FIRECRACKER

"I thought you said he would take care of them?" Kuja asked mockingly. Sephiroth simply stared into the light watching the airship fly away. Suddenly something snapped within him. His fists clenched tighter than they had ever had and his pupils contracted.

"GARLAND!!!" He roared as black lightning crackled all around his body. They heard the distinctive clank of someone wearing armor approaching. Sephiroth spun around to be greeted by the glowing eyes of Garland.

"Yes?" He asked Sephiroth, who closed his eyes and breathed deeply trying to calm down. Garland was one of his closest friends and probably the second to Sephiroth in fighting skills, he did not want to lose his best fighter simply because he lost his temper.

"What.." Sephiroth breathed deeply again, his anger slowly subsiding,

"Happened? You are supposed to be the greatest knight in all the world, and yet you were beaten by children?" Garland's eyes flashed angrily.

"I asked myself the same question many times coming here." Garland replied looking into the light as Kuja manipulated it to show the interior of the airship. "The boy, the one with the gunblade.. He has a strong spirit that seems to give the others the will to fight on.. He has the mark of a hero.." Sephiroth nodded, he had seen the same thing in the boy. He turned back to the light, seeing the boy without a weapon hammering away at a punching bag inside the recreation area of the ship. A fierce anger could be seen in his eyes.

"Then we'll just have to krush his spirit now won't we?" A sultry thick Russian accent came from the shadows making Sephiroth smile. The click click of a woman wearing high heels echoed through the cave. A woman standing about five foot six approached the men gathered at the light. Her long silver-green hair was pinned up to form two three-foot spikes coming out on each side of her head and two long strands coming down in from of her face in the style of Sephiroth's, only much longer, ending at her hips.

"Ultimecia, welcome." Sephiroth turned to look at the new arrival. She was wearing a blood red nightgown-looking dress that had black feathers coming down to cover up what would have been a very exposing v-cut in the dress. Her gray eyes searched the room until they found the beam in the middle of the cave. She approached it and Garland noticed the purple designs on her face, wavy purple spikes that started on both sides of the top of the nose, going up the hairline and coming back down her cheeks ending about a half-inch from her full, luscious lips.

"That boy.." She commented and ragged black bird-like wings, which had went unnoticed earlier because of her beauty, flapped once affirming that she had an interest in the scene, "He seems to be a little firekracker.." Sephiroth nodded seeing the anger building in the boy.

"Yes," He turned to her and stared into her eyes. She aroused feelings in him that no other could; not sexual feelings, but other feelings, feelings he could not explain. "Maybe you could be the one to light the fuse? Do you still have the other weapon?" Ultimecia nodded, turned, and walked into the darkness, presumably going to fulfill the plan that Sephiroth had conceived without him even telling her the details.

"Man, this place is nice." Jeremey said to Kaylie while looking around the huge hallway holding her hand, "Like some kinda big hotel. Even got a little cafeteria and recreation room." Wesley ran to him and Kaylie excitedly.

"Yeah, it's got bedrooms too!" He told Jeremey, who rocked his head back. Wesley turned and jogged away while Jeremey looked around once more, taking in the area he was in. The floor had a crimson red carpet and the walls were decorated with various paintings. In some area of the walls there were large different colored arrows telling which way to go to get to the bridge, door, bedrooms, recreation room and other things. He noticed a staircase leading up and saw a green arrow on the wall that was labeled "Living Quarters".

"This is too cool.." He looked at Kaylie and smiled, "Love you." Something that resembled hope and sadness mixed into one flashed across Kaylie's eyes. "Something wrong?" Kaylie looked at him and seemed to force a smile.

"No, I'm fine.." She said, her voice saying a different story, "Love you too baby." Jeremey was about to inquire again but saw Millie walking down the steps slowly, her face full of worry and thought. He knew something was wrong.

"Kaylie, I'll be right back." She nodded and turned to watch him leave. He walked over to Millie, who had just left the stepped off the stairs. "Where's Chas? Everything all right?" Millie looked up at him, frowned, and nodded.

"He's in room 003." She looked at Kaylie, turned and walked to her without saying another word to Jeremey. Jeremey looked to Millie and Kaylie to the stairs and proceeded to climb the steps to talk to Chas. When he got up the stairs we walked down another long hallway. Passing a pair of open double doors he looked inside to see Petey hammering away at a punching bag viciously and Erik and Justin playing pool while Wesley served as a spectator. It was then that he noticed how smooth the ride was on he airship he hadn't felt a bump yet. He shrugged and continued to the bedroom area.

"Ah, there we go." Jeremey said to himself as he reached room 003. Knocking on the door lightly he then opening it he was greeted by a scene of Chas sulking on the bed. "What's wrong dude?" Chas looked up and smiled sadly.

"I'm glad to see you man.." He said, "C'mon, have a seat." Jeremey walked in and closed the door before sitting down at a desk across from the bed and taking in his surroundings. The room was about as big as his bedroom at home, just enough room to operate comfortably. The bed was a bunk bed seemingly built into the wall, the bed sheets on the bottom bunk were a dark crimson color with white pillows while the top bunk had green bed sheets and white pillows.

"Cid REALLY put a lot into this crap.." Jeremey said to himself before turning to Chas, "So what's wrong?" Chas forced a smile before looking to the floor and sighing.

"It's my relationship." He said, "She acts like she doesn't even wanna be near me. It's killing me man, and I don't know how to fix it. She won't talk about it, she won't.... I-I just don't know.." Jeremey noted tears developing in Chas's eyes. He nodded solemnly looking at the floor and looked back up to Chas.

"Why can't you talk to her about it?" He asked, "I mean, if you want this relationship to work you'll have to talk about this stuff." He remembered Kaylie's face not even five minutes earlier. Chas leaned back on the bed and sighed again.

"She won't talk about it." He put his hands behind his head, his voice becoming shaky, "You how she is. She doesn't want to talk about these kind of things." Jeremey nodded again and looked around the room again, noticing a vent in the ceiling.

"Listen, all I have to say is that you should sit her down and talk about what's bothering you and both of you should come up with a solution together. If that can't work, I dunno what will. If it does everything will be alright." Chas looked at him a long time before replying.

"You're right." He said chuckling, "You always are about these kind of things. How do you stay so optimistic?" Jeremey smiled sullenly. He got up and walked to the door opening it.

"I dunno," He said nodding his head in the direction of the hallway, "It's a gift and a curse. C'mon, let me give you a tour of the ship." Chas got up and followed him out of the room seemingly with a new spark of life in him. They passed by the room and Jeremey noticed the sign above the door "Recreation Room". Walking in he noted that Petey was still beating the punching bag relentlessly and it was now Justin and Wesley playing pool while Erik served as a spectator. Jeremey clasped his hands together.

"Hey guys, wanna go on a super-exclusive tour of Cid's airship?" Everyone looked up except Petey, who continued to pound on the punching bag, sweating profusely. Wesley turned to look at Jeremey and smiled.

"We already toured the ship." He replied leaning against the table and looking at Petey. Jeremey smiled.

"Well take me on a tour." He said looking at Petey, "I haven't seen it all. Besides, we need to get sad and droopy here to perk up and I need to talk to Cid." Wesley turned to look at Justin, then to Erik, who shrugged. Wesley then turned back to Jeremey.

"I guess." He turned and placed the pool stick back on the table, "We can finish this later." Justin nodded and followed Wesley, Jeremey, and Chas out of the door. Erik was the last one to leave, he turned to Petey.

"Hey, you coming?" He asked Petey, who paid no heed to the words. Erik cocked his head to the side and asked again, "You coming or not?" Petey's blue eyes flashed angrily and he beat the punching bag harder.

"NO!" He snapped at Erik, "Now go away and leave me the hell alone!" Erik rocked his head back and turned to walk out of the room slowly, eying Petey warily. After he had left Petey stopped and wiped his forehead with the back of his forearm.

"Whew." He looked around the room and back to the punching bag. He was about to start punching it again when he heard high heels in the back of the room.

"You are an easy one to piss off aren't you?" A woman with a thick Russian accent said stepping out from behind a coke machine. Petey eyed her suspiciously, she had long flowing silver-green hair down to her hips and yellow eyes.

"Nice tattoos." He said to her noticing the designs on her face. The woman smiled seductively.

"I noticed you do not have a weapon like your friends do." She said, to which Petey frowned angrily and the woman smiled as if she was amused.

"Who are you and why do you care?!" He spat out before commencing to beat on the punching bag again. The woman walk over to him and put her hands on his shoulders and he stopped for some reason. He didn't know why, he just stopped.

"I am Ultimecia and I kare because I want to help you my young and improperly treated friend." Petey looked at her without turning around.

"Go on.." He said turning to her as she backed away and sat on the pool table.

"You did not get a weapon, so the others look down upon you." She said looking into his eyes with burning yellow eyes. "But you, you are the one they need to be taking orders from, not that foolish brown-headed boy. They treat you like a friend to your face, but when you turn your back their tongues tell different stories. They see you as extra baggage, a burden, instead of what you truly are, they're leader." Petey shook his head.

"No, Jeremey's my friend, he would never do that." Ultimecia smiled and rolled a random pool ball into one of the corner pockets.

"Oh?" She replied, "Is he? I kan hear them now. The black-headed boy is saying you should not be here and Jeremey is agreeing. The short one is saying that if you had a weapon he would have to take it from you bekause you wouldn't know how to use it. They do not seem like friends to me?" Petey turned and punched the punching bag hard, sending it flying back and then swinging back to him, to which he let it hit him, he could feel nothing now, his heart had gone cold to feeling and so did his body.

"If I had a weapon..." He said looking from his hands to Ultimecia, "I'd kill all of them... But honorably, not in their sleep. They'd pay, oh they would pay dearly... I know this sounds harsh, but what they're doing is worse..." Ultimecia's face seemed to glow at hearing the words.

"You know," She started hopping off of the pool table and walking to him, "I think I have just the thing. I brought with me a little gift." She held her hand out and a weapon appeared. Petey looked it over intently.

It was a gunblade, but unlike Jeremey's, it had the body style of a 9mm Beretta handgun instead of a revolver. It was a one-handed weapon and the blade was shaped weird, Petey had never seen anything like it. It was shaped regularly near the front but when the blade came closer to the handle it widened out and stopped about five inches from the handle, curved upwards about three inches, inward about a half-inch and came back to the 'barrel' One the widest part of the blade there were three holes spaced out to form and upside-down triangle about an inch long on all three sides .

"What's this?" Petey asked skeptically. Ultimecia held the weapon out for him to take it.

"This is the Hyperion and it is yours." Petey took the weapon slowly, cautiously. "For your vengeance, for you to prove who is superior. Take it boy, and you will be forever remembered." Petey looked at her then back to the Hyperion.

"How will I know when to use it?" He asked Ultimecia and she shrugged, turning to walk out the doors.

"You will know boy." She said as walked out the doors waving good-bye without turning around, "You will know." Petey watched her walk out and considered following her but then thought better of it. He looked at the gift and swung it around playfully a few times before dismissing it and walking over to the pool table to play a game.

Meanwhile the 'tour' was wrapping up and Jeremey was in another argument with Justin. They approached the cockpit where Cid was steering the ship.

"I'm telling you man," Jeremey said to Justin more than slightly annoyed, "I don't care if he doesn't have a weapon, he's my friend and I think he should be included in this!" Justin was about to reply when he decided it would be better to just shut up, he couldn't out-argue Jeremey. They reached the cockpit and the door opened by itself.

"Hey Cid old buddy!" Jeremey walked in and patted him on the shoulder, "How you doin up here by yourself?" He looked out the big glass dome where he could see the terrain outside whizzing by.

"Great." Cid said scratching his head, "Except one thing.. What the HELL was that thing on the oil rig?!" Jeremey rocked his head and looked to the others.

"Well, if you insist on knowing my old friend," He said looking out the dome again, "We were chosen by Fate to save the world from a bunch of video game baddies who have somehow found their way to this world. 'Zat sum it up guys? I know it sounds unbelievable, but then again, so is this airship." The others nodded and Cid looked at Jeremey cocking an eyebrow.

"Ya got a point I guess." Cid replied scratching his head again, "Whatever, anyway, I might have to land this thing pretty soon, you know, to inspect how things are working and all." Jeremey nodded and turned to walk out.

"Whatever you gots to do man." He said as the door opened and he walked out, "And Chas, you got something to do yourself. As for the rest of you, I sincerely thank you for the tour and I hope you enjoy yourself on this fine adventure we're having." They dispersed quickly and Jeremey closed his eyes and sighed. "One hell of a way to spend a Saturday.." He started off to find Kaylie.