1st Strike

[Zack Fair]

As the microlaser soared in at the beast, Zack was a living missile himself. Catching up to Cloud as the beast began its attack, Zack landed on the back of the beast as it turned away from him. Swinging his blade down at the creature's remaining wing, he severed membrane and joints as the microlaser made a solid impact, sending the creature howling down, spiraling out of control.

This was not good. The monster still had Cloud. Slamming the flat of his blade down on the back of the creature's neck, it coughed up its prey, sending cloud into the air as it fell down. Taking yet another leap of faith for the day, Zack tried to ignore the shooting pain in his ribs as he jumped out to try and tried to catch the flying Blonde-haired warrior. The Buster Sword flew free from his grasp, embedding itself in the ground some distance away, as he reached with both arms for his falling friend. He wasn't about to leave Cloud behind, not this time. As he flew across the short distance to Cloud, he couldn't help but remember his own departure from this world long ago, and how he had left Cloud behind. But this time he wasn't in danger of dying. But he wasn't about to let Cloud into the lifestream. Not yet.

[Cloud Strife]

Grunting softly at how close that microlaser blast came to taking off one of his feet, or possibly even something more important, the mercenary spat venemous curses in Barret's direction even as he conceded to the fact that he probably would have deserved it. As fate would have it, the glowing wash of green that countered his cursing was enough to shut him up. "Damn, man. Can't even let me be mad at you in a fight..." He grumbled. As Zack smashed the back of the creature's neck, thereby forcing it to release him, he flipped so he could hopefully catch himself while falling, intending to use the blade to slow his descent by burying it into the side of the building.

Unfortunately, this was not to be anywhere near possible for the foolhardy mercenary. Though his large belt buckle, bulletproof jacket and thick, impact-resistant pants had prevented the beast's fangs from piercing his flesh as deeply as possible, and Barret's Curaga spell had done much to heal the number of severe bruises and pressure damage to his diaphragm preventing him from catching a full breath, Cloud was still hurting pretty noticeably.Unfortunately this wasn't quite enough, as a massive amount of poison had been injected into his system due to the length and force of the bite. Cloud's blade fell from numb fingers, plunging deep into the earth somewhere beside Zack's as his eyes glazed.

Reaching for his Esuna material with fingers that were rapidly losing feeling, Cloud fumbled, then watched as it tumbled out of his pocket along with Tifa's loaned Cure. "Huh. Guess this is why Yuffie used to lecture me about equipping the dumb things..." He mused, smiling almost dreamily at the thought. Glancing up hazily toward his falling companion, Cloud reached up to his extended hand as if trying to force it through a wall of old, crusty pudding. Whatever the hell that thing's poison was packing, he thought, it needed to be in every alcoholic drink ever made. Assuming they could figure out how to cut out that whole "heart stops and then you die" part.

[Zack Fair]

Taking the opportunity on what little reach Cloud was able to put forth, Zack snatched up his friend and pulled him up above him, grabbing for the falling cure materia as well. When his fingers gripped, he feared slipping, else he may have just lost his one chance. Yanking the outstretched arm back, he placed the materia firmly into Cloud's quivering palm. "Use it, you idiot!" He shouted at his friend as they fell further. "Use it now-" He was cut off as he slammed into the ground for the second time today, and for the second time today someone else landed on top of him. Though Cloud probably was hurt a bit more than Tifa, given that there was some distance between he and Zack when Zack had hit the ground, but that also meant that Zack was in more pain as well. Not to mention that Cloud was significantly heavier than the light barmaid. All in all, Zack was nursing a few bruised ribs and possibly a broken one.

[Cloud Strife]

As the dust cleared from Zack's second crash landing of the day, Cloud laughed softly and rolled off him. "All right, okay, no need to shout..." He mumbled weakly, words slurring as though he'd been solving his problems the old fashioned way once again. Equipping the glowing green bauble, Cloud grunted lowly as he felt it going to work on his bruises and slowing the progress of the poison. With that aid, he was able to half-walk, half-crawl to where his lost Esuna was glinting on the pavement and do the same. The blonde buffoon shivered as he felt the poison leaving his system, his life saved for the second time that day. Then turning his attention back to Zack, he utilized the last remaining power in the Cure materia to patch up some of the damage he'd helped cause, extending a hand to help his companion to his feet.

"Well... That didn't exactly go as planned." He murmured in a voice so deadly serious it was hard to tell whether he was making a joke or not. Turning to glance in Barret's direction, he shot a glare at the big man that was somewhere between amused and actually irritated. "Did you really have to try and fry me to save me? You and your overabundant firepower, man. Just lob a grenade next time, save us all the trouble, eh?"

[Zack Fair]

Taking Cloud's hand as the materia did its work, Zack stood, coughing, to his feet. "You don't say?" he asked, his hands on his bent knees as he caught his breath. "I think two crash landings and you getting yourself nearly killed is a perfectly executed plan." He said, chuckling as he staggered over to his sword. Yanking it from the ground, he managed to stumble his way back over to cloud with it resting on his back. "So then, think you can still keep up with me, blondie?"

[Tifa Lockhart]

(((I am so out of this storyline it's not even funny. Sorry for this, but I promised Barret I'd post and I keep my promises to my crew. So here you go guys)))


She remained locked within her thoughts as Tifa’s limbs slowly responded to their subconscious demand. Pulling right, Tifa put the bulk of her weight on the perplexed limb feeling the full effect of the poisonous bite. Forcing the sudden notion to throw what contents of her late breakfast out onto the ground before her, Tifa managed to stand on both feet but not without suffering a minor aftershock. Soon as she steadied her weight and was sure she was capable, her eyes took to the sky once again to survey the current course of actions taking place.

Watching the horrific scene of Cloud getting caught in the same set of teeth she’d previously been kept prisoner was enough to steal the very life out of her. But just as soon as her anxiety spiked, so did the events above. A hefty voice from the well known figure from behind yelled up into the air as a beam of energy rocketed towards the massive predator knocking Cloud enough out of its mouth to begin his much needed escape. Once he was freed, she leapt back several yards from her current position while holding pent air within her lungs and waited for their arrival back to the broken climate.

Unsure of what to do exactly, Tifa remained standing and mute. Zack and Cloud exchanged words as they scrambled to re equip themselves properly. It wasn’t till Tifa really looked over the two that it sunk it that it wasn’t their blood that covered them but….

..turning her sight back to the beast, she watched as the winged creature fought desperately to stay adrift but the damage it’d sustained from the two ex SOLDIER’s proved to be more than difficult for the feat. Dark crimson droplets cascaded across the clotted earth filling the air with a new scent… death

[barret]

“Oh shut up, you should fucking know I don’t have grenades with me. Too dangerous to use around civilians. Besides, they’re too expensive to use.” Barret said to Cloud, “Besides, I’m more accurate with the Microlaser, would you have preferred to lose your face from the explosion of a fucking Grenade?”

Barret grumbled as he continued to watch the beast. “FUCK! Cloud, we gotta get this bastard out of town before it crashes. Tifa, you’re the fastest out of us, try and evacuate the area starting with the guests inside, and meet up with us! New guy, you and Cloud try and direct that flying bastard out of town!” He shouted, issuing orders as he came up with a plan.

“I’ll fucking heal you two, and try and keep up.” Barret said, using Curaga again, directed at Cloud and Zack. Healing those two, would hopefully keep up their strength, and keep them battle ready. “Why does this shit happen when we get together.”

"Alright! GO!" He shouted, as he began to run towards the border of Edge.

[Tifa Lockhart]

((Eh, I'm slowly getting myself out of the way. My post doesn't really have much to do but with a small bit directed towards Barret. I didn't stick around to get a reply from him simply because within a couple more posts here, I'll write myself out if this thread and slingshot my character to link up with Marlene in 7th Heaven. Cloud, if you have anything to add you can but if you and Z just want to pick up w/o acknowledging me that's fine as well. Up to you guys of course. But since I'm not going to be a major part in this, I just figured I'd give you all ample space to be creative, be some hard ass mother fuckers i know you are and kick the shit out of that thing =) Make me proud! ))


…., “right” she mumbled more so to herself as her head nodded solemnly taking in the scarcely hatched plan. Although breaking up the group could cause more problems, Tifa was more of a liability to them hurt than she was an ally. It would be better if she concentrated on a lot less demanding task to look over the civilians instead of taking down whatever that thing was. Before turning fully towards the poorly constructed café’s entrance, Tifa looked back to find that Zack had already retrieved his buster sword and was now standing beside the brooding blonde. The tips of her lips dropped slightly as she frowned inwardly hearing his words being spat back at the dark skinned gun man of their party. Tifa felt the need to interject suddenly, but instead of confronting Cloud she looked to the other source from where the argument came.

Taking cautious steps, Tifa quietly made her way across the land trying not to draw the attention from above she stopped within a foot from where Barret was almost ready to pass her. Reaching out with her right gloved hand she grazed her clothed fingertips over the taught muscled structure of Barret’s arm. She kept her voice low and assertive so only Barret could hear, “Try and get along…” she felt the dark man pull freely from her touch and giving her a stern look as she added, “…for me”

Before Barret could object to her simple request, Tifa made her way over to the barricade and busied herself with the removal of the partially emptied waste barrels and broken support beams so she could make her way inside Johnny’s café to where the rest of the guests for the spoiled event of the evening remained.

[Zack Fair]

Zack growled at the beast, finding a new energy as Tifa left. "i think it's time we took that thing out of the sky. Hey, mister prosthetic limb, any plans for how exactly we're supposed to GET him out of town?" He swiped his blade before him, his glare focusing on the beast. "I don't exactly relish getting near that thing again."

(Oh god, so short...So much writer's block)

[Cloud Strife]

(Apologies for the lateness of my reply, all! Somehow I managed to miss the fact that Zack had posted for nearly two weeks. Hurray for the distractions of school and visiting lovers... -ahem- Anyway, to the task at hand...)

Cloud sighed and shook his head softly at both Barret's words and Tifa's interjection, seeming to disapprove of both. "No one appreciates sarcasm anymore..." He muttered under his breath. Beside that was the fact that Tifa should have known better than to intercede in his and Barret's interactions. They'd been fighting since day one, and that was simply their dynamic. Cloud's personal goal was never to say a nice word to the man when they were in good standing. At least, not a sincerely mean word, but certainly no overly sweet ones either.

Snapping out of one of his first musing moments in months, Cloud refocused on the task at hand. "How do we get it to follow us? Well, if the wounds we already inflicted on it aren't enough to make it want revenge, we'll just have to find a stick and poke it." Pulling another materia out of his pocket, he tossed Zack the small yellow bauble. "Low-level Thunder materia. We'll just sting it a bit every time it starts wandering away from following us."

[barret]

"That aught-ta work, ya spiky bastards." Barret shouted, he was high-tailing it to the edge of the town, letting energy charge for his microlaser and the materia he had attached to his weapon.

This day was a real disaster, and Barret could only hope that the small dog that was waiting for his Marlene wouldn't be all scared and make a mess in it's fucking box.

(so less muse then normal. Zack, Cloud, kick it's damn ass already.)

[Zack Fair]

Zack caught the materia, gripping it tightly as he shot off a bolt at the creature, making it yelp in pain, an awkward sound coming from such a massive creature. The roar of anger that followed was much more fitting.

"Come on, ugly! You can't really be afraid of a couple of guys with big swords, can you?" He shouted from below, the beast turning its head in their direction. With a screech, it began to move, its destroyed wings not able to keep it in the air for long, it moved in flapping hops, trying its hardest to get air as it followed the two soldiers. "Come on, let's move." He said, grabbing Cloud's arm and proceeding to run in a separate direction from Barret and Tifa, though he kept close to Barret's. He would lead the beast out of town a short distance from barret to give him a clear shot of the beast without the two soldiers in the way. Pricking the monster with a few more lightning bolts, he tried his best to hurry with cloud.