"Right, looks like we're here." said Cloud, as he and the gang disembarked Rufus Shinra's ship.

As they got off they saw dock workers taking crates of the ship and doing general work. People in swimsuits were also around, with most of them heading to the beach nearby.

It was also very hot out.

"Geez it's hot out!" Barret said, covering his eyes from the sun,

"Hey Gordon, aren't you hot wearing that?" He said, pointing at Gordon's HEV suit.

"Uh not really, I'm kinda used to heat like this where I'm from." He replied.

"Hmph, New Mexico has heat like this too?" Barret asked.

"Like you wouldn't believe."

"Alright listen up!" Cloud said to the group,

"After that last battle I'm sure we're all pretty tired so we'll break for now. Go relax for right now but don't wander off too far."

"Oh cool." Aerith said, "Maybe this'll be a chance for me to get a tan!"

She then split off from the group. The rest followed suit and split off into different directions.

Only Cloud, Tifa, and Gordon remained at the dock.

"I'm not exactly a beach guy Cloud." said Gordon, "I'm gonna go find a bar or something and get a drink."

"Do what you need to do." Cloud replied, "Just stay close by."

"Alright." said Gordon.

"I'll come with you." Tifa said, "I need a drink too after everything we've been through."

"Sure why not? More the merrier." Gordon said sarcastically.

He figured at this point there was no shaking Tifa off of him, and it was gonna be Benrey following him all over again.

A bar sitting near the coastline of the beach was currently packed, many of them being beach goers along with Costa Del Sol residents.

Gordon and Tifa had walked, and Gordon found himself on the receiving end of some weird looks.

'Yup, just a guy wearing an HEV suit at the beach in what's probably 80 degree weather, nothing to see here.' He thought.

"Crap, this place is crowded." Tifa said, surveying the bar.

"Well, we could always try the next o-

"There! We can sit there!" She said pointing to a nearby empty table.

"Ooookay"

They quickly made their way to the table before anyone else could grab it. It wasn't too long before a waiter was at their table.

"What can I get you two?" He asked.

"Damn service here is fast." said Gordon, "After all the shit I've been through, give me whatever's strong."

"I'll have a beer." Tifa said.

"Right, I'll be back shortly." The waiter, heading over to the bar counter. Gordon sighed and turned his attention to Tifa.

"Look Tifa." Gordon said, "I know ever since I joined up with you guys I've haven't exactly been open about a lot of things. But I really don't need to be followed 24/7, I'm not gonna suddenly bail on you guys."

"It's not that Gordon." Tifa said,

"It's true that I'm still skeptical of you, but I can tell that you've been through a lot and need someone to talk to."

"Huh? Yeah I guess."

Gordon wasn't sure if she was making an attempt at friendship, or if this was a ploy to try and get him to let his guard down and slip up. At this point he was too exhausted to care.

"You know, being honest I wasn't always on my own. Back at Black Mesa I had a gang of scientist friends. They were a hassle most of the time but they got me through a lot. I honestly don't know if I would have survived without them."

"You mentioned them earlier, what are they like?" She asked.

"Well I already told you about Dr. Coomer, the guys probably stronger than Benrey and Sephiroth combined, he's a very nice guy too when you aren't on his bad side."

Gordon's thoughts went to THAT encounter he had with Coomer and shivered.

"Tommy is another one, he has the mind of a child but he's a good guy, and he was the first one by my side after I lost my hand, hell of a fighter too. Then there's Bubby, he's a dick but reliable, but like with Coomer don't get on his bad side."

"And you said after Black Mesa you got separated from them?"

"Yup, haven't seen them since."

Gordon paused.

"And being honest, I know I said we'd run into them in the future, but I'm honestly having my-"

Gordon stopped, as he was talking he was looking out the windows nearby, he noticed a familiar figure walk by.

"Wait a second." Gordon said, getting up from the table.

'Did all the fucking planets just line up?'

"What is it?" Tifa asked.

Without answering Gordon sprinted up and away from the table towards the exit. The waiter carrying their drinks was walking back and Gordon wound up barreling into him, knocking him over and sending their drinks flying.

"FUCK SORRY!" Gordon shouted, running out of the bar.

Tifa got up and helped the waiter back up on his feet.

"I'm sorry about that." Tifa said, "I don't know what got into him."

She then ran out the bar to see where Gordon went.

Gordon meanwhile was outside and frantically looking around to see where who he thought it was went. Then he saw him.

Standing a few feet away from him was a man in a white lab coat, a blue polo shirt with a blue and red striped tie along with white slacks and brown shoes. He had short dark hair and a propeller hat sitting atop his head.

"TOMMY!" Gordon shouted, running over to him.

Tommy turned around in surprise to the familiar voice.

"Huh? Mr. Freeman?" Tommy said.

"Tommy!" said Gordon, now standing in front of him.

"Holy shit man where the hell have you been? I haven't seen you since we left Black Mesa."

"I-I've been looking for Sunkist! It's been a long time since I've seen you or him." Tommy replied.

"Huh what are you talking about? It wasn't that long since we teleported out." said Gordon.

"N-No it's been a really long time Mr. Freeman." Tommy replied.

Gordon sighed.

"Alright look." Gordon said, dismissing what Tommy said to him.

"First, it's really good to see you. Second, are you with Coomer and Bubby at all? Like are you guys all together and here right now?"

"No, I haven't seen them in a while either." Tommy said,

"I've been spending all my time looking for Sunkist."

"Gordon!" Tifa shouted, coming over to where he and Tommy were.

"There you are. What was that all about?" She asked,

"And who's this?"

"This is one of the scientist friends I was telling you about." Gordon said,

"Tommy, this is Tifa. We teamed up recently."

Tommy looked at Tifa then at Gordon.

"What do you mean teamed up Mr. Freeman?" Tommy asked, "Are you leaving the science team?"

"What? No nothing like that! Look-" Gordon said,

"Let me catch you up to speed on what's going on: Benrey is here too, and he's teamed up with Sephiroth. You know who that is right?"

"Yeah." Tommy replied.

"Alright, now I've teamed up with Tifa's party because we're looking to stop both of them from doing whatever it is they're planning. Now, since you're here we could really use your help in stopping them. Is that alright with you?"

"Yeah." Tommy said, "But I still need to find Sunkist."

"Sunkist?" Tifa asked.

"That's his dog." Gordon replied, "Look Tommy, I'm sure along the way we'll find Sunkist. Does that work for you?"

"I guess." He replied.

"Good." Gordon said, "Now, let's go find Cloud and the others. It's time we got moving and I'm sure they'd love to meet you."

"Right, let's go." Tifa said.

Cloud was at the beach, he wasn't wearing a bathing suit like everyone else was.

He had found Aerith and the others and told them to get changed. Both Sephiroth and Benrey couldn't have gotten far and he didn't want to waste anymore time.

But for some reason, when he thought of Benrey his head hurt, like there was a hole in his memory that was all dark and he couldn't figure out why Benrey was responsible for it.

He then noticed a harem of girls in bikinis surrounding someone near the shore.

Upon closer inspection he noticed they were surrounding a familiar foe…

'Hojo!'

Cloud then made a B-Line straight towards him. One of the girls noticed Cloud coming and got up to block his path.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing!?" She asked, "You can't just storm up to the professor like that!"

"Huh? What is it?" Hojo asked, propping himself up from his beach chair.

Cloud noticed that Hojo wasn't wearing a bathing suit either, but rather his entire lab coat.

Cloud noticed something else about Hojo: The initials "IG" were tattooed on his neck.

"Huh, it's you isn't it?" Hojo said to Cloud, "What is it that you want?"

"What do you think?" Cloud asked, passing by the girl and standing directly over him.

"I believe it's the same thing." Hojo said, "We both want Sephiroth and Be- I mean, his accomplice."

"Wait a sec." Cloud said, catching what Hojo was about to say, "You were about to say Benrey weren't you? You know he is, don't you? Even though no one else in Shinra knows?"

"Maybe." Hojo replied, laying back down and crossing his legs.

"I wouldn't waste any time if I were you, you wouldn't want them to get far now. They're most likely heading west."

"How do you know that?" Cloud asked.

"Just a hunch."

"Right. This isn't over Hojo. After we're done stopping them, you and Shinra are next!"

"I'm counting on it." Hojo replied, "Now please leave, you're blocking my sun."

Cloud scoffed and turned to walk away.

"Oh and Cloud!" Hojo said, getting Cloud's attention.

"Ce n'est pas une arnaque!"

Cloud gave a confused look before walking away.

Cloud, Barret, Aerith, Red XIII, and Yuffie were all at the center of town. They were all dressed from their beach activities and were ready to go.

"Right, looks like we're almost all here." Cloud said, "Anyone seen Tifa or Gordon?"

"No idea." Barret said.

"Right." Cloud said,

"I'm sure they'll find us eventually. Right now there's something I want to talk to you all about: I met Hojo earlier on the beach."

"Huh? He's here?" Aerith asked, "Is he still at the beach? There's something I need to ask him."

"Probably, and I wouldn't bother. He didn't seem interested in talking." Cloud replied,

"Before I left him he said something to me in a different language, not sure what it was though."

"Huh, wonder what that's about." Barret said, "Did he say anything else?"

"He told me to head west. He said Sephiroth and Benrey were most likely heading in that direction." Cloud said, "As soon as Gordon and Tifa come back we'll get going."

"Hey!" A familiar voice shouted.

They all turned around to see Tifa and Gordon heading in their direction, along with another person they hadn't seen before.

"Tifa!" Aerith said, "It's good to see you guys again."

She looked over at Tommy.

"And who is this?"

"I-I'm T-Tommy. Tommy Coolatta, I'm one of Mr. Freeman's friends." He said.

"It's nice to meet you Tommy! I'm Aerith, Aerith Gainsborough!"

"H-Hi." He replied.

Tommy was trying his best to hide how uncomfortable he currently was.

"We found him around town." Tifa said,

"Apparently he and Gordon worked at Black Mesa together."

"I see." Cloud said, going over to Tommy, "Can you fight?"

"U-Uh yeah!" Tommy said, "But it's all on instinct Mr. Uhh. Mr. Uhhhhh."

"His names Cloud, Tommy." Gordon said, "It's Cloud Strife."

"O-Okay." Tommy said. He pulled out a Glock from inside his coat.

"I only have this Mr. Freeman." Tommy said, "I sold all my other guns a while ago for soda."

Gordon laughed.

"That's on brand for you Tommy." replied Gordon.

"Don't worry, we'll get you better weapons soon. Also I just wanna let you know, Cloud is technically in charge here so any concerns you have you'll have to relay to him. I'll still be here though."

Tommy then looked at Gordon with a face of surprise.

"B-But Mr. Freeman you helped us navigate through Black Mesa, and-" He looked at Cloud.

"I-I don't know about this."

"Don't know about what?" Cloud asked, "Is something the matter?"

"Well uh I-"

"And why are you wearing that hat? Aren't you an adult?" said Cloud.

"I-I-"

"I'm not running a daycare, this is gonna be a dangerous journey and I can't have you potentially slowing us down."

Tommy then opened his mouth like was going to say something, but instead turned around and walked in the other direction, clearly upset.

"Tommy, Tommy!" Gordon shouted, trying to get Tommy to come back to no avail. He then turned to look at Cloud.

"What the hell was that Cloud? You didn't need to be mean to him like that."

"Look at that hat he's wearing and how he's acting." Cloud replied, "I'm not gonna play the role of a babysitter while we have a job to do."

"He's more than capable of handling himself!" retorted Gordon.

It was then that Aerith walked over to Tommy who was standing back first from the group.

"Tommy. Are you alright?" Aerith asked.

"Y-Yeah." Tommy replied, voice shaking.

"No you're not, look-" She then went in front of Tommy.

"I know Cloud came off as a dick back there, and he can come off as intimidating but don't let that get to you. When you get to know him he's actually a good guy."

"I guess but I'm not used to being in a group that isn't led by Mr. Freeman. He helped us through Black Mesa and the resonance cascade." Tommy replied.

"And he's here with you right now. And I'm sure he'll help you along the way just as he always has."

"I-I know." Tommy replied, "I'm just not used to this place and I really wanna find Sunkist!"

"Huh? Who's that?" She asked.

"My dog, I haven't seen them since Black Mesa and I've been spending a lot of time trying to find them."

"Well, how about this," Aerith said, "If you come with us then we can all find Sunkist together! And I would love to meet them too!"

She then raised her hand, signaling a high five.

"Are you with me?" She asked.

"Uh, y-yeah!"

Tommy then raised his hand up and high fived her.

"Very cool! Now let's go back to the others."

Aerith and Tommy the made their way back to the rest of the party. Gordon noticed that Tommy was in somewhat higher spirits than before.

'I have no idea what Aerith said to Tommy but it sure as hell glad it worked!' He thought.

The first thing Aerith did as her and Tommy rejoined the group was go straight to Cloud.

"Apologize." She demanded.

"What?" Cloud said.

"What you did earlier was too much. Apologize to Tommy right now."

Cloud sighed and shook his head. He then walked over to Tommy.

"I'm sorry I berated you like that, I'm just on edge with everything that's going on." Cloud said.

Tommy didn't reply, but slowly and faintly nodded his head. Cloud took this as a sign that said "Apology accepted."

"You said you've fought before?"

"Y-Yeah I did a lot of fighting at Black Mesa!" Tommy replied.

"And that pistol is all you have?" Cloud said.

"Yeah."

"Okay." Cloud said, shaking his head and turning to Gordon, "Is he capable like you said?"

"Trust me." Gordon said, "You'll be amazed at what he can do."