Abrupt Diversions
By the time Vincent's message arrived on Cloud's PHS telling him to meet her at the apartment in Sector One on the Plate, the blond had been staving off boredom to little effect for some time and resorted to practising with his Materia. On reading the email Cloud bounced to his feet, quickly saddled Dash and caught Placid's reins -Vincent's chocobo was quite possibly the most tolerant and agreeable in existence- and rode off down the hillside towards the outer edge of Sector Five, where there was a chocobo stable that rented out pens. If they ended up staying in the city for more than a month Cloud would call Choco Billy so the farmer could send one of his hands around to take the two black chocobos back to the farm, but for the time being the birds would be fine in a public stable.
Cloud was just entering the gloomy outskirts of the Midgar slums that swelled out from under the Plate when a fight caught his eye. A convoy of ShinRa infantry and four Turks were gradually losing to a group of people wearing very concealing clothing that his Sense Materia identified as SOLDIERs. The Turks were guarding a small girl who couldn't have been older than nine who was handcuffed and cowering behind one of her blue-suited captors. Deciding that whatever either party had in mind for the petite redhead could not possibly be good, Cloud set about organising an impromptu rescue for the very young damsel. Of course, since he didn't want to be recognised as a third party he would need to wear a disguise. A blue suit, to be exact.
The spiky-haired blond actually owned a genuine blue Turk suit: It, alongside a headscarf and a pair of sunglasses, were how he'd infiltrated the ShinRa building last time despite being barely twelve. Nobody stopped Turks, no matter how short they were. Now wearing his disguise Cloud armed himself with his Peacemaker and a few grenades, caste Haste on himself for good measure and joined the fray. Rather than actually fighting per se, the blond instead shot a few of the oddly dressed SOLDIERs in the back with with the Peacemaker, cast a few Death spells with the gun's equipped Destruct Materia and left a trail of grenades in his wake as he zigzagged across the field.
As soon as he reached the other Turks he snatched up the little girl, cast a solid Reflect on himself and his new passenger and took off like a bat out of hell through a nearby alleyway. As the fight behind him escalated now the Turks were no longer on the defensive and his grenades exploded shrapnel everywhere Cloud concentrated on running as fast as he could. As he darted between buildings and across increasingly busy roads the blond began shuffling what he'd managed to lift from both sides of the conflict while he was passing through.
Four high level elixirs, seven miscellaneous potions, five different rings -nifty- a membership card to the Honey Bee Inn -entertaining but not really useful- smoke bombs, some spiderweb, a lot of loco weed, two pieces of phoenix down, a fire veil, eyedrops, maiden's kiss, two remedies, a ShinRa Alpha armlet -very nice- three ShinRa keycards and eight Materia, six of them still equipped in the armlet. He swiftly emptied the armlet of the Revive, Barrier, Fire, Final Attack, Elemental and All that it contained and slipped them into a variety of pockets alongside the loose Throw and Exit he'd stolen. As far as Cloud was concerned pickpocketing while using Haste was the most useful battle skill ever and far more versatile than a measly Steal Materia. The Exit he'd just lifted was exactly what he needed right now, in fact: gripping the Materia in his free hand while a high-powered Bolt spell bounced off his back Cloud coaxed an Escape spell out of it just as one of the armoured SOLDIERs appeared on the road ahead of him, gun pointed right at his face. Cloud focused on his destination -the Sector One train station men's room- as the spell caught him and his passenger and whisked them both away.
A swirl of green sparks later Cloud was standing in a large and fortunately empty public bathroom. The blond quickly commandeered the nearest toilet cubicle, locked the door behind them and set down the little girl he'd just kidnapped before deactivating the spells still acting on him. Then he got a proper look at his new friend.
Short ginger hair in a bob, big blue eyes, about four foot four with her hands cuffed behind her back and a piece of silver tape covering her mouth, the probably-nine-years-old girl looked very frightened. Cloud quickly removed his sunglasses and headscarf, making his hair bounce back up into its usual chocobo-alike style and dispelling a little of the fear in her eyes. "I'm not really a Turk: I'm only thirteen for one thing," Cloud said conversationally, "so I don't want to get caught impersonating one. ShinRa doesn't like it when people do that. I was passing by and saw the fight: I take it they kidnapped you?"
The petite redhead nodded slowly, looking a little less terrified as Cloud changed into a pair of baggy black trousers, steel-toed boots, long-sleeved green SOLDIER-style jumper and a baggy and very battered brown leather jacket. The sword harness under the jacket may have been what was holding her attention, but Cloud suspected the show he'd put on hiding all his knives had been what caused the tiny twitch in the corner of her mouth. She probably hadn't been expecting a rescue either.
"Okay, as you might have gathered this is a rescue, so if I take the tape off you mouth can you stay calm while I pick the lock on your handcuffs?" The little girl nodded again, so Cloud carefully peeled the silver tape off her mouth. "I'm not going to ask you your name so that if anybody asks I can honestly say I don't know where you are, got that? But if you stick with me I'll look after you for a bit. My mentor is a very kind lady who might be able to help with your little kidnapping problem. Is that okay?"
"Okay," the girl whispered solemnly, eyes fixed on Cloud's face.
"Good girl. Now show me those handcuffs. I'm going to have to change what you look like as well, so I hope you're not too attached to your hair..."
Ten minutes later Cloud's new friend was handcuff-free, wearing some of his old clothes and a spare rucksack with potions and other items in, the newly-pilfered ShinRa Alpha armlet with an Exit and a Barrier in it and a much shorter haircut that stuck up on one side a bit like Cloud's own. The overall effect was of a seven-year-old boy who might well have been Cloud's sibling.
"Listen, the Turks and those other guys will be looking for a nine-year-old girl-" Cloud suspected the 'other guys' were Deepground, but Vincent kept that information locked up tight "-so you are now my baby brother Wolf. Wolf Strife, since I'm Cloud Strife. We're from Nibelhein, but we left when I was ten and you were four so you don't remember anything about it or have the accent. You should act really, really shy just in case so people don't get a good look at your face. Is that okay?"
"I'm called Wolf Strife, you're my big brother Cloud and I'm very shy," the girl whispered with a rather pleasant Kalm accent. "Can I hold onto your belt so we don't get separated?"
"That's an excellent idea," Cloud agreed, smiling warmly at his new 'little brother'. "Come on wolfling, let's go find Vincent. Yes, Vincent is my mentor and she is a woman," he added quickly as they left the bathroom, "Although she doesn't look it. She's good with disguises, which is how I got my suit."
Wolf nodded solemnly, shifted to get a better grip on his belt with her left hand and trotted after him along the platform, keeping her head down and her eyes at knee level. Cloud was very impressed by her acting skills. "You're doing just fine, wolfling," he murmured, "no need to worry."
Yes, Cloud has sticky fingers. Unlike Yuffie however he doesn't care what he gets so long as it is either useful or can be fenced. He's still a sucker for damsels in distress though.
Below is an omake I felt like writing. If I get twenty reviews today -any chapter, pick your favourite- I'll post an extra chapter.
Omake: True Heir
Cloud had absolutely no idea that his father was the planet's most successful businessman or that his maternal grandfather had been the man who taught General Angeal Hewely how to wield his buster sword. He didn't even know that 'Strife' was neither his mother's married name nor her maiden name. The blond was completely in the dark because he'd never thought to ask Vincent if she knew anything about his family background; the former Turk knew just about everything about her spiky-haired student's heritage.
Despite not having a clue as to where he really came from, Cloud had inherited a great deal from both his father and grandfather. He had his grandfather's knack for bladed weapons, the bigger the better, as well as his travel sickness problem and passion for chocobo racing. From his father President Shinra Cloud had inherited a very keen instinct for turning fluid situations to his advantage, a natural charm that already turned heads, his short stature and ridiculously dynamic hair. It was the unerring instinct for spotting and exploiting weaknesses in the strategies of others that had enabled a thirteen-year-old Cloud to snatch an immobilised nine-year-old Shelke Rui from under the noses of Turks, ShinRa infantry and Deepground forces without any of the three factions realising what had really happened. That President Shinra's plan to integrate the girl with the rare Synaptic Net Drive gift into Deepground had been foiled by the quick-thinking and natural ability of a bastard child the despotic businessman didn't even knew he had was definitely an example of the universe's sense of irony.
