(Disclaimer: Plata-Azul Firebird does not own Final Fantasy 7, only her OCs… Otherwise, we might end up having a not-so-epic battle with the lawsuits.)

Altering Rhythm

Deviate Play

Silver: Ummm… I made a little boo-boo on one of Mira's personality, Riley is supposed to be the one who is hyper while she is just active. I manage to edit it and speaking of the mime, here's her side of the story! Also, a bit of warning on a vulgar word since it is the name of the drink.

Deviate Play

Once her best friend left with the others for the Reactor 5 mission, she sighs… but she didn't mind and got what she wanted.

"I'm sorry." Marlene voice out and the brunette turns to see the little girl, just barely visible from the counter… somehow, she feeling like she wants to introduce Children's Rights to Tifa and Barret once they change the fate of Sector 7.

"Nah… it's fine, I'm used to baby-sit anyway." which is true on her part, but one difference is that she is more used on watching rowdy kids. Marlene is not, so very much she still have some freedom to execute their plans. "Well, I'll head down the basement for a while, call me when I'm needed, okay?"

"Okay!" the little girl pipes up and the mime heads to the pinball machine, pressing the down button. Arriving in there, she steps off and the machine lifts back to it's place.

"Okay… time for the ultimate scavenger hunt!" she said cheerily and began checking out the basement. In the crates, there she finds quite a lot of C4 explosives and timers which made her smile. Still it made her wonder on how these explosives exist in this world, but she's not complaining. Taking some of them and packing them in the pouch, when she looks again in the crate, there is no detonation button or mechanism. She needs one of those just in case their enemy disabled the bomb, they'll press the button to blow it up. "… Where…?" she whispered as she ransack the crate again, only to find nothing. "Oi… and you guys call yourself terrorist? You don't even have a back-up plan." she deadpan as she searches once more and to her consolation she finds a book about bomb-making.

After getting enough explosives and the book, she then looks at the computer and the machine that Jessie use to make fake ID… Somehow, she almost became clueless on using their technology because it lacks the mouse and the wallpaper… and some applications. "D'oh… I expected the computers here are not advance was ours, but I do not expect to find it to be crappy. If Steve Job is ever to be born again, let he be born here… this world needs some help in tech."

Finding it to be useless, she checks some other things that will help and finds a lot of wires in another box. Done in searching the place, she heads back up to the bar and on time, Marlene asked her to help her with the restocking. Nodding and taking a chance to scout a bit, she takes the list from the little girl and head outs.

:::^*^:::

Walking around the area, her eyes scans for the any sign of the speakers Jessie mentions and she finds some of them on around the walls of the sector and some… are surrounded by houses. She follows the cables leading to a certain building which Jessie used to call the audio tower.

Now it's a monster's nest.

Apparently, the people did not bother driving the monsters out and taking back the tower, ever since they got TV. Which left this place to be a nest of those Hedgehog Pies, that looks like a fusion between a frog, a salamander and a needle-filled pin cushion. The creature she saw by the doorway seems to be a bit round than the usual, but she shrugs it off. Somehow she misses the hedgehogs back in Earth, that least they are cute and not all jumpy, cunning and I'll-ram-you-with-my-spike thing… She also noted that she would rather have a certain speedy hedgehog if it exist.

"Why do some people lack the smarts and common sense of safety here?" she muttered, she then remembers to buy the things Marlene requested and made a memo in her mind to come back here after. She then heads to Sector 5 where Marlene said that most of the groceries are delivered, entering…

"Whoa!"

"Yikes! Watch it kid!"

A 12 year old boy nearly rams on her and she has to catch him before he trips. "Are you okay?" she asked.

"Yeah, sorry miss!" he said and then runs off. She smiled a little before she recognizes the kid and checks the pocket of her jacket and her hoodie. "Oh dang, I should've seen this coming…" she groans as she rubs her head and runs off to get the wallet back, which happens to be the money for the stock. She first went to the Materia Shop and she asked the owner about the boy who stole her wallet, he tips her that the boy got a Dash Materia.

But she got a game plan… running around, she spots the boy and hides from view. Looking back out, she replays the Haste spell her best friend accidentally cast on her earlier and her body glows again. In one smooth motion, she runs toward the kid, pickpockets her wallet back and stops right in front of him. He yelps but he gawks at the sight of the wallet her stole from her.

"Don't you know it's bad to steal?" she stated cheerily and the boy is about to bolt away, only he is caught by the back of his shirt and hold him there. "Whoa kid, where's the rush?"

"It's none of your business!" he shouts.

"Kid, when you stole my wallet, you made it my business." then she realizes that she said the almost exact words Zack Fair did. 'If only…' she thought, then she feels a pull and snaps back to the fact that she have to confront the boy. "So mind telling me why you do it?" The boy remains silent and ignores her. "I could help you know." she supplied.

His mouth press a bit till… "A monster ate my wallet." he answered.

'… Again? Seriously, have anyone thought of having elastic straps attach on wallets? It works back in Earth.' she thought.

"I need to buy some antidote for my dad and fast." he stated.

Riley had a gut feeling that she have temporary steps into Zack Fair's boots in this one, she offers to help the boy get his wallet back. "By the way, mind telling me your name, I'm Riley." she asked.

"… It's Joey…" he answers and she smiled. "Anyway the monsters that ate my wallet, are in the Sector 6 area."

"Okay, let's go."

"Heh?"

"I don't know what the monster that ate your wallet looks like." she points out and takes him to Sector 6.

:::^*^:::

In Sector 6, the place is a ruin… If Riley remembers correctly, this place was destroyed in Before Crisis by a battle between the Turks and a powerful summon. Everything is in ruins and monsters are everywhere… this became quite a job for her, since the monster that ate the wallet is a Hedgehog Pie and there are a lot of them around. Dissecting the innards are the least she and Mira wanted to do, and they learnt that the hard way right before they sent Cloud back at the station to meet Tifa. After taking down the fourth…

"Seriously… are you sure that one of them have taken your wallet?" the brunette asked.

"Yeah… but I have no idea which one ate my…"

"Look out!" she shouts and throws her dagger at the fifth Hedgehog Pie, which killed instantly by getting stab in the head. After the monster died, they checks the innards of it and finds only a few gil, potion but no wallet. "Seriously, any marking you can remember on it like a scar or something?"

"Ummm… well, I do remember it's a bit bloated." Joey points out. "Like it's eaten too much or…"

That lit a bulb in her head and grabs him. "Come on! I think I know where it is!" and dash back to Sector 7 and to the tower. Arriving there, she tells the boy to stay as she climbs the tower's stairs. Once she reaches the top, there she saw where the missing door is and a bunch of cardboard, paper, wires and a few metals were crafted into a nest…

And there… she saw a really bloated Hedgehog Pie, twice it's own size, growling and snarling at her like ready to rip the mime off for disturbing. "You know, this place is used as a warning system for evacuation, not for nesting grounds." she points it out to the creature, then the creature shrieks and attempt to Bodyblow her. She quickly jumps, grabs the edge of the roof and lifts her herself up as the red… spiky frog thing rolls under her and fell.

With the creature out of the room, she made a quick check of the area before she picks up the door. Once she made sure that it barricades the room from any monster, she made a mental note of checking the nest and runs back down. But on her way down… there she finds the bloated Hedgehog Pie, climbing the stairs and out of breath.

"Stairs are the fat man's enemy, good thing I'm into sports." she quips as she once more avoids another Bodyblow from it, and slams on the steps. "You still have the energy to do that?"

The bloated spiky reptile just snarls at her and attacks her with Fire. She yelps as she got burn and fell off the railing, grunting as she hit's the ground below.

"Riley!" Joey shouts in surprise on her fall.

"I'm okay! And stay there that fat spiky ball is coming back!" she snaps at him, and hears the spikes of the creature taping the metal steps indicating it's going after her. 'Ow… thankfully, it's not that high and the fat spiky frog really gave me a burn!' she thought as she takes out a potion and drinks it, as the bloated Hedgehog Pie rolls and stumbles after her. She scrambles up and cast Matra Magic on the bloated creature, which effectively kills it and a bunch of items spills out of it guts.

"Gross! Man, no wonder you're bloated tubby." she mutters and carefully searches for the wallet. She finds it with three potions, a hi-potion, a grenade and… "What the heck is this materia?" she looks at the odd green materia that she found and feels a rather vicious and dark presence in it, yet it purrs in delight and seems to be happy to be found. "Joey! I found your wallet!"

The boy whoops in joy as he jogs toward her, takes his wallet back and thank her at the same time. But he saw her looking at the materia and he too takes a good look of it. "Hey… that's a Dark Fire Materia!" he said, recognizing the green materia which have a slight darker hue from the other ordinary elemental materias.

"Dark Fire?" she parroted what he said and it dawns to her… she's holding a materia that came from Crisis Core, and made the entire fandom wonder what happened to these types in the original game itself.

"Yeah… wow, you're lucky! It is rare to see those materias again." Joey said.

"Eh? That happened to it?"

"I dunno, but from some rumors I heard it is used as an energy source for machines."

'Energy source for machines… why do I have the feeling that Scarlet is the one behind those disappearance of those materias.' she thought, as she equips the Dark Fire and feels the warm yet cunning materia on her skin. After picking the items up, she and Joey heads back to Sector 5 and on arriving there…

"You know, you remind me of someone…" the boy said and she looks at him, as they both enter the marketplace. "But that person never came back and made my friend cry." Riley knows where this is going and looks down. "Anyway, thank you for helping me… I'll try not to steal again." and he runs off as she waves at him good-bye.

"If only you know…" she whispers and heads off to buy the stocks.

:::^*^:::

Arriving back at the bar with a bunch on bottles of liquors and wines, she mentally thank the fact that she's nineteen despite the lack of age restraint on the alcohol in this world. Seriously, she saw some teens younger than her buying a bottle or two and drinking it!

"Thank you, Ms. Bau- bau- bau…" the little girl tries to pronounce the brunette's family name.

"Just call me Riley, kay?"

"Okay! Thank you Riley!" as she stores the bottles below the counter.

"Hey, tell me… are you allowed to drink those?"

"No, daddy does not let me till I'm thirteen." the little girl answered and she sighs in relief, although she mentally tells herself that she'll try convincing Barret to move the restraint up to eighteen. "Customers are coming soon."

"Need help?"

"Is it okay to you?"

"I have some experience with alcohol, so I don't mind." and she gets behind the counter. She really can't leave this girl alone working in the bar, despite the fact that she wants to go and check the tower. A four years old is not right sight in a adult bar.

"What about Ms. Call-calli…"

"You can call her Mira and she does not like alcohol, she doesn't have a strong tolerance like me." she shrugs and thought. 'More like she is never going to drink one, she always find it bitter…'

It wasn't long for a customer to come and have a drink, but she didn't expect meeting the infamous, cocky redhead of the Turks. "Finally, some booze." he mutter out loud and sits on one of the stools near the bar. "Give me something good and strong, yo." he stated with a wink to the brunette.

'Ugh… and I forgot that he's a flirt…' she thought as she makes sure she does not act strange. "Okay sir." she stated in a fake cheery way like those saleslady in a mall and turns to the counter, as her little companion cleans the tables. 'Okay… think! What drink should I give him… and literally make him drunk.' then it came to her like a light bulb. She doesn't know if they make cocktails here or give them straight drinks, but this will be the first time she'll be making an Earth-made drink in this world.

Remembering from her last embarrassing experience from a hard-hitting alcohol dare, she takes out a pair of pitchers, several bottles and a bottle of orange juice. In no particular order, she mixes the vodka, rum, gin, tequila, Southern Comfort, Peach Schnapps, Black Raspberry Liquor, Amaretto, 151 Rum, Triple Sec and a shot of Grenadine. Then she add an equal parts of orange juice and uses the other pitcher to mix both drinks in it. If she remembers correctly, this drink is strong enough to make one silly before getting knock out. She pours it in a glass and with added precaution, she added a few more peach schnapps above it and give it to the redhead.

The said Turk stares at his drink as he picks it up. "Well… this is new." he stated and then looks at her. "And so are you."

"Yeah well, I just came here in Midgar a few days ago and I'm currently trying to earn enough gil for stuffs." she quips with a shrug.

"I see… Well, first off, welcome to Midgar, second, my name is Reno and third, this is an interesting cocktail, yo." he noted.

"Well, you asked for a strong one." she replied. 'So they got cocktails in this world… interesting.' she thought, as she wipes one corner of the counter.

"True, so what is it called?"

"Well, the one who created and named the drink… is a little… vulgar on naming it."

"Really?" as he takes a sip of the drink and the juice somehow made the drink worth withstanding for. But it's the alcohol that made him intrigue with the drink. "This is really interesting… seriously, what is this?"

Looking at Marlene and motions him to come close, he did and she leans over to whisper the name. "Mother F**ker."

"WHA?" he looks at her with shock and nearly drops his drink.

"That's the name of the drink." she stated as he stares at her weirdly and she just shrugs once more. "Hey, ask the guy who named it, not me." At first he looks at the drink, then back at her, then at the drink and then the redhead laughs out loud, nearly giving the little girl a bit of a surprise.

"Hoo! Whoever that guy is, cheers for such an interesting drink yo!" and he downs the cocktail in one go, nearly slamming his glass on the counter and the mime smiled a bit. The alcohol is having a little effect as dusty pink color is starting to appear on his face and demands for a refill. She mentally thank her lucky stars that Greg decided to throw a before-graduation party and dared them into that drink… aside from Mira, who leaves out and does the damage control. The aftermath was something… they didn't look ahead on and woke up next afternoon tired and splitting headaches, as the songstress made it worse with her constant nagging.

She takes the glass, refills it and added the schnapps, then gives it back to him. He drinks it straight till it's half and then he takes time on drinking it as he engages conversation with the brunette.

"So where you came from?" he asked.

"I'm a traveler with my friend, actually, never staying in one place for long." she replied.

"Ah… so you're gonna leave soon?" he asked, she caught a bit of disappointment in his voice.

"Somewhat yeah."

"Oh…" and downs his drink then she takes the glass.

"Do you like the drink?"

"Yeah…"

"… Well, I guess it wouldn't be too bad to give the recipe with you."

"Really?"

"I'm not a bad guy who keeps the booze away, that's my friend." she points out and takes out a paper from the counter and making sure it does not have anything else in it. She then list down the alcohol needed and then gives the paper to the redhead.

"Yo whoa… that's a lot." he looks incredulously at the list before pocketing it.

"But it's good right?"

He nodded and this time his face is slightly red, almost like his hair. Riley restraint on laughing out loud at his face and merely gives him another drink. "True, but what I'm looking for is… something of a knockout, yo."

"Seriously?" she asked, because she happens to know one when Greg got a hold of THAT recipe, the ingredients and he drinks it once… a total knock out. But she didn't expect hearing from the redhead that he wanted a knockout drink, despite his cocky attitude plus he can hold his alcohol like it was shown in the original game.

"Yeah, the rookie just lost something and she wants me to help look for it." he stated in a annoyed tone and drinks his alcohol straight. When she asked what his friend lost, he merely said that she couldn't get into the Turks office without it and she does not remember where she even lost it. The only way she can get back into the office is thru him, since he have his ID and he is starting to get irk by the fruitless search. For him, if there is any consolation is the bar, the awesome fruity drink and the friendly bartender.

However, he really needs to go and she needs to get to the tower and see if she can still use it. She decided to up the ante and began looking for the ingredients for the knockout drink that knock the daylights out of her friend.

What she is going to make is something would put the vulgar word-named drink to shame.

She finds a grain alcohol and it surprises her that it got the highest alcohol proof, it made her wonder how Tifa got this… yet she's not going to complain. She looks for a bourbon, gin, tequila and rum with the highest proof, but she left out the mezcal since there is none and replaces the energy drink with the orange juice. Once she mixes all of it… "Here, it's on the house." she stated cheerily and backs away a bit. "Advice, drink it slowly." she warns.

"Thanks… this is a different drink." he stated, seeing that it is clear and smaller than what he have. Not taking her warnings, he raise his drink and downs it on one go… he fell off the stool and made Marlene panic over him.

"Well… I did warn him to drink it slowly." she mutters and goes out to see if the Turk is okay. Then the rookie, Elena, comes in and saw her superior is down. She presumes that Riley attacked him but Marlene is quick to the brunette's defense, and she seems to relax yet on guard. The brunette stares at the blonde and wonders what happen to Rude, who's the redhead's partner.

'Better not ask or Mira will have a fit on having our cover blown.' the mime thought.

"What happen to him?" she demanded, she check on the redhead for a pulse and finds one.

"He asked for a hard and strong drink, something that would knock himself out." Riley replied and she glares at her. "Hey, if the customer's orders it, I supply!"

The blonde Turk still glares at her and notices the glass her companion is holding. She picks it up and sniffs it, she recoils back on the strong scent and held her nose. "What kind of drink is this?" she demanded. For her experience of bartending, this is the first time she smells a very strong alcohol and she guess that this can knock a strong drinker out of it's feet effectively.

"A knockout drink he requested." the brunette replied.

Before she could even ask another her and Reno's phone rings and she only answers it as she heads out of the bar. A moment later, she came back, paid for the drinks and drags the redhead out of the bar before the mime could offer to help them. Both the brunette and Marlene just stood there, blinking at the door and to each other.

"Let's not mention this to your father and Tifa, okay?" she asked the little girl.

"Sure."

"Oh, by the way, I need to go somewhere." Riley noted and went back to the bar, taking the glasses and the pitchers, placing them on the sink and stored all the liquors in the cabinets. "Okay, liquors stored away… so mind washing the dishes? Please?" she asked.

"Well… okay, since you stored the bottle away." Marlene stated and she suddenly got herself hug.

"Thank you!" the mime said and runs out, leaving a surprise little girl on the floor. And as she runs out, she nearly bumps on Jessie, Biggs, and Wedge as they arrive back. "Sorry! But I have to go for a while! Take care of Marlene!" and runs off.

"Whoa! Wait! Where are you going!" Wedge tries to ask her but she is now too far to hear him or the others.

:::^*^:::

"Okay… let's try this again." and presses the play button.

And a high-pitch hiss came out which she quickly shuts it off. Sighing she checks the plugs and wires, randomly connecting them and testing if she got it. Sometimes she gets nothing, sometime a long beep sound or a loud thump.

After Riley shoves out the nest, which thankfully doesn't have any eggs in it except for an ether she picks, and she tries on getting the tower work. To test if there are sounds, she attaches her touch phone to it and plays music as she tries out the plugs. But for the seventeenth time, she got the thump sound again. "Ugh… man, this is hard without a manual!" she exclaimed and drops her head on the dirty counter without a care. Sighing…

She moves one of the plug in another socket and then… she hears music. She sits up straight and listens, before whooping for joy on getting it work. Now she wonders on making the sounds to loop around for a few minutes… before she hears an explosion and turns to the direction of the Sector 5 Reactor.

"Seems like I'll be going there later." she mutters to herself, as she tries to find out how to record sounds as she quickly pockets her phone. "Aye… they really neglect this place…"

After a lot of trials and errors, she finally gets the audio tower to work once more. Once she sets it, she decided to check the pillar but she couldn't get in because of the guards. Sighing a bit, her mind then wonders on Reno and Elena, who the latter loses her ID and is on a frantic search for it. "… I wonder…" she whispered and she digs into her pouch and takes out a white card she just found yesterday…

It turns out to be the missing ID of the blonde Turk.

She stares at it and couldn't believe it… she somehow got a hold of this, and it can open any floor because of it's Turk status. This can extremely help on their strike on Shinra, plus on their own mission.

Heading back to the bar, there she finds a grief-stricken Tifa being comforted by Marlene and a silent Barret. The other gives off an air of depression and she knows what's going on. "Hey, is there… wait, where's Mira and Cloud?" she asked.

"Mira went to Sector 5 to find Cloud… he…" Tifa said weakly but did not continue.

"Eh? What happen?" she asked, a bit demanding on her tone. Barret tells her everything to the point Cloud falls by the explosion and is probably dead, since they are that extremely high off the ground. Yet Mira does not accept that and heads to Sector 5 by herself, to find the blonde. Shaking her head, she too does not accept that the blonde swordsman is dead because she played the game. Turning around and is about to head out…

"Hey, where do ya think yer goin?" the black man asked and she turns back at them.

"To look for Mira and Cloud, duh." she said with a shrug. "Besides, I doubt a fall like at can kill a First Class SOLDIER." she mutters and then bolts out of the bar and heads for Sector 5.

Silver: I don't know if this chapter is good or not, but now you know what happen to the other types of materias in Crisis Core. And the drinks… the first one is Mongolian MF, but she did not mention it's Mongolian since they are in a different world and that place does not exist there. It's alcohol percentage is about 30 to 40 percent (I'm not sure about this though), and the knockout drink she gave Reno is way beyond a hundred… it's the Pangalactic Gargle Blaster, please give credit for Adam Douglas for this most galactic alcohol drink ever. Hey Reno, did you feel like being hit on the brain by a slice of lemon wrapped on a gold bar? XD! And bonus, Riley's profile.

Riley Alex Bautista

Age: 19

Eyes: Brown

Hair: Brown, short

Weapon: A military-fighting knife and the ability to mime.

Personality: Riley is hyper, extremely extroverted, impulsive and versatile, she is considered to be a bit boyish with a cheery and optimistic outlook in life. Athletic and loves trying out any physical activities, Mira tends to call her an exercise nut and energizer bunny. She can be really caring and forgiving but backstab on her or on her friends, she will not hesitate on beating the attacker either from a fight or embarrassment. She dislikes people who view other peoples are mere things to attain their goal, while the used people's lives are ruin. Then, in landing in FFVII, she decides to change Cloud and the other's fate while keeping their secret of their origin being from another world.

Silver: Read and review.