Chapter 5: The Reunion

***

"Thank Planet for Asterisks." Cait Sith said. Reeve put down his Cait Sith communicator and put the toysaurus on the ground while waiting for AVALANCHE to arrive.

"I love this thing." Reeve said as he flipped the communicator.

"Uh, sir?" A soldier said.

"Yes?"

"That’s been said before in another story."

"Oh. I’ll be sure not to say that again."

Just then, the doors opened as Barret Wallace, AVALANCHE leader extraordinair, stepped in.

"Wad up Foo?" Barret said as he placed his gym bag down and sat in a chair across the long table from Reeve.

"Same old Barret. How long has it been?"

"Exactly one year, two months, and six days." Red XIII walked in and sat himself down next to Barret. "It’s good to see you two again."

"Nice to see you too Red. You haven’t changed much."

"Ya still look like some Indian dog."

"What the %^&* are you all just sitting around for?! Let’s get this damn thing over with! And where’s my goddamn tea?!" Cid ranted as he stepped through the double glass doors.

Red smiled, Barret laughed and Reeve replied. "Nice to see you again Cid. I know I’ve spoken with you recently, but I don’t think you’ve seen Barret or Red in a while."

"Nice to see you again numbskulls. Where’s the rest of the damn gang?"

"Right here." Vincent stepped in, death penalty loaded.

"It’s da vampire." Barret grinned.

"Whats up Drac?" Cid asked as he sat down near Red.

"Long time no see Vincent." Red said as he ignored the whole vampire joke.

"Please, have a seat Vincent. The gang has almost been reunited." Reeve said as he folded his fingers over each other.

Vincent glared at Cid and Barret and sat down next to Barret. "Good to see you all again. Where’s the spiky one?"

"That bitch? He ain’t here yet?" Cid sipped some tea that a soldier had gotten him.

"How you know hes comin foo?" Barret said.

"If these %^$^ers made me come, there sure as hell makin him come." Cid sipped again.

"It seems like you didn’t wish to come." Red said to Cid.

"I must agree." Vincent said as he reloaded his guns from his cape.

"It’s because Cid is getting married soon." Reeve replied coolly.

"Cid?! Married?!" Vincent gasped.

"You going soft on us hitch?" Barret grinned.

"Wow! Who’s the lucky bride?" Red asked.

"You %$#! It was supposed to be a surprise! You’d be getting an invitation soon." He glanced over at Reeve. "But noooooooo! Mister Pussy Cat had to open his big trap!" Cid yelled.

"To answer your question Red, he’s getting married to Shera." Reeve said.

"You should be honored Cid. Your lucky to have a girl." Vincent replied.

"Heh. Even I have a girl, unlike you losers. At one time Cloud had two!" Barret said.

There was silence for a couple of minutes. Remembering the old days of fighting. Or just the olden days. Everyone sighed at once.

"It’s too bad Aeris couldn’t make it. " Red said finally. The other four nodded.

The doors opened and Cloud and Tifa walked in.

"Hey, what’s with the silence?" Cloud asked.

Tifa ran over to the table and smiled a huge smile. " Hi guys! Long time no see!" She hugged everyone one of them. "Oooh! I missed you guys sooo much!" Cloud laughed.

"O.K.! Enough with the reunion shit! We can do this after I get back to Shera! Now what the ^%$# is going on Reeve?!" Cid finally broke the eerie silence and Tifa’s hugs.

"What about Yuffie?" Vincent asked.

"What about her?" Barret replied.

"We can’t start without her." Red XIII said.

"She’s not coming. I know Yuffie, and you guys should to." Cloud sat down besides Reeve.

"WHATS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?!" Yuffie burst through the double doors and sat down beside Vincent. "I don’t have a vehicle or I’m not super fast like you guys!"

Cid took a puff of his cigarette. "Get a damn chocobo."

"It’s nice to see you again Yuffie. I know we haven’t seen each other since we had that celebration party and we relocated Aeris last year. I have to admit I missed you all to."

"Who could miss your scrawny ShinRa ass?" Cid laughed.

"Ahem. Anyway, you’re all probably wondering why I have summoned the existing members of AVALANCHE to Jonun. As you all are aware of, a meteor fell into the inner sea a week ago. On the night of April 18, the ShinRa airship fleet, led by Cid, struck the meteor with a barrage of missiles, blowing it into several pieces. The pieces fell all over the world and ShinRa rescue teams are helping the people of those cases. The main piece thou, about the size of one fourth of Jonun, fell into the sea. We fear that it may be carrying an alien life form, possibly another JENOVA. If you watched the broadcast of the news on April 19, you’ll know why JENOVA is such a feared beast.-"

"Ahem. I think we know that first hand, Cait, err Mr. President." Cloud interrupted.

"Yes. Anyway, all of us, I using Cait Sith here, will investigate, terminate, and eliminate any possible threat of alien life. I think that’s clear for a mission objective. Tomorrow we will go through the Midgar ruins through the Midgar dam into the Sea area. We then will use a ShinRa sub, being shipped by airship to investigate."

Barret raised his hand. "Why don’t we just ride in da airship instead of going through da damn dam?"

"Does it look like the Highwind can carry the sub and your fat ass?!" Cid slammed the table. "This is putting enough stress on her already!"

"Well, we defeated Sephiroth for crying out load. I don’t think a few monsters in the ruins will cause us any harm." Cloud folded his arms.

"I agree with Reeve. I don’t like flying." Yuffie said.

"Maybe we ought to rename ourselves. Perhaps Alien busters?" Red XIII stated.

"That’s a dumb name. How about cloud’s heroes?" Cloud said.

"What you talking bout foo?! AVALANCHE stays AVALANCHE, for memories of Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie." Barret slammed the table with his gun arm.

"That is all. Now it was nice seeing you guys and when this is over, I’ll make plans to spend time with you, but I am president you see." Reeve got up.

"We understand." Tifa got up and hugged reeve. "It was nice seeing you again."

"Right. Like wise. I’ll see you all tomorrow. Busy, busy, busy." Reeve walked out of the room.

Tifa sat down and started talking about the olden days. Soon all of them were talking about old times and they laughed and cried until well into the night.