Chapter 4: Training by the Train Grave
I shot an annoyed glance at Cloud. Hey, can't you see I'm trying to make sure that a little girl doesn't scream down the house? Ah sod it. I really need to learn to stop thinking these things in my head as opposed to saying them; the satisfaction of saying that to Cloud's face would have been great. As it was, all I did was roll my eyes and straighten myself. Tifa smiled warmly at Cloud before glancing at me again.
"Hi. I'm Spike, nice to meet you." I said, holding out my hand.
Tifa hesitated for a second before gripping my hand.
"Tifa." She introduced herself. "Why did Biggs call you a rookie?"
"I'm joining AVALANCHE. Probably thinks that because I just joined, I have no experience in fighting Shinra. A friend told me about your resistance. Thought I'd join. It was luck I found you though, despite all efforts, she couldn't tell me where to find you."
"Who is this friend of yours?" She asked as I crouched down to try and make friends with Marlene again.
'Just say I'm your informant.' Jade's voice commanded me.
"I wouldn't really call her a friend, more an informant. She just gives me info on the Shinra. I don't question her on the hows or why's, I just know that she is reliable, and I trust her."
'That trust is well spent. About the next question; your right coat pocket.'
"How does she contact you?" Cloud butted in.
I shot Cloud a look before digging inside my coat pocket and pulled out a PHS. The PHS is effectively a top of the line Mobile Phone from back home, the same type as my dad's. Thank you Jade, I promise not to use your name in vane. Cloud grunted at me. I stepped aside and finished off the last of my coke. Now that I was out of the way, Tifa and Cloud started talking.
"Welcome, Cloud. Looks like everything went well. Did you fight with Barret?"
"Yeah."
"I should have known. He's always pushing people around, and you've always been in fights ever since you were little. I was worried."
There was a pause as they just looked at each other, before Cloud lifted up a flower. Oh, joyous of joys, Cloud bought a flower. Ack, romance makes me sick. Actually, I hate anything sappy. It just makes me sick. No, I am not trying to be macho; I just hate sappiness. I block out the rest of the conversation, making an offensive gesture with my tail. I have a new method of swearing, even if people can't understand; like my swearing in Druatch. Yes, I do know some words in Dragon, so don't think I'm making it up as I go along. Making it up as I go would result in Corporal Adrian Shepard and several Vortigaunts walking in and joining AVALANCHE, and we all go around fighting the Combine, who have teamed up with Shinra. See the difference between me making it up and me simply telling the story as it happened? Bah. I snapped out of my reverie. Barret walked in. I noticed that Cloud had tried to walk out but was now sitting on the edge of the nearest table. Heh, so much for romance.
"Papa, welcome home!"
No, that was not me. How could you even consider thinking that? That would be Marlene, rushing to her father. Barret hoisted his adopted daughter onto his right shoulder and looked around the room.
"Everything go alright Barret?" Tifa asked.
"Great." Was the gruff voiced reply. "Even got a new recruit. Get in here, fools! We're starting the meetin'!"
He then strode over to the pinball machine and hit the button. The machine and the floor on which it stood slid downwards, with Barret. The rest of AVALANCHE leapt down the hole. I followed them down the hole that the absence of the pinball machine had made. The room I landed in looked like a cross between a storeroom and a briefing room. Barret had launched himself at a punching bag in a corner of the room, pounding it furiously. Biggs and Marlene were simply watching, Jessie had sat herself at a computer, and Wedge was simply sitting at the table, staring into space. I had barely moved from the space that the pinball machine took up when it rose up. I silently sat myself on the crate closest to the TV, watching for the news. After five minutes, the pinball machine descended upon us, carrying Cloud. Almost immediately, everyone turned to face him.
"Yo, Cloud! There's somethin' I wanna ask ya." Boomed out Barret, who now that I was looking at properly, seemed more like Mr. T than ever. "Was there anyone from SOLDIER fighting us today?"
"Doubt it." I muttered.
Jessie shot me a look but I shrugged it off. Cloud looked deep in thought for a second before looking up, arms crossed.
"None. I'm positive."
Barret gave the punching bag an extra punch before responding:
"You sound pretty sure." 'Sucka' I mentally added.
"If there was anyone from SOLDIER, you wouldn't be standing here now." Was Cloud's monotone reply.
Barret glared at Cloud.
"Don't you go thinkin' you so bad, jes cuz you was in SOLDIER." Barret said, evenly.
He then tried to run at Cloud, probably to beat the living crap out of him, but Biggs grabbed his Mr T leader, and held him back, visibly straining to do so. Cloud was silent, looking as if he could care less that he had just pissed of a huge brawly man who happened to have a gun attached to him. Barret then proceeded to fling his lackey across the room.
"Yeah, you're strong. Probably all them guys in SOLDIER are. But don't forget that your skinny ass's workin' for AVALNCHE now! Don't get no ideas 'bout hanging on to Shinra."
That got Cloud to turn around, swinging his arm to the side as he went. I could tell that he was pissed off with the remark about staying with Shinra.
"Staying with Shinra? You asked me a question and I answered it… that's all."
Cloud then walked up to Barret until he was right in the giants face.
"I'm going upstairs. I want to talk about my money."
Barret started to shake with barely suppressed fury. I heard him mutter something involving the word money. Ah, money, the root of all evil. Cloud started to walk away when Tifa, who I hadn't even seen coming in ran up to him.
"Wait, Cloud!" She pleaded.
Cloud looked like he was about consider it when Barret opened the large gob he has.
"Tifa! Let him go! Looks like he still misses the Shinra!"
Cloud's face turned red with anger and he walked with slow deliberation.
"Shut up! I don't care about either Shinra or SOLDIER!" He snapped.
He stopped at the pinball elevator and turned to face Barret.
"But don't get me wrong! I don't care about AVALANCHE or the Planet for that matter!"
He then finally stepped onto the elevator and rode it upwards. Barret started to hit the punch bag with a passion, releasing his rage on the poor defenceless inanimate object. The pinball machine slid back down and Tifa leapt onto it, hitting the button to make it go back up, with her on it. Then for some reason, the blasted thing came back down, allowing everyone in this claustrophobic basement to hear what each of the two upstairs were saying. I got as far as hearing Tifa pleading Cloud to join AVALNCHE, before telling everyone that if they wanted me, I'd be at the train graveyard. I then leapt out of the crabby cellar next to a bemused Cloud. I nodded politely at him and Tifa as I left the bar and walked past the train station, ignoring the odd looks from the ignorant citizens. All to soon I found myself in the grave of the busted trains. I pulled the PHS out of my pocket. May as well see just who is on the address book, if anybody. The first contact on it had a picture of Jade, wearing blue tinted sunglasses. Under, it had her name and a phone number. Useful, if I ever have any questions. The next contact was a regular looking human, with short black hair, and Mako eyes. So I know someone within SOLDIER? Or maybe he's an Ex-SOLDIER, like Cloud… I'll have to check with Jade, but… remember how earlier I was saying that if I were making this up Adrian Shepard would join us? Seems this guys name is just that… And the next contact just so happens to be a Vortigaunt… named Xenor…
"The hell…" I murmured to myself.
"They raised you." A voice said, behind me.
I jumped around, hand resting on the hilt of my gunblade, but relaxed when I saw it was only Jade.
"Say wha…?"
"Adrian and Xenor. They raised you." Jade said slowly, as if talking to a child. Bitch.
"You're making this a crossover with Half-Life?" I asked, eyebrow ridge raised.
"Nope, think of them as just a cameo. I had to give you some sort of background here, so I grabbed a couple of characters from another of your favorite games. Adrian was your favorite hero from Half-Life and Xenor is one of the friendly Vortigaunts from Half-Life 2. They have nothing to do with the story, other than the fact they are your guardians. They found you, abandoned, alone…"
"No dramatics. Just get on with it." I interrupted.
"Fine. They found you when you were very young, and raised you. You only recently left to go to Midgar. It was Ex-Corporal Shepard who gave you that gunblade, as a means of self-defence. And you met me when you got to Midgar. Happy?"
"Yeah…" I replied slowly.
Interesting. I've got a cameo appearance as my family. One happens to be an Ex-SOLDIER, the other happens to be an alien with one big, red eye, and a kick-ass, natural, ability to shoot electricity. I wonder why I left the safety of them… because I'm a rebellious teen, duh. Jade suddenly smirked at me.
"What?" I asked.
"You need to learn how to fight properly."
"I did just fine against those moans."
"That was luck."
"You wanna test that theory?"
"Gladly." Was her unexpected response, as she slowly, pulled out a couple of knives. She held them in the same style as Zidane.
I pulled out my gunblade and allowed Spike to take control, while still keeping a portion of my mind to myself. Jade leapt at me, swinging one knife at my chest. I ducked the slash and stabbed my weapon at her stomach, but she flipped over the gun-sword hybrid and roundhouse kicked me in the face. I stumbled backwards, before using my tail to stop me from falling flat on my ass. The horror came at me again, slashing those knives in an 'X' formation. I leapt backwards, landing heavily. Looking up, she was at me again. I did a backwards roll, just before she stabbed her knives into the ground I had just vacated. I raised my blade, ready to defend myself from another attack when a large flame burst out of the ground in front of me, injuring me and forcing me to stumble backwards yet again.
"You obviously can't touch me the way you're going. Try magic." Jade advised.
One look at my weapon revealed a green crystal attached to my gunblade. Green, magic.
"Try to sense what type it is, then picture its results." She tutored me.
Not risking closing my eyes, I thought at the Materia, trying to sense its type. Wait… Ice! I pictured the ice freezing the annoying PS2, making her freeze completely. The air around Jade suddenly turned misty and froze. She shivered freely, until the mist disappeared. I smirked at her.
"Don't get cocky. I'm not even trying. I have one more thing to teach you, before you can try and beat me." She said. "Try a limit break."
Just as she said this, she ran up to me and slashed me several times.
"Your first limit is real easy. Just picture yourself doing something, and bobs yer uncle."
That was easy enough. I wanted nothing more right now than to stuff this blade in her stomach and pull the trigger so fast the gunshots were like a machine gun. I then felt really powerful and my body moved of its own accord, different from when Spike controlled it fully, and did just what I had imagined. Jade coughed, stepping backwards.
"Enough. Crap, that was overkill." She groaned.
"Heh, sorry." I apologized, actually meaning it.
"No problem, this time." She grunted, handing me a hip flask. "Drink it, it's a potion."
I drank the potion, feeling the bruises start to heal.
"Just one warning." Jade said, out of the blue. I looked at her. "Never allow Spike full control when your fighting by yourself, because it is the same as being in a fury, unable to use limits, magic or items, but you get extra powerful. He will only take full control when you are badly injured when you have teammates with you, and he will give you partial control again when you are healed. Do I make myself clear?"
"Yes, ma'am." I saluted her, my voice just like a stereotypical soldiers.
"Don't you forget it. I'll be going now. Now, like a true informant, I'll call you need I want to tell you something, unless I feel bored." She said, before walking off.
I stared at where she had disappeared off to when Barret walked up to me.
"Spike. We're all turnin' in for the night. You had best come back to the hideout." I nodded, following after him.