Night 49: Home World - Gaia

[zack_fair]

[From here.]Upon stepping through the door, Zack had suddenly felt kind of dizzy, almost like the floor was falling out on him. He didn't know what that was about, but he didn't even get the chance to try and come up with a reason for it, since the next thing he knew he was being overwhelmed by a whole new set of sensations. First of all, he was

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[thatdamnedninja]

"That's a-" Oh, man. "You've gotta be kidding me!"

What was a Tonberry doing way out here?! They usually hung out down in the crater, except for the bunch they had tucked away in Battle Square. Yuffie stared at it. Just. Stared. She'd never, ever seen one this far south, in so populated an area. "This is crazy," she said. "This? Is totally, totally crazy."

It was staring right back at them, or so Yuffie thought. Beady golden eyes all fixed and judging and geez, this was the last thing they needed! Martin Landel was a son of a bitch. A real, huge, massive, undeniable and incurable son. Of. A. Bitch.

"Wish I had the Conformer," Yuffie muttered to Cloud. "And Morph." She'd always been good with that. Ribbon every time, baby! … Well, almost. Usually. It, well, it really depended on how things went; couldn't Morph worth a damn if you didn't land the final hit, and Tonberries were always up for making life difficult. They could put up a tough fight, even against-sometimes especially against-experienced fighters. Yuffie wasn't exactly worried, not with the three-against-one odds in their favor and with all their abilities back, but still. Dude.

Readying herself to grab her shuriken at any moment, Yuffie asked, "We waiting for it to come to us, or are we gonna go for some pre-emptive ass-kicking?" Tonberries weren't known for their speed, but they didn't give up on their victims so easily, either. They'd be fighting this out one way or the other.

[notthistrain]

"Wonder how it got here?" Cloud was already approaching the creature, sword drawn and with a hard frown on his face. What was a Tonberry doing in this neck of the woods? Zack was right - they were limited to caves. More specifically, they could only be found in the Northern Crater as far as he was aware. That begged the question of how one had managed to come this far, crossing the ocean and everything.

There was always the possibility that it had something to do with Sephiroth, and the coming of Meteor, but he couldn't be sure how that tied in. The idea that one might have hitched a ride on an escaping Weapon was also an idea, though a ridiculous one. But then, a Tonberry was a pretty ridiculous creature on its own.

If he'd thought there was a chance it might not be interested in attacking them, that thought was dashed when it stepped out further from behind it's hiding spot when he moved. Whatever it had been doing before, it now considered them a threat. They'd just have to take care of it before it began attacking in earnest. Toberries had a strange and irritating way of slowly prepping up for their attacks.

"All right. We'll just take it out, then see if we can find any other clues. You two get on either side of me."

[zack_fair]

Oh, so Cloud wanted to take center stage? Zack shot his friend a cocky grin, but listened to what he said nonetheless. Still, he wasn't about to wait for the thing to come to them. Really, Tonberries would have been cute in a weird way if their knives didn't hurt so damn much. But after having to run through caves packed full of the things, Zack couldn't say there was any love lost between them.

Which was why he didn't hesitate to make the first move. The Buster sword was off of his back and in his hand again within seconds, and then Zack kicked up dust running toward the lantern-toting creature. While he was pretty sure he'd gotten some materia back, his first instinct was always just to use his sword. Once he was within striking distance, he slashed down at the monster.

The Tonberry staggered back, swinging its little arms, but then continued its slow, laboring walk. That was par for the course, though, and so Zack immediately prepared another attack.

He still had no clue why a Tonberry of all things was here when everyone else seemed to have vanished into thin air, but he figured they'd toss around theories once the thing was dead.

[thatdamnedninja]

Zack really wasn't used to fighting in teams of three, was he?

What a dumbass! Why couldn't he have stopped to think, hey, there's a chick here who uses a great big shuriken; might not be a good idea to practically sit on the target? Yes? No?

Ugh. SOLDIERs were the definition of bull-headed enthusiasm. Um, that was-some of them. A bunch. Tons, actually, since, hey; they were hopped up on soul juice and dead alien, so why the hell not? It pissed Yuffie off, always had and probably always would. She indulged herself with a roll of the eyes and a stormy expression, before quickly changing gears. Bitch later, kill stuff now. She'd just have to work around Mr. Bigshot over there.

Yuffie wasn't gonna waste any time; the quicker they got this over with, the quicker they could start figuring out what was going on. The shuriken was off her back and slicing through the air within seconds, carving a wide arc around Zack and the Tonberry. She was aiming to give Zack a little bit of a hand, knock the Tonberry forward from behind, and-yes! There! The shuriken struck low, right on target, before continuing its off-kilter arc back to its wielder.

[notthistrain]

...Right. Zack wasn't used to fighting with them. Even if there was a time difference, Yuffie knew how to handle a three-man team. His other friend must not have had to team up much at all while working with SOLDIER. The perks of being a 1st class operative. He'd only had a team when the job was a big one, and even then he hadn't seen him coordinate much with them.

It didn't matter, really. It was just a Tonberry. Despite being an incredibly annoying little creature, it shouldn't be too big of a threat to them. He could probably handle a couple hits from that knife, as could the other two, but it wouldn't be getting that far. After being so drained of strength while in the Institute, Cloud was looking forward to being able to cause some real damage for once.

The creature was knocked forward, and the blond brought his sword up above his head, ready to cleave downward. You'd think a hit like this would be enough to finish it off, but you could never be sure with some of the stronger creatures of the world, which unfortunately a Tonberry was. That didn't make losing to one any less embarrassing, and that wasn't going to happen here.

[zack_fair]

The shuriken came in with pretty perfect timing. Zack might not have been used to it if he hadn't fought with Cissnei a few times, but in this case he was just glad that he had a few helping hands for this. It sometimes took a while to take a Tonberry down, but with them ganging up on it like this, the thing would be a goner in no time.

Yuffie's attack had made for the perfect opening to slash at the thing again again, but before Zack could do that, Cloud swept in with a pretty impressive assault of his own. Zack paused for a moment (this was a Tonberry, after all -- he wasn't too worried about the thing's agility) to send his friend a wide, cocky grin. "All right!" he exclaimed. "You've totally got it now." It really made him glad to see how far Cloud had come, and Zack found himself further exhilarated by having this chance to fight alongside the other man. With all of their mako-induced strength untouched, at that.

Gripping the hilt of his sword tight, he swung it around in a side-slash that hit the monster hard on its side. Once again, it stumbled, and Zack just tried to keep an eye on the thing's knife. So long as he didn't let that near him or the others, they'd be good.

[thatdamnedninja]

Tonberries were notorious across the world. Yeah, they were slow. Real slow. And that, well, that was hella handy. While they plodded along, measuring and meticulous and murderous, its prey, if smart enough and experienced enough, would have time enough to dispatch it. But, since there's always a but, that pro came with a boatload of cons.

The real problem with Tonberries was that they didn't have to get right up close to hurt you. Kill you, yeah; that big ol' butcher knife didn't exactly have a whole lot of range, and hell if she'd ever seen one of them actually throw something.

When Tonberries went to hurt someone-

Yuffie caught the shuriken on the backswing, even as she ran up to join her teammates. She dodged around to the other side, skidding to a stop when she'd found a space. But it was too late.

Before she had a chance the lash out and finish it, the Tonberry, injured and angry, was already unleashing its attack. There was a nickname that went with it, and lore; about how Everybody's Grudge was a person's choices coming back to bite them on the ass, about how only the most clean-handed could escape it unscathed-but what would some clean-handed, green-eared innocent be doing hanging around in the Crater?

Either way, it hurt like a bitch.

And it was headin' right for Zack.

"Zack, watch it!" Yuffie warned. Too late-but better late than never-she jumped into a somersault, whipping her shuriken down as hard and as fast as she could at the last second. Hopefully she'd be able to finish off the Tonberry before it got any more bright ideas.

[notthistrain]

Cloud saw the Tonberry moving. He wasn't sure if he'd be fast enough to intercept it with his blade, but since when had he been limited to physical attacks? He recalled what materia he'd had equipped on him when he'd been taken, and as far as he knew he should still have those equipped on him now.

The blond didn't take the time to glance at his wrist to double-check. There wasn't really time to do anything but take the matter on faith. There should have been a mastered lightning materia there, and while a summoning spell might have been the better answer, he wanted something that was guaranteed to hit quickly. Simple was better when you weren't certain that world mechanics were still going to work as they should.

"Heads up!" was about all the warning he gave Zack before the high-level Thunder spell connected. It shouldn't do the other man any harm, but it wouldn't hurt to stay back from an electrical charge that strong. They were trying to keep the other ex-SOLDIER from harm, anyway.

[zack_fair]

Seeing how Zack had run around in his fair share of caves and had been forced to deal with fighting multiple Tonberries at once, he knew what they were capable of. While the attack was called Karma as far as he was aware, what he knew about it was 1) that it came out of nowhere, and 2) that it hurt a lot. In fact, he thought he was kind of crazy for the idea, but he was pretty sure it'd come to hurt more and more as time had gone by.

This was no exception. The blow hit him hard, causing him to pull one hand away from the Buster to clutch to his stomach as he doubled forward. Being brought closer to eye level with the Tonberry, he couldn't help sending it an angry glare. Damn these things!

Luckily, Zack knew how to handle pain well, and so when Cloud gave him warning, he moved out of the way right in time for the Thunder spell to roast the thing. The spell was bright enough that Zack couldn't see the damage it had done at first (when he was this close, the light was almost blinding), but he was crossing his fingers that that had finished it. He didn't need Cloud or Yuffie taking a hit too.

[thatdamnedninja]

When Yuffie heard Cloud's warning, she got the hell out of dodge. No way was she sticking around to get zapped by a high level Thunder, nuh uh, not happening. A quick backwards handspring was enough to take her out of the spell's range.

The Tonberry wasn't so lucky.

Lantern and the knife still clutched tight in its hands, it finally went down for the dirt nap. Serves it right, too! Yuffie thought. She didn't care that it was stuck all the way out here, far away from its home; it'd attacked them. Monsters were monsters. Vicious, and nine times outta ten, just asking for a major butt-kicking.

Yuffie planted a hand-the one not occupied by a giant shuriken-on her hip. "So much for that," she said, not even out of breath. So much for exercise. So much for a toughie. In a way, it was almost disappointing. Except, oh yeah, the thing'd got Zack. Oops. Yuffie looked around at the guy quickly. SOLDIER or not, an attack from a Tonberry had to hurt. "You're not gonna curl up and cry on us, are ya?" she asked, blasé but without bite. If it turned out that Cloud didn't have a Cure somewhere on him, maybe, maybe she'd spare the guy a slice of Clear Tranquil. Maybe.

[notthistrain]

Cloud rolled his eyes at Yuffie's taunt to Zack, though he knew it was a harmless comment. The blond walked over to the fallen Tonberry just to make sure it wasn't going to get back up again, poking at it with the end of his sword. When he was sure, he reached for the bangle on his wrist and unclipped a green materia. This he tossed back toward Zack.

"That one's a cure." Rather than heal the man himself, he'd let his friend decide how much he wanted healed. He didn't know if Zack even had any materia equipped just then anyway. It couldn't hurt to share. Speaking of which, he really needed to double-check what he had on him. It hadn't been long since he'd last been in his world, just a few days, but things could have been altered for all he knew.

A quick look over his inventory told him this wasn't the case. All his materia was just how he'd left it. That was good to note just in case something else attacked them. "Yuffie, what do you have on you?"

[zack_fair]

"Since when have I been known to cry?" Zack asked, tone only slightly tight with pain as he straightened up, recovering as fast as his mako-laced blood would let him. He sent the two a strained grin to let them know that he would be bouncing back in no time. And the Tonberry? It was very much dead after that spell, which meant that they were back to square one.

When the materia was tossed his way, Zack lifted up a hand to easily snatch it out of the air. The green color was familiar in a comforting way. How much had he abused his own Cure in the past? Smirking to himself, he fitted it into one of the free slots on his Buster sword and then concentrated. Before long, a light surged up around him and the spell was cast. He felt his energy return and the pain leave him, and let out a relieved sigh once it was all over with.

"I should have some stuff, too," he said in response to Cloud's question, even though it wasn't directed at him. "A few elemental ones and a summon or two." It was a good thing that they were all armed to the teeth, if tough monsters were wandering around. He still couldn't figure out where the Tonberry had come from, but the important thing was that it wasn't a threat anymore.

Which just left him with a whole other set of unanswered questions.

[thatdamnedninja]

"Every night," Yuffie cheerfully replied. "Into your pillow."

Good thing she'd thought to do inventory before they'd jumped ship, huh? Yuffie bounced on the balls of her feet, restless. "Lessee," she said. "Crapton of small blades, little of this, little of that-set of lock picks, cell phone, smoke pellets… Seal materia, too." She gave her shuriken a wriggle. "And a hella nifty one that doubles up as a flash bomb."

She had more materia, of course, but most of it was out on loan to the Wusheng. They needed it more than she did. She'd even tossed the Leviathan summon back to Godo, just in case, along with His scales. The impenetrable fires in the heart of Da Chao made for a world-class defense; even Deepground's best would end up extra crispy if they tried to get through to the caves and tunnels without the Scales. She'd had more items, too, but she'd used bunches of them trying to play catch-up with Vinnie McVampster. Dude really knew how to cut a swathe, but those Deepground punks didn't know when to quit.

"And I-oh yeah, hey!" Suddenly she remembered what they'd been talking about before. "I know where Marls got stashed. I can go check it out; probs a waste of time, but no harm in tryin', right?" Even if there might be even more Tonberries chilling out around town. Yuffie wasn't up for staying still any longer than necessary, not when she was a great big fat mix up of nerves, curiosity, and adrenalin inside. "I'll be right back. Don't miss me too much~."

Keeping a very careful eye-and ear, and every other super special ninja sense she possessed-on her surroundings, Yuffie darted off to the far side of the town.

[notthistrain]

That wasn't a bad inventory, though it wasn't as if the cell phone was going to do them a whole lot of good if there was no one around to call. Wait, didn't he have his own...?

Cloud reached into a pocket, pulling out his PHS. It was a long shot, but he had to make absolutely certain that he wouldn't be able to get a hold of anyone from the group. If they'd just been taken somewhere else, it was possible that one of them might still have access to theirs. He went through the numbers one by one - even trying those that should be back at the Institute, like Tifa and Nanaki. There was a wild hope that maybe, just maybe, someone like Vincent or Cait Sith might answer, but he couldn't get a response from anyone. Not even Yuffie's number worked, but that wasn't surprising. The ninja with him now was from three years in the future, so there wasn't much of a chance that she'd be carrying around the same phone she'd had at this point in time.

The girl was running off to check on Marlene and Elmyra now, but he doubted she'd find them. That didn't mean he wasn't glad she was checking, though. There was always that slim chance that everyone was simply hiding together, or that one of them had left a quick note that might help them fight out where they were. All the same, he wasn't going to get his hopes up.

"We should probably check the other buildings too," he nodded to Zack. "Just in case." That had been the original plan, after all.

[zack_fair]

That was a lot of stuff. It looked like Yuffie hadn't completely lost her urge to hoard things, and Zack just shook his head as he watched the girl run off. He didn't even know who it was that they were looking for. Cloud had something about Marlene earlier, but the name meant nothing to him.

He might have asked, but when Cloud pulled his PHS out, Zack remembered his own. He grabbed it out of his pocket and flipped it open, frowning when he saw that there was no signal. That hardly ever happened. Nonetheless, he could page through his emails, though they were all years old, most of them from before he'd been imprisoned in that damn mansion.

Catching an old one from his fan club, Zack gritted his teeth and then quickly closed the phone and returned it to his pocket. He didn't want to think about how he'd let them down.

Luckily, that was when Cloud chose to speak up and make his suggestion. It looked like he was done fiddling with his own PHS, and really, there were more important things to be doing. "Yeah, works for me," he agreed with a nod. "I'll head down this way, and you can go the other direction." His tone situated it between a suggestion and an order. It would probably take them ten minutes tops to finish -- Kalm was tiny.

[thatdamnedninja]

Yuffie didn't dawdle. She flat-out sprinted, or close enough; found the house in seconds, and searched the bottom floor thoroughly in about the same. It was full of a whole load of nothing. A big, fat, stinking pile of nothing. She took the stairs seven at a time. Wash, rinse, repeat. Hullo, empty house! I'm the Great Ninja, how's it hangin'? There wasn't even anything worth stealing, and, yeah; Yuffie'd totally checked.

"Marleeeene!" she called, cupping her hands in front of her mouth. "C'mere, kiddo! I've got a totes new materia for you to try out on, er-Cloud, maybe, since it's a crossdressing materia; isn't that awesome? Yeah? I thought so. That's why I bribed old man Reeve into inventing it for me."

As expected, silence was the only answer she got. Yuffie wanted to punch it in the face.

Instead, she jumped out of the window. Landed in a crouch that didn't have time to be a crouch, because she rolled without stopping and turned the roll into a run. Before long, she was hop-skidding to a stop right where she'd left off, arms wheeling for stabilization she didn't need. "She's not here," she said, rocking back on her heels. "After that-I don't think we've gotta check out the rest. Place is a total ghost town."