Assassins in Gaia

Desmond led the group through the beaten path up towards the empty mansion. He did not know why but he became very alert and tense half way through the walk. Ace became more awake sensing something was wrong and just like that Cloud and Tifa woke up from their exhaustion and became alert as well. It was hard not to become wary with the heavy tension and wariness in the air. The four of them started to walk more quietly towards the mansion, two of them wondering what was going to happen. As they got closer to the gate, they saw what looked like normal looking bats. At least, they looked normal till they opened their eyes and showed the mako glow.

Tifa gasped, "More experiments."

Ace snarled lowly, "Looks like it."

Cloud took out his blades, "What were they thinking leaving them here out in the open?"

Desmond took out his weapons, "Well, how about one last round of fighting before sleep? It'll be good training, I say."

Ace, "Sure!"

Tifa nodded, "Right!"

Cloud, "Count me in!"

Desmond looked at the monsters with yellow glowing eyes, "There are eight of them so everyone take two each. From what I can see three have fire, three have water and two have poison as their elements. Wait, all of them have poison as an element, so watch out for the poison attacks. As for the other two elements only three of them have fire and three water, should be interesting to fight."

Ace, "Poison bat?"

Tifa grumbled, "More like Evil Poison Head."

Cloud deadpanned, "Well, they certainly aren't cute heads."

The four of them attacked the monsters that had started to move towards them with the intention of having dinner. Desmond moved towards the two in the back that he knew had a water and fire elemental after dodging the ones in front. Cloud took on the two infront of them, he sliced their wings up making them have a harder time to fly. Tifa took the ones on Ace's right, she punched one of the bat like monster so hard, it shot off and hit the wall of the mansion getting knocked out. She then dodged the other one that almost bit on her hand. Ace had to bite his lips from shouting K.O. at the instant win. Ace fought with the other two especially the one that had a fire elemental.

He used a fireball to burn one of the bats to a crisp but the second one had an affinity for fire making it a bit difficult to burn. Desmond used the lightning materia to kill the bat with a water affinity, he shot a powerful Thundaga, to burn it and almost got the other one. The one that escaped had a fire affinity and used mini fireballs to attack Desmond that he had to dodge. As Desmond dodged his eyes fell on a few sharp pebbles that he decided to pick up and throw at the bat as distractions. While the bat was busy attacking the pebbles hitting it painfully, Desmond got closer to the bat and in one swift movement cut it's head off from it's body.

Cloud was having a fun time with his own two bat thingy monsters. Even after being unable to fly properly they still kept attacking him trying to bite him with their fangs. The blond admittedly might have been taking his frustration out on the monsters. He was exhausted, sleep deprived and had the suspicion that his dad might have been killed intentionally, ringing in the back of his head. Cloud noticed their fangs dripped from poison and avoided them. It didn't stop him from fighting however.

Cloud shouted, "Don't let them bite you. Their poison is in their fangs."

Tifa growled, "No wonder, they keep trying to bite me."

Ace grumbled, "The hell!"

Tifa jumped away from a mouth that was about to chomp on her leg, "No, you don't!"

Desmond, "Cut their head off!"

Cloud held the blade tightly on his hands and dodged another bite attack only this time he swung his blade as he dodged cutting one of their heads off making the headless body fall. Ace was mumbling something that went along the lines of off with their heads. This left one more bat that was crawling towards Cloud with a hungry look on it's face. Cloud walked up to it before plunging his blade right above his heart.

Tifa was irritated with the bat, the damn thing kept trying to bite her bare hands, 'I am soooo getting myself some hand and leg armour after this. The modifications I made to this dress does not cover my limbs.'

The first bat she had punched had slumped against the wall but that left this second one that kept trying to bite her and flying. After a few minutes, she had figured out it's flight pattern and waited for it to swoop down again to bite her. This time however, she was ready and as she dodged another bite attack she swung her fist full speed against the bat and towards the ground. There was a small bat shaped indent on the ground from her punch. She breathed in and out slowly before getting up. She eyed the bat to ensure that it did not get up again before letting out a breath of relief.

Ace was dodging the fire balls that the bat was shooting at him. He had half wondered if it would get tired of shooting but decided he did not want to wait forever. He had been practicing with the Fire Materia, the longest and he decided to try a move that he had been learning. As he dodged another attack as he created a flame Phoenix and guided it behind the monster. The bat hissed when it realized there was an opponent behind him and turned to fight. The fire-bird and the bat clashed, dispersing the fire and knocking the monster down. Ace moved and sliced the monster's head off before he could recover from the daze he was in.

Desmond, "Is everyone okay?"

Cloud waved his hand, "Yeah."

Tifa sat on the ground, "I'm good."

Ace nodded, "Yup ~"

Desmond checked the corpse, "I got seven hundred Gil and a Fang from the three corpses."

Cloud hollered, "six hundred Gil and two Fangs!"

Tifa got up and checked hers, "I got eight hundred Gil, but no Fang."

Ace laughed, "I got lucky ~ Got four hundred Gil and a Healing Materia."

Cloud was staring at hm, "Materia? Seriously? From that thing?"

Tifa, "Talk about lucky."

Desmond, "If I didn't know better then I would say the Materia are attracted to you."

Ace, "Who knows maybe they are."

Cloud, "I would not be surprised at this point."

Ace turned to Tifa handing her the Healing materia, "Here Tif, you can keep this one and practice."

Tifa's eyes widened, "Eh? I wanted to find one of my own though."

Ace shrugged, "Use it for practice, once you get a Materia of your own you can return it or give it to another person to practice. Anyway, it's always better to practice with a Heal Materia first."

Tifa nodded, "That's not a bad idea, I guess."

Cloud smiled, "We can practice together if you want Tifa."

Tifa smiled grateful, "That would be appreciated Cloud."

Desmond looked around, "So we ready to enter?"

Ace looked at the mansion in front of them, "As ready as we will be I guess."

Tifa yawned, "I just want to sleep. I bet it is already midnight."

Cloud yawned as well, "I agree, need sleep."

Desmond could not help but bite back the coo threatening to come out as he watched Cloud rub his eyes. He's cousin in this world was adorable and he just wanted to wrap him up in blankets and hide him away from the cruel world. And now even Tifa had been added to the list of cuties to protect in his book. Ace smirked at him knowingly, Desmond just turned around and went to open the gate. He looked at the gate and noticed it was a simple lock and key gate. There were no extra protection or measures around, except for the creepy bats that is. Like that was not suspicious at all. He opened the gate and went inside followed by the other three and walked up the empty and creepy pathway to the door.

Desmond did not bother knocking and checked the door seeing it had another lock and went to pick lock it as well. The door to the large dark mansion creaked open and Desmond peered inside to check. He did not see any monsters or creepers lurking around in the hallway in front of him with his vision. Desmond nodded thanking their luck and motioned for everyone to enter the large dirty yet fancy hall. The four of them looked around the empty room and looked at the stairways leading up and downstairs. Ace led the tired teens up the stairs with Desmond on the back and they checked the first room. It was a room with a long table and chairs on its sides.

Ace, "Move!"

Cloud, "What the?"

Tifa, "Oh great dragons! What is that?"

Desmond, "Haunted cutlery."

Ace, "Move out, I'll try to paralyse it. Whatever it is."

Tifa, "Be careful."

Ace nodded and Desmond pulled the two kids out. They were already pushed beyond their limits today. Neither of them were in any shape or form to fight. Ace eyed the flying cutlery in front of him and was reminded of that one episode in an anime of monsters. A group of friends entered a tower and were accosted by ghost of the tower. Ace narrowed his eyes and noticed it was not exactly a ghost but a monster manipulating the items using magic.

Ace, 'Well, can't have you creating trouble for us.'

Tifa could not hear any noise after a while, "Do you think it's over?"

Desmond, "Ace would come out if it was."

Cloud, "Shouldn't we help?"

Desmond, "You two are barely able to stay awake as it is. So no, besides, Ace knows what he is doing."

Ace came out at that moment, "Well, I put the monster to sleep. It was annoyed we walked into it's territory."

Cloud yawned, "How did you figure that?"

Ace, "It was interestingly enough smart."

Tifa's eyes were starting to droop, "Oh!"

Desmond, "Okay, that's enough for tonight. I used the vision to check the rest of the floor. The other rooms are clear of any monsters and critters."

They decided to move on to the next hallway after that and found a room with a double bed. Desmond decided to take this room as it was closer to the exit and entrance. He then led the teens to another room filled with lace frills and Tifa decided to just lay down and promptly fell asleep. She could not fight against oblivion anymore. Desmond shook his head and searched for a blanket in the closet while making sure it was clear. While Desmond covered Tifa, Ace snorted and took Cloud with him to the last room that had two beds inside and after checking a bit Cloud decided to crash on it. Ace huffed and rummaged around the closet filled with blankets that were still in one piece, curiously enough.

Desmond checked on the three of them and after making sure they were alright, not poisoned and there were no hidden monsters anywhere, he locked the main door and returned to his current room for some well deserved rest. He sat on the bed and looked out the window that showed the town of Nibelheim. He noticed the towns clock about to ring at one o'clock, in the morning. It was already past midnight, no wonder Cloud and Tifa fell out cold in the beds once it was determined safe. Desmond decided to get some shut eye, while he can before getting up and exploring the mansion. He had noticed a heartbeat coming from the basement but was too exhausted to go check on it. Besides, it seemed like it was locked away, so it should be safe for them to sleep.

Desmond, 'I only hope Ace does not go exploring alone. Ancient artifact or not, better to work together then alone.'