The Second Adventure
School came to a close for the five Warriors currently participating; the last subject was Literature, taken by a wonderfully presented Terra. When the schoolbell rang for the children to head home, the four boys stayed with the young teacher.
"You coming, Terra?" Asked Luneth. Terra was still in her seat writing some notes still.
"Oh, no. Teachers have to make sure everything is up to date before leaving. You guys go on ahead, I'll call Cloud when I'm ready to leave." Terra said with a smile.
"Okay then, catch yah later." Tidus waved as the four boys left the classroom. Zidane who was at the end of the group noticed a presense behind him, who was behind one of the support pillars in the corridor. It felt like the same presence the day earlier when Zidane stole the things late at night. He gave a sideways glance towards the presence to see the blonde haired girl called Hiyo peering out towards him, to which she swiftly retreated. This sparked Zidane's interest even more.
"Hey guys, I gotta see our Maths teacher on something." Zidane piked up. The others looked in his direction.
"What for?" Asked Squall.
"That's for me to know and you to find out." Zidane said cleverly. "You guys go on ahead, I'll catch up."
"Well, alright." Tidus said and the three parted ways. Zidane, when knowing he was alone, marched to the pillar and spotted Hiyo.
"You looking for something?" He asked deviously, as Hiyo gave a small yelp, then tripped and fell, landing on her backside. "Sorry 'bout that!" He said and helped her up.
"What are you still doing here when school is finished?" The girl asked.
"I can ask you the same thing." Zidane replied.
"I...wanted to see Ms. Branford on something..." Hiyo said, obviously lying.
"You sure?" Asked Zidane playfully. "I've been hearing from a reliable source there's a nightcrawler that prowls round these halls late at night..." He continued while pacing. Hiyo looked to be nervous. "That wouldn't be you, would it?"
"Of course not!" Snapped Hiyo instantly. At that point, Terra walked out of her classroom and noticed the two.
"Oh, Zidane, Hiyo. You haven't went home yet?" She asked.
"Nah, just waiting on my favourite teacher." Zidane said with a smirk. Terra giggled.
"Well come on, I'll walk you to the entrance." Terra said. And Zidane obeyed, walking beside the only girl on her side.
"Terra, that's the girl..." Zidane whispered to Terra as they left. "The one I told you about..."
"It's not right making false accusations, we'll need to catch her in the act if we're to conclude it's her." Terra said with wisdom in her voice. "Fortunately I have the perfect counter measure..." Indeed, when Terra and Zidane got to the stairs, Hiyo took action and entered her homeroom class with a pick at the lock and began looking for her target. But what she didn't know that the tiny moogle ornament that she had on her desk was actually enchanted by Terra to record whatever it's eyes see, without Hiyo being any wiser. Terra knew that these spells were minor and couldn't be detected by Exdeath, but she knew she had to cut down on using them, or the Void-loving worlock may get lucky.
After figuring out how to get to the city, Bartz, Cecil, Firion, the Warrior of Light and Shantotto made it to the hussle and bussle of the crowded city.
"This is quite a marvellous city..." Cecil commented. This was his first expidition to the city, and he couldn't help but stare in awe at the towering skyscrapers.
"What is the purpose of our visit, Shantotto?" Asked the Warrior of Light. Shantotto cleared her throat.
"We are looking for places and locations which will prove useful to our secrecy from Chaos. Didn't I tell you that?" Shantotto said with little interest. Bartz instantly seen a large-scale bank.
"Well, I know where Zidane can heist next." Bartz said.
"It'll be tricky with a bank." Firion said. "According to my research, banks that size have extremely tight security, that's on par with royal guardsmen."
"Still, Zidane looks as if he's stolen from a hundred royal palaces." Cecil said with a laugh. "Perhaps we should visit to gain more knowledge." They walked briskly to the bank which stood on the street a few blocks away. They were extra careful during road-crossings, as to not get run down, especially with Shantotto; if she were hit, it would no doubtedly be instant death. They were one block away to the bank when a black van was seen parking itself directly beside the bank, and four or five highly built men stormed out of it and raced into the bank.
"Someone must be in a hurry to get some money." Bartz said, ignorant of what was about to happen; but this ignorance was subsided, as even from their considerable distance, they heard gun shots and commands to "get on the ground" and "put the money in the bags".
"What's going on?" Firion said in alarm.
"Those men are stealing from the bank!" The Warrior of Light identified. "This injustice cannot be ignored!"
"Well Zidane does the same, but we all turn blind eyes for him." Bartz said.
"Zidane is our comrade." Firion said. "He does the things he needs to so we can survive. Those men are selfishly stealing for their selfish gain!"
"You can have them." Shantotto said indifferently. "A person of my size cannot fight with magic." She then plumped herself on a bench.
"Alright, come on!" Cecil encouraged as himself, Warrior of Light, Firion and Bartz raced to the aid of the bank. On arriving (After figuring out how to get passed the revolving doors) they quickly analyzed the scene: several men wearing black balaclavas and grey coats were positioned with guns in several places of the bank, with two at the cash register and an innocent banker being forced at gun point to hand over all the money. All the unfortunate civilians waiting in the cue were on the floor with their heads covered; one such civilian woman was holding on to her young daughter for dear life. It appeared the four arrived at the nick of time. Instantly the positioned burglars aimed their guns towards the four Warriors.
"Get on the ground now!" One ordered. That however didn't faze the four; they scattered to fight their own foes, dodging the gun shots that were fired on their dispersion. The Warrior of Light faced a quite large thief, with built-up muscles.
"He makes Garland look Shantotto-sized..." He thought. But the opponent's size didn't scare the Warrior of Light, as he took one of the queue stands nearest him and used it as a weapon; whacking the giant brute in the stomach with the point, winding him, and rendering him unconscious with a strike to the back. Firion made great care to dodge a burglar that constantly shot at him, to make matters worse, he had to do so without accidentally aiming the shots for the hostages. Luckily, he saw an opening and kicked the bulglar in the chest, making him growl in pain, then Firion delivered the finishing blow by throwing the foe's head to the wall, knocking him unconscious. Cecil fought quite a lanky tall opponent with just the same amount of firepower as the other two. He tried to shoot Cecil in the head, refusing to shoot anywhere else, but Cecil graciously dodged, making sure the plastic screen at the register was being hit; with it's plastic material, it made sure nobody else would be hit. Cecil took an opportunity and punched the shooter in the jaw, instantly kncoking him out. Bartz took on the two that was going for the money. It was no easy task avoiding bullets from two at once.
"Let's see what Squall's fighting style's truly like." He thought. Using Squall's superior fighting style, he jumped up as high as he could; thankfully the roof was quite high up, and kicked the two attackers at once, landing with an graceful land. What he didn't know was that only was knocked unconscious, and the one remaining thief left, made a break for the hostages. Bartz's reaction time was too slow, and the thief already found himself a hostage to give him safe passage: the little girl that was held on by her mother; she was held at gunpoint.
"Nobody move!" He commanded, as the little girl was whimpering in fear, and the mother was gasping in equal fear. The four, with all the remaining burglars taken care of, focussed their efforts on the captor.
"Got any plans?" Asked Bartz, who was closer to Cecil.
"A few. But not without endangering the girl..." Cecil replied.
"Shut up!" The burglar commanded to Bartz and Cecil. The burglar was edging his way to the entrance, in order to get away, the girl whimpered with every step away from her mother.
"There has to be something we can do..." The Warrior of Light thought. The burglar made his way to the revolving door, which was directly next to the Warrior of Light. As the burglar fumbled to turn the door, the Warrior of Light seen that as an opportunity and kicked the door in the opposite direction, crushing half the burglar's body on the other side. He gave a loud grunt of pain and his grip on the child loosened for a split second, allowing the Warrior of Light to come in, grab the girl and take her as far away from the burglar as possible. Before the burglar could even counter, Firion, Bartz and Cecil were already dealing with him. Now with all the burglars apprehended, the city police were called and the thugs were quickly dealt with. The four "heroes", as they were described by the people involved, were presented to the manager of the bank in his office, a short stout man with glasses.
"Thank you so much for rescuing my bank from those criminals." He said with delight. "They must have robbed this bank half a dozen times, my heart is at rest that they are caught."
"It was our pleasure, sir." Firion said. "We couldn't let those men do what they did."
"Please, if there is anything that I can do in return, do not be afraid to ask." The manager said with a smile.
"No thank you." The Warrior of Light said. "We are not doing well financially, but that is no reason to take advantage of this bank's distressing situation." The manager gave a hearty laugh.
"Don't be ridiculous! This bank has more money that can last all of you two lifetimes each. To show my thanks..." He got up from his chair, with a loud heave, walked to a small safe in the corner of the room and took from it a handful of cash. "I will be willing to donate this sum of $4000 to you." The four were astonished at the money they were offered. "And dont be silly enough to refuse. Those crooks were about to steal much more than that. This is a personal thanks from our bank to you." He handed the pile to Cecil.
"Thank you, sir." Cecil said. "We will treasure your generosity for a long time." They left the bank in a very content mood.
"That was very nice of him!" Bartz said happily. "Now we don't have to rely on Zidane anymore."
"Yes. Now we should probably head back to Shantotto, who knows how she'll react to..." Cecil said, but was cut off with a large clearing to the throat behind them. It was indeed Shantotto and she was in a foul mood, as can be told by her angry expression.
"Where have you boys been?" She said, kicking them all painfully on the shins. "I could have handled those thugs in a quarter of the time! You call yourselves Warriors of Cosmos! Pah! Don't make me laugh!"
"W-We're sorry, Shantotto." The Warrior of Light apoligized. "We had to wait to protect the people until the proper authorities arrived."
"That's no excuse! Now we must go! The others will be deeply worried!" Shantotto said. Cecil looked to a clock tower, and indeed, it was 6 o' clock in the evening, when it was only 2 o' clock when they left.
"The school attenders will be back!" Firion said.
"We must hurry before they worry about us." Cecil said. Immediately they raced back home, as to not cause a fuss, making sure not to lose or reveal their large sum of money to more thugs. They arrived at Cosmos residence half an hour later. Immediately, Terra arrived with a worried face.
"Where were you five? We were so worried!" She said with a sad voice, obviously been worrying since she discovered their absense. Soon Squall, Zidane, Tidus and Luneth came too.
"Yeah! We were ready to call the police in case something bad happened!" Luneth lectured.
"We're dreadfully sorry, everyone." Firions said, trying to calm everyone down. "But, our disappearance was for a good cause." The Warriors (Excluding Cloud who was working) and Cosmos sat together in the living room while the five explorers told their tale of how they rescued several innocents and apprehended several criminals.
"Wow! You actually saved a bank!" Tidus said in surprise.
"Must've been hard without your powers." Squall said, particularly to Bartz.
"Nah, I copied your fighting style, and the rest just fought them off." Bartz explained casually. "And the best part is..." He plumped the money on the ground, and everyone was shocked at the money that was there.
"Wha'...how...?" Terra gasped.
"They seen us as heroes and gave us this money as a thank you present." Bartz said happily. Cosmos gave a smile.
"Your kindness has benefited the household." She said. "We are in your debt."
"We are humble for your words, Cosmos." Warrior of Light said happily. "It was our pleasure to aid our comrades."
Once Cloud came home and fed the house with more pizza (With different ingredients to make sure it didnt grow stale.) They all went to bed to sleep, except for Zidane who was still thinking about the girl he met a few hours previously.
"Hey." Zidane could hear Bartz whisper, as to not disturb Squall. "You asleep?"
"Nah." Zidane replied. "Keep thinking about that girl who tried to steal from Terra..."
"Maybe you should confront her about it." Bartz suggested with a whisper.
"Huh?"
"C'mon, your the ace thief I know. Those bandits I fought were only a third of your talent. If there's anyone who can spot a thief, it's you. Only way to make sure Terra's class is safe."
"I guess so." Then they heard movements from Squall.
"That's if you get to school if I don't punch you to sleep." He growled.
"Yessir!" They hollered in fright as they slept and never said a word after that.