Night 49: Home World - Gaia
[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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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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"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?"
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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"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."
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It couldn't hurt to check, right? It wouldn't take long, and right now they didn't have any other clues to go by. He shook his head at the ninja's statement. "No, we need to take a look. Even if it's just a quick one. I won't feel satisfied that we've done all we could until then."
That said, he took a step forward--
[to here]
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