~~Instant Quest: Attack of the B-Rated Movies!~~
~~Who doesn't love a good B-rated movie, or a really bad one? Watch the on screen cringe, and riff to your hearts content!
-Concession is open!
-Sit through 3 and get Alchemy (Evermore) and associated formula.
-Quest may be repeated, finish all 15 movies for a special reward.~~
Alchemist stared at the quest. He'd decided to go looking through the quest list to see if Terra had included any more "vacation" quests like the Golden Saucers was supposed to be, and he'd even found a few, including one that was just fishing.
Alchemist eyed the list of available movies, almost feeling the cringe at titles like "Mars Needs Lumberjacks," "The Sickening of Slime City," and "Attack of the Appliance People." And while riffing on a bad movie was fun, it was more enjoyable with others.
Perhaps a movie night was in order?
---
Secret of Evermore (SNES) was one of my favorite games way back when, with a unique magic system in the form of alchemy. Instead of MP you had ingredients, so spamming an attack spell until you run dry wouldn't prevent you from healing yourself or your dog. The Main Character of the game also had a love for B movies that he'd make references to.
Collating all of the loot from the next area into an easy to read list is an absolute pain.
Area treasures, stolen items and then dropped items based on percentage rates and then doubled to account for the modified gloves.
I'm through most of it but now I'm down to getting all of the consumables and fusion items figured out. Then I need to sort the list so it's not a random collection of stuff but follows some semblance of a pattern.
@Mister Ficser my brain was simulating Yuffie and Alchemist arguing about the importance of total absolute coolness versus total theatrical coolness when a compelling question appeared:
What would a hypothetical hybrid of a Astral Dragon and Havoc Dragon be like? Has anyone statted one up or theorycrafted it before?
Simulation!Alchemist was wondering out loud what dragon variant would thematically fit Yuffie's ninja-princess hyperactive style of theatrics, and Simulation!Yuffie tried to cheat a victory by declaring that she could mix both Simulation!Jinx's and Simulation!Alchemist's dragon types to break the conceptual barrier between total absolute coolness and total theatrical coolness, and now the simulation is hanging as my brain tries to generate a astral-ninja-havoc-princess-dragonkin.
Or alternately a havoc-ninja-astral-princess-dragonkin.
@Mister Ficser my brain was simulating Yuffie and Alchemist arguing about the importance of total absolute coolness versus total theatrical coolness when a compelling question appeared:
What would a hypothetical hybrid of a Astral Dragon and Havoc Dragon be like? Has anyone statted one up or theorycrafted it before?
Simulation!Alchemist was wondering out loud what dragon variant would thematically fit Yuffie's ninja-princess hyperactive style of theatrics, and Simulation!Yuffie tried to cheat a victory by declaring that she could mix both Simulation!Jinx's and Simulation!Alchemist's dragon types to break the conceptual barrier between total absolute coolness and total theatrical coolness, and now the simulation is hanging as my brain tries to generate a astral-ninja-havoc-princess-dragonkin.
Or alternately a havoc-ninja-astral-princess-dragonkin.
"Stupid!" Yuffie had known her father was going to do -something- when she came back home. She just hadn't known what that would actually be. "Stupid-stupid-stupid-stupid!"
Some might assume that, after that awful showing, she might be beating herself up.
Those people, unfortunately, know nothing of Yuffie Kisaragi.
"Stop that!" Godo shouted at his daughter, his voice loud and authoritative.
It did absolutely nothing to make Yuffie stop smacking him.
"Why won't you let me have any friends!" This was the most extreme reaction Yuffie had ever seen her father pull off, and she didn't understand it!
"You bring foreigners into my home! Tell me that they shackle you, force you to be obedient?! You are the princess of Wutai! These things, these people are beneath you!" Her father's face was turning red as he shouted at his daughter, but she never stopped hitting him.
"That man killed Shinra! And Heidegger! And did that freaky stuff to the other Shinra that made him scream and yell a lot!" Which was all really cool! None of her dads shinobi could do that! "And-and-and I made a bet with him! That he couldn't sneak into Shinra on, like, two hundred gil and he did! You're supposed to make him a Danshaku so I could make him serve me and teach me more weird magic tricks!"
"I-you-he what?" Her dad went from red to really pale white really fast. He'd even stopped trying to grab the hands she was hitting him with.
"He could cast magic without Materia, and turn into a dragon, and make potions that did weird stuff! And Jinx was super nice! She gave me food whenever I wanted, let me play with her puppies and-and turned into a dragon too! You- Stupid!"
Yuffie hit her father between the legs and rushed out the door as he bent over in half!
Through the hot, angry tears in her eyes she didn't even notice the various aides rushing in to talk at her father.
She stopped only briefly in her room to grab the shuriken her mother left behind and ran out of her home.
She'd made her way out of Wutai once, all the way to the mainland before! And this time she even knew a few of the weird spells that Alchemist insisted on her learning, though he'd had to cast a weird spell on her so she could read the books.
Things would be better this time. She'd been hungry, and scared, and alone before... But it was still better than being home! With him!
Later on, when she retold the story of leaving Wutai, she would claim she never looked back.
Right now, as a hurt, angry child?
She looked back, and she wondered...
Why had a handful of strangers felt more like home, than her home?
-----
The first stratum of the cave was filled with echoes of another warrior and countless machines from Shinra's own investigation.
Jinx wasn't ashamed to say that she felt overwhelmed, trying to deal with things.
With Haste, judicious amounts of double-cast magic spells and far too many near-misses, they got through it. They'd even gotten a few levels, indicating just how powerful the nightmares inside the cave truly were!
Between Alchemist's prodigious thefts and the sheer amount of treasure hidden all over the place, they were going to have to stop and take stock of whatever upgrades they could figure out.
Especially if it was just going to keep getting worse, deeper within.
-----
The last week was oddly relaxing for Sephiroth.
He'd been spending a good portion of it at the bar, semi-buzzed. It was an absolutely novel experience considering he hadn't been able to get drunk in the past.
Whatever had changed, changed the others and changed himself, he no longer was immune to the effects of alcohol.
Which had made watching the press conference where Rufus announced the death of his father, and Sephiroth's father, and a few other people before he got ambushed by Alec kind of hilarious.
At least, Sephiroth had been laughing.
The red fire-wolf creature he'd been drinking with had ended up choking on his liquor though.
On the days when Veld was actually investigating things up in the mountain, Sephiroth was sober. He did take some pride in his job.
Assuming he still had a job.
Rufus and the Turks had a very, very strong relationship. A suspiciously strong relationship.
And if Veld wasn't such a stickler for following his orders to the letter, they'd probably be on their way back to Midgar to report in for new orders.
On the days he wasn't drinking, Sephiroth would spend his off-hours practicing his sword-play. He'd noticed that he felt weaker, at least at first, but he managed to pull himself back up to proper strength after a bit of work.
His curiosity had been piqued when he came across Claude- Cloud, actually- Reading a limit-break tome.
Someone had given it to his mother, to give to him. Someone that matched Alec's description oddly well.
He would have reported it... Except his orders were specifically to guard Veld. Not to assist in the investigation.
Instead Sephiroth had decided to try and train the infantryman.
Sephiroth had been surprised, honestly. He'd thought the kid was scrawny, probably in the infantry because he had no potential.
Instead, the boy was wiry. Compact muscles meant for long, constant hours of work. Not as useful for explosive bursts of great strength, but the boy could climb a mountain or march in place for hours at a time.
Cloud couldn't swing a greatsword... But in a battle of endurance, with a normal sized weapon? The kid just didn't stop.
There was just one problem. One teensy, weensy, itsy bitsy problem though.
Sephiroth had no idea what he was doing.
So the majority of his training with the boy really just ended up with him saying 'Dodge!' and doing his best to only nearly skewer the kid while the little blonde was desperately fighting for his life.
It... Seemed to be working?
Today, though, was not a training day. It wasn't even a 'walk into the mountains and wonder why the feral dragons aren't attacking us' day. Today...
Was a moonshine day!
"I think..." Nanaki, the red wolf with a burning tail that was sitting on the floor next to him was looking into the saucer of clear, strong alcohol that had been placed in front of him. "That this might not be safe for consumption."
Sephiroth knocked back his shot and exhaled sharply as it burned its way down his throat.
"Ohh yeah, that's pretty rough!" A part of Sephiroth wondered what Angeal or Genesis would say if they saw him like this. Another part of him realized that Angeal needed a drink more than he did. "Pretty sure paint thinner would go down smoother."
There was a commotion starting outside the bar and Sephiroth looked down to his companion. One silver eyebrow raised.
The red, leonine wolf shrugged, then pointed towards the door with his tail.
"Hey, Squall!" Sephiroth did not shout at the barkeep.
"It's Zephyr." The man, well used to this by now, did not even stop cleaning the glass in his hands.
"I'll be right back. Have another shot ready for me!" Sephiroth didn't wait for a response before he stumbled over to the door, grabbing Masamune out of the umbrella stand the barkeep insisted he leave it in.
Outside, practically in a classic Corel stand-off, there were Turks on one side of the town square and members of Avalanche on the other.
On one side was Veld, looking stricken, heartbroken and altogether miserable. On the other was a brown haired girl, wielding a katana.
Elfe. Felicia. Whatever name she wanted to use.
Sephiroth vaguely remembered Alec telling Veld about some Materia embedded in her hand? Something about it making her stronger while it was killing her?
He'd given Sephiroth a chunk of it and told him to keep it away from Veld because he'd lose it.
Normally Sephiroth would wait until people got done posturing and talking. It was only polite, after all...
But he had a drink waiting for him.
He used a Time Materia to cast Haste on himself and dashed into the confused mass of eco-terrorists, unused to being interrupted, and began slashing. And stabbing. Maybe a bit of skewering.
Elfelicia was mid-way into drawing her own katana when Sephiroth cleaved through her wrist, severing her hand.
There was some screaming. From her. From Veld. From the dying members of Avalanche he'd left behind.
Sephiroth wasn't paying any attention to that, though. He instead picked up the severed hand, he could feel the lump in the palm where the Materia was embedded. Which was good! He hadn't wanted to have to unhand her twice.
...Now, what would Genesis say?
"Hello, milady. Do you need a hand?" ...No, no, that sounded nothing like Genesis. He would have done some kind of terrible quote from Loveless.
Sephiroth ignored the screaming and crying, put her hand in his pocket and turned around to walk away.
He wanted to try some Blackberry Moonshine, next.
-----
Alchemist panted, holding the broken shaft of the Javelin in hand, the blade embedded in the monster before him.
He remembered there being Wutaian warriors, in the depths of this cave. Fortunately, that wasn't correct.
He'd been wrong. These things, they weren't alive. More like echoes, called from the Lifestream. Made to challenge, harry, harass and slow down interlopers. He'd caught a glance of one before it realized they were there, it looked sort of like a flat shadow, wandering the caverns. Once it noticed them, though, it took on a shape he recognized.
He was embarrassed to admit that it took a few fights before he realized they were pulling their shapes and forms from his own memories. Jinx complaining that one of them looked like one of the bullies from her school was what gave it away for him.
The monster that looked like her bully had been, to him, an old supervisor from his past life.
The creatures were pulling their forms from Alchemist and Jinx! Somehow seeing their memories to find shapes that would unsettle them.
They were both under constant Mind Blank now but the damage had already been done.
He'd hesitated fighting one, at first, but when his hand had been forced he'd discovered they didn't bleed blood. No, just pure Mako.
After that he didn't hesitate anymore. He couldn't afford to.
He'd moved around his Materia as more was born, Added Effect and Destruct was in both his weapon and armor now, protecting him from Instant Death while offering the chance to kill his targets immediately as well as carving through their defenses as though they weren't there.
He wasn't just finding Materia lying around or hidden in chests down here, monsters were actually carrying it now! He had so many that he'd stolen, it wasn't even funny.
Darkga, his Dark spell after hitting level sixty-six, had proven invaluable. Virtually nothing here resisted it and he could add pierce to it to get through the magical defenses of whatever had Shell up.
He looked back to check on Jinx as his repair spell fixed his spear, she was in better shape than him.
The victim of a few attacks that had gotten past him, true, but overall better off than him.
She waved her hand across her neck in a slicing motion, indicating she needed to stop.
He nodded, pulling out the door for the demi-plane.
Getting through this stratum was going much slower than the one before it, and that was okay.
Slow and steady beat quick and dead any day.
-----
Aerith Gainsborough wasn't properly sure what to do with her life.
This isn't terribly surprising, considering she's fourteen years old. There was still time to think, to try different things and decide whatever worked best for her.
Recently, she'd tried something new. Something that scared her.
She'd gotten on a train going up and over the plate to visit the Shinra headquarters. With the... Decimation of the Shinra leadership, and especially the Science division, it should be safe? Ish?
She'd never felt so nervous before! And in the end, she hadn't even needed to!
She just walked right in through the front door and asked to see Zack Fair. The secretary, a very frazzled woman, took five minutes to make a phone call and then had him come down.
Zack looked... Terrible.
He was smiling, but he was also not looking too good. There were bags under his eyes and everything about him was just slightly discolored.
"Aerith! Hey!" He shouted as soon as he caught sight of her.
"You!" She held her arms out as he rushed over to her, wrapping her in a hug that had her giggling. "Where have you been, mister!?"
He picked her up and spun them around in a circle, her giggling and him laughing the entire time. After two revolutions he put her back down on her feet, heedless of the various suit-and-tie employees glaring at them.
"I'm so sorry!" He said, and he really looked it. "Back when they thought whatever happened to us was contagious, they took all of our PHSes! And we're stuck in the tower until we get better! I think they're supposed to give us our phones back, but Lazard took them all and he disappeared when the, y'know, happened to the President."
Oh. Oh! "So nobody has been able to tell their families anything? Is everyone alright?"
She knew that most of the people that worked for Shinra were good people. Or, at least, they weren't bad people. Even the SOLDIER's were mostly kids that signed up so they could hunt stronger monsters and keep their families safe, back before the war kicked off with Wutai and they got reassigned.
"Well..." Zack reached up and scratched the back of his head nervously. "Nobody died? Some people got really sick, and Angeal and Genesis are both still stuck in bed but everyone is getting better."
"That's... Good?" It really was, and she knew it. The men in SOLDIER were mostly good people. Some of them were hard people, difficult and scarred, but they all wanted to make the world better in their own way. "Are you okay?"
Zack wrapped her up in a bear hug. He smelled like soap and disinfectant.
"I'm... Better now. I was really homesick, and I wanted to call my mom, call you. Maybe eat my mom's chocobo noodle soup because that always made me feel better when I was sick. But I'm better now! And I'm really happy to see you." He sounded wistful as he talked, still holding her against him.
He'd said there were still a lot of his friends and teammates stuck in bed, hadn't he? And that they hadn't even been able to call home...
She wiggled loose from his arms and spun around, pulling on one of his hands to drag him out the door.
"Hey, hey! We're not supposed to-" He tried to protest before Aerith spun around, pointing one finger right into his face.
She actually misjudged and poked him in the nose.
"We-!" She sounded so bossy, but she knew he'd appreciate this! "-are going down to the market! And you are going to carry everything!"
"What? Aerith, what are we doing?" The guards by the door looked about ready to intervene before deciding whatever was going on was above their paygrade.
"We're going to make Chocobo Noodle Soup, silly!" She turned back around and smiled at him, bringing a smile out of him, too.
"Enough for everyone!"
-----
Jinx kind of felt like they were really hitting their stride.
They were finding all kinds of weird things down here. Chunks of adamantite and mythril metals, all kinds of accessories and armor pieces, and the Materia.
The Materia down here, some of it was weird. She'd seen a lot of support Materia that only really did one thing, and Alchemist had a magic Materia that had to be leveled up before he could cast the spell from it.
It made him invincible for about thirty seconds. She had been very, very happy to get a copy of it when it was mastered!
But they were finding what looked like amalgamated Materia orbs. Yellow command Materia that had eaten a green one, and had a weird ability inside. Or there were other ones that were just... Broken. Like half an Added Effect Materia that could only create a sort of status ward, but wouldn't confer the status to a weapon.
The things down here were weird, some of the monsters looked like her old school bullies. Once, once she thought one of them looked like her dad, if he'd been carrying a pair of knives and trying to carve them up.
She'd panicked! She shot it! She just kept shooting it until it was a puddle of green ooze on the ground.
She trailed her fingers across the Materia in her Outsider. Across the linked pair of Counter-Magic and Shield. Alchemist had the same setup, the spell would auto-cast if either of them got hit and annul any further damage for half a minute.
Between the two of them, it was usually more than enough time.
Usually...
She ran her hand across her breastplate. Across a scar that wasn't there.
She wanted to go home. Almost as much as Alchemist did.
Neither of them cared about whatever reward was at the end...
They just wanted to be free of this.
-----
Nanaki of Cosmo Canyon was not many things.
For a species so long lived as his own, this may seem somewhat odd. They surely had the time to try their paws at many different things, so why didn't they?
Truthfully, his species was simply inclined to focus on one thing at a time. And their focus was quite strong.
Nanaki, personally, was a lover of stories. Listening to old ones, long forgotten by the greater world and recounted by Bugenhagen. Learning new ones, penned by young souls who'd barely seen the world.
Any and all stories, really... So long as they were good.
Which had been a major point of contention between Deneh and himself, before he'd left.
She'd enjoyed a story called 'Dusk', about a handful of people who turned into monsters under the light of the full moon and one was having a love affair with some significantly younger normal girl.
The writing was bad. The characters were bad. The setting, a girl from the slums falling for a well-to-do member of some misbegotten clan of freaks, didn't make any sense...
Deneh loved it, called it the most romantic thing humans had ever produced... In between complaining that he was a coward because he didn't enjoy unnecessary bloodshed or pointless fighting.
Well, she could take up those argument with Seto. See how well that worked out.
He'd left Cosmo Canyon and made his way west, to the Nibel Mountains in search of one of their sister tribes.
They did meet up, from time to time every few decades. During important cosmological events, to perform rituals. To sing and dance, recount stories of great heroes and fallen families.
Coming into the small village, he may have gotten a bit distracted. Nanaki had gone to the bar to ask any of the hunters if they knew anything about the reclusive Fire Wolves in their mountains...
And found a drinking partner instead.
Across the species divide, Sephiroth and Nanaki had one very important thing in common...
Their fathers were pieces of shit.
Once his drinking buddy got his orders to pack up and head home, Nanaki finally continued his journey up and into the mountains.
He'd been told stories of the dragons, once noble creatures that had since turned feral and vicious. None knew the how or why...
But climbing the mountains himself, he came across many of the great monsters and, yes, they were territorial. But they did not hunt him, nor did they pursue him any longer than it took to chase him from their homes.
Something had changed... Or the stories had been wrong. He was actually rather excited to find out which it was!
It took the better part of a week before he caught sight of another of his kind. A female, younger even than him. She'd watched him from the bluffs of a cliff, silent and patient as he found his own way up the steep and unforgiving heights. Once he'd finished climbing up, she'd turned tail and run deeper into the mountains.
He'd followed, but she'd been a step ahead of him at every turn.
Following her. Watching her. He realized something... She was painfully thin.
It was not long until they came to a cave, filled with a dozen more members of his people.
Old. Wounded. Crippled.
For the first time since he'd begun following the girl, he found his voice.
"What happened, here? What's become of the tribe here?" They were never the most prolific of species, they were too long-lived. Still...
What would cause them to so thoroughly die out, what hunted them so heavily that there was only a single child in their pack?
"Come." Said an elderly voice. An old man, scarred and blind and missing a leg. "Come, child of the Canyon and listen to our tale."
One of the elders sparked a small fire in the middle of the cave, lit off of their tail, and all sat around it as the story began.
"Almost fifty years ago, when the springs were warm and our bodies young... A human came to our mountains. Not to hunt, nor pass to their settlement further north of us. No, he came here with greed in his heart and malice in his eyes. Had I known then, what foul darkness he would bring to our mountains, our home, he would not have left the cliffs alive." The entire pack around Nanaki was entranced as the elder spoke.
"He made claims to the villagers down below. That he could make their lives easier, that he would warm their homes and power their machines. All of that, should they simply let him build a great machine in the mountains. If they work hand in hand with him to construct it." The elder huffed and went silent for a long moment, his tail twitching as he relived his memories. "He did not tell them that they were building a great tomb. That it would be the resting place for a great evil, something long sealed and forgotten in the far Northlands."
There was some shuffling around them, the various members of the tribe getting comfortable. The girl, he still didn't know her name, had laid down close to him.
"We do not know exactly when he brought this evil to our mountain. Secreted in among steel and pipe and fire. It was not long, however, before our friends and allies, the dragons of the mountain, soon became enraged. Many humans were slain... And so too were many of the dragons. They called for experts. Brought their guns and swords. The dragons had never before known fear." The elder waved his stump, every eye watching it with rapt attention. "And they turned that fear on us. It became harder to hunt, for they killed the prey. It became dangerous to travel, for they killed us, too."
"They seemed... Calm, or at least calm enough, when I traveled here?" Nanaki offered after the tale wound down.
"Yes." The elder answered him. "Tof, our youngest, has told us similar. Whatever had been brought here, whatever evil rest entombed in metal and the blood of the world, it's long gone. Stolen away by a dragon shaped like a human, or so she claims."
That... Didn't sound quite right? Nanaki knew of someone who might fit that description... But he thought he was a human that turned into a dragon when he used his limit break?
"Did this human wear black armor and carry a great gun, or a black spear?" Alchemist hadn't really mentioned where he'd come from, or what he'd been doing. He just steamrolled over Bugenhagen and told him to open to door to Seto or he'd do it himself.
"Yes." The girl finally spoke. "The dragons all gathered around him, they sang and cried as he and his companion turned into dragons themselves. He into a great black creature with thin limbs, glowing yellow eyes and-"
"Filled with stars, like the sky at night." Nanaki finished for her. "And the girl was a smaller purple dragon, perhaps as large as one of us with rainbow wings like a butterfly or moth?"
Tof nodded as many eyes were now focused on him.
"I met with them only briefly." Nanaki started. "But they left me with many questions, a father I'd thought lost and a memory of our people, the 'Cosmo Memory' stolen long ago..."
Nanaki regaled them with the tale of his journey into the cave of the Gi, and then, as the night grew long, he shared with them stories. Stories he'd read, stories he remembered from his grandfather, stories of what life was like in Cosmo Canyon.
He didn't really remember when his voice grew hoarse or his eyes heavy. All he knew was that this was the very best night he'd had in a very, very long time.
-----
Alchemist almost collapsed once they got into the demi-plane. His feet carried him forward through sheer force of will more than anything else.
Jinx, behind him, was in her dragon form and fully armored.
Her gun was strapped to a forelimb. Basically useless, it was just carrying her Materia at this point.
The Outsider just wasn't doing enough damage at this point. Magic was the only option they really had. Status magic was absolutely critical.
He'd mastered Curse and Break. Darkga had evolved into Darkja. The Dragoon vocation offered a handful of useless Jump skills as it had leveled up that he couldn't use in the caverns, and some much less useless passive bonuses to attack, damage, accuracy with melee weapons, a passive bonus that reduced damage to him from critical hits and a few passive perks for his dragon familiar.
Which he didn't have.
The best thing to come from it so far had been the 'Dragon Sword', a spell-like ability would steal a bit of life and magic from the target. He'd have liked to practice with it but it just didn't do enough harm to keep up with the monsters down here, not without becoming a slow, painful battle of attrition.
He was starting to get worried. Terra was usually pretty quick to respond to him, and he'd sent off a few questions about the whole Vocation segment of the game system weeks ago.
True Sight, a spell he'd used quite often, actually cut through the illusions on the shadows down here. It had taken an embarrassingly long time for him to try it but they'd been a bit distracted by trying to not get too badly hurt. The shadows looking like shadows instead of people helped significantly, though.
"I'm sick of this!" Jinx sounded very different as a dragon than she did as a girl. Still bubbly, still playful, her voice however just seemed to draw attention so much better.
"Me too." He answered her simply, and, with a thought, sent his equipment into a sort of soul-bound armory.
He'd picked up the perks for that a while ago, something that created a second inventory where he could place and recall equipment with a thought. Anything bound would also be immediately recalled if it were broken. It started at the first perk, Bound Weapon, that let him bind a weapon to him such that he could recall it from anywhere.
If he wanted to swap it out, he would've had to wait twenty-four hours for it to 'Cool Down'. And he couldn't enchant or improve an item that was actively bound to him.
The second perk in the tree let him store a second weapon or a shield. The third moved that up to full suits of armor. The fourth let him store tertiary equipment, like barding or familiar armor. The fifth... The fifth let him store any kind of equipment. Including vehicles.
He could store five vehicles. Without a size limit.
He knew there were spells that were similar, but the perks simply outpaced them in sheer scope and utility. Especially the part where vehicles were concerned.
Between the Bound Armory tree, Draconic Growth and Trackless Step, he'd spent eleven perk points. Closing in on level one-hundred and seventy, he still had more than sixty left.
"I hate it here, too." Alchemist admitted as he opened the cabin door for Jinx, who turned into a human mid-step as she passed through.
The familiars, Ash and Cinder, deeply aware of the rough state of their humans, rushed them both.
Alchemist and Jinx both had learned the hard way how to stay on their feet. Instead of being knocked back, they both grabbed the Hellhounds out of the air and held them against themselves.
The shapeshifting monsters down here, capable of taking the forms of whatever you feared to try and kill you, there was something downright horrific about it.
Zack had seen the forces of Wutai. The various monsters born of whatever incomplete powers Genesis had been made with. Those had been what tried to kill him in these caves.
Jinx had told him, one day when they'd collapsed into their meals after they got back, that she often saw her father. Or bullies from school. Sometimes... Sometimes it was even her foster parents, wielding guns or knives or gunblades to try and kill him, so they could get to her.
Alchemist saw heroes. Superman, Batman, the Martian Manhunter and many more. Thankfully, while the things had that form, they lacked the power, strength and cunning.
He'd even told her. Told her that the strongest monsters down here looked like his former wife, back when she was in her prime. Before age and wear had started to break her down...
He preferred fighting the berserk and wild machines. Filled with Mako and co-opted to kill intruders.
"What are you hungry for, Jinx?" He needed to focus. Get his mind off of whatever tricks this place was playing on it.
"I don't care." She sounded so exhausted. "So long as it's hot. Maybe soup? I'm too tired to chew."
"Yeah." That sounded about right. He was right there with her. "Sounds like a good idea. Can you take care of the dogs while I get cooking?"
"Okay." And she turned right around and began stumbling out the door. A pair of gangly puppies following her.
Pulling the various ingredients for a chicken and vegetable stew out of the mini-fridge he had on the counter, he paused.
Leaning over the sink, his trembling hands clutching the edge of the countertop, he just...
He needed a moment. To pull his mind out of the cave. Away from the conflict and battle and Mako and blood and...
He really hated this place. If he didn't have to reach the bottom and talk to Gaia to get his reward so she'd let him leave, he'd already be gone.
Him and Jinx both.
He really, really hated this place.
-----
Lucrecia didn't really know if she was satisfied with her lot in life.
Her child had been stolen. Her friend murdered in front of her, and all of her attempts at fixing him seemed to fail at the time. Even her vengeance had been taken from her.
She wasn't working with cutting edge technology anymore. And honestly, her knowledge and expertise were decades out of date. If not for Vincent having a contact, who had gotten out of the game more than a decade ago but knew how to direct Vincent to his successor, they wouldn't even have an identity.
It took a bit of work, but she eventually found herself working in a clinic above the plate.
Drawing blood and running panels hadn't changed that much, at least not so much that she couldn't learn the current methods.
Between her work, Vincent making solid money selling potions under the Plate and hunting monsters on the side, they were able to afford a pretty decent living.
Decent enough that they could afford some nice takeout when they finally got a hold of Sephiroth and brought him over.
Brought him over...
Vincent found him in a bar and Sephiroth just followed him home.
Without the top leadership, SOLDIER was basically just stuck waiting in the big old Shinra building without orders, and Sephiroth didn't know what to do.
Rufus, the new head of Shinra, was still consolidating his power base and filling positions but it was slow going. Supposedly, the man would get distracted at inopportune times and then make completely new decisions that didn't make sense.
Well... If he was going to run Shinra into the ground, that was his business really.
"Well-" Sephiroth was sitting at their dining room table, and Lucrecia thought he smelled like a still. "-what kind of food would you like? There's Wutaian if you want, great place nearby. If you feel like Chocobo, there's this little diner I can send Vincent to that does great Kalm style dishes?"
"How about Jumping?" Vincent offered from his place near the front door. "It's a little pricier, but there's a place across town that delivers."
"Whatever you think sounds best." Sephiroth actually did not sound like he'd been drinking. "Just so long as there's a lot of it. I tend to eat a lot."
"That's fine. Vincent's the same way. Anyone that's been enhanced has an accelerated metabolism to feed everything." Lucrecia tried to smile at her son, but just ended up making herself sad instead.
She stepped to the side room to make an order. A lot of food and cheap meant Wutai dishes. She tried not to eavesdrop too hard.
She failed.
"You're enhanced?" Her son asked Vincent.
"Yes." The gunman answered simply. "Though, a different method than how you were."
"Hojo?" How had the man been so prolific that his name could be used as a general question for inhumane experimentation?
"For the most part. Lucrecia salvaged what would otherwise be a very dangerous corpse." Her hands froze, her fingers hovering over the 'Complete Order' button.
Corpse.
He'd... Been dead, when Hojo started... He...
Lucrecia completed her order, but her appetite was gone.
-----
Jinx could feel it.
There was an energy, down here. Faint at first, but it had grown thicker and thicker with every floor.
Now, though, it was suffocating.
There had been great treasures here, potent Materia and impossible accessories. Like the Genji Helmet that Alchemist had gotten through the superpower of money, they'd even found a pair of Genji Gloves, apparently part of a four-piece set that he didn't seem interested in hunting down.
They'd been facing impossibly strong foes, sitting at the precipice of their own power. Beasts that could fling fire and ice, hot enough to melt stone and so cold it ripped the heat from the air all the way back up top.
For all that the power should have killed them, inside their armor it just empowered them instead.
The last defense, behind burning demons and ice-goddesses and ancient old men carrying staves made of lightning, had been great machines. Powered by magic and guarded by more of those wretched shape shifters.
Alchemist had wasted no time in stealing every part of them that let them move. Including the Full-Cure Materia that made up their hearts.
Leaving behind the wreckage they'd made, they moved on to the final chamber.
In the distance, a great stone beast lay entombed in Materia. The center of it was hidden, but Jinx could make out a quartet of eyes on what looked to be pauldrons.
It was almost enough to distract her from what, or who, stood in the middle of the round chamber.
A woman, wearing great golden armor. She had huge pauldrons on her shoulders and carried some sort of staff or spear. Her hair was the color of summer wheat and her eyes shined cerulean. Her lips, perfect in every way, were quirked in a gentle smile.
Minerva, Alchemist had called her. The avatar of Gaia.
"Welcome, Champions, to the heart of the World. Welcome, Champions, to the seat of Gaia's power!" She waved her staff dramatically.
Jinx said nothing. Alchemist said nothing.
"Best me, and you shall-" She began to offer her challenge.
"No." But was cut off by Alchemist.
"You'll find, Champion, that you have no choice in this matter." Her smile had faded at his insolence.
"Counter offer, since you seem intent on going back on your word." The woman looked stricken at Alchemist's accusation. "I put Jenova directly in the Lifestream and watch you die from the moon."
"You-!" The woman reared back, fury etched in her features. "You would dare threaten one such as I?!"
Alchemist, rather than answer, drank something vile from a vial. A second Alchemist appeared, before teleporting away.
"Yes." He didn't even bother trying to couch it in better terms. "I removed the infection. I set into motion the removal of the leeches feasting on your blood. We even fought our way through your thrice-damned hell-gauntlet to get here. If you can't be bothered to honor your word, Goddess, I will watch you die with a song in my heart and a smile on my face."
They stood, staring at each other for a long, long moment. Longer than Jinx honestly felt comfortable with. She was fully expecting Minerva to go on the offensive.
Instead the woman slammed her staff into the ground...
And bent over, laughing uproariously.
"And I'd thought such champions dead and gone! Lost to the age of myth and legend!" Minerva got out through her laughter. "To threaten us! To mean it!"
She broke down into laughter again... And the very Earth around them shook in tune.
"Very well! You'll not receive the treasure offered to those that best me, though few who try, do. You came here, tested your mettle and reached the limits of your potential. Through magic, might and sheer determination do you stand before me! This-!" Her smile was wide, a thing of sublime beauty.
Jinx took a picture with her phone. She'd taken a lot of pictures, of Minerva and the Emerald Weapon in the far distance behind them.
"-is what I shall reward!" Magical mandalas quickly filled the air. Formulae that Jinx couldn't begin to understand, so dense and tightly packed she couldn't read them at all. "Fare thee well, Champions. Grow ever stronger, and reach ever higher!"
The countless magic circles began to emit light, blinding in its intensity.
~~ Acquired Perk: Limit Breaker Level 1 ~~
~~ All skills, spells and abilities can now be leveled twice as high. All skills, spells and abilities now receive +100% experience. Various additional effects may be unlocked at levels beyond their maximum. ~~
The air changed. The pressure changed, too. Once the light began to die down, they found they were in a snowfield. On the surface.
"Be wary upon reaching the Heavens, however." Minerva's voice had followed them, to the surface.
"Traitors sit upon the throne of kings."
-----
~~ Quest: Help me! ~~
~~ Status: Completed! ~~
~~ Reward: Special Ability- Materia Consumerism! ~~
~~ Materia Consumerism: As this version of Gaia became familiar with you during your efforts to reach her avatar, so too have you become familiar with her. Your body and soul have adjusted to the means and methods of her magic, and now you can make it a permanent part of yourself.
To activate: Consume a mastered Materia orb to digest it and obtain the magic or abilities stored within. Base spells or skills will be made permanent. Advanced spell or skill levels may be acquired by advancing their levels. Materia with multiple different spells will confer all spells at level 1. Duplicate abilities will not be granted.
Ingested Materia will induce Mako Toxicity.
Toxicity Level 1: General unwellness.
Toxicity Level 2: 10% Stat Reduction
Toxicity Level 3: Persistant poison status.
Toxicity Level 4: Severe shock and damage to HP!
Toxicity status will degrade over time. Advanced stages will last a shorter amount of time than lesser stages.
Notice: Support Materia is not supported. To make use of Support Materia, you will need it and a physical copy of whatever Materia you wish to empower. ~~
That, Alchemist thought, was something of a mixed bag.
He and Jinx both wanted to leave Gaia immediately after they completed the quest... But he'd convinced her it might not be for the best.
They needed to decompress. Destress. Unwind... Or he'd probably have another near-miss, like when he'd nearly cast Flare on Batman for waking him up suddenly.
And Jinx got to be surrounded by a pack of teenage kids in her real world.
He didn't think she'd intentionally hurt someone... But their reflexes after dealing with the Cave of Wonder were set to go off on any loud or sudden noises.
To that end...? Icicle Inn was actually significantly larger than the little village portrayed in-game. It was a thriving little community with a hot-spring resort.
Soaking in piping hot mineral water, slowly working their way down the menu of what was available for room service, the scenery...
It was a great place to feel sick at.
The Materia he had on hand, he'd seen it in all different shapes and sizes in the games, in the movie, but what he actually had were orbs about the size of a large gum ball or jawbreaker. Swallowing any of those had been... Difficult.
(He'd nearly choked on his first one.)
And he'd worked out, after a few, that the level of toxicity was related to how much time and effort it took to master.
The Hades summon Materia, a Contain Materia that had Flare (Which he didn't get), Break (Which he still didn't get), Freeze and Tornado, as well as an odd Materia called 'Energy' which fired a small ball of highly potent non-elemental, piercing magic energy... All of them were high-rank Materia that took a lot of effort to master, and all of them had thrown him straight to Tier Three of Mako Toxicity. The poison effect, which bypassed the immunity effects he had, only lasted about half an hour before degrading. Overall, from Tier Three to nothing, it took about twelve hours.
He'd gone on to eat his Steal Materia, Double Cut, one of his Shields, Alexander and Odin and, finally, his Dual-Cast Materia.
He'd limited himself to one a day so far. He was finally getting to relax and he wasn't going to ruin it by making himself sick for the entire time.
...And the other stuff he was considering, he needed to master before he could do anything with. And collect it from where it was hidden. He was using Bilocation to work on that part, at least. Round Island, Mideel, the Temple of Ancients so he could grab Morph and Luck Plus...
He hadn't asked Jinx if she was doing the same thing, but he had noticed that she'd been grouchy and irritable, and that some Materia had been removed from the inventory.
If she wanted to learn Ultima that way, she was welcome to. He still planned on getting the book, personally.
All of that was a problem for another time.
Today, he was relaxing in a nice, hot outdoor bath.
Not fighting. Not making himself sick. Not arguing with a goddess.
Just... Relaxing.
"Cannonball!" Alchemist cracked one eye open and saw a blur of spiky black hair for just a second before a wave of near-scalding mineral water washed over him.
With his heat-resistance, he found he actually enjoyed it.
After a few seconds the perpetrator surfaced. His black mullet sticking to his head.
"Yo." Alchemist initiated. "Having fun?"
"Loads!" The guy, pretty much a kid really, pulled his hair out of his eyes. "Wait... I didn't know anyone else was in here! I'm so sorry!"
Being fair, there was a lot of steam in the air. Hot water meeting cold mountain air will do that.
"You're good, man." It felt too good, relaxing like this, to get riled up over nothing. "You just get in today?"
"Yeah! How'd you know?" The guy waded over and took up a spot at a respectful distance away from Alchemist.
"I've been here for a few weeks. Forced vacation after some troubles. First time I've seen you here." At least this guy wore swimming trunks, like Alchemist did.
He'd seen things, here... Things that some people had probably found incredibly disappointing.
"That's gotta be pricey." The guy observed as he leaned back against the oddly comfortable rocks. "My girlfriend and her mom came into some money recently, and my job just started releasing people for vacations after a few years of constant duty. So... One thing led to another and here I am!"
"I work with a bunch of kids and I'm slated to teach 'em how to work with Magic when I get back. Some R and R before I have to deal with that was exactly what the doctor ordered." Did Alchemist count as a doctor? Probably not, there was all that 'Formal schooling' they did.
Eh, medic, close enough.
"I've had to train recruits and let me just say- I do not envy you." The guys hair was starting to spike up as it dried. He was starting to look kind of familiar...
"Kids I gotta deal with are old enough, I could make 'em run laps. Problem is, they'd all enjoy it. Bet they'd rather do that instead of what I gotta teach." Alchemist kind of wished he enjoyed the taste of alcohol. He'd tried it in this setting, and the burn just did not agree with him.
"Same problem in SOLDIER, honestly." What? "It's why they usually get Genesis to do the teaching. They learn, or they burn."
...You know what? No. He was not going to stress out about this.
"Gods save us from super-powered hormonal teenagers." Alchemist held out his fist, and Zack bumped it with his own.
"Amen." Zack leaned back, relaxing... "Wait a minute! I am a super-powered hormonal teenager!"
"Mmhmm." Alchemist agreed. "Go do your girlfriend a favor. Tell Aerith I left her something special in the graveyard, Zack."
"Waitaminute!" Zack turned to look at Alchemist in wide-eyed surprise, but nobody was there. "What the hell?!"
-----
Zack... May have gone running around after that.
Some strange man, in a strange place, that knew his name and the name of his girlfriend? Saying he left her 'Something special' in a graveyard?
Yeah, no way in hell buddy!
Although running out to the graveyard by himself in a pair of shorts, while soaking wet in minus eighteen degree weather? He might not have thought that one through.
He was still running around trying to find whatever had been left out here when Elmyra and Aerith finally showed up, being led there by a girl with scales on her face and pink hair.
Weird fashion choices but, y'know, whatever. He'd seen weirder in Midgar.
"Aerith!" He shouted upon seeing her. "Be-be-be careful! Some weirdo I met in the hot springs said he-"
"Left something here for her. Yeah. I told her. Alchemist could have made this not-creepy, if he wanted to." The pink haired girl rolled her eyes and stuck her hand out in his direction.
She snapped her fingers and the cold that was turning his fingers and toes blue was replaced with a gentle warmth.
"Fuh-friend of yours?" Zack asked as he began rubbing his hands together.
"Sensei, sort of. He does a lot of teaching, but not in a formal way. More a... Here's the tools, ask if you need help kind of guy." The girl held her hand out, and Zack awkwardly shook it. "Jinx."
"And that's Zack." Aerith said, stepping in between them, her mom just a step behind. "Don't mind him too much. His feet tend to run faster than his brain."
"Aerith!" Zack moaned, grinning a bit when he saw the smirk on her face. "You can't go telling everyone all of my secrets!"
"You left your 'Secrets' dangling out in the cold when you ran off without telling us!" Elmyra grumped, scanning the various gravestones and not at all happy to be out in the cold.
"Seriously, man?" A voice said from behind him. "That's just cold."
Zack turned around at the sound of the familiar voice, then jumped back in shock!
Him! The man from hot springs! Dressed in... A heavy coat and jeans? With a snug beanie and reflective sunglasses.
Perfectly... Sensible... Clothing...
"Oh god!" Zack screamed! "I'm naked!"
"...Right. Okay. Aerith, since you're clearly the smart one in this relationship, I think I'll just talk to you and you can translate for your puppy here." The man turned to face her, completely ignoring him.
Zack's hands dropped in defeat, one of them brushing against a dog that had followed the pink haired girl leading Aerith out here.
"It's rude to say that where he can hear you." Aerith said, and she was still grinning. "So what's important here that I need to see?"
"...I... Recovered Ifalna's remains, after accomplishing a few other tasks. I buried her here, next to her husband, a while back. I thought you should..." The guy just turned around and waved over his shoulder as he began walking away.
Rude! Couldn't even be bothered to finish explaining anything.
Zack looked to Aerith though... She wasn't looking too good, but she was following him.
She'd lost her smile...
The only sound, aside from the crunching of snow underfoot, was when the man lifted one hand into the air and snapped his fingers. It caused another gangly dog to run up to him from somewhere, and he leaned down to pet the dog for a moment before they continued on. Deeper into the graveyard.
Zack felt a chill run down his spine...
No, wait, nope. That was just the cold. Nevermind.
It wasn't long before they came to a pair of headstones and the man, whose name Zack still didn't know, bent down to wipe off the snow.
'Ifalna Faremis'
'A mother's love reaches beyond the boundary of death.'
It didn't have a date of birth or death. In truth, it was incredibly plain and simple.
Aerith stepped past the man and fell to her knees. One trembling hand reaching out to touch the grave marker. She inhaled wetly, then released a low, keening sob.
"I buried her here, next to your father." The man said quietly, though he placed a hand on Aerith's shoulder. "I... Hadn't figured out how to tell you, yet."
Zack saw him squeeze her shoulder once before he stepped away and walked over to him. He did something with his hands, and then he had a pile of folded clothes in them.
Which he handed to Zack. "Go get dressed. Fast. She needs you."
Zack responded to the quiet command with a silent salute and ducked behind a tree to start putting the clothes on. Nothing fancy, basically the same as what the man was wearing. Jeans, boots and a heavy jacket, though his was blue instead of the black the man wore.
When he stepped back out, the man and Jinx were both gone, their dogs as well. Leaving just him, Elmyra and Aerith.
Zack bent down next to his girlfriend and simply held her as she cried.
He didn't understand everything. Not yet...
But he knew what to do when people were hurting.
-----
Another Alchemist, in a very different location thanks to Bilocation, was holding a crimson orb of Materia.
He'd been trying to remember where this one had been since leaving the Gold Saucer!
Thanks to Life Bubble he wasn't drowning... But he was stuck wondering something.
How in the hell had a Phoenix Materia ended up in the well in Nibelheim!?
-----
While Jinx would go on to spend a good bit of time with Aerith, Alchemist actually ended up missing Zack for the majority of their stay at Icicle Inn.
He really just ended up spending a good chunk of his time just sleeping over an additional few weeks. While he was, at the same time thanks to Bilocation, exploring the various hidden caves he could find to fight monsters and level his Materia while in search of a specific summon.
The two of them weren't planning on coming back, or at least not too terribly often, so they were trying to get as much out of the trip as they reasonably, and unreasonably, could.
Attribute improvement Materia, Independent Materia, was quick to level up and master. Each of those orbs had only induced one level of Mako Toxicity each, so he'd doubled up on those. Two each in a day. He'd gotten most of them in Cosmo Canyon, though a few he'd had to purchase from the Sector Five Materia shop online, and Luck had to be found in the Temple of the Ancients while Speed he'd already had from the Gold Saucer.
Those had turned into passive abilities that initially offered a ten percent boost to the associated stats and took him a while to figure out how to level up.
They gained experience when he did something related to the improved attribute.
So far, none of them had evolved for him.
Though the Speed Plus passive he'd picked up worked for agility and dexterity both, so that was nice.
Experience Plus, Money Plus and an odd little Materia called 'Smart Consumer' made up the rest of the purple ones. So his HP and MP, all of his attributes, a perk that multiplied how strong his consumable items were (And he wanted to test that on more than just potions.) and two that let him doublecast his spells.
W-Summon, the ability to summon two creatures at once, was a yellow Command Materia. W-Magic would let him cast two different spells at once. Then there was also Doublecast which would echo whatever spell he cast. (That one was Independent, however, whereas the former two were Commands...)
Speaking of Command Materia, however, he'd mastered and consumed Mime, W-Magic and W-Summon... And each time he very nearly gave up on continuing to use Materia Consumerism.
Level Four Mako Toxicity included such fun things like a splitting migraine, fever, chills, shaking and tremors and even sweating out actual Mako! If it wasn't for the fact that he could level the various abilities up to new heights that were simply unattainable when using them as Materia, he would've stopped then and there.
Morph, a kind of gimmick attack skill that would turn enemies into items if it landed the killing blow wasn't nearly so bad.
...If he wasn't afraid of such fun things like War Worlds, New Gods, Anti-Monitors and One-Above-All only knows what else, he wouldn't bother at all.
For magic spells? He'd consumed Full-Cure and Time.
...That was pretty much it. He had variations on other spells, or else they were redundant or unnecessary in some other fashion. Having access to Slow and Stop, as well as the option to fully heal the likes of Wonder Woman or Superman pretty much filled his needs for the magic spells on offer.
He'd gathered together the summons he actually felt would be useful, and was still in the process of finding the last one. Those, he thought, changed the most significantly.
Summon Materia would only briefly call an entity into existence. Give it enough magic to take form and launch some signature attack.
Summons as a personal ability, however, would form and embody the summoned creature. It would fight alongside him, for a little while, until it ran out of magic and then it would release whatever 'Limit Break' attack it had. All of this was contingent, however, on there being enough room to actually summon them in the first place.
So he'd been able to summon Odin without any issue but Alexander had proven difficult.
So they were more like summons from Final Fantasy Eleven or Twelve, or else the Remake. The idea was similar across them all.
The only detail he actually had about Bahamut Fury, the last Summon he was looking for, was that his Materia could be found in a cave hidden under the plate of Midgar.
A mega-city. The size of Tokyo. In a location cramped together and filled up like it was a sprawling, ground level Kowloon.
It's fair to say, Alchemist wasn't expecting much luck on that front. It would be like trying to find W-Item in the railways around Midgar. Which, considering what all lived in the slums, might actually be easier!
They had made plans to leave in a few days. Everything was done. Everything had been collected or stolen or purchased that he felt was needed.
Jinx even said she was done with her own project, whatever that had been. She'd just grin whenever he asked.
Short of Fury, he was down to one last Materia.
He lightly tossed it into the air, looking over it. The way the light reflected off of its glossy surface...
It was a good thing Materia gained experience and leveled up just from being attached to a weapon or piece of armor. His modified Enhancer, with its triple growth rate from being rarefied, had made mastering the more expensive ones significantly faster.
The one he had in his hand had been the worst. It easily took twice as long to master as any of the others. He hadn't even been able to use it, considering the potential risks of even trying!
Alchemist took a sip of water, wetting his throat.
This part was always the worst.
He popped the Materia, shrunken with magic so that it was only the size of a large marble rather than a tennis ball, into his mouth. He rolled it around a few times and tried to swallow.
Tried.
They were just too big to do this easily!
With a cough and a hack, he spat it back out and glared at it.
Fine, then. If it wanted to be difficult, he did have another option!
With a snap of his fingers, a large black dragon sat on his bed instead, the springs protesting the dramatic increase in weight.
This time, when he swallowed the Materia, the last of the ones he'd picked up at the Temple of the Ancients, it went down with no trouble.
It settled in his gut like a lead weight, and he knew he only had a few minutes before it started breaking down. This one, he knew, this one was going to be bad.
He was halfway into the bathroom when the first symptom hit. The migraine nearly knocked him off his feet!
He'd just squeezed himself into the tub when the Poison effect started chewing at his HP. That meant the next symptoms were about to begin-
He was trembling in the tub when the sweating started, Mako oozing out from in between his scales.
This wouldn't kill him, thankfully. It was worse than he'd expected... But then, he'd done something it looks like Gaia and Terra both hadn't been expecting, either.
As the pain and fire inside of him got even hotter, he just focused on breathing. As his heartbeat slammed against the inside of his skull and his eyeballs felt like they were melting, he did his best not to think.
When he felt the weight of the Materia start to dissolve, he dispelled his dragon form. Turning on the shower spicket, he let cold water splash over him. It felt like he could just shed heat more easily as a humanoid than a dragon.
He cast Regeneration to supplement his native regeneration from the Life Grail fused into his heart. He cast Rapid Repair to offset the corrosion to his VP as the Materia returned to Mako inside of him.
~~ Spell Acquired! ~~
~~ Meteor! ~~
~~ A spell that manipulates space and time to call forth a massive stone from the heavens! Its impact will reshape continents, disrupt the seas and bring forth a new ice age! ~~
~~ Cost: 9999 MP! ~~
-----
Permanent Abilities Gained!
-New Skills!
Double Cut (Level 1)
Steal (Level 1)
W-Summon (Level 1)
W-Magic (Level 1)
Mime (Level 1)
Morph (Level 1)
-New Spells!
Energy (Level 1)
Tornado (Level 1)
Freeze (Level 1)
Shield (Level 1)
Slow (Level 1)
Stop (Level 1)
Full-Cure (Level 1)
Meteor (Level 1)
- New Spell Category! Summoned Ally!
Odin (Level 1)
Alexander (Level 1)
Hades has been renamed to Lich to match Final Fantasy Tactics and not offend Hades!
Lich (Level 1)
Phoenix (Level 1)
Knights of the Round (Level 1)
-Passive Abilities!
HP Plus (Level 1)
MP Plus (Level 1)
Strength Plus (Level 1)
Vitality Plus (Level 1)
Speed Plus (Level 1)
Intelligence Plus (Level 1)
Spirit Plus (Level 1)
Luck Plus (Level 1)
Experience Plus (Level 1)
Currency Plus (Level 1)
Smart Consumer (Level 1)
Doublecast (Level 1)
Guard Source X2
HP Absorb (Materia)
Mind Source X2
Megalixir X2
Magic Source
Vaccine
Shield (Materia)
Imperial Guard
Counter Command (Materia)
Counter Magic (Materia)
Luck Source
Speed Source
Mega All (Materia)
Mystile
Tetra Elemental
And from the Caves of Wonder-
Materia
~Magic
- Gravity X3
- Barrier X29
- Drain X3
- Osmose X 10
- Quake X2
- Dark Fire X1
- Fire X40
- Ice X9
- Contain X15
- Electrocute X12
- Restore X17
- Heal X4
- Energy X21
- Tri-Elemental X20
- Ultima X9
- Full-Cure X7
~Command
- Assault Twister X9
- Status Blade X8
- Element Blade X5
- Jump X4
- Throw X8
- Punch X26
- Steal X17
- Darkness X6
~Independent
- Magic Up X11
- Spirit Up X6
- Stamina Up X4
- Strength Up X9
- Dualcast X13
- Stamina Magic Boost X10
- Stamina Physical Attack Boost X1
- Stamina Attack Boost X7
- Stamina Defense Boost X19
- Stamina Boost Master X13
~Support
- Elemental Ward X1
- Elemental Strike X1
- Status Ward X1
- Status Strike X1
Accessories
- Bronze Armlet X5
- Silver Armlet X12
- Rune Armlet X12
- Mythril Armlet X18
- Platinum Bangle X15
- Mountain Chocobo Armlet X4
- River Chocobo Armlet X3
- Sea Chocobo Armlet X3
- Sky Chocobo Armlet X2
- Shinra Beta X1
- Shinra Beta+ X2
- Aegis Armlet X2
- Flame Armlet X6
- Blaze Armlet X6
- Frost Armlet X9
- Snow Armlet X20
- Thunder Armlet X11
- Escort Guard X1
- Hypno Crown X2
- Fire Ring X1
- Lightning Ring X11
- Diamond Gloves X2
- Crystal Bracelet X14
- Black Belt X11
- Gold Hairpin X2
- Crystal Orb X19
- Brigands Gloves X1
- Shining Bracer X2
- Tarot Card X13
- Headband X1
- Kaiser Knuckles X3
- Soul of Thamasa X18
- Royal Crown X16
- Dark Agent X12
- Magic Master X9
- Good-Luck Charm X11
- Laurel Crown X3
- White Cape X9
- Super Ribbon X8
- Moon Bracer X1
- Fury Ring X10
- Brutal X8
- Energy Suit X9
- Black Cowl X12
- Adaman Bangle X10
- Ziedrich X1
- Doc's Code X9
- Jeweled Ring X1
- Power Suit X7
- Genji Gloves X1
Fusion Items
- HP Mako Stone X16
- HP Stone X 32
- Fat Chocobo Feather X49
- MP Mako Stone X6
- MP Stone X18
- Lunar Harp X6
- Speed Mako Stone X48
- Speed Stone X5
- Zeio Nut X18
- ATK Mako Stone X11
- Power Stone X79
- Hero Drink X33
- VIT Mako Stone X19
- Guard Stone X16
- Adamantite X93
- MAG Mako Stone X21
- Magic Stone X26
- Dark Matter X44
- SPR Mako Stone X36
- Mind Stone X58
- Mythril X32
- LCK Mako Stone X27
- Luck Stone X11
- Gysahl Greens X9
Consumables
- Potion X24
- Hi-Potion X8
- X-Potion X6
- Ether X22
- Elixir X8
What is this I don't even-
- Gold Rolling Pin X36
I'm sorry this is a serious question and I really love this fic and don't want to offend but is he and Jinx going back anytime soon I have been skimming these last 3 chapters because I have no interest in final fantasy.
Maybe it's well written but I just don't care for it, I hope this isn't dickish and I being serious.
~~ Spell Acquired! ~~
~~ Meteor! ~~
~~ A spell that manipulates space and time to call forth a massive stone from the heavens! Its impact will reshape continents, disrupt the seas and bring forth a new ice age! ~~
~~ Cost: 9999 MP! ~~
Good old 'rocks fall, everyone dies'. Pity it's not really useable in DC where it's sorely needed. Supes could just grab it and chuck it back into space. Same as most of the other beings you'd wanna use the damn spell on.
I'm sorry this is a serious question and I really love this fic and don't want to offend but is he and Jinx going back anytime soon I have been skimming these last 3 chapters because I have no interest in final fantasy.
Maybe it's well written but I just don't care for it, I hope this isn't dickish and I being serious.
If I remember correctly they should leave next episode, too. Some side stuff to go through, some repercussions to deal with, but not that long left for them in this world.
If I remember correctly they should leave next episode, too. Some side stuff to go through, some repercussions to deal with, but not that long left for them in this world.
Thank you for the answer I'll just hold out then, I really do like this fic but every time anything final fantasy pops up anywhere my brain blocks it out.
Wow, I hope Alchemist leaves a big tip for the hotel's staff.
Even if he repairs and cleans the bathroom, I assume all the Liquid Mako that went down the tub drain will ruin their pipes and plumbing system, or require a government hazmat team to disinfect.
Good old 'rocks fall, everyone dies'. Pity it's not really useable in DC where it's sorely needed. Supes could just grab it and chuck it back into space. Same as most of the other beings you'd wanna use the damn spell on.
Dude how are you even going to keep track of all these new spells? Also hey! Alchemist is now a planetary level threat. I'm sure this will only end well
So the majority of his training with the boy really just ended up with him saying 'Dodge!' and doing his best to only nearly skewer the kid while the little blonde was desperately fighting for his life.
