And here it is, Part two of the harrowing tale of The Rescue of two people: Cid AND Ashe. Hope this plays out well enough.
Side-Story 1.5: Trouble At Home: SEPHIROTH AGAIN?!
Cloud and the girls arrived at the fiftieth floor, only to met with absolute silence. The whole floor was empty, with dead guards strewn everywhere. Cloud rolled one over to find that the head had been brutalized. It had four conical holes indenting it vertically.
Clover looked at it, terrified, but was brought from her trance by Sam's shout of, "WAIT! that was present at the crime scene in our world!"
"wait, you're telling me that this is just like a crime you processed back home?" Cloud asked, curious and worried, though quickly relieved by the fact that these three seemed to know what they were up against.
"Yes!" Sam said eagerly, "These holes were on the head of a receptionist at a big corporation back in our world. If I remember correctly, the victim, Tamara Jones, was racing back to her office building to fetch a report, and instead of finding locked doors, she found open ones. walking in, she asked the receptionist to open the elevator, and when that didn't happen, she went to investigate. She found the receptionist dead, With these exact same holes in her head. She went on to phone the police, and attempted to find her assignment, but was caught by Yuffie, and was assaulted by ALL THREE of your ex-team mates."
Cloud stood, expressionless, taking in this information, then said, "Well, either Vince used his vambrace to do this, or Tifa's here. Get ready, girls, this may very well result in a confrontation." As the three continued on, Cloud stopped abruptly, and began to have one of his trademark headaches. When it receded, Clover asked, "Cloud, are you ok?"
"Yeah," Cloud replied, his eyebrows furrowed and his face carrying a look of dead seriousness, "Stay here. I have a confrontation to deal with." Cloud advanced three steps down the hall, then turned, and saw… nothing. The whole hallway was empty! "Damn those three," Cloud said, "Not listening to orders."
"We don't take orders from anyone, with the exception of Gerry," Alex said, appearing in front of Cloud to earn a reply: "Well, while you are here, please just PRETEND that I AM GERRY. Ok?" Cloud asked, as the other two appeared behind him.
"Just please," he finished, "STAY. HERE. I have to deal with this. Alone." "Cloud, I don't care if you have to go to Timbuktu on your own, the rule that Clover, Alex and I developed goes like this," Sam said, "and I quote: 'No one does anything alone; No one gets left behind.' That has been the rule we have followed since we first joined WOOHP. That's a rule you should adopt, too. No matter what you want us to do, we are going in with you. This requires teamwork, not solo-hero-work. Got it?"
Cloud looked at the outraged red-head, and, deciding she was right, said, "All right. You girls win. But, you're in there as backup in case things between me and-" "Cloud, there is no "ME" anymore, ok? As long as you are in a group or team, there is no "ME". Only "WE", "US", or "TOGETHER, WE". Understand? If a problem arises, we will jump in to help in any way we can think of," Clover interrupted, much to her own happiness, for soon, Cloud smiled, turned, and said, "All right, girls, you win. Permanently. From this day on, NEO AVALANCHE is adopting your rule. Now, follow me. I have a feeling that the room is close."
As they quickly, and quietly, advanced on the room, Cloud had three more headaches, the last one worse than the previous three put together. "Wait," Cloud said, his face turning from confidence to worry, "Something is not right. I shouldn't be having so many headaches so quickly. Either Aeris is near, or Sephiroth is paying a house call."
The girls gasped, and Cloud advanced another step towards the door. As he turned the handle, he warned the girls to be on their guard. He threw the door open, but nothing could prep him for what greeted his eyes: Tifa, the leader of the lesbian squad, was being held by the throat by none other than Sephiroth, while Aeris was huddled a ways away in a corner, and Yuffie lay unconscious on the opposite side of the desk.
"So, you thought you could protect Aeris from me, did you, Tifa Lockheart?" he said in his menacing tone, tightening his grip on her neck. "please…" Tifa spoke through her futile gasps for air, "Please… let me… go… i… don't want to… die… not before i… tell him I'm… sorry… ." Tifa's gasping stopped abruptly, and her body was thrown across the room. As her limp body hit the ground in front of Sam's feet, her anger boiled over, and she rushed headlong at Sephiroth, followed soon after by Clover and Alex.
Clover stood ready, her gloves forming from her hands, Alex's sword flew to her hand, and the blades on Sam's shield clicked into place as they flew straight into Sephiroth, pushing him to the floor from the force of impact. Getting up, he saw them, and his eyes turned from deadly malice to a look of worry.
"Wait… You three again?! NO! I WILL NOT FIGHT YOU!" he shouted, but far too late. For All three were activating their tiny Com-devices and shouting the key words that once again transformed their bodies. Cloud, staring wide-eyed at this, noticed Aeris lying on the ground, ran over, collected her and Yuffie, and began to work on the three as he watched the fight.
Thundaeria charged her katana and fired a lightning blast that mingled into Blazaeria's sword. Blazaeria shot a blast of electrified fire just as Aquaeria fired a round of jagged ice crystals, the three attacks combining to form the ultimate elemental blast. The result critically damaged Sephiroth, who flew back into a wall.
"NO! I DON'T WANT TO FIGHT YOU THREE AGAIN!" Sephiroth wailed (that's right, WAILED) as he sat up and pulled his blade-free sword into hand. Cloud, seeing the Masamune in it's current state, said, "No… way. Those three actually fought Sephiroth, and DESTROYED his sword? That thing isn't supposed to break, EVER!" Sephiroth jumped to his feet and jumped out the window, landing nimbly on his feet and running from the building.
Cloud was still staring when Clover's chest came into view… "Cloud?" She asked, snapping Cloud from his reverie, "Why are you staring at my cleavage?" "wh-wh-WHAT?" Cloud shouted, jumping back in surprise, "IM NOT STARING AT YOUR CHEST! IM NOT! SEE? IM NOT!"
Clover smiled a mischievous smile as she backed away and went over to Tifa. checking for vitals, she turned to Cloud and said, "Cloud, we need to move fast! Her breathing is shallow. If she doesn't get any air soon, she's gonna- crap. It's too late. She's dead." Cloud, his face a mess of emotions, pulled a set of small feathers from his pocket and handed them to Aeris.
"Use these, and do it quick. Me and the team are here to rescue someone else. Come along, girls," he said, walking out; suddenly, a pair of small arms grabbed him around the waist and held him. "PLEASE CLOUD!" Aeris cried, tears falling from her eyes as she held onto his waist, as if for dear life, "PLEASE LET US COME BACK! WE MISS EVERYONE! WE NEED TO BE WITH THE TEAM!"
"I'm sorry, Aeris," Cloud said stoically, removing himself effortlessly from Aeris' grip, "But you, Tifa and Yuffie sealed your fate when you started going lesbo behind my back. And when I said, 'This is the end, you three are evicted from the team permanently,' I meant it. I am not taking you three back. Now, Good day to you." he walked off, leaving the petite brunette sobbing soft tears into the carpet.
LATER, ON THE ELEVATOR,
"Cloud, that was evil of you!" Sam declared, her words bouncing off the head of the spiky-headed blonde in front of her. "Why won't you let them back? They said they are sorry!"
"It doesn't make a difference. Were I to allow them back in, it wouldn't be long before I catch them at it again, and kick them out. It's a vicious cycle that will continue to repeat itself." "Yeah," Alex said, "And it'll keep repeating itself until you realize that not everyone shares your precise views of the world, Cloud! Just because they like," Alex shuddered, "Lesbian sex," Alex shuddered again, "Doesn't mean you have the right to treat them like trash because they don't have your views on standard man-on-woman sex in their mind as much! Maybe they were doing it to prepare for something they ALL wanted to do for you, and you booted them before they could! Maybe all they wanted was for you to-" once again, Alex shuddered, "have a great big 3-1 sex-fest with you!"
Sam and Clover stared dumbly at Alex, astounded that she'd even think those kinds of things. Noticing the disturbed and worried looks her friends were giving her, Alex turned and said, "WHAT?" Cloud, turning to the door, noticed it opening, and looked at the floor register: Floor 61. "Look alive, ladies," he said, readying his Buster Sword for battle, "we've arrived."
"YOU DIDN'T HEAR A FREAKIN WORD I SAID, DID YOU?" Alex shouted, outraged that she'd been so plainly ignored. Sam and Clover had to act as partial restraints to keep Alex from slaughtering Cloud! They continued on their way, making their way through the subsequent floors with the outdated keycards Cloud had kept from his last raid on the building years ago.
"Well, apparently, Rufus doesn't think much for security, since these cards are years outdated!" Cloud said, walking through the door to the floor with the giant layout of Midgar. "Ok, Girls, this is our last opportunity to check our equipment for defects, so get on it. from floor 66 onward, it's nothing but full on combat!" the girls did as they were told, but not one problem was found with any of the equipment. So, they moved on. Floor 63 arrived and nothing happened. floor 64 and still no danger. Floor 65, the storage rooms, popped up, and there was nothing out of place, no blood stains anywhere to show a struggle.
"This is very odd!" Cloud said, before he opened the door to the 66th Floor staircase. They ascended the stairs and arrived in the basement of the lab department. Moving on, Cloud led them to the small, dilapidated freight elevator that took them up to the labs themselves. "Well, girls, here we are. First order of business," Cloud said, "Is to find Hojo II. He's the only one who will open these compartments. Second Order of business, find this guy, in a cry-stasis tube, and free him. Final order of business, Rescue Cid, meet up with Vince and Barret, and book it out of here. Got it?" All three girls nodded. "Good," Cloud said, "You three find Hojo Jr, I'll look for any hidden switches." As they began their separate tasks, Clover took a step… and heard a creak in the floor. Announcing her find, she wound up and gave the area a nice sharp punch with her fist, opening a secret compartment.
Upon pressing a button that appeared, they were met with a startling sight: a young man, in a flame-like suit and tie, wearing a glowing, demon-like pendant, and hair that covered the left side of his face, he was suspended in a tube, with what looked like ice all around him. Cloud, sick of the sight of humans being used in tests, hacked a hole in the tube, and pulled the man out, the ice around him thawing almost instantly. As he thawed, his eyes fluttered open, and seeing the strange blonde boy, he jumped, backing off a safe distance.
"Hey, where am I? The last thing I remember was being injected with sedatives and falling asleep." Cloud, recovering from the shock of what had just happened, said, "Yeah, you were used in some tests by Hojo Jr., who froze you in a tube." The young man, now growlng deeply, threw a hand in the air. Without warning, a sword fashioned on one side like a flame and the other like a flambard, shot from parts unknown into the youth's hands, who held it in an attack stance. "If what you say is true, then I must fight you."
Well, this story is indeed longer than I thought it would be. This and it's counterpart are the longst chapters I have ever written! R&R, flames are welcome.