Post by frogmastr1 on May 20, 2007 14:09:55 GMT -5
Baha and I are in the same Honors English class. Our English teacher gave us a bunch of practice picture prompts before our "S" testing. The very first one, before the rule of no more than 2 pages came out, started something like this:
"The long journey from the parking lot finally came to an end. The distant sounds of thunder and music now immersed _____and ______ as they stood at the ticket counter. The all too familiar twinge entered their stomachs. The couple paid for the two tickets and walked step by step toward the entrance…"
Our teacher said that we had to create a story from this. I wanted to make mine interesting, so I decided to make Cloud and Aerith from FF7 my main characters. Please remember that I had one afternoon to write this, so it's not what youwould call excellent. This is how the story went:
'Cloud and aerith passed through the entrance to six flags. The long awaited date they had set up was finally to be put into action. it certainly had taken a while. It was difficult to slip away from Avalanche, the rebel group in Midgar, because everyone there was so busy. Barret kept everyone in the rebel group on their toes with various jobs, only a few of them being the blowing up of mako reactors, and getting on the nerves of Rufus Shinra, president of the city of Midgar. Cloud and Aerith’s chance to plan their date had come one day when Barret had sprained his left wrist, and the gun that had been installed in his right hand broke; after that, he was pretty much out of action. Aerith had come to sector 7 from the neighboring sector 6 to meet Cloud at the materia shop, and there they deviously planned the day get-away. They both thought it was nice to be away from the exposure of mako energy and the depression of the city slums.
The sight that greeted the First Class Soldier and the flower girl as they came out of the tunnel that led into the belly of the theme park took their breath away. Of course, in Midgar they had had carnivals and fairs, but they had never seen anything this extravagant; let alone conceived the thought of a roller coaster {even though the two were still quite young}. It was too much for them to merely take in with one glance. The scenery made them stop and gape for a few minutes as a matter of fact. Eventually they were forced to move because the crowds of people behind them in the tunnel waiting to get in were starting to get quite rowdy.
Cloud and aerith walked around, enjoying the sights, the smells, and the clear water (you don’t get a whole lot of crystal clear water in Midgar).
“Have you ever seen so much good food at once,” Aerith asked Cloud in an awed voice, her eyes traveling in a hundred different directions at once. Growing up in the slums was always hard.
“No,” said Cloud. He was equally amazed, but Cloud never was a man of many words.
The two walked in silence, not caring exactly where they were going, first looking in one direction, then another, wishing they had a few more eyes. After drinking in as much of the scenery that they could, the thrills of the rides began to take over. After some friendly debating, both of them decided that they wanted to try out one of the roller coasters. So they went to the first one they could find, which happened to be the batman.
Cloud and Aerith got into line and waited. they ended up waiting for a long time, and about half way through, the realization of what they were about to do finally sunk in. You have to remember, reader, that these two had never even heard of the idea of a machine that you could ride on. After having time to think about the journey they were going to embark on, they got nervous, and the nervousness gave way to extreme anxiety. Aerith especially was feeling a bit faint; as usual, she looked to cloud for reassurance. Seeing him there with his frowning face all calm and composed made her feel a bit better. In reality though, Cloud’s poor heart was beating madly, and he felt ready to run away, even though it didn’t show on his face. Cloud never was one to show emotions.
Aerith, wanting to break the ice, decided she was going to try to start a conversation.
“Hey, I sure hope Tifa doesn’t find out what we’re doing. Don’t you?”
The thought of Tifa looming over and leering at him was enough to send fresh shudder down Cloud’s spine. “Oh yeah! She’d probably kill me, call me a traitor for liking you more than her, and bring up the fact that we’ve been friends since four. Yeah. And she probably wouldn’t talk to you for the rest of your life.”
On that note, aerith said “We should probably bring her back some of this food for the 7th Heaven. Her bar could do with a new menu.”
“Yeah.”
There was a pause in the conversation, and Cloud looked down on Aerith with a smirk on his face. Aerith knew this was Clouds way of laughing. Cloud didn’t laugh a whole lot.
“What’s so funny,” asked Aerith.
“I’m just trying to picture the look on Rufus Shinra’s face when he finds out that we ‘borrowed’ the famous shinra helicopter to get here.”
“That was one of your better ideas!” At this, they both laughed. Or rather, Aerith laughed and Cloud gave a small smile.
It’s hard to describe what the rest of the day was like for them. There were so many emotions, piled one on top of the other, all swirling around them. It was a day full of fun for them. Their first roller coaster ride was like nothing they had ever experienced before: so scared they thought they were going to faint, and yet so excited they couldn’t help but keep their eyes open. Thank goodness that the batman was a fast but short ride. After that though, they were hooked on the rides. They went from one to the next having the time of their life, doing what they wanted, eating what they wanted. They even kept their promise to bring Tifa some of the good food. Anyone who saw them putting the food in aerith’s shoulder bag would have been at a loss. No matter what they put in it, the bag never got any bigger, even though there was already a lot of stuff in it. The bag was a secret that magic-users of midgar, like Aerith, had mastered.
It was near sunset, though, before the real fun of the trip began. Cloud and aerith had just come out of their last roller coaster ride (Skull Mountain), to find the park completely deserted. They weren’t all that worried because they had been in worse danger before. They were curious though. People in crowded theme parks don’t just vanish.
“Something’s not right,” said Cloud. Then in a louder voice he sad, “hey Aerith! I think we should leave,” and winked at her. Aerith nodded, and together made their way to the entrance, or in this case exit of the theme park. As luck would have it, they were at the very edge of the park and had to walk a long way before they could see the exit.
“Aerith,” Cloud whispered barely moving his lips, “I need you to summon the buster blade since I couldn’t take it.”
Aerith made no reply, only looking straight in front of her. Cloud and Aerith made it to the courtyard; the exit was only a short straight walk form here. Cloud stopped and held out his hand, stopping Aerith too.
“We have company,” said Cloud.
Out of the trees that lined the courtyard came four figures in royal blue suites, and one person with orange hair and a white trench coat. The five people stood in a line, blocking the exit. Cloud knew these guys well, and aerith knew one quite well. Starting from the left, there was Elena the Turk, a woman with shoulder length blonde hair. Beside her stood Tseng the Turk, a man with shoulder blade length black hair and a curious black dot on his forehead. Leaving a small gap, the next person in line was a tall bald man named Rude, who was also a Turk. Next to him stood a formidable looking man with blood-red hair and a short metal rod in is hand. This was Reno the Turk. Standing in front of all them, was the orange-haired man in the trench coat. He was clearly the leader of all of them: it was Rufus Shinra.
“Well, fancy meeting you all here,” said cloud in a bored voice. More urgently he added to aerith, “Do it now.”
“I assume you know why we’re here, other than the fact we’re mortal enemies,” said Rufus Shinra.
“Uh?”
Elena burst out, “you stole the famous shinra helicopter which had the weapons in it that Mr. President was planning to use on sector four.”
Tseng turned to look at her. “You talk too much Elena,” he said in an exasperated voice. Elena gasped and blushed. “I’m sorry Tseng,” she said hanging her head.
“Tseng! You’re in charge of this rabble. I expect more discipline!”
Tseng sighed and Elena blushed a deeper red. They were distracted however by a bright green light that erupted from a metal staff that Aerith was holding. As they all turned to see what was going on, the buster blade, Cloud’s weapon, appeared in the ground at Aerith’s feet. There is a good reason why Cloud would not have been able to take to sword into the park: it looked like a slightly skinnier version of a meat cleaver with a pointed tip.
“Now I feel properly armed,” said Cloud looking fiercely at the Turks and the president. Then he answered their question. “How else were we supposed to get here? I thought it would be nice to take a helicopter ride.”
“You will pay dearly for that,” said Reno with a little smile. He held up the metal rod that a moment before had been held loosely in his had. Instantly, an electrical charge surged through the rod, making buzzing and snapping noises. Little, yellow sparks and lightning bolts came out of one end of the rod, but the electricity traveled throughout the entire thing except where Reno’s hands were.
“Yes,” said Rufus. “The sweet smell of retribution.”
As in the fighting style of Midgar, the opposing forces drew their weapons, and stood in front of each other with about 20 feet between them. Cloud picked up the buster blade in two hands, and bent his knees slightly, waiting for his opponents to strike first. Aerith, standing next to him held her staff ready.
Rude was the first to attack. He ran towards Cloud, and gave him a solid blow to the stomach with a balled fist. As rude ran back to his comrades, Cloud felt a little of his life slip away. That would happen each time he got hit, but more of his life would leave depending on who attacked him. Gritting his teeth, Cloud bent his knees again, waiting for the next blow.
Reno was next to attack. He ran toward aerith, and gave her a resounding blow with the metal rod of his. The electricity swept through her body, and even as Reno ran back to where rude was standing, the electricity swirled around her. After a few moments however, the buzzing sound went down, and Aerith faced her attackers again. It was then that cloud ran forward. He held the sword in front of him and slashed at Rufus’s side. Blood welled there for a second, and then disappeared. Cloud ran back to Aerith.
Elena and Tseng both took turns, aiming their hand guns at Cloud and firing. Pain diffused throughout his body from the bullet holes in his chest. A second later though, the pain was gone, and he wasn’t bleeding, though he could feel more of his life slip away. Aerith casted a firaga spell on Tseng, but before it could hit him, Elena threw herself in the path of the fire. It struck her, and she fell.
“Elena, you didn’t have to do that,” Tseng said without a whole lot of emotion.
“I know,” Elena said before she passed out.
Cloud turned to Aerith, “things are gonna get worse. You might have to summon. Are you up for it?”
“I think,” Aerith said. “I’ll need some time though.”
“Fine,” said cloud. “While you’re at it could you cure me? I’m dying here.”
Aerith took a potion out of the shoulder bag she was wearing, and threw it at Cloud. He drank the potion and felt some of his life returning. Before he had the chance to move though, aerith turned to him
“A potion is not enough. Cure 2!” Aerith’s staff floated in front of her as she pointed her hands at cloud. A green circle appeared around his feet. Shafts of light exploded around him, and felt his strength returning, and his health returning. Invigorated, he lifted the buster blade onto his shoulder, and brought it crashing to the ground.
“Blade Beam,” he screamed as a blue fire erupted out of the ground and rolled toward Rufus. The fire hit him square in the chest, and he fell over backwards. The fire echoed, split, and hit each of the Turks as well.
“Mr. President!” said Rude, throwing a potion at Rufus; Rufus caught it and drank it in one gulp. Tseng drew his gun and shot aerith. Immediately afterward, Reno pointed his metal rod at Aerith, and out of it shot a yellow line that travel across to where she stood, hunched over in pain. The yellow line surrounded her, and became solid until she was trapped in an unbreakable, yellow pyramid. The connection between Reno’s rod and the pyramid broke, but the pyramid remained around Aerith. Aerith fell to her knees. She could feel her life slowly being sucked from her. Cloud turned to help her, but rufus lifted his revolver, and aimed at him. Before cloud could do anything to help aerith, he felt the searing pain as the heavy bullet exploded in his chest. He gasped, and closed his eyes. it felt like eternity, that he could feel the pain, but in reality, it was only a few seconds. The pain receded, the wound healed itself, and some of his life left him. Gasping, cloud opened his eyes just in time to see aerith fall to the floor. The pyramid that surrounded her disappeared, only leaving her twitching form on the ground. Then she went still. Cloud calmly ran to her; he never was one that panicked in a crisis. He reached into her pack, rummaging around until he found a phoenix down: the legendary revival feather that had saved just about everyone in the world once, except Sephiroth. He laid the feather on top of her. Yellow and orange sparks jumped about aerith’s form, and she stirred. The feather sank into her body, giving back some of her life. Aerith rose to her feet. “I’m almost ready,” she said. Cloud nodded.
Tseng aimed his gun at cloud, and once again, the pain of a bullet wound seared in his leg. Cloud roared, the pain making him angry, and took the buster blade in both hands, lowering it. Then he ran foreword, straight at rufus. He brought the blade up from the ground just as he reached the president. Elena, who had just come around, gasped as she saw the point of cloud’s sword protrude from the lower part of the president’s back. Cloud braced himself, and then jumped up, shouting “Climhazard!” the buster blade cut upward, and emerged from rufus’s body at the neck. Blood splattered the ground. By the time cloud had run back to aerith’s side, rufus’s flesh had begun to knit together again.
Rufus stood up. “That hurt,” he said throwing a hateful look at cloud.
“Cloud!,” said aerith, “I’m ready.”
“Okay, take you time. Gather you thoughts. I’m suggesting Ifrit of the underworld.”
“Okay!” Aerith took a deep breath.
Rufus took his revolver, and aimed it a cloud. He pulled the trigger, and the bullet shot out. A split second later, he pulled out another revolver and took aim. He shot that one too. By the time the first and second bullets had hit cloud in the gut, a third and fourth were on the way. Cloud looked up from his hunched over position only to see the third bullet hit him in the chest, and the fourth in the shoulder. The pain was mind numbing. He screamed. The pain was horrible. He screeched. He writhed on the ground for a few seconds. Finally, after what seemed like ten years of torture, he felt his skin healing. He lay there on his hands and knees, completely winded, and weak. He knew he didn’t have much life left.
“I’m ready cloud.”
“Good,” said cloud weakly, “I managed to deplete most of rufus’ life, and he won’t be expecting this so….good luck!” cloud said standing up.
Aerith’s countenance darkened in fierce concentration. She let go of he staff, which hovered in front of her at eye level, and placed her hands on her chest. Then, as black and purple sparks flew out of the ground all around her, she slowly put her hands out in front of her. The sparks grew more intense, as aerith disappeared. From the place where she stood great chunks of rock and silt spewed from the ground. An enormous crater was formed as the huge god of the underworld clawed his way into daylight. Upon reaching the ground, Ifrit jumped in to the air and filled his lungs. Then he blew. But it was not air the came out. Instead, great flames danced and hurtled out of his mouth straight at the four Turks and Rufus Shinra. The flames enveloped them. After five straight seconds of spewing flame at his adversaries, Ifrit dropped from the air, and crawled back into his hole. The ground mended itself, and aerith reappeared, looking happy. Cloud breathed a sigh of relief. He could see the Turks and Rufus. All of them were panting, and close to a faint.
At that moment, a whirring noise filled the air and the famous shinra helicopter came into sight and lowered until the defeated Turks and Rufus were safely aboard. Then, as the helicopter flew away, rufus shouted down at him “this isn’t over cloud. I’ll be back. And next time, I won’t lose.”
“Yeah, okay,” said cloud as the helicopter flew away.
The two remaining people stood, unmoving, not talking, watching the sun go down.
“Well, you can’t say it wasn’t an exciting day.”
“That’s true,” said Cloud.
“Wait a minute, how are we going to get home. Rufus left in the helicopter.”
“I’m sure there’s a way,” said cloud with a smirk.
“What do you mean?”
“You up for some chocobo hunting?”
Aerith smiled.
In the end, using the chocobo lure materia, cloud and aerith were able to return home after some chocobo hunting. Before they entered the 7th heaven however, aerith healed them both, so there was nothing to suspect. Tifa asked them where they had gone.
“On a trip to aerith’s garden,” cloud lied. “We brought you food though.”
“Oh that’s good,” said tifa stiffly.
It may be true that cloud, former first class soldier, and aerith, a flower girl from the slums, make the weirdest couple in the world. But it is most certainly not true that the secret of cloud and aerith’s day trip was contained. By the end of the day, almost everyone knew what had happened. As predicted, tifa gave cloud a beating, and shunned aerith for a while, but they all made up in the end. Besides, those in avalanche needed each others support. And though he may not be one of many words, or someone who shows his emotions, and he may not be one that panics in a crisis, cloud certainly is one for danger and adventure.'
"The long journey from the parking lot finally came to an end. The distant sounds of thunder and music now immersed _____and ______ as they stood at the ticket counter. The all too familiar twinge entered their stomachs. The couple paid for the two tickets and walked step by step toward the entrance…"
Our teacher said that we had to create a story from this. I wanted to make mine interesting, so I decided to make Cloud and Aerith from FF7 my main characters. Please remember that I had one afternoon to write this, so it's not what youwould call excellent. This is how the story went:
'Cloud and aerith passed through the entrance to six flags. The long awaited date they had set up was finally to be put into action. it certainly had taken a while. It was difficult to slip away from Avalanche, the rebel group in Midgar, because everyone there was so busy. Barret kept everyone in the rebel group on their toes with various jobs, only a few of them being the blowing up of mako reactors, and getting on the nerves of Rufus Shinra, president of the city of Midgar. Cloud and Aerith’s chance to plan their date had come one day when Barret had sprained his left wrist, and the gun that had been installed in his right hand broke; after that, he was pretty much out of action. Aerith had come to sector 7 from the neighboring sector 6 to meet Cloud at the materia shop, and there they deviously planned the day get-away. They both thought it was nice to be away from the exposure of mako energy and the depression of the city slums.
The sight that greeted the First Class Soldier and the flower girl as they came out of the tunnel that led into the belly of the theme park took their breath away. Of course, in Midgar they had had carnivals and fairs, but they had never seen anything this extravagant; let alone conceived the thought of a roller coaster {even though the two were still quite young}. It was too much for them to merely take in with one glance. The scenery made them stop and gape for a few minutes as a matter of fact. Eventually they were forced to move because the crowds of people behind them in the tunnel waiting to get in were starting to get quite rowdy.
Cloud and aerith walked around, enjoying the sights, the smells, and the clear water (you don’t get a whole lot of crystal clear water in Midgar).
“Have you ever seen so much good food at once,” Aerith asked Cloud in an awed voice, her eyes traveling in a hundred different directions at once. Growing up in the slums was always hard.
“No,” said Cloud. He was equally amazed, but Cloud never was a man of many words.
The two walked in silence, not caring exactly where they were going, first looking in one direction, then another, wishing they had a few more eyes. After drinking in as much of the scenery that they could, the thrills of the rides began to take over. After some friendly debating, both of them decided that they wanted to try out one of the roller coasters. So they went to the first one they could find, which happened to be the batman.
Cloud and Aerith got into line and waited. they ended up waiting for a long time, and about half way through, the realization of what they were about to do finally sunk in. You have to remember, reader, that these two had never even heard of the idea of a machine that you could ride on. After having time to think about the journey they were going to embark on, they got nervous, and the nervousness gave way to extreme anxiety. Aerith especially was feeling a bit faint; as usual, she looked to cloud for reassurance. Seeing him there with his frowning face all calm and composed made her feel a bit better. In reality though, Cloud’s poor heart was beating madly, and he felt ready to run away, even though it didn’t show on his face. Cloud never was one to show emotions.
Aerith, wanting to break the ice, decided she was going to try to start a conversation.
“Hey, I sure hope Tifa doesn’t find out what we’re doing. Don’t you?”
The thought of Tifa looming over and leering at him was enough to send fresh shudder down Cloud’s spine. “Oh yeah! She’d probably kill me, call me a traitor for liking you more than her, and bring up the fact that we’ve been friends since four. Yeah. And she probably wouldn’t talk to you for the rest of your life.”
On that note, aerith said “We should probably bring her back some of this food for the 7th Heaven. Her bar could do with a new menu.”
“Yeah.”
There was a pause in the conversation, and Cloud looked down on Aerith with a smirk on his face. Aerith knew this was Clouds way of laughing. Cloud didn’t laugh a whole lot.
“What’s so funny,” asked Aerith.
“I’m just trying to picture the look on Rufus Shinra’s face when he finds out that we ‘borrowed’ the famous shinra helicopter to get here.”
“That was one of your better ideas!” At this, they both laughed. Or rather, Aerith laughed and Cloud gave a small smile.
It’s hard to describe what the rest of the day was like for them. There were so many emotions, piled one on top of the other, all swirling around them. It was a day full of fun for them. Their first roller coaster ride was like nothing they had ever experienced before: so scared they thought they were going to faint, and yet so excited they couldn’t help but keep their eyes open. Thank goodness that the batman was a fast but short ride. After that though, they were hooked on the rides. They went from one to the next having the time of their life, doing what they wanted, eating what they wanted. They even kept their promise to bring Tifa some of the good food. Anyone who saw them putting the food in aerith’s shoulder bag would have been at a loss. No matter what they put in it, the bag never got any bigger, even though there was already a lot of stuff in it. The bag was a secret that magic-users of midgar, like Aerith, had mastered.
It was near sunset, though, before the real fun of the trip began. Cloud and aerith had just come out of their last roller coaster ride (Skull Mountain), to find the park completely deserted. They weren’t all that worried because they had been in worse danger before. They were curious though. People in crowded theme parks don’t just vanish.
“Something’s not right,” said Cloud. Then in a louder voice he sad, “hey Aerith! I think we should leave,” and winked at her. Aerith nodded, and together made their way to the entrance, or in this case exit of the theme park. As luck would have it, they were at the very edge of the park and had to walk a long way before they could see the exit.
“Aerith,” Cloud whispered barely moving his lips, “I need you to summon the buster blade since I couldn’t take it.”
Aerith made no reply, only looking straight in front of her. Cloud and Aerith made it to the courtyard; the exit was only a short straight walk form here. Cloud stopped and held out his hand, stopping Aerith too.
“We have company,” said Cloud.
Out of the trees that lined the courtyard came four figures in royal blue suites, and one person with orange hair and a white trench coat. The five people stood in a line, blocking the exit. Cloud knew these guys well, and aerith knew one quite well. Starting from the left, there was Elena the Turk, a woman with shoulder length blonde hair. Beside her stood Tseng the Turk, a man with shoulder blade length black hair and a curious black dot on his forehead. Leaving a small gap, the next person in line was a tall bald man named Rude, who was also a Turk. Next to him stood a formidable looking man with blood-red hair and a short metal rod in is hand. This was Reno the Turk. Standing in front of all them, was the orange-haired man in the trench coat. He was clearly the leader of all of them: it was Rufus Shinra.
“Well, fancy meeting you all here,” said cloud in a bored voice. More urgently he added to aerith, “Do it now.”
“I assume you know why we’re here, other than the fact we’re mortal enemies,” said Rufus Shinra.
“Uh?”
Elena burst out, “you stole the famous shinra helicopter which had the weapons in it that Mr. President was planning to use on sector four.”
Tseng turned to look at her. “You talk too much Elena,” he said in an exasperated voice. Elena gasped and blushed. “I’m sorry Tseng,” she said hanging her head.
“Tseng! You’re in charge of this rabble. I expect more discipline!”
Tseng sighed and Elena blushed a deeper red. They were distracted however by a bright green light that erupted from a metal staff that Aerith was holding. As they all turned to see what was going on, the buster blade, Cloud’s weapon, appeared in the ground at Aerith’s feet. There is a good reason why Cloud would not have been able to take to sword into the park: it looked like a slightly skinnier version of a meat cleaver with a pointed tip.
“Now I feel properly armed,” said Cloud looking fiercely at the Turks and the president. Then he answered their question. “How else were we supposed to get here? I thought it would be nice to take a helicopter ride.”
“You will pay dearly for that,” said Reno with a little smile. He held up the metal rod that a moment before had been held loosely in his had. Instantly, an electrical charge surged through the rod, making buzzing and snapping noises. Little, yellow sparks and lightning bolts came out of one end of the rod, but the electricity traveled throughout the entire thing except where Reno’s hands were.
“Yes,” said Rufus. “The sweet smell of retribution.”
As in the fighting style of Midgar, the opposing forces drew their weapons, and stood in front of each other with about 20 feet between them. Cloud picked up the buster blade in two hands, and bent his knees slightly, waiting for his opponents to strike first. Aerith, standing next to him held her staff ready.
Rude was the first to attack. He ran towards Cloud, and gave him a solid blow to the stomach with a balled fist. As rude ran back to his comrades, Cloud felt a little of his life slip away. That would happen each time he got hit, but more of his life would leave depending on who attacked him. Gritting his teeth, Cloud bent his knees again, waiting for the next blow.
Reno was next to attack. He ran toward aerith, and gave her a resounding blow with the metal rod of his. The electricity swept through her body, and even as Reno ran back to where rude was standing, the electricity swirled around her. After a few moments however, the buzzing sound went down, and Aerith faced her attackers again. It was then that cloud ran forward. He held the sword in front of him and slashed at Rufus’s side. Blood welled there for a second, and then disappeared. Cloud ran back to Aerith.
Elena and Tseng both took turns, aiming their hand guns at Cloud and firing. Pain diffused throughout his body from the bullet holes in his chest. A second later though, the pain was gone, and he wasn’t bleeding, though he could feel more of his life slip away. Aerith casted a firaga spell on Tseng, but before it could hit him, Elena threw herself in the path of the fire. It struck her, and she fell.
“Elena, you didn’t have to do that,” Tseng said without a whole lot of emotion.
“I know,” Elena said before she passed out.
Cloud turned to Aerith, “things are gonna get worse. You might have to summon. Are you up for it?”
“I think,” Aerith said. “I’ll need some time though.”
“Fine,” said cloud. “While you’re at it could you cure me? I’m dying here.”
Aerith took a potion out of the shoulder bag she was wearing, and threw it at Cloud. He drank the potion and felt some of his life returning. Before he had the chance to move though, aerith turned to him
“A potion is not enough. Cure 2!” Aerith’s staff floated in front of her as she pointed her hands at cloud. A green circle appeared around his feet. Shafts of light exploded around him, and felt his strength returning, and his health returning. Invigorated, he lifted the buster blade onto his shoulder, and brought it crashing to the ground.
“Blade Beam,” he screamed as a blue fire erupted out of the ground and rolled toward Rufus. The fire hit him square in the chest, and he fell over backwards. The fire echoed, split, and hit each of the Turks as well.
“Mr. President!” said Rude, throwing a potion at Rufus; Rufus caught it and drank it in one gulp. Tseng drew his gun and shot aerith. Immediately afterward, Reno pointed his metal rod at Aerith, and out of it shot a yellow line that travel across to where she stood, hunched over in pain. The yellow line surrounded her, and became solid until she was trapped in an unbreakable, yellow pyramid. The connection between Reno’s rod and the pyramid broke, but the pyramid remained around Aerith. Aerith fell to her knees. She could feel her life slowly being sucked from her. Cloud turned to help her, but rufus lifted his revolver, and aimed at him. Before cloud could do anything to help aerith, he felt the searing pain as the heavy bullet exploded in his chest. He gasped, and closed his eyes. it felt like eternity, that he could feel the pain, but in reality, it was only a few seconds. The pain receded, the wound healed itself, and some of his life left him. Gasping, cloud opened his eyes just in time to see aerith fall to the floor. The pyramid that surrounded her disappeared, only leaving her twitching form on the ground. Then she went still. Cloud calmly ran to her; he never was one that panicked in a crisis. He reached into her pack, rummaging around until he found a phoenix down: the legendary revival feather that had saved just about everyone in the world once, except Sephiroth. He laid the feather on top of her. Yellow and orange sparks jumped about aerith’s form, and she stirred. The feather sank into her body, giving back some of her life. Aerith rose to her feet. “I’m almost ready,” she said. Cloud nodded.
Tseng aimed his gun at cloud, and once again, the pain of a bullet wound seared in his leg. Cloud roared, the pain making him angry, and took the buster blade in both hands, lowering it. Then he ran foreword, straight at rufus. He brought the blade up from the ground just as he reached the president. Elena, who had just come around, gasped as she saw the point of cloud’s sword protrude from the lower part of the president’s back. Cloud braced himself, and then jumped up, shouting “Climhazard!” the buster blade cut upward, and emerged from rufus’s body at the neck. Blood splattered the ground. By the time cloud had run back to aerith’s side, rufus’s flesh had begun to knit together again.
Rufus stood up. “That hurt,” he said throwing a hateful look at cloud.
“Cloud!,” said aerith, “I’m ready.”
“Okay, take you time. Gather you thoughts. I’m suggesting Ifrit of the underworld.”
“Okay!” Aerith took a deep breath.
Rufus took his revolver, and aimed it a cloud. He pulled the trigger, and the bullet shot out. A split second later, he pulled out another revolver and took aim. He shot that one too. By the time the first and second bullets had hit cloud in the gut, a third and fourth were on the way. Cloud looked up from his hunched over position only to see the third bullet hit him in the chest, and the fourth in the shoulder. The pain was mind numbing. He screamed. The pain was horrible. He screeched. He writhed on the ground for a few seconds. Finally, after what seemed like ten years of torture, he felt his skin healing. He lay there on his hands and knees, completely winded, and weak. He knew he didn’t have much life left.
“I’m ready cloud.”
“Good,” said cloud weakly, “I managed to deplete most of rufus’ life, and he won’t be expecting this so….good luck!” cloud said standing up.
Aerith’s countenance darkened in fierce concentration. She let go of he staff, which hovered in front of her at eye level, and placed her hands on her chest. Then, as black and purple sparks flew out of the ground all around her, she slowly put her hands out in front of her. The sparks grew more intense, as aerith disappeared. From the place where she stood great chunks of rock and silt spewed from the ground. An enormous crater was formed as the huge god of the underworld clawed his way into daylight. Upon reaching the ground, Ifrit jumped in to the air and filled his lungs. Then he blew. But it was not air the came out. Instead, great flames danced and hurtled out of his mouth straight at the four Turks and Rufus Shinra. The flames enveloped them. After five straight seconds of spewing flame at his adversaries, Ifrit dropped from the air, and crawled back into his hole. The ground mended itself, and aerith reappeared, looking happy. Cloud breathed a sigh of relief. He could see the Turks and Rufus. All of them were panting, and close to a faint.
At that moment, a whirring noise filled the air and the famous shinra helicopter came into sight and lowered until the defeated Turks and Rufus were safely aboard. Then, as the helicopter flew away, rufus shouted down at him “this isn’t over cloud. I’ll be back. And next time, I won’t lose.”
“Yeah, okay,” said cloud as the helicopter flew away.
The two remaining people stood, unmoving, not talking, watching the sun go down.
“Well, you can’t say it wasn’t an exciting day.”
“That’s true,” said Cloud.
“Wait a minute, how are we going to get home. Rufus left in the helicopter.”
“I’m sure there’s a way,” said cloud with a smirk.
“What do you mean?”
“You up for some chocobo hunting?”
Aerith smiled.
In the end, using the chocobo lure materia, cloud and aerith were able to return home after some chocobo hunting. Before they entered the 7th heaven however, aerith healed them both, so there was nothing to suspect. Tifa asked them where they had gone.
“On a trip to aerith’s garden,” cloud lied. “We brought you food though.”
“Oh that’s good,” said tifa stiffly.
It may be true that cloud, former first class soldier, and aerith, a flower girl from the slums, make the weirdest couple in the world. But it is most certainly not true that the secret of cloud and aerith’s day trip was contained. By the end of the day, almost everyone knew what had happened. As predicted, tifa gave cloud a beating, and shunned aerith for a while, but they all made up in the end. Besides, those in avalanche needed each others support. And though he may not be one of many words, or someone who shows his emotions, and he may not be one that panics in a crisis, cloud certainly is one for danger and adventure.'