A/N: Sorry for the late posting. I've had some issues and I needed a break from the site for a while.
"This way, ladies and –" The bell announcing the arrival of a cable car sounds and we all look toward it.
"Were you expecting someone else?" Jonathan asks, smiling.
"Oh my Gaia! It's starting," I whisper into Vincent's ear while clutching at his shoulder. He chuckles.
"No," Vincent replies. "We're all here." The car arrives and we wait as the doors open. I'm biting my lip, I'm so excited!
There's no one inside? "Bummer," I say, and everyone titters.
"That's odd," Jonathan says, and steps into the car, looking both ways.
"What is?" Vincent asks; he's suddenly tense.
"Well, this is usually when our 'corpse' arrives. He should be in the car. Give me a second." He pulls out a walkie-talkie and fiddles with the nobs.
"Brody are we ago for the first act?" There is no reply; he tries again. "Come in for Brody!" The walkie-talkie squeals and then there is about three seconds of static before it goes silent.
"I'm sorry about this folks, we'll get this –" he slips coming out of the car and smacks his head on the way down. He groans and rolls over. We're all stunned into motionlessness.
"Oh my Gaia," he screams, shuffling back from something. Vincent and Cloud move forward into the car.
"What's going on?" Marlene asks. "Is this part of the game?"
"Everyone get back," Vincent barks. "Weapons now!" I'm swept along on the stampede to the lockers and then the lights go out, plunging us into utter darkness. I trip over someone, accidentally copping a feel. I roll off whoever it is without saying anything and I open my cell phone to give me some light as I continue forward.
I'm the first one there. I punch my code and it does nothing. "What the fuck!?"
"It won't open without power for security reasons," says the girl huddled behind the locker counter.
"What's going on?" I demand. "This wasn't in the brochure."
"No sir, this isn't on purpose. I don't know what's going on. This has never happened in the two years we've been offering the party." She begins crying.
"Is there a manual override? Maybe a key or something?"
"The manager has one," she sniffles. I grab her hand and we use my cell phone light to find our way back to the crowd. The lobby is illuminated with cell phones and Nanaki stands between the open car and the rest of us. He's growling low in his chest.
"With the power out, the lockers are inaccessible without the manager's keys," I report. "What's going on here?"
"Come with me," Vincent holds out his hand to me and leads me into the car. He points to the far end, which is partway into the tunnel. With the cell phone, I can barely make out the end – but then the breeze hits my face and I realize that instead of looking into the car, I can see the emergency lights of the tunnel. The whole end has been ripped away with jagged tears like claw marks.
"What did that?"
"Perhaps the same thing that did this." He points under the seat. There is a dark puddle – I turn away – and a half of a human face. A wind howls up the tunnel into the car, and Vincent pulls me back until we are on the platform.
"Get back," Nanaki shouts. The air is filled with a high pitched whine, than something in front of us snaps. The car plummets out of the station. Sparks illuminate the tunnel and after about a minute there is an explosion deep in the tunnel.
"Holy Jenova," I say, and I fall over, sitting hard on the ground, despite the fact that Vincent hasn't let go of my arm.
"Tell me there is another way out of this place!" Jade whimpers.
"Of course," says the guide. "There are two emergency exits, but they are on opposite sides of the park. Whatever did that… what if it comes after us?"
We lock the doors leading from the entrance to the main hub and barricade it with any furniture that isn't nailed down. Jonathan and the girl, Milly, cling together as we take stock.
"What do we have?" Cloud asks. "Hold nothing back."
"An empty gun arm and a Luck Plus, Speed Plus, MP Plus, HP Plus, Pre-Emptive, and EXP Plus in my Dragon Armlet," Barrett says.
"Someone came prepared for the Battle Arena," I snark, but it is all defensive, status-effect material and not much good in an actual fight.
"I was gonna beat Spikey this time!" he boasts.
"A basic issue survival knife," Tseng says. There is a chorus of "same here" from all the former Turks, except for Vincent. "And a Steal Materia."
"Knives? Let me see!"
"Don't get too excited," I say, pulling the three inch knife from my pocket. When I unfold it, his eyes fall. "It's great if we need to open a bottle, pick a lock, or take a splinter out." I demonstrate my words by unfolding the additional tools.
"No one asked for my weapon," Nanaki says, "so I'm armed and fully equipped with the offensive and defensive Materia I'd planned to use in the Battle Arena."
"What are you holding?" Cloud asks
"Slash-All and Counter Attack in Limited Moon and Restore, EXP Plus, HP Plus, and Barrier in my Silver Armlet."
"That's something at least," I sigh.
"Should we split up my Materia?" Nanaki asks.
"Without a god-damn weapon…" Cid muses.
"The Barrier and restore are still useful," Rude interrupts.
"We'll consider it," Cloud acknowledges.
Going around the circle we find we have a menagerie of stupid-ass and useless Materia among us. Even the good ones are questionable because we have no way of refilling our MP once the wells dry.
Marlene's carrying a Chocobo Lure, Restore, and Revive. I have Restore and Revive as well. Vincent has Cover and Restore. Cloud's got a Restore, HP Plus, Mega-All combined with Steal.
Each of the former Turks are carrying the same things: Restore, Barrier, Wall. Tifa has nothing.
"Nothing?" I say, "not even for defense?" It's astounding.
"Well, I didn't want to mention it, because it is so ridiculous, but I'm pregnant. I didn't want to get anyone's hopes up after my last miscarriage, and I didn't want to ruin your birthdays by making it all about me…"
"Well that makes perfect sense," Marlene nods. "The low-level Mako radiation can be harmful to a developing fetus."
"How old are you?" I blurt out, and immediately slap my hands over my mouth. Shera whaps me in the back of the head.
"Not that it is any of your business, Reno, but I'm forty-one." There are hugs and congratulations all around.
"Congrats, Cloud. I never thought you'd get your shit together. Are you finally gonna get married?" I ask.
"Let's not celebrate yet. We need to survive this first." We continue cataloging while the two scared employees stare at us like we're crazy.
Cait Sith is in the corner, groaning slightly. "Me batteries are low, I was tryin' ta get a good charge before we started the game, but it doesn'ta look like I'll be much use. Here take my Materia." He hands over a Lightning and an All. My hands twitch; the element I favor is right there, but there's a whole lot of us and not much to go around.
Rude has his gloves, an HP Plus, and a lighter.
"That's it, big guy?"
"I've always preferred my fists over magic."
Elena and Jade aren't carrying anything. Shera has random tools in her pocket – a hex key set and what looks like a 9mm combination wrench – and two tea bags.
"Well, at least Cid can have his 'god-damn tea," I say. There is a smattering of laughter.
Yuffie turns out her pockets, which are filled with stupid stuff: small fireworks, a handful of marbles, and a hair pin.
"You don't have any materia?" Cloud asks, his arms crossed in disbelief.
"Well, yeah, I do… but it's all really weak stuff and I put it in the locker so no bad guys could get it. After you let Kadaj steal all my good stuff –"
"You've got to let that go, darlin'," Cid drawls. He's got an unlit cigarette dangling from his lip. "That was what? Sixteen years ago?"
She stamps her foot and looks off in the distance.
"Anyone having luck getting a call out?" Tseng asks. "I don't have any bars."
"No, my phone's never worked right in here," Tifa replies. We all look at our phones, and one by one we shake our heads.
"As I see it," Cloud takes charge, "our first priority should be getting the power back on."
"Once we do, we can have our weapons back."
"Um, excuse me," Milly says. "Once the power comes back, all the locker codes will default to the factory settings. Only the manager has access to them."
"Shit," I say, and crouch down. Vincent puts a comforting hand on the back of my neck. "And pray tell, where is the manager?"
"He radioed as soon as the power went out; he's stuck in the gondola ride. It's the fastest way between where he was and the theater."
"Okay," Cloud breathes the two syllables apart, and rubs the bridge of his nose. "So, we need multiple parties."
It takes a while, but we divide into our normal party lines, with a bit of shuffling to protect the unarmed combatants: Me, Vincent, and Nanaki; Cloud, Tifa, and Rude; Tseng, Elena, and Jade; Cid, Shera, and Yuffie; Barrett, Marlene, and Denzel.
The Materia shuffle takes a little longer. We split up the Magic Materia so that the Lightning goes with Cloud as their party heads to the breaker box. We get my defensive Materia and Nanaki's offensive, while Vincent goes with only a HP Plus. Where the rest of it goes, doesn't really matter to me. The employees stay with Barrett in the Battle Arena's locker room and Cid takes the first line of defense right beyond the barrier. Tseng's group is assigned to secure one of the emergency exits, while we get assigned the job of finding the manager. We each take one of the slick brochures from the desk and turn to the colorful map which is hugely inaccurate in sense of scale, but at least it gives us some something basic to work with. Cloud comes around to each group and marks there maps with a permanent marker.