SECTOR 7 SLUMS: AVALANCHE HIDEOUT
The whole gang piles into the hideout and Barret kicks out all the lowlifes and barflies waisting the night away in the bar. They all scatter into the streets and Barret waits impatiently and angrily for Cloud at the front entrance of their hide out.
Cloud approaches a strange pair standing in the middle of the path. One man is attempting to massage (I think that's what he's doing) the other. He says, "Explosions! Explosions! Oh Man! AVALANCHE is so cool!" The other asks Cloud, "Did you hear?" and Cloud replies, "No What?". The man being patted on the back informs, "There's a news update. They say that there was a terrorist explostion up above, and that this time it was a Mako Reactor!! You know what this means?" he asks Cloud. He continues, "Ya see, I keep on top of these things, an' if ya ask me...If you knock out Midgar's power, then all of its computers and signals are going to be knocked out too. Finacially there must've been about a gillion gil worth of damage." "An' that ain't all!!" he adds. "A lotta innocent people got killed too! If the explosion had been in the middle of the night, that woulda been one thing. At least the people coulda gone in their sleep."
Cloud reflected a moment on this, but rationalized that it was just a consequence of the mission.
Standing between a shoddily built metal building and a sign were two more individuals. One of the two drunks was shaking his fists at the air and had very bright red hair. The other wore a black woollen cap. One says, "Oh Jesus!! What the hell's wrong tonight!! I thought that long blackout was strange. They say a Mako Reactor was destroyed above," he says. "I was jes sitin' here drinkin' watchin' the news by myself 'n' all of a sudden I get kicked outta the (fucking?) store. What's up with that!?" The man with the red hair slurrs, "Woo...ah geez, I'm blitzed. I jes love them homemade cocktails. But they sure do creep up on ya.
Cloud enters the building that the two drunks were near, and encounters a fellow inside who says, "Anyone talking to me must be a novice." Cloud replies, (Choice 1) "Yep, that's me." (OR) (Choice 2) I used to be with SOLDIER, the name's Cloud. To (Choice 2) the man responds by firing a weapon over his head and says, "Hmmph!! Well, I never heard or ya!" To (Choice 2) he responds by pointing his weapon at Cloud and says, "Don't act so big, amateur. Seein' as how I'm such a warm hearted guy, I'll show ya the ropes." He continues, "You come back here tomorrow. I got some things I gots ta do."
A thug in a red cap throwing something at the wall carps, "You dried up old geez. You tired? Why don't you rest up on the third floor of my house?" He nods at Cloud, "There's just one condition. You gotta give me some cash."
Before Cloud escapes from this lackluster parlor he is absconded by the shopkeeper who demands, "He, HEY! Waitaminit you!! You can't just walk outta here without buying somethin'... Might be unhealthy fer ya, if ya know what I mean," he taunts.
Cloud exits the rusted metal hotel/store/gunrange and enters the dusty street. He approaches Barret who is still waiting outside the hideout and blocking the entrance. He begrugingly says, "Ok! Go on ahead," then moves out of his way. As Cloud mosies on in, Barret snaps, "You! Cloud!! Get off your slow movin' ass!!"
Cloud enters the bar where Biggs and Wedge are enjoying a few cold ones. A little girl leaps over the counter and exclaims, "Papa!!" When she sees its only Cloud she runs into the corner. The female bartender (Tifa - First Appearance) rushes out after her and scolds, "Marlene! Aren't you going to say anything to Cloud?" They both turn around and approach Cloud. She is a beautiful young woman with long brown hair, a very feminine posture, and athletic build. Tifa smiles and says, "Welcome home, Cloud. Looks like everything went well."
She looks at him curiously, "Did you fight with Barret?" she asks.
Cloud responds (Choice 1) "Yeah" (OR) (Choice 2) "Not this time"
To (Choice 2) Tifa responds, "Hmm. You've grown up. When you were little you used to get into fights at the drop of a hat." Tifa sees the flowers in Cloud's hand that he bought from the girl in street by the No. 1 reactor and says smiling at Cloud, "Flowers? How nice...You almost nver see them here in the slums." She infers that it is for her and says, "A flower for me? Oh Cloud, you shouldn't have..."
"No big." Cloud says and (Choice 1) gives it to Tifa (OR) (Choice 2) or gives it to Marlene.
In response to (Choice 1) she smiles and looks at him flirtaciously saying, "Thank you, Cloud. It smells wonderful. She looks at the drab condition of her bar and says, "Maybe I should fill the store with flowers."
Sitting at the table Wedge comments, "Tifa really knows how to cook. Mmm, mmm..." He asks Cloud, "Anyway, let me tell you somethin'" Cloud replies, (Choice 1) "About what?" (OR) (Choice 2) "I'm not interested in your stories." To (Choice 1) he says, "Tifa always lets me taste her cooking. And look at me now, I'm a rolly-polly." He chuckles, "Don't know whether I should be happy or sad. But it's the good fod and drinks that make this shop famous."
Jessie speaks, "Careless...You're all getting excited. Wonder what for...?" he poses.
Biggs taking back another quaff says, "Aaah!! Nothin' like that first drink after a job." He belches audibly. He offers Cloud a drink, "Why don't you have one too?" Cloud replies (Choice 1) "no" (OR) (Choice 2) "Yeah, why not?" (Choice 1) Biggs grins, "Oh!! That's more like it!!" He adds, "Even if you were with SOLDIER, you're still a rookie here. So you'd better listen to whatever I tell ya!"
Just that moment Barret comes stomping in, all the others sitting at the table stand, and Marlene shouts, "Papa, welcome home!"
She runs into her daddy's arms and he puts her on top of his shoulder. Tifa brushes her hair away from her face and asks Barret, "You all right, Barret?"
"Great!!" he replies.
Barret gestures to the secret shaft under the pinball machine and says to his team, "Get in here, fools!! We're startin' the meetin'!!"
He with Marlene activates the shaft and Biggs, Jessie, and Wedge follow. Before he talks with them Cloud walks up to the bar to see Tifa. "Sit down." she declares. Cloud sits on the bar stool and she asks, "How about...something to drink?" Cloud responds, (Choice 1) "I don't feel like it" (OR) (Choice 2) "Give me something hard." Cloud decides to have a drink (Choice 2) and Tifa says, "Just a minute. I'll make one for you." She makes a beverage for Cloud and looks at him caringly, "You know, I'm relieved you made it back safely," she says to him. Cloud kicks back the drink and poses, "What's with you all of the sudden? That wasn't even a tough job."
"I guess not..." she returns. "You were in SOLDIER."
He kicks back another gulp. Tifa remarks, "Make sure you get your pay from Barret."
Cloud rather unaffected by any devotion to AVALANCHE's cause and feeling like it is an effort in futility says, "Don't worry. Once I get that money, I'm outta here."
Cloud steps off the bar stool and Tifa with a worried look in her eyes comments, "Cloud, are you feeling all right?
Cloud seeing that he may have been caught off guard with that remark regroups a worthy answer, "...yeah...why?"
Tifa seeing his the rather tattered sense of ambition in his eyes says, "No reason. You just look a little tired I guess."
Cloud walks over to the pinball machine and activates the secret elevator and steps into the underground hideout.
Jessie is typing at the computer making calculations for their next mission and looks at the TV in the middle of the room. "Oops," he says. "Hey look the news..What a blast. Think it was all because of my bomb? But all I really did was just make it like the computer told me." President Shinra is on the news denouncing the act, "Today the No.1 reactor was bombed. The terrorist group AVALANCHE has claimed responsibility for the bombing. It is expected that AVALANCHE will continue its reign of terror. But citizens or Midgar, there is no need to fear. I have immediately moobilized SOLDIER to protect our citizenry against this senseless violence. Thank you and good night." Seeing the unanticipated damage he remarked, "Oh no! I must've made a miscalculation some where."
Wedge sitting at their planning table asks Cloud, "You think I'm a little too uptight?" Cloud replies, (Choice 1) "Yeah..." (OR) (Choice 2) No... In response to (Choice 2) Wedge says, "Well, that's ok. Don't worry about me. I don't look like it, but I'm a coward at heart."
Cloud approaches Marlene, Barret, who is punching a heavy bag hanging in the cornerm and Jessie who is leaning at the planning table. Barret turns toward Cloud and remarks, "Yo, Cloud! There's somethin' I wanna ask ya. Was there anyone from SOLDIER fighting us today?
Cloud shakes his head, "None, " he says. "I'm positive."
"You sound pretty sure," Barret comments.
Cloud nods his head and reiterates his last statement, "If there was anyone from SOLDIER you wouldn't be standing here now." Cloud decided to no show any weakness in his capabilities as a fighter.
Anger begins to swell within Barret. "Don't go thinkin' you so bad jes cuz you was in SOLDIER." he is infuriated by Cloud allegience to that Shinra military. Jessie restrains Barret from pummeling Cloud into the ground. Cloud turns away from Barret and falls silent.
Barret body slams Jessie into the wall.
"Yeah your strong. " Barret growls. "Probably all them guys in SOLDIER are. But don't forget that your skinny ass's workin' for AVALANCHE now! Don't get no ideas 'bout hangin' on to Shinra.
Cloud needed to defend his statements or he would look weak. "Stayin' with Shinra? You asked me a question and I answered it...that's all." Cloud walks right up to Barret and looks him square in the eye. "I'm going upstairs. I want to talk about my money."
Barret seeths with rage at every fringe of his being, but is restrained only by he realization that if it wasn't for Cloud, their mission would never have been accomplished. "Shucks!! ...money..."
Tifa hearing the commotion from upstairs runs inside the mission planning room and approaches Cloud who appears to be leaving. "Wait, Cloud!" she shouts.
"Tifa! Let him go!" Barret breaks in. "Looks like he still misses the Shinra!"
Cloud turns to Barret, "Shut up! I don't care about either Shinra or SOLDIER!" He walks to the center of the room. "But don't get me wrong! I don't care about AVALANCHE or the Planet for that matter!"
Barret turns to the heavy bag and gives it a flurry of punches. Cloud approaches Tifa, who is disapponted with Cloud for angering Barret, "Straighten things up with everyone for me," she says to him.
Cloud approaches Wedge. "You say you don't care, but you came to talk to me. Cloud...you just want to be friends, isn't that right?" Cloud responds, (Choice 1) Blow off his compassion (Choice 2) says, "I really don't care." After Cloud blows off (Choice 1) his sincerity Wedge says, "Yeah, well. You look kind of lonely to me. If you ever got anything you want to get of you chest, you can always talk to me."
Cloud walks over to Jessie. He says, "Money...must have been a lot of it. Sure! Well, what the hell? It's a verbal agreement Now let me figure this out. Oh stop it, Cloud! Did you hear me?"
Cloud walks onto the secret pinball machine lift and activates it. He enters the bar about leave AVALANCHE behind, and Tifa comes up and accosts him before he is able to move out the door. "Listen, CLoud. I'm asking you. Please join us."
Cloud turns away toward the door and shakes his head but will not face Tifa, "Sorry, Tifa..." She approches him and pleads, "The planet is dying. Slowly but surely it's dying. Someone has to do something."
Cloud turns around toward Tifa, shrugs his shoulders, and says, "So let Barret and his buddies do something about it. It's got nothin' to do with me." He turns around and moves closer to the door.
"So! You're really leaving!?" she beckons. "You're just going to walk right out ignoring you childhood friend!?
Cloud again turns toward Tifa in confusion he asks, "What? (Choice 1) How can you say that. (OR) (Choice 2) ...Sorry. To (Choice 2) Tifa sways her body and replies, "...You forgot the promise, too."
"Promise?" Cloud asks, not ever remembering such an event.
Tifa lowers her head in disappointment, "So you DID forget." She walk up to him. "Remember...Cloud. It was seven years ago..." Cloud folds his arms and Tifa recounts their childhood relationship.
(Memory Image Scene) Tifa and Cloud are standing in front of an old wooden well in a small viennese village. Tifa says, "Look, the well. Do you remember?"
Cloud pauses to think for a moment. "Yeah...back then. " He continues, "I thought you would never come, and I was getting a little cold."
(Flashback Scene) Young Cloud is sitting wistfully on the edge of the well and young Tifa peeks around the corner behind him, "Sorry I'm late." she says. She sits down next to him. "You said you wanted to talk to me about something?"
"Come this spring...I'm leaving this town for Midgar," Cloud says.
"...All boys are leaving our town," she replies.
Cloud shakes his head. "But I'm different from all of them. I'm not just going to find a job." He stands and walks toward her. "I want to join SOLDIER." he boasts. He turns to face the horison. "I'm going to be the best there is, just like Sephiroth!" (First appearence of name: Sephiroth)
"Sephiroth...The Great Sephiroth," Tifa comments. Cloud walks around the well and stand atop the highest part of it. "Isn't it hard to join SOLDIER?" Tifa adds.
"...I probably won't be able to come back to this town for a while." Cloud remarks.
Tears start to escape from the corner of Tifa's eyes. "Will you be in the newspapers if you do well?" she asks.
"I'll try." Cloud comforts.
Tifa turns and looks up at Cloud. "Hey, why don't we make a promise? Umm, if you get really famous and I'm ever in a bind...You come save me, all right?"
"What?" Cloud quizzes.
"Whenever I'm in trouble, my hero will come and rescue me. I want to at least experience that once."
Cloud confused says, "What?
Tifa looks up at him again, "Come on--! Promise me----!"
Cloud nods in agreement and says, "Alright...I promise."
the camera pans into the sky and a shooting star streaks across an immaculate night sky.
(Scenery Returns to Bar Hall Where Cloud is Standing Near the Door with Tifa in Front of him)
"You remember now, don't you...our promise?" Tifa comments.
Cloud realizing her memory was better than his regarding his time in Nibelheim and their relationship says with a sense of self pity in his voice, "I'm not a hero and I'm not famous. I can't keep...the promise."
She looks closer at him. "But you got your childhood dream, didn't you? You joined SOLDIER." Cloud scratches his head and Tifa turns back toward the lift to the mission planning room then turns back toward Cloud. "So come on! You've got to keep your promise..."
Barret comes climbing out of the shaft to the planning room from below and jumps behind Tifa and says, "Wait a sec big-time SOLDIER!" Tifa moves out of his way. "A promise is a promise! Here!!" Barret throws a bag of money (1500 gil) at Cloud and he picks it up."
Cloud taunts remembering not to show weakness, "This is my pay? Don't make me laugh."
Tifa bewildered by his remark says, "What? Then you'll...!!"
"You got the next mission lined up? I'll do it for 3000."
Barret shakes his arms in frustration, "What....!?"
Tifa turns toward him and calms him. "It's ok, it's ok." She whispers in his ear, "We're really hurting for help, right?
Barret grunts, "That money's for Marlene's schoolin'..." He walks away from Tifa and turns toward Cloud and snaps, "2000!" at him. He turns around not wanting to face Cloud.
Tifa approaches Cloud and smiles, "Thanks, Cloud."
Cloud spends the night in AVALANCHE hideout. Go to Next Epic Scene