephiroth. Beginner's luck. But that's all they have.. Beginner's luck. But that luck will wear off soon.." He strode over to Sephiroth and peered into the light, which showed the group quarreling. He found himself smiling in spite of the pain in his neck and his lungs. Sephiroth's entire body was shaking with a restrained rage.
"Kuja.." He said closing his eyes and inhaling deeply, "Find Garland, tell him his presence is requested immediately.." He finished shot Kuja a glance that would make any normal man recoil in fear. Kuja simply bowed and turned to walk away.
"Yes sir." He said smiling like a child that had just gotten a new toy. When he had gotten out of Sephiroth's line of vision, he found himself skipping with joy.
* * *
"So, uh, we're stuck here?" Erik asked scratching the back of his head, "That sucks." He turned to the rest of the group and shrugged his shoulders. They had finally gotten a verdict from Jesse. The spitball had eaten through the hood and had corroded almost a fourth of the engine.
"Yeah it does." Jesse said as he stood and wiped his hands off on a cloth, "I really liked this truck too. What the hell was that thing?" Chas shrugged, kicked a small rock, and turned to walk to the side of the road. He sat down and looked around. Jeremey, Justin, Kaylie, and Wesley were helping Petey recover from his recent ailments. Millie was nowhere to be found.
"This has been a hell of a night.." He told himself putting his hands behind his head, laying on his back, and looking up at the stars. They seemed brighter than he had ever seen them. Jeremey walked over and sat beside Chas, who looked over at him with his eyes.
"So we're stuck here?" Jeremey asked Chas, who nodded. "Hell, I coulda seen this coming.. So, what do you wanna do? Try and get a ride outta here or just hang out here till morning?" Chas shrugged and closed his eyes, thinking.
"We can try and get a ride outta here," Chas said opening one eye and looking at Jeremey, "But then, there's nine of us, including Jesse and Petey, so we're gonna need something big, like a truck or maybe even a bus." He finished, closing his eye back. Jeremey nodded and looked down the road. It seemed like an endless stretch, he could see no headlights.
"Usually this road's busy as hell." Jeremey said turning back to Chas, "But where are the cars and stuff when we really need them? This is bull." He stood, "I'ma go practice, I'm still not too used to the gunblade, wanna come?" Chas smiled, his eyes still closed and offered his hand to Jeremey, who helped him up. They started out to the field behind the woods where the Marlboro had come from.
"Hey, can you guys try and get us a ride outta here?" Chas called to the rest of the group. The wind blew, ruffling Chas's shirt making it seem as though a wave was rolling through the tall grass. The rest of the group looked up and Justin raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah, sure." He said, "Where are you two going?" He stood, getting ready to follow them. Jeremey's eyes went wide.
"Uh, we're gonna go look for a house back here." He replied quickly pointing to the tree line, "You stay here and wait for a ride." Justin stopped and turned toward the road with a defeated look on his face. Chas and Jeremey hastened their steps and didn't slow down until they had reached the edge of the field. They looked at each other and smiled.
* * *
"They want us to watch for a car while they go looking for a house?" Justin asked rhetorically, "That's bull. They get to have all the fun.." He sat down beside Petey. "How you feelin?" Petey looked at Justin as if he were stupid.
"How the hell do you think I'm feeling you little bastard?!" Petey said through gritted teeth, "I was just blind, speechless, paralyzed, and poisoned! I was dying Justin! Do you know what that's like?! I don't think you do!" Petey stood and walked away angrily. His legs almost gave out underneath him, but they held.
"Geez, what's his problem?" Justin asked embarrassed. The rest of the group simply looked at him. Erik stood and walked to the road, followed by Millie and Kaylie. Wesley sighed and laid on his back. He was tired, he had only had about nine hours of sleep in two days.
"So tell me Justin." Wesley said staring up at the stars, "Where do you think this will lead?" It was a question he had thought about extensively since he had met up with Jeremey and the rest of the group. Justin shrugged his shoulders and laid on his back putting his hands behind his head.
"Hell, I dunno." He said, "But wherever it leads, it has to be better than where we've been before. I mean, we might even save the world. How cool would that be?" Justin could already see it. They would be heralded as heroes. He had been waiting for this for years.
"Whatever." Wesley said, "I could care less about saving the world, I got me some bad ass souvenirs, that's all that matters right now." He said looking at his gloves. Justin looked over and cocked his head to the side.
"Are those things uncomfortable?" The question had been bothering him since he had seen Wesley wearing them. Wesley sat up and started taking one off.
"Actually, no." He said handing it to Justin, "They have a lot of padding in there. It's quite comfortable." Justin put the glove on and opened and closed his hand.
"Sweet." He said giving the glove back to Wesley. He was about to say something else when he heard Kaylie, Millie, and Erik flagging down a truck. The truck pulled over and Kaylie talked to the driver, who nodded. It was a big truck, a F-350, white with red lightning bolts stretching the entire length of the truck.
"Hey Wesley, go get Jeremey and Chas, tell them we got a ride." Kaylie called to him. Wesley nodded, waved and started jogging off into the woods. Justin trudged up to the truck and began speaking to Erik.
* * *
Jeremey ducked as the Buster Sword swung toward his head. He stumbled back a few steps and stood in a defensive stance. His breath was labored and he was sweating like he had just run a marathon. He might as well have, Chas and him had been sparring against each other for almost five minutes.
"Hey man." He panted, "You coulda taken my head off with that. You should be more careful, this isn't a real fight. You dunce." He laughed and charged at Chas, who was sweating profusely as well. Chas swung his weapon at Jeremey's legs and Jeremey responded by leaping into the air, spinning, and bringing down the blade of his weapon. Meanwhile Chas used the momentum from his attack to bring the Buster Sword up to block Jeremey's attack. The blades collided and sparks shot in all directions. They smiled at each other competitively.
"That one coulda took my legs out." Jeremey said pressing down on the Buster Sword. Chas laughed and wiped the sweat on his forehead off on his left bicep.
"I knew you'd jump." Chas replied changing the tide, now he was bearing down on Jeremey, who was smiling, happy to have some competition. Jeremey took a step back, the weight of Chas's weapon was immense.
"What if I didn't jump? What then?"
"I'da stopped."
"Yeah right, not the way you were swinging!" Jeremey laughed as he pushed Chas off and backed up quickly, "Whew.. What do say we call a truce for now? I'm exhausted." Chas replied by nodding and sitting down.
"Hey, how do you use the trigger on your gunblade?" Chas asked pointing to the weapon, "It's been bothering me for a while." Jeremey looked at it and rocked his head back. He looked back at Chas with a puzzled look.
"Ya know, I haven't tried." He replied looking at the gunblade again, "In the game if you pull it when you attack something a small explosion thing happens." Jeremey then looked at a nearby tree. He charged the tree at full speed and when he reached it performed a diagonal upward-slash, pulling the trigger as he did. White light emitted the cut mark on the tree for a split second before a small explosion, like that of a cherry-bomb, occurred.
"Sweet..." Jeremey said, looking at the hole in the tree. He heard Chas clapping and whistling and bowed mockingly. He heard a rustling in the trees behind him and took a defensive stance. Wesley emerged swatting at some mosquitoes. He looked up at Jeremey.
"What the hell was that?" He asked looking at the hole in the tree. Jeremey laughed and dismissed his gunblade.
"Oh, I was seeing what would happen if I pulled the trigger on my gunblade." He explained. Wesley nodded, still staring at the hole in the tree, deep in thought. Something suddenly shook him from his thought.
"Oh yeah, we got a ride." Wesley pointed in the direction of the school with his thumb. Jeremey nodded and looked at Chas who was already getting up.
"Let's go then." He said and all three of them started back to the road. Two minutes later they were walking up the hill to the road. A huge F-350 was what met them as they crested the hill. Jeremey's eyes widened.
"That's a big truck." He said as he walked up to it and peered into the truck to meet the driver. He raised an eyebrow when he saw that nobody was in the truck.
"Hey, I guess you're Jeremey." He heard a gruff voice call from behind him. Jeremey turned to see a tall man, about six-foot four-inches tall, walking up the hill. He had short brown hair with a receding hair line, stubbles on his face, making it seem like he hadn't shaved in a couple of days, and piercing blue eyes. He had a pair of goggles like old airplane pilots used to have on the top of his head. As he approached Jeremey noticed that he had a US Air Force necklace on.
"That's me." Jeremey answered, "This is Chas and Wesley. I supposed you are the owner of this truck?" The man nodded and extended his hand.
"That I am." He said as he shook hands with the three, "Name's Cid and sorry I wasn't actually here to greet you, I had to go... You know.." Cid pointed behind him with his thumb. At first, all Jeremey could think about was that he had shook this man's hand after he had relieved himself and there wasn't anywhere to wash his hands. But then, realization dawned on Jeremey.
"You said your name's Cid?" Jeremey asked looking at the necklace as Cid nodded, "Were you in the Air Force?" Cid looked down and picked the necklace off his chest with his thumb and forefinger.
"Yeah, I was in R&D." Cid said looking back at Jeremey, "They said I was a damn good pilot and mechanic too. I've looked at your friend's truck and unfortunately there's nothing I can do except call a tow truck, which I've done. " Jeremey smiled without realizing it. The rest of the group approached and Jeremey looked at them, then back to Cid.
"So you're gonna betaking us home?" He asked Cid, who nodded, "Well, can we leave now?" He finished, still smiling. Cid nodded again and walked around to get into the driver's seat. Chas nudged Jeremey.
"Why are you smiling?" He asked. Jeremey opened the passenger side door, waved goodbye to Jesse, who waited impatiently for the tow truck to arrive, and looked at Chas.
"Dude, Cid." Jeremey said as he smiled at Kaylie, "Cid in the Final Fantasy video games is a pilot, mechanic, all that good stuff and this Cid is too." There was no more room in the back seat so Cid told Chas and Wesley they could sit in the bed of the truck.
"Yeah, so?" Wesley asked as they walked to the tailgate. Jeremey closed his eyes and chuckled.
"So, this could be a very lucky break for us." He replied as Chas and Wesley hopped into the bed of the truck. Chas waved him off.
"Whatever." He said dismissingly, "Get in the truck so we can go." Jeremey smiled and walked back to the passenger side, hopped into the front seat and closed the door. Fifteen minutes later Jeremey and Cid were deep in conversation about Cid's work in the Air Force and after the Air Force. Jeremey was amazed at Cid's accomplishments and how unbelievably smart Cid was.
"So, you starting developing aircrafts for NASA?" Jeremey asked Cid, his curiosity and excitement rising. Cid nodded.
"Yeah, they wanted me to make a design for the fastest aircraft in the world." Cid replied, "It could go as fast and slow as you wanted and as low and high as you wanted. I drew up the design, it looked like something out of a futuristic movie. NASA said that they would not build it if it looked like that or some stupid crap like that; I don't get those people. So I told them to fund me and I'll build it. They gave me the funds and I started working on it." Jeremey's eyes were wide.
"So what are you doing here in South Carolina?" He asked, "More importantly, in a rural area like this?" Cid laughed. Millie told Cid what road to turn down to get to her house.
"I'm kinda on vacation." He replied, "Plus, I put the finishing touches on the air craft yesterday. I'm going up there tomorrow to test it out." Jeremey could barely contain his excitement.
"Hey, would you mind if we tagged along tomorrow?" He asked Cid quickly, "I mean, we'd like to see it and, if it's not too much to ask, ride in it.." Cid looked at Jeremey as Millie told him where her driveway was. He pulled the truck into the driveway.
"Um.." Cid thought about it, "Sure, I guess. If you kids don't mind getting up about 7:30 on a Saturday?" Jeremey got out and opened the third door for Millie to get out.
"Not at all." Jeremey said looking at the group, who shrugged their shoulders and nodded. Jeremey looked back at Cid, "It would be a pleasure."
* * *
Sephiroth looked into the beam of light and mulled over what had happened in the past four hours. He heard footsteps approaching and turned to see Kuja coming hastily. Sephiroth cocked his head to the side.
"Where's Garland?" He asked. Kuja was about to speak when they both heard more footsteps approaching, these with the distinctive clank of someone wearing a suit of armor. A man stepped into the dim green light and Sephiroth smiled. The man wore a light blue suit of armor, the helmet with large, yellow, bull-like horns protruding from the sides and the front covering up his entire face except for the area around the eyes about two inches in diameter around each eye with a small open space on the bridge of the nose going from one eye to the next. Inside those openings one could see nothing but darkness and the man's eyes glowing a dark yellow.
"You called for me?" The man said in a deep voice that sounded as if there were two people speaking, one talking regularly and one whispering. The man looked as if he could bench press over 300 pounds. He turned to peer into the beam of light.
"Yes Garland, I need you to help me." Sephiroth started, admiring the hulking man before him, "As I'm sure you know, the weapons seem to have gotten into this dimension as well, and we've been having some trouble exterminating the current owners. I want to have a crack at them." He pointed to the scene in the light, which showed Chas getting out of the bed of the truck. Garland looked from the scene to Sephiroth.
"Children.." He said slowly, "You want me to fight children..?" Surely Sephiroth must be joking.
"They may only be children," Sehpiroth replied slightly annoyed, "But they have already managed to kill a Marlboro." Garland's yellow eyes seemed to glow brighter at hearing the news.
"A Marlboro you say.." He said looking back at the scene, " So be it... If you so want these children dead, I shall make it so." With that, he turned and walked back into the darkness, his ragged purple cape flowing behind him. Kuja turned to Sephiroth.
"I'll go with him." He said starting to follow Garland. Sephiroth clenched his fists.
"No you won't!" He bellowed angrily. Kuja turned back to Sephiroth with the face of a child who had just been told they couldn't have any candy.
"But why not?" He asked with the same tone, "What if he can't handle them?" Sephiroth laughed.
"You obviously don't know Garland like I do." He answered, "He will take care of them, trust me."
