The knock on the door came too soon for her liking.
She still hadn't straightened a thing out, but she did feel calmer. Pushing the work chair back, she left the test to run for the umpteenth time. So far, so good. There were no bugs or lag with the sensors in her finished contraptions and she was relieved that everything decided to work today. In a way, she really wanted this chance to show her hard work off even if she wasn't sure about following AVALANCHE yet. It was silly, but she still felt that urge.
Walking through the house, Penelope jumped from the back of the couch to curtains, hanging wildly for a moment. Before Stella could yell for her to get down, the cat lept to the side and ran across the room into the kitchen full speed. Classic. Rolling her eyes, she paused at the door. She could just refuse to open the door, yell for them to go away, and pretend this never happened in hopes that everything would turn out well for her. She could, but she'd never know what would have happened if she said to come in.
She took a deep breath to prepare herself and pulled the door open, the two familiar figures were now accompanied by two others. One was a larger, built man with darker skin, his complexion a little darker than her own. He had the shadow of some facial hair down his jaw. His eyes pierced hers and he folded his arms over his broad chest, a certain aspect about him was extremely unique. His right arm was divided at the elbow, the presence of a heavy-looking metallic mechanism took the place of his arm. From the looks of it, it was a weapon. A gun, most likely.
The other unknown visitor was a man smaller in stature and perhaps a bit older than she was. He had light stubble across his face and he chewed on the end of a cigarette, pulling it from his mouth and letting the smoke escape his teeth. His short blond hair was held back with some aviator goggles. He had a brown leather jacket and his hands were buried in the pockets of his cargo pants. He too scrutinized her.
Looking from Cloud and Tifa to the others she awkwardly pulled the door open wider, her expression was enough.
"Oh, yeah, um. These are our guys." Cloud cleared his throat and motioned behind him. "Barret," he pointed at the taller man before the other blonde guy, "And Cid. This is Stella. Better introductions will come later." He said and took a step inside, past Stella. Tifa followed and Barret after her. Cid took a moment, taking in a long drag from his cigarette before tossing the butt on the ground and stomping it. How nice, right on her doorstep. Once everyone had walked past her into her house, she sighed and closed the door, not entirely happy with the new company but what was she to do.
She turned on her heel and the four all looked around awkwardly. After a moment, Stella spoke up, rocking on her heel.
"So um… you guys want anything? Like, water or something?" she asked, mentally kicking herself. She didn't have company often and when Damien would visit, he'd go straight to the refrigerator and take what he wanted. Cloud stared behind her at something, but Cid spoke up before she could wonder.
"Yeah, you got any whiskey? Or tea?" he asked, his voice deep and gravely. He looked at her expectantly. She guessed she could make tea…
"We're not doing any of that. You don't need it. You can have tea at the inn." Barret spoke up, his voice was deeper than the other's. He tapped his foot impatiently.
A sound crashed behind her where Cloud had been staring, the distinct sound of glass shattering. Everyone flinched and she whipped her head around to see Penelope sliding on the tile, her feet pounding the ground frantic as she ran away from the plate she knocked onto the ground. She darted through the mass of legs standing in the living room and shredded up the couch. Everyone's eyes followed the cat and returned to her.
"Wow…" Cloud muttered. There was a dumb silence and Cid coughed.
"Ooooh-kay, let's forget that my cat is a maniac and let's get… cracking." Stella began and rubbed her face. Wow, she sounded like an idiot.
"Yes, cracking. Let's crack." Cloud said and Barret groaned out loud.
"Will you shut up?" Cid snapped, pinching his nose. Cloud looked over his shoulder and gave the man an offended look but didn't say anything. She didn't know if it was the onslaught of hysteria from her stress and anxiety at how awkward she felt or if the exchange was genuinely funny but she felt herself crack a grin.
Shaking her head to shake away the giggles she didn't want, she motioned towards the back. Taking the first step, the rest followed her to the garage and watched her as she made the first move. Taking the box of finished projects and taking the one she was testing from her laptop, she went for the back door, struggling to balance everything in her arms as she pushed it open, aware of everyone's eyes on her. Stepping from the dim garage and into the light of the fenced-in backyard, Stella set the box to the side and held up the one she had just tested. The four watched her, Barret looking bored as ever and the rest was simply patient, waiting for her to start, Tifa shutting the door behind her.
"Alright, show us what you got here." Cloud permitted, folding his arms.
"Okay, first one. This is what I have dubbed the pancake because it looks like a pancake." She began, holding the disk out. It was her newest creation before the taser net ball that she destroyed at the inn. It had a mess of red, green, and white wires that showed on the bottom and the coil in the center moved slightly when she tilted it about. It still needed some polish, but it was functional. Making sure the switch on the side was off, she smacked the bottom of it.
"This has an impact sensor on the bottom panel and when it feels an impact beyond a certain level of pressure, it activates. I have it turned off but I'll turn it on now." she explained, showing them as she flipped the switch, the small red light on the edge of the disk blinking. "The idea is that when I throw this and it lands on the ground, the impact activates the central coil and like a tesla coil, it blasts… actually, it's a long explanation. Just watch." she stopped herself, already getting bored with her own explanation.
She held it up for demonstration and tossed it out into the yard, watching as it landed on the grass as a safe distance. After a moment, the mechanism activated and long, whipping arcs seared out from the center, the bright blue charged and crackled sharply, heating the air even at the distance she was standing from it. The bright pulsing show was set to time out after five seconds for the sake of the contraption. The crackling ceased in a loud pop, the arcs fizzling away in the surrounding grass. The ground was seared and the dry grass was fried black.
Exhaling, she looked away from the pancake to gauge her visitor's reactions. Tifa had her hand over her mouth, Cid and Barret were both wide eyed, and Cloud was the only one moderately unfazed.
"So that's the pancake…" she trailed off, taking a few steps towards it, looking down to see that the coil was red hot, glowing from its use. Bending over it, she flipped the switch off and slowly brought up. "It releases a charged current of five amps of a low voltage for five seconds. This one can and could kill you after longer than five seconds, but five seconds is enough for major burns, serious damage to your heart and brain, and numbness." She gave with a smile. "So ouch, is what I'm trying to say." she finished and strode back over, placing the still hot pancake to the side. Cloud leaned over to Tifa and whispered something that she couldn't hear.
The demonstration had certainly gotten their attention and she pulled out the next one, a bowl shaped piece of tech that unlike the previous one showed no wires. This was a more polished model.
"This one comes with a warning. There are sun shades in the box, but I was not expecting more than two guests… so you'll have to take turns." She began, pulling a pair of yellow laser glasses from her pocket and placing them on her face. Cloud, peered over into the box, the first to reach down. He grabbed the two pairs of shades from the box and handed the other to Tifa. She took it gratefully and they both slid them on. The shades were a little small for Cloud's face and looked comical, the plastic flower on the frames didn't help any. "Um, you two without shades… you'll have to turn around until I tell you it's safe."
"Oh for fuck's sake, really? We can't see?" the blonde man asked, rubbing at the stubble on his chin.
"If you wanna go blind, be my guest." she retorted, earning a small chuckle from the tallest man. Barret went ahead and turned around, Cid giving her an insulted look before he caved in and turned around.
"Okay, my neighbors hate this one so much. This one doesn't have a fun name, it's just an electrostatic field generator, or EFG for short. Can't always be creative. It's not activated by any sensor because it's too dangerous so I have a button for it instead." She began, Tifa and Cloud watching behind their shades.
She pulled the button from her pocket, the protective plastic shield lay over the top so it wasn't accidentally activated. Another thing she pulled from her pocket was a microwaveable bag of popcorn. She had really planned out this demonstration.
With no further comment, she walked to the farthest reach of her yard, still maintaining a nice distance from the wooden fence, she didn't want it to catch fire. Placing the bowl shaped hunk of metal in the grass, she placed the popcorn on top and jogged back over to the group. Adjusting her shades she added.
"Once I click this button, it will get the signal and have a three second delay before it activates… oh and it's loud so cover your ears." She warned. Holding up the button to show that she was about to press it, she pulled the plastic shield up. She gave them a pointed look and Tifa covered her ears. Cloud hesitantly did but the other two didn't. "Last warning, it's really loud." she called out.
She didn't cover her ears because she didn't want to let go of the button to do so. Besides, she was used to it and she was sure her neighbor was too.
3
2
1
An earth shattering crack exploded from the contraption, the sound itself was enough to rattle the ground. The searing, bright bolt swelled and disappeared as soon as it came. Hot ash fell from the air, the remains of the popcorn bag fluttered in little embers in the air. The popcorn itself was scattered in the grass. She pulled her laser glasses up to set on her head.
"You can turn around now." She called, flipping the plastic shield back over the button. Safety first. The two men turned around and Cid cursed under his breath. Tifa took the shades from her face and dropped them into the box, Cloud following her lead and tossing the small, girly shades with the others. Barret blinked and looked out to the embers, which were now more scarce in the air.
"That one sounded like an explosion." he observed, and swatted away a fleck of ash that had drifted over to the group.
"It was… in a way." Stellas gave, tapping her fingers on her arm. She'd have to let the contraption cool before she touched it.
"Where did the popcorn come from?" Cid asked, looking at the state of the grass, the popcorn littered everywhere. Oh right, he hadn't seen her place it down.
"From the ABC or whatever." Cloud spoke up, pointing out at the contraption. ABC or whatever… how insulting. What was worse is that Cid believed it and his look of confusion was regrettable.
"It makes popcorn? How is that useful?" he gawked, squinting at her work, still burning hot in the grass.
"The EFG does not make popcorn. I put the popcorn there to...ugh, nevermind." Stella shook her head before mentally resetting. "Anyway, that's all I have that isn't buggy or in prototype stage. Well, besides a pulse laser gun that's stable." she added, glancing over at the box
"Well, let's see it!" Tifa gave, the only one who seemed to be enjoying the "demonstration" if she could call it that. Taking a breath, Stella kneeled down by the box and rummaged through a few other devices that she brought out in preparation, all of which are fairly unstable. Through the loose wires, chips, and boards she pulled out a gun that had been heavily modified. Pushing herself back up, a shrill screech called from behind the fence.
"Miss Schwarz!" The elder yelled, yet again coming to scold her for experimenting in the back yard. She cringed at her last name being called, not wanting to have the same conversation.
"Shit, it's Mrs. Graham." Stella muttered. "Let's go inside and talk about this. This laser should be safe enough to talk about indoors." she gave with little certainty.
"That woman is calling you." Cloud observed, not getting the fact that she wanted to avoid her.
"I know so let's go inside. You don't wanna hear our conversation, trust me." Stella gave through her teeth, conscious of the fact that her neighbor knew she was outside. She wanted to get inside before Mrs. Graham pulled out her husband's step ladder to peer over the fence like she always did.
"Before we do, you said "should" be safe. It should be or is safe?" Barret asked, glancing down at the gun in her hand. Too late, the curly brown hair of Mrs. Graham peered over the fence. She had found the step ladder quickly this time. Stella sighed in defeat.
"It is safe. It'll be totally fine but nevermind going inside now." she groaned before calling out to her neighbor. "Mrs. Graham, how are you today?"
"You woke me from my nap with that terrible noise. Your experiments always wake me up!" she began. She always said the same thing when she came out to yell over the fence. Stella doubted she was actually taking a nap and if she was, perhaps the old woman's sleep schedule was even more messed up than her own. Stella sighed and looked to her guest, holding her index finger up to tell them to give her a second.
"Mrs. Graham, get off that step ladder! You're gonna fall and get hurt like last time! I'm sorry I woke you up but it's two in the afternoon." She called back and the woman's head bobbed over the fence.
"I only fell last time because that cat of yours bumped the ladder over." She scoffed, "Who are those fellows with you? You never have guests." she inquired, her interest returned.
"That's not my cat…" She corrected before looking at the "fellows" who watched on. "Um… these are… I'm starting an acapella group and these are my backup singers." She lied, ignoring the abashed look that Barret gave her.
"I don't believe that for a second! They look like a bunch of weirdos to me." She claimed.
"That's real nice. Why don't you get back to that nap now?" Her suggested rendered Mrs. Graham silent as she thought it over.
"Okay… Take care Miss Stella." she gave up and her head disappeared as she stepped down from the ladder. After a moment, the sound of her neighbor's back door shutting was her indication.
Stella turned her attention to the four. Cloud was rubbing his temples and Cid tapped his foot, arms crossed. There was a short silence as the awkwardness of listening on remained with the group. At least her neighbor wasn't as abrasive as last time.
"We'd make a great acapella group, huh Cloud?" Tifa joked, elbowing his side. He just shook his head.
"Yikes, sorry about that. She's always on my case. Neighbors, am I right?" Stella gave, a short nervous laugh followed. "Anyway, back to it."
"Good, I thought we were gonna start chatting about the weather." Cid snorted sarcastically, pointing at the laser gun in her hand. "Let's see that one."
"Right… This is a pulse laser gun. Instead of having a continuous stream of light like one of my other lasers, this one fires in charged pulses. It'll knock chunks out of metal and burn through wood or plastic. It also removes tattoos." She explained, turning the gun over in her hand. The safety was on, as yet again indicated by the soft glow of a small light. It glowed blue and would change red when the safety was off. A little precaution to prevent her from burning her house down.
"Can I see it?" Cid asked, holding his hand out. Normally, she would say no but giving the type of laser that this was, it wasn't a major threat. It was non-harmful to humans. Turning the grip towards him, she let him take and he turned it over in his hand, looking at the wires taped to the side.
"It's rough, but I see what you did here. This processor controls the delay on the output. Is this a green laser?" he asked. He knew? Was he also someone who built things or did he just have a surface level knowledge of lasers?
"Yes, how'd you know?" she asked, wondering if he would reveal that he's some kind of laser enthusiast. He gave her a chuckle and peered down the barrel.
"Lucky guess, you said it knocks chunks in metal." he gave vaguely and she nodded, biting the inside on her cheek.
"Yes, but my other laser is red and does the same thing." she returned and he shrugged.
"There's no use in that one. You can't carry something like that in your pocket." he pointed out. In most cases, that was true, but not with her laser. She had spent a long time messing with this one to make it worth something to her. She didn't steal the laser off a scrapped Shinra robot for it to be weak.
"This one you can!" she said, already falling to her knees to rummage through the box, Tifa stepping out of the way. Once she found it, she snatched it up and got to her feet, holding up the pen-sized laser. Cid gave it a once over and scoffed.
"I'm going to call bullshit on that. Red lasers need a lot of power to be that strong." He said and she shook her head. He was underestimating her.
"Yeah, but not if you use three hundred watts and mirrors." She twirled the laser pen in her fingers.
"Mirrors?" he narrowed his eyes and reached for the laser. She ignored his hand and kept it in her grasp. Too dangerous to hand over.
"Oh yeah, and magnifying glasses. See? In this tube, there are mirrors that separate the beam in half and focus them in through three small magnifying glasses. I fitted into the casing of a typical laser pointer, like the ones you buy for cats. This one is super pocket sized." she explained and almost gleamed with a touch of cockiness. Cid nodded.
"Well, if it's like you say, it'll melt right through metal. You can test it out on this dumbass's sword." he joked, pointed at Cloud.
"N-no! You can't-" Cloud began, pulled from his silence at the mention of his sword only to be cut off.
"Well, let's see it then!" Cid laughed. A demonstration?
Stella looked around and saw a bent tire rim resting against the back of the house. She was going to use it for something later but figured it would do. She muttered a "hold on" and tread over to where it leaned. Picking it up, she pulled it up from its spot, the rust on the surface scratched at her fingers. She carried it over to where the previous experiment was held, the surface of the popcorn surrounded EFG looked cool enough. Sticking the tire rim into the dirt and twisting it so that it stood upright, she left it be and grabbed the previous contraption, the surface still warm to the touch. She dropped it into her pocket, ignoring that it could very well kill her if it went off.
She took a deep breath once she got back to the house, where Barret shushed when she approached. Ignoring that anything could have been said about her, good or bad, she held up the laser pointer. Taking a steady aim and holding her wrist with her other hand to make sure she was still, she clicked the button on the side.
The red beam showed on the surface of the rim for a fraction of a second before it glowed brightly with heat and melted an expanding hole through the center. Fearing for anything behind the rim, she released the button and the metal melted like ice around the hole, caving in on itself. The molten metal dripped and set the dried grass ablaze. She figured this may happen at some point. A lot of her inventions made a messy fire in the aftermath of whatever destruction they wrought. She snatched a bottle of water from the box and rushed over, uncapping it before the fire spread. She dumped the contents all over the rim and grass, the metal made a violent hissing noise as the water boiled on its surface. The glow slowly faded and the fire hazard was reduced.
She held up the laser pen and began to walk back to the house. There was nothing more to show besides code on her laptop and she was certain none of them would care to see that.
"That's it. That's all I have right now." She gave, tired of walking to the fence and back each time she wanted to show something. Cloud turned and looked at Cid and Barret, waving his hand in her direction.
"I approve! Let's get this girl packed up! Whaddya say, Barret?" Cid asked, his arms folded. The taller man hadn't said much, content to watching.
"Uh, yeah. This is good stuff. You planning on making this stuff for our guys? I want one of those lasers." He added and she shook her head. No, she wasn't sure she wanted to be a part of this yet. She hadn't made the decision yet. She thought she would have more time.
"Yeah me too! Also, you think you can make the waffle one smaller?" Cid returned, his question caught her off guard.
"The pancake? I can try…" she muttered, opening her mouth to voice her concern but was drowned out.
"Then it's settled. She can pack up and meet us in the morning, right Cloud?" Barret asked and Cloud snapped his head up.
"Huh, no wait." He started, "Good that you guys agree to have her on board but…" He paused and he and Tifa looked to her.
"What do you want to do?" Tifa asked. Stella looked down and fiddled with the laser pointer in her hand.
Being put on the spot didn't help. She knew if she said yes, a lot would change, for better or for worse, and she wasn't sure she was ready for that much change. She always wanted to make something of herself and her inventions and working at the inn every day didn't make her happy. If she said no, she knew she would always wonder what she missed out on. But then again, this wasn't saying no to going on a vacation or a trade show. This was agreeing or disagreeing to be part of a known terrorist organization that would ruin her reputation whether or not she was useful to them. It was involvement, not that the body of the soldier in the inn wasn't involved enough.
"I don't know yet. I never thought any of this would ever be useful or that anyone would want me to make anything for them." She gave, the lack of an answer lingered in the air. This may be her only chance, she reminded herself.
Cid shifted around uncomfortably, pulling a cigarette from his coat pocket as if he was thinking about lighting it. Barret looked from her to Cloud, who sighed.
"Then tell me this. Why did you make these things?" Cloud asked, his thumb hooked around his belt loop. She had never really thought about it. She could answer that vaguely because she started making things for a reason but she never really knew why she continued.
"Well… I wanted to help my friend, to protect her when she moved away. She was supposed to come back but she hasn't yet…" Stella thought aloud. Cloud nodded. "In short, to protect people. After what happened today… I'm not sure if these are for protection or if they're just geeked up weapons."
"That's a tough question to answer, but if you never try to answer that for yourself, then you'll never know." he offered, "But if you come with us, I'll try my best to make sure these are for protection." He promised.
She didn't know what to say.
Before she could say anything, she heard a familiar voice shout her name from inside the house. In no time, the familiar figure burst through the back door, his hazel eyes wild. He gave her company a suspicious and frightened look, recognizing Cloud. Still, he pushed past them and grabbed her shoulders.
"Hey, let go!" she exclaimed, yanking her arms away. He obeyed and clasped his hands nervously.
"Those blueberry pricks came and "debriefed" me, whatever that means, and they bullied me! They asked a bunch of questions. I lied for you, Stella! If they find out, we're both toast!" He all but yelled.
"Damien, what did you say? What did you tell them?" She demanded and he took a breath, panting from what she assumed was a run to her house.
"I wanted to describe someone the opposite of you so I said three burly and strong men came in and beat them up but then they asked why one guy was burned and I panicked and said lighter fluid when I could have said materia. It was terrible, Stella, I thought I was doomed but they bagged the guy up and took him away and said that they were looking for someone else before they left." He blabbered his explanation.
"So they left? Did they say if they were coming back or not?" She asked and Damien shook his head.
"They didn't say anything else but I know one thing! They were not happy. I think you should go live with your mom just in case, until they stop investigating." The brunette panted out, "I wanna help you and I've done all I can. I don't want you to get in trouble, Stella."
The group shifted uncomfortably. If the Shinra investigated this further, the inn wouldn't be a good place to hide out and neither would anywhere in Kalm.
"If that's the case, we need to head out." Cloud concluded and gave Stella an apologetic glance. "If you haven't decided yet, you should stay. If you have any doubts, what we do isn't for you." He gave her a pat on the shoulder.
She looked at him, as he waited for her to confirm her decision. Letting the laser pen roll in her palm she grasped it. She had made her decision. She held up her finger and turned towards her old pal.
"Damien, you said you wanted to help me right?" she asked and he nodded, answering her, "If you want to help me, take Penelope home, love her and feed her. I don't know when I'll come back. I'll figure out what to tell my parents. Can you do that for me?" She asked and he stared at her in disbelief.
"You don't mean you're going with these nutcases? Stella, you can't do that!" he exclaimed, giving the group a gesture.
"Do you want to want to help me or not?" She asked. He looked her up and down, seeing no hesitation on her.
"Yes… I want to help but this is…" he trailed off and sighed, closing his eyes. "This is your chance. You always talked about getting out of here. I just thought we'd do it together."
"Ew, don't get like that on me." she half joked. "I'll call. I promise. Now go buy some cat food." He gave her a look like he wanted to say something but he turned away and left through the back door to go back through her home.
She stood in silence for a moment as she came to grip. She should be packing. Taking no further hesitation, she knelt by the box and emptied her pockets of devices and pulled it into her grasp.
"I'm going to go wait with the Highwind. Catch you guys later." Cid gave, lighting his cigarette and leaving… through her house with a lit cigarette. She didn't have the time to complain in her mind before Barret spoke up.
"I'm going with him." he uttered before following Cid through the house.
She was left with Cloud and Tifa, the two she knew the longest and the ones she felt like she knew the most. Taking time to unravel the wires and chords of her working pieces from the others, to make packing easier. She tried to determine the quickest way to pack her things, her mind spinning. Nothing really felt real to her and she felt like she was being swept along by some autopilot part of her mind as she headed into the garage and began to pack there.
"You know this is going to be a hard transition, right? I just want to make sure you know that we'll do our best to make sure you're okay, but we're going to be living rough." Cloud gave and Stella nodded.
"Yep, probably way harder than I'm thinking it is right now, right? I get it, you know. I know this isn't a smart idea for little old me but you know what's harder? Going to the inn every morning to be yelled at by travelers." She gave, honing in on her packing as she separated vital things from the mess of her workspace.
Tifa giggled at her response.
"Yes, that's hard for sure. Mix alcohol with that and it can be tough. I own a bar in Edge." She admitted. She wondered what a woman like this was doing with a group like the infamous AVALANCHE. Stella guessed she'd be learning a lot about her and the others for however long she was going to be with them.
"Wow that's terrible. I'm so sorry." Stella gave, having gathered all of her arduinos and input sensors into a plastic baggie.
"Yeah, dealing with customers is never fun." Cloud deadpanned before getting to his question, "How long do you think it'll take you to pack it up?"
"Give me thirty minutes."