Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy, despite my muse saying I do.
A/N Alright in honor of the International Balloon Fiesta that starts on Saturday, I decided to resurrect the Jenova's head joke. Ladies and Genetlemen, the airship pilot, Cid Highwind!
Cid looked around lighting off the burner, everything seemed to be in working order, his team was on the crown line gently letting the envelope stand up with the heat. Finally the large Shin-Ra balloon was standing up and ready to go. The pilot thought about getting a cigarette but decided against it and grumbled about it for a moment. For some reason old man Hojo wanted to use a balloon for a high altitude testing. Cid looked around seeing Hojo coming out of the hangar all bundled up in what looked like something he'd been given by his mom.
" 'Bout time," the pilot grumbled.
Hojo climbed into the balloon, "I want you to hold position at exactly half a mile above ground until I say otherwise." He pulled his coat tighter too him, he needed to know if his next set of Sephiroth clones would be able to withstand high altitude work. An airship couldn't be slowed down enough for him to do any accurate work, that and he always had a throbbing headache from the grinding of the engines. A balloon was much better suited to what he wanted to do.
Cid grunted before he waved his hand to bring the crown line in, the balloon already seemed to want to take off. The emergency red line leading up to the top came swinging forward into the basket nicely. He put a hand on the burner and lit it off again as the crew picked up the basket to get it going. He shot off the burner again gaining altitude, shooting it off at regular intervals until he reached the desired altitude. Unfortunately Hojo didn't approve, "you're six feet too high."
The pilot growled and let out some of the air, he was in an extremely bad mood, Hojo just plain rubbed him the wrong way. Not to mention it was really early, he hadn't had any tea and he was half asleep, which was a bad combination when flying anything. Glancing out over the rim of the basket Cid smirked, "hey what's that?" He pointed at a small hairy silver object over the edge of the basket.
Hojo leaned over, "it's Jenova's hea-ah-ah-aaaaaaaah!" He leaned over a little too far and with a little encouragement from Cid's foot he went toppling over the edge of the basket. Cid walked over to see a small puff of dust when he hit the ground.
After another hour or so flying around in the balloon he called up the group back at the hangar acting as the chase crew, or the guys who got the balloon from the landing point. "Hey guys one to pick up."
"Why one Captain?" One of the men asked on the other end of the radio.
"Let's just say the bastard had a 'run in' if you catch my drift," Cid smirked, "and bring me a thermos of Earl Gray tea while you're at it."
