Chapter Eight: The breakdown

"How is it that you two have the power of limit breaks?" Cloud asked in astonishment.

"I…I don't know," Hobbes replied. "What is a limit break?"

"A limit break," Aeris explained, "is when a person unleashes all of his or her anger and fury at once so they can perform powerful attacks and spells on enemies or to help allies a great deal. One knows when a limit is being unleashed when a red light surrounds a body. That's the anger being unleashed and that's what gives one powers."

"I'm with Cloud," Tifa added. "I don't mean any offense to you two, but I don't understand how your anger can become a limit break. You both seem so…well…harmless."

"Well," Calvin replied, flexing his muscles, "you know what they say about judging a book by its cover."

"Plus, we tigers are known for our strength," Hobbes added, looking proud with himself.

"Never mind," Cait Sith replied. "The important thing is that the Ocho is dead. Now, we can continue because we have our gas and we trust one another, right?"

"I guess yer right," Barret said, filling the buggy up with gas.

"Well, since you two know limit breaks and have proven to be quite the fighters," Cloud spoke again. "I think it's best if we teach you two how to use magic materia while we're waiting for Barret to fill up the buggy." With those words, he pulled out a green orb that looked like the yellow one Calvin had found.

"Green materia," Cloud began, "is necessary if you want to survive in a fight. Materia possesses powers that are bestowed by Ancients many years ago. If it weren't for those people, we may never have known of the special powers that all materia posses."

"You mean like my deathblow materia?" Calvin asked, pulling out the yellow orb he found.

"Right, except yellow materia does not posses the powers of magic. Instead, they give you special abilities throughout battle." He then pulled out another yellow gem from his pocket. "This materia enables me to sense my enemies. It tells me how strong they are, their magic strength, and what they are strong and weak against. It's called Sense materia."

Calvin and Hobbes just stared at the yellow gem in awe.

"Materia can do that?" Hobbes asked in amazement.

"Yes. And if you're shocked by what yellow materia can do, wait until you get a load of the green materia."

Cloud walked up to Calvin and Hobbes and handed them each a green orb.

"How do we know what type of materia it is?" Calvin asked.

"I can answer that," Aeris said. "Close your eyes and you will hear the planet and the Cetra explain to you what type of materia it is."

Calvin and Hobbes obeyed. As Calvin closed his eyes, he heard voices going through his head much like the ones that had earlier explaining the deathblow materia. Instead, Calvin heard voices saying to him, "Flames! Heat! Fire! Fire!"

"Fire materia, right?" Calvin asked, handing the orb to Aeris to check.

"Right," Aeris said instantly, without closing her eyes.

"And mine is earth," Hobbes responded, handing the orb to Aeris to check as well. Aeris nodded to Hobbes, meaning that he was right.

"WAY COOL!" Calvin shouted in excitement. "I heard all these voices going through my head. How about you, Hobbes?"

"I heard them too. Amazing! I heard things like, 'Quake! Rock! Mother Earth! Earth!'"

"Let me finish this lesson quickly, you two," Cloud interrupted. "Now, to use the materia, you need to put it in your weapons. Your weapons should have slots like this," Cloud said, showing his sword and the materia slots in the handles.

"I have those," Calvin said, showing his gun and the slots with his deathblow materia equipped.

"Um…I have a problem there," Hobbes interrupted. "I don't have a weapon."

"I can fix that," Tifa said, handing Hobbes a pair of one of her fighting gloves. These gloves had claws coming out from them. "They're the tiger claws. I thought you would like them."

Hobbes smiled brightly at the name and immediately slipped them on. "Anything with the word tiger in it has got to be top quality material," he said, looking proud with his new gloves. Plus, he now had materia slots.

"To equip the materia," Cloud continued, "simply put the materia in one of the slots and that's it. I'll teach you how to use it later. Here, let me give you guys some more."

"Maybe that's not such a good idea," Aeris interrupted. "They've never used magic before and it can take a lot out of someone if they overuse it."

"Relax," Cloud assured. "I'm only going to give them two more each. When they learn how to handle it, we'll give them more. Plus, we'll give them amulets and accessories later as well."

"Accessories and amulets?" Calvin and Hobbes both asked at the same time. Hobbes got the jinx in and told Calvin he owed him tuna. Calvin just grumbled.

"They give you extra strength and special immunities throughout battle. I'll give you some when we make our next stop."

He then handed Calvin and Hobbes two more green materia orbs. Calvin and Hobbes identified them before equipping them to their weapons.

"I got a lightning materia and a cure," Calvin stated. "What do you have, Hobbes?"

"I got ice and a cure also."

"WAY COOL!" Calvin shouted again. "I can't wait to try these new powers out in battle!"

"Come on, you two," Cait Sith shouted merrily. "The buggy's full on gas and we're ready to go!"

Calvin and Hobbes raced back to the buggy. "SHOTGUN!" Calvin shouted.

"Um, Calvin," Cloud interrupted, "can you let Aeris sit up front?"

Calvin looked over to Aeris and noticed that she looked a little teary. Something was obviously bugging her. Calvin agreed and sat next to Hobbes in the middle seat. Soon, they were on their way.

Red XIII and Cait Sith shared the usual back seat of the buggy. Barret and Tifa shared the third seats, and Calvin and Hobbes shared the second seat, right behind the driver's seat and the front passenger's seat, where Cloud and Aeris were.

"What's wrong with Aeris," Hobbes asked Tifa, noticing that she was teary.

"Remember when she said that she wanted to visit someone in the village?"

"Yeah, I do."

"She just found out that he died a few years ago and she's pretty shaken up over it."

"Oh." Hobbes felt sorry for her and wanted to do something for her to make her feel better. "When we make our next stop, I'll snuggle next to her," Hobbes finally said. "When we tigers snuggle, it's the next best thing in the world."

"What's the best thing in the world, then?" Tifa asked curiously.

"Getting a kiss on the cheek!" Hobbes replied, smiling from ear to ear at the thought.

"Hobbes, I don't mind if you snuggle with Aeris to make her feel better, but you will NOT GET KISSED OR YOU'RE OUT OF G.R.O.S.S." Calvin reminded in a threatening voice.

Tifa just laughed and started to go to sleep on Barret's lap.

Hours had passed and everyone had pretty much fallen asleep. The only three that were still awake were Barret, Calvin, and Hobbes. Cloud had asked Barret to take over the driving because he was getting tired. Calvin and Hobbes were pulling materia orbs out of Cloud's bag and closing their eyes to determine what type of materia they were.

"I got another ice!" Calvin would say.

"I found the sense Cloud was talking about," Hobbes said at one point.

"What the heck is all materia?"

"Long Range? What does this do, I wonder?"

"Ifrit? What the heck is Ifrit? Is that some kind of alien?"

"All right, you two," Barret spoke after awhile. "I need you two to keep it down a little. We're approaching mountains and I need to drive through them to get across. I need full concentration."

Calvin and Hobbes agreed to this and put the materia away. They then sat still for a few minutes. However, tigers and little boys tend to get bored when they just sit still and do nothing.

After ten minutes of just sitting still, Hobbes had had enough. He had to do something. He noticed that Calvin was still looking forward, doing nothing. He had an idea. He got close to Calvin's face and pulled his lips apart from each other and stuck his tongue out at him.

Calvin started to break out laughing, but tried to keep it quiet. "Shhh! snicker Quiet. giggle you heard Barret."

However, Calvin was amused by this face contest that Hobbes had brought about. He made one to. He pulled his nose down as far as he could, stretched his eyes as far open as he could and showed his upper teeth. Hobbes started snickering as well.

" snort hee hee we're gonna get in trouble," Hobbes said, trying not to laugh hard.

Hobbes decided to retaliate with a monkey face. He puffed his cheeks, pulled his ears to his side, stuck his tongue out, and crossed his eyes.

Calvin was doing all he could not to laugh out loud. " Tch! Hee Hee! Shhh! giggle! "

Soon, both of them were making faces at the same time and they could not control themselves. They burst out laughing as loud as they could. This, of course, upset Barret. He turned around and shouted with an extremely angry face, "HEY! I THOUGHT I SAID I WANTED IT QUIET BACK THERE!"

Calvin and Hobbes stopped laughing immediately. Barret's face had turned from black to purple. His eyes looked like there was fire in them. He looked like he almost wanted to kill Calvin and Hobbes.

"S-S-Sorry, Barret," Hobbes said weakly.

"We were having a weird face contest," Calvin explained. "But we're done now." He almost didn't say what he was about to say next, but he could not stop himself. "You won, Barret. I could never make a face like that." With that comment, Calvin and Hobbes started snickering.

Barret just gave a huff and turned around, but one second too late. He did not realize while he was shouting that he was heading right for the wall of a canyon. He tried to slam the breaks, but the buggy was already too close. It hit the stone wall with full impact. Hobbes flew to the front seat from the impact and Calvin was thrown from his seat to the ground. Red XIII and Cait Sith flew up to the second seats, and Cloud and Tifa experienced whiplash for the first time in their lives. Barret's head had smashed into the steering wheel, breaking the steering wheel. Aeris was jolted awake from the impact and also got whiplash.

"Is everyone all right?" Cait Sith asked concernedly.

"I'm fine," Barret replied, rubbing his head. "It's a good thing the damn steering wheel is covered in carpet."

"We're fine back here," Cloud replied, helping Tifa back to her feet.

Aeris was rubbing her neck and upper spine. Other than a great amount of pain, she seemed to be okay.

Calvin got back to his feet and Hobbes crawled to the back seat. He appeared to have been knocked senseless, but was okay.

"Should have buckled up," Calvin heard Hobbes mumbled to himself.

Red XIII and Cait Sith we're also a little dazed, but all right. Everyone had escaped the accident with minor bruises and no serious injuries.

Everyone got out of the buggy and examined the buggy. It looked like it had just gone through a car cruncher. The front of the car was where the driver's seat should be and the driver's seat was almost crunched to the middle seats. Had Barret not turned around and started slamming the breaks when he did, there may have been some deaths.

"Well, that thing's not going to be starting back up any time soon," Calvin said, examining what was left of the hood.

"How much do you think a car like this would cost?" Hobbes asked. "I bet at least seventy-five dollars."

"Now, what are we going to do?" Tifa asked in rage. "There are rivers that we could never cross without the buggy!"

"Calm down, Tifa. I'm sure we'll find a way somehow?" Cait Sith reassured. "Right Red XIII?"

However, Red XIII was not paying any attention. He was looking off to the distance. Cait Sith looked in the same direction and saw what looked like a village at the top of the mountains. Red XIII wasn't taking his eyes off of it.

"Why you lookin at the village, Red?" Barret asked, noticing the village.

"…grandpa…" was the only word that came out of Red XIII's mouth.