Sarah did a quick check.
Black pants? Yep.
New shirt: Black and white horizontal stripes? Yep!
A black mask to protect her secret identity! Double check!
And the giant burlap sack with a gil sign on it, stuffed full of stolen Materia. For snacking purposes.
Let's do this!
Kicking the door wide open (After carefully opening it first, she wasn't here to damage her own stuff) she walked into the room and posed! "Everybody! DON'T MOVE! This is a stickup!"
Claudia Strife slowly stood up. "Ms. Kisaragi?"
Sarah smiled. "Yes, Ms. Strife?"
The woman looked around her very full living room. Her boy and his little girl friend were blinking at the intruder, Master Zangan was still eating, and the oh so many followers of his were sitting all over the place filling the area but seemed unsure what to do.
Still, she endured. "Are… Are you robbing us?"
In the background, one of the many appreciative men hummed. "She can rob me any time! Damn that outfit looks good."
Sarah blinked. "Um. Thank you? And no, I am technically robbing the town of Nibelheim. I'm currently stealing all of you. Well, uh. Stealing everything."
She pulled out a mastered 'Seal' Materia and pushed it into her cheek. Mmm. "Itz morsh that…"
The old woman sighed. "Don't talk with your mouth full."
Oops. Right.
CRUNCH!
Automated Absorption: Materia 'Seal' Consumed!
~Spell 'Sleepel' Scanned and Archived.
~Spell 'Silence' Scanned and Archived.
Mmm, tangy. "Sorry." Right, uh. "No, I mean it's more like I am kidnapping you, your son, his friend, her master, his followers, and everyone else in the building. And I am stealing your equipment, clothing, this house, a good chunk of surrounding grass, sod, soil, rock, and whatever is further below here."
The room was quiet for a second.
Master Zangan nodded. "That does sound like 'stealing everything' to me!" He held his thumbs up! "Always aim to be the best you can be! Remember that, disciple."
Tifa sighed. "Yes, Master Zangan."
Claudia gave a frustrated sigh. "But WHY are we being kidnapped? I thought you were fine with Master Zangan and me taking care of the little ones."
Sarah nodded. "That's why I'm taking you two as well! Plus, I basically broke a LOT of laws, ended up finding a whole bunch of hurt people hidden away in a secret section of Shinra's labs, kidnapped them too, and then came here and stole even more important stuff."
Cloud blinked. "Like what?"
She began counting on her fingers. "A bad guy's house, his hidden basement and illegal laboratory, a zombie vampire demon thing, years of research in physical form too incriminating to put on any official systems, lots of stolen and hidden Materia that a bad guy wanted to keep for his own work and evil experiments… Uh."
Oops, no more fingers. And the other hand was holding her food/loot bag. "Lots of stuff. Plus, before I even left to save people I kind of already took a big chunk of Mt. Nibel and the Mako Reactor up there."
They were looking at her with funny expressions, but Adam kept her on topic. "And that's just the LOCAL stuff I took, I was over in Midgar and they are going to be SUPER angry at me after all that, so I am taking all the things and bringing us over to visit my dad."
Claudia sighed. "That… Alright, we can talk more on that later, but you said something about finding hurt people in some labs? Are they alright?"
Sarah sighed. "Physically? A bit? Some are still being healed with my abilities, but at least the children are now safe. I'm going to need a lot of mental therapists for the older victims though."
Master Zangan glared. "Children?"
She nodded. "All fifty nine babies are fine and being cared for, and the other three women aren't giving birth for several weeks yet. All the rest of the captives are over twenty four years old, but at least physically they are also recovering."
The room flickered as many martial artists seemed to pulse anger.
Claudia was near tears! "I… I can't believe Shinra would do that! My husband said something felt off about them, but nothing THAT terrible!"
Sarah grunted. "Most of the place wasn't involved, as far as I can tell. These were 'off record' captives and test subjects, in areas beyond top level security clearance and against external AND internal company policy. Not that it matters now."
The oldest woman, Ms. Tesbit, hummed. "You did mention that you broke laws?"
She grinned. "Got all the people and animals out, stole all the equipment, all the materials, all Materia, the furniture, the doors, the walls, the floors, AND most of the doors in the process. Shinra Headquarters has a massive hole in the building now."
Also took ALL the delicious Materia, but she wasn't going to tell anyone about THAT. It was Sarah's snack, after all, and if she let others know she might have to share it.
Oh. "And yeah, the jerk responsible had a house here and that's why I am stealing you all. Because not only will it keep you and your kids safe, it will paint a good target on us as well so that Monster Hojo will leave the locals alone and start hunting us down instead."
He might be an evil asshole, but Professor Hojo wasn't stupid. 'Oh, my house is gone! Also one other house, in exactly the same way! If ONLY a clue could possibly exist!?'
Heh. And it's not like the bastard can go to Shinra itself and complain about his hidden and illegal operations being vandalized without even more awkward questions, so he couldn't just blow up the place without consequences.
Though she would make sure Adam kept an eye on the monster, for obvious reasons.
Master Zangan carefully stood. "Well, I admit we are currently packed and preparing to have most of my people camp locally as it was already. I didn't wish to separate young Tifa from her support friend at such an emotional time after all… When are we to be 'stolen', as it were?"
Uh. Oops? "About ten minutes ago or so?"
Claudia blinked. "What?"
Sarah pouted. "You're being kidnapped! I don't have to ask permission or anything, that's the whole point! Plus you can blame me if anyone tries to give you trouble or whatever."
Though the honest reason was due to her being frustrated and tired and wanting to go home.
Plus, having Adam take the entire structure over to Wutai was faster and easier than just asking permission.
A knock on the doorframe made most people look over to see a worn out ninja with a frustrated little girl on her shoulders. "Sarah, Dad says you need to move your new floating building island thing away from the house, it's making the guests nervous and he doesn't want dirt falling on our roof."
The tiny child on her shoulders was pointing! "Did you BUY this magic island sis!? Huh!?"
Sarah blinked. "If I say 'yes', will it convince you that I didn't steal this, all these people, and a bunch of other stuff too?"
Aerith paused. "Uh. Did you do all that?"
She nodded.
The POUT! "Then NO! Because stealing is bad!" A pause. "Mostly. Except for saving babies. And mom and me and people like that."
Tifa cautiously offered the ninja a towel. "Are you ok?"
Yuffie slumped slightly. "I'm just tired because Sarah floated this place over our house and I had to climb both of them to get up here."
Her shoulder child humphed. "I said you should have put me down first!"
Cloud frowned! "Nuh uh! Mom says you gotta carry princesses, I only stopped carrying Tifa everywhere because she likes to punch stuff and I'd get in the way!"
All three girls turned to the boy… Then the ninja and shoulder priestess turned to the blushing fighter attempting to 'whistle innocently.'
Yuffie's smirk was vindictive! "So princess huh?"
She huffed. "He's my partner, so get your own! And I can be a punching princess if I want to! Master Zangan says so!"
Aerith blinked. "Can I be a princess?"
Yuffie grinned at the flustered fighting girl. "Well, Dad is sort of like the king of Wutai, and Sarah and little cutie patootie here are almost my sisters, so I guess we all count?"
Cloud blinked. "Uh." He flexed his surprisingly developed arm muscles. "I don't know if I can handle four princesses at one time yet."
Master Zangan nodded, his followers all moving outside to examine the now floating building they had all been somehow stolen with. "It certainly takes a lot of endurance training… Uh."
Seeing the glare from Ms. Tesbit, he coughed. "I mean, um. That means you must simply increase your ability to multitask!" She thwapped him. "To handle verbal abuse!" Another smack. "To handle physical abuse?"
The look made him go back to the tea. "I mean, this is something you should talk to your mother about."
His mom grinned! "I'm going to make ALL the pink dresses!"
Cloud's confusion missed how eager his (now three) princess friends reacted. "But I can't wear a pink dress, it would get dirty when cleaning up after Tifa's fights!"
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
While the children and the lovely lady of the home eventually left the premises to ensure the currently floating facility did not collapse upon the home of the local continent's leading authoritative influence, the vast percentage of his fellow learners of the physical artistic endeavors left the area to determine the existing scenario.
At the crowded dinner table, Reginauld Burbank Esquire Charles Johnson Jr sighed. "I believe my drink must have been dosed with some form of hallucinogenic."
His friend and teacher Mr. Gregarious Smith grunted. "Nose, dings happen like dis around boss. Waits till orders, it all works outs."
To be truly honest with himself, he was unfortunately beginning to believe such was the case. And to imagine that at one moment in time oh so recently ago, he was under the mistaken impression that such impossible stories told upon past anecdotal evidence were blatant mistruthes. "Understood, sir."
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Elder Godo stood calmly, his cane helping hold up the earth, as he watched his eldest daughter gently move the massive floating mound of rock, soil, and (apparently) a small home upon it to a nearby section of property that theoretically belonged to himself.
Because his not-so-little one wasn't using Materia to make the odd thing fly, but was 'only' using her mind to keep it in the air. As if that was somehow LESS impressive.
Yet even from here, he could feel whatever his adopted child had done to the odd structure as magic oozed from the entire 'island'. Some sort of artificial mako spring had been installed, providing this new home near unlimited power and utilizing custom designed equipment that applied various Materia to ensure magically produced water and disposal of produced waste.
An entire house disconnected from any supporting structure network… Yet with power, water, and sewage lines properly set up and working.
All done in moments because his child was too frustrated from a very bad day to ask permission beforehand.
He glanced at said child. "Your self-appointed task was successful?"
Young Sarah sighed. "Exceedingly. I'll need doctors. Mental and physical. I can cover any costs of course."
He waved it off. "The cause is just, the needs are vast, and I am not so destitute to require my own children to fund such basic charitable acts out of their allowances." Or by using suspiciously acquired goods. "Aside from my power gained after years of leadership and through neverending politics, I used to be a very active fighter in my youth. A profitable one, no less."
Even somehow saved a few friends back then, though many were lost. "Funding will not be an issue. And your newly stolen sister's mother has declared a powerful desire to help children as well, as have many of the local women of the capital."
Sarah paused. "What?"
He held in a grin. "Young Yuffie has decided to call 'Dibs' on little Aerith, and has absconded with the dear girl into our ever growing family. And her mother, Ms. Gainsborough, has decided to claim the children saved from the clutches of Shinra Laboratories, though a good portion of our community are determined to assist."
The dear girl frowned as a church and another home, presumably the one belonging to Elmyra Gainsborough based on previous discussions, appeared from nowhere and were carefully set up next to the recently stolen house apparently full of martial artists and a small family.
At least his local neighbors would be entertaining to live near. "Is something wrong with the lovely woman wishing to help with child raising?"
Sarah sighed. "No, Elmyra is a lovely woman and I know she's a great mom… But I don't think any one person should have to be responsible for raising nearly sixty babies, even with help."
He froze. What?
She hummed. "Not to mention that most of them are growing wings now, and I bet that is going to make them itch and feel all cranky too."
His mind latched onto the best fallback plan, his most utilized over the years.
When in over one's head? Delegate. If that doesn't help? Delegate HARDER. "I will call in my people."
Young Sarah winced. "The old people again?"
Nope. Things actually needed to get done. "Some of them." Special operation agents counted right? Many of his people were over thirty years old, and for a ninja that was a lifetime of risk and danger. "Mostly some associates from my younger days."
The Church of Leviathan would be willing to send several groups of disaster relief responders for this cause, even without informing them that his family included the 'Champion of Gaia', a woman blessed by the Planet, Leviathan's mother herself. Not to mention…
His hand absently touched the dull Red Summoning Materia embedded in his cane.
Well, the Church followed his leadership for a reason after all.
He smiled at his powerful child. "I will need somewhere between eight and fourteen hours for communication and transportation, but I can easily bring supporting staff to ensure your captives are cared for."
Sarah sighed. "Honestly the thirty three adults and all fifty nine children are the ones I'm sure will more easily recover. I have Eve's help with that."
His mind marked the name. Some sort of child deity of the Planet herself, if young Aerith explained it correctly.
She frowned at the crowd examining the three new buildings. "No, I'm worried about the hundreds of potentially hostile Shinra researchers that were being tortured, heavily drugged, and mentally conditioned inside the restricted secret lab sections."
Another pause.
That WOULD be an issue. "Then I'm afraid this will take over a day at least to prepare for, and I may need to requisition several buildings for personnel use, patient recovery rooms, and so forth."
She actually rolled her eyes at him. "Nah, I gave up doing stuff like that back when that meeting with the old people wouldn't end. Came up with a better idea."
Oh dear. "Yes?"
Sarah pointed at the ocean inlet. "Instead of messing around with the Village directly, I'll build a big shipping hub and island port over there, and some defensive structures to keep ships from trying to avoid the place to attack over here."
He watched the woman light up as various ideas made her smile. "If I need to expand shipping abilities or docks or whatever, I can easily modify those facilities without having to talk to a bunch of people or alter any historical areas or risk any conflict between groups. Locals can still fish and stuff, but with only approved ships coming here to Wutai Village from my new Shipping Island it will be harder to invade AND reduce the amount of water vessels we need to tolerate!"
Intriguing. Yet. "My daughter, it certainly sounds like an interesting solution…"
She grinned! "Yep! I'll make a big medical facility there, and housing and stuff. Lots of security, and the kids and patients can be separated from crowds or whatever while I still get to stay home and not take Yuffie away from Aerith and stuff! Everyone wins!"
Ah. Youth. "There is a slight flaw with this supposed solution, my dear."
Young Sarah blinked. "Oh? What did I miss?"
He gently held his cane as he watched the bustling crowd explore the new buildings, young Aerith giving a tour of her own home while still using dear Yuffie as a big sister express. "None of the few rock stacks, stumps or islands near our cove are sufficient in size for such a construction."
She blinked and examined the visible ocean cove with the distant specks of islands beyond it and the many fishing vessels moving about. "Ah. Those are a bit small."
True. He may have secretly funded hidden observation posts and watch towers near the narrow entry into the ocean from this cove, but attempting to build something big further out was difficult.
Much MORE difficult due to past times that certain summonings were needed to repel invaders. A tsunami or two tended to drastically reduce most standing foundations nearby, after all.
Sarah hummed. "Well, I was probably going to build my own island from scratch anyway."
What? "I'm sorry?"
Oh. She already vanished.
He felt a headache coming. This was CERTAINLY going to cause paperwork.
Best focus on what he could achieve now, at least, rather than worry about his easily distracted and overpowering daughter doing things he couldn't prevent anyway. "Contact the teams, leave skeletal crews to warn of incursion, and call the faithful. There are people in need."
Nobody was near, nobody heard anything, and nobody left to ensure it would be done.
Good. Now to go warn his new neighbor that those three cribs would not NEARLY be sufficient for the upcoming childcare requirements.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Sarah used telekinesis to float over the ocean as she absently [[Harvested]] a deep channel of seafloor on her way to the cove entrance.
Right, what was the best idea here? "Adam?"
He seemed more relaxed? Huh. <<Yep?>>
She casually widened the deep gap of the rocky cliffs so that much larger ships could easily enter on their way to Wutai, and examined the surfaces. "What's the rule of thumb when it comes to mako springs? Ours, I mean. Not Gaia's stuff."
A model came up. <<First, let's just call them magic springs, as they are unaffiliated by default initially.>> An odd object showed up. <<See this?>>
She paused.
It was like a small tower. A triangle for a bottom, three triangles standing straight up on each edge, and a point above that connects to the last point. It ended up having four triangles and three diamonds for surfaces. "Uh. Yes?"
Adam carefully added magic springs at each point. <<This is a Heptahedron. A tower with seven points connected by lines but with a nice flat bottom to work with.>> Details filled in the diagram. <<Each line, or distance between magic springs, needs to be seven units long. What units you use don't matter, can be feet or inches or meters or onion diameter, anything! As long as the relative distances are kept in this pattern.>>
What? "I'm sorry?"
He grinned! <<Simply said, it's something called 'The Great Sethahedron'! This thing is a heptahedron with 4 equilateral-triangle and 3 kite faces, all having the same area! Super neat! Cause there are lots of heptahedrons out there of course, but this one works great with magic.>>
Alright, whatever. Back on topic! "Any other rules when setting it up?"
A map showed up. <<According to 'Research', each Sethahedron Tower must be farther than seven 'units' from any other ones. If you make a tower using one meter for the construction length, for example, any other towers must be seven meters or more away from it.>>
Data showed up. <<Otherwise it drastically messes with stuff. Not explosions or anything, they just interfere with each other and make them perform way worse than otherwise.>>
Hmm. "Right, can we set up some towers at this cove exit? Where it connects to the ocean?"
She felt material being consumed from somewhere, those mentioned resource stores probably, while two massive copper columns began to form on either side of the stone gap to the sea. <<Right, I'll put a tower on either end of this column as a cap, they are easily far enough to not interfere. And the copper column itself has those internal gaps and flow paths, just like the walls to Eve's life pod.>>
Sure, why not. She felt her own internal mako production rates slow down as the two very tall and shiny construction structures began to fill with the weak MP Gas she produced all the time now. "Shouldn't we use the MP Liquid we generate?"
Adam was humming. <<No, this is cheaper for us and works good enough to jumpstart the process. Once the top and bottom of the towers have their seven magic springs kicked into gear, they will eventually produce enough energy quickly enough that the delay won't matter much and we can get more done without waiting to build up more liquid magic.>>
Fair enough. "We can't keep this area open like this though, some warship could just blast the area or something… Right, the INSIDE might need to be all normal and stuff, but we can set up a basic copper wall, right?"
She felt him wince. <<It would be REALLY basic. Like, embarrassingly so.>> Schematics flowed for her to compare. <<Copper is great stuff when used for areas exposed to seawater even WITHOUT matical reinforcement, but our supplies of that are not astounding. It might be best to create a series of magic pillars like the two at the entrance to Wutai Cove and cheat a bit.>>
A thin framework shell coated with regular copper ore seed fragments that would eventually grow to fill out the pattern, a series of tubes that allowed mako to flow from tower to tower while ore would grow like moss on the outside, other cheaper and more plentiful patterns that flashed by and gave option after option. "This one, but let me keep looking over the rest for now."
Yeah, it felt like the best option. A near rope thick net connecting each copper tower of magic, with a weave of iron filling all the cracks and a thick layer of copper seeding on the surface.
The iron would give basic defense and strength to the structure while the artificial Lifestream in the walls would allow the copper ore seeds to grow over it all and create ablative shielding if an attack occurs.
It would also be an easy source of copper to harvest in the future, for either Sarah herself or her dad's kingdom and people. Not enough though. "Do we have any designs for efficient ore production facilities? I don't want our friends needing to rely on Shinra for basic construction material."
Adam snorted. <<Not after the wall framework gets built. Maybe after a week or so, when all the towers build up a magical surplus. As it is, your new island trade and shipment hub island will have to be mostly made out of our much cheaper and heavily stored up iron reserves, with only our island's magic tower network actually using the excess copper for construction.>>
Sarah winced as she checked her design, biting her lip. "Should… Should I go with a cheaper pattern?"
He hummed. <<Nah, this is a good idea. Especially if we create an underground orb with 49 magic springs down here, under the entry port for Wutai's Cove and under these two primary towers.>>
Huh. "Why?"
A sigh. <<Because I can transfer Eve down there. It will be secured and easily supply her needs and the needs of her host and cell networks, while letting her properly connect to Gaia and her systems as well.>>
Sarah felt something hurt inside. "But… Can't we just keep her with us?"
A sigh. <<Those abilities are lost to the Warehouse. Sure, we could let her live life in your systems while we are here… But not during any Jump.>>
Data scrolled. <<It takes an active amount of usable systems to keep her safe in here, as well as any and all other living creatures and patients. Not a noticeable amount, but some. During a Jump however, everything including your Avatar gets safely stored away and shut down. They couldn't survive it.>>
But… "Could… Could I stay awake during it?"
The feeling of a warm hug. <<No. And even if you did, the amount of time I spend alone between each Jump is very significant… While you would of course survive and be fine physically for untold eons during transit, nothing else could. Even Eve would die eventually, from old age if nothing else.>>
Damn it. "What does that mean for my last Jumps?"
Adam hummed. <<Time acts odd. Old Jumps are disconnected from next Jumps, the chain forged betwixt them slowly stabilizes that chaos into something that protects your path and journey into power. Even if we didn't jump back to the exact moment we left, the time spent between Jumps doesn't add into the math normally… And some places and Jumps have different time rates than other ones if you try to compare them. In fact, a few places actually run BACKWARD in time if this data is correct, but we can't tell because we are IN it at the time and uh… Yeah.>>
Sorry Boss. "I have no clue what that means."
He gave an embarrassed chuckle. <<Sorry. Uh… Basically, the actual trip between Jumps is both nearly forever and yet also instantaneous. And due to damage, nothing and no one can make that trip safely but you yourself and me, your Warehouse.>>
Fine. She could adapt. "Then we best make sure Eve's new home is beyond awesome!"
The design is shifted. <<Yeah, Gaia might have far more mako in very dense formations, but our little Eve is going to be able to hold her own too! And we can add enough protective layers that even a massive meteor summoned from beyond existence by an emo one winged killer clone baby couldn't scratch it!>>
She blinked. "That sounds… Oddly specific?"
Adam hummed. <<Nah, it's fine now that you kidnapped him and turned him into a blue angel baby with dozens of siblings.>>
No! "That is NOT on me! YOU were supposed to keep an eye on them while getting healed and it was YOUR job to prevent crazy shit like that from happening! I was busy stealing stuff and saving the day!"
Adam grinned. <<It wasn't ME that an alien goddess used as an example of beauty, I bet most the girls end up looking like your kids after this anyway!>>
Oh Gaia they probably would. Shit! "Well, uh. She is now bright blue like YOUR flames! So are the kids too!"
A smirk. <<And she has YOUR silver hair.>>
Hey! "Her hair is BEAUTIFUL, you leave that out of this!"
He rolled his eye sockets. <<EVERYTHING about you and her is beautiful, your argument is invalid.>>
Oh nuh uh! "Your FACE is invalid!"
<{This is SO embarrassing.}>
Ah! "Eve!?" <<Oops.>>
<{Yes silver boned daughter?}>
Her face lit up in a massive blush. <Did you hear… I mean, how long have we been broadcasting?>
<{...I really like your designs for my new home?}>
Shit.
<<Yeah, sorry, that's my bad. I'm trying to fix all the newly designed networking systems and it is all still sort of cobbled together. Especially since I'm still suppressing us from the Gaia's existing communications until we finish helping the victims.>>
<{It's fine, blue skeletal flames of the father boning. We can wait until our babies are better.}>
<<Oh come on! Just call me Adam! That other thing is both embarrassing and pretentious!>>
Focus Sarah! Shove the embarrassment aside, distract yourself by designing an iron reinforced copper mesh magic wall connected to a reinforced magic saturating underground goddess core!
Shame is a phase, building is forever, and boy howdy… Boss can really screw up when he's distracted. Not like her. Cause she's totally never distracted.
<{I don't understand the issue, blue skeletal flames of the father boning.}>
<<I'd explain it but I'm worried you will somehow make my 'name' longer if I try!>>
Besides, they hadn't even started on the new island design, she had lots to do. Lots and lots of distracting and important things to do.
