Dust baked in the midday sun. The Sector 6 wasteland was a sea of rust and silence, broken only by the rhythmic, agonizing sound of heavy breathing.
"Two hundred... and one."
Zack's boots hit the dirt with the force of falling anvils. The dark blue, two-hundred-pound Turtle School shirt clung to him, soaked in sweat. Every step was a battle against gravity.
A few feet away, Yuffie was doing handstand walks. The fifty-pound wristbands made her arms tremble violently, her face purple with exertion. "I am... the wind... I am... the very wealthy wind..." she chanted, trying to motivate herself with thoughts of stolen Materia.
Ryu sat cross-legged on the hood of a crushed Shinra transport truck, eating a family-sized bag of sour cream and onion chips. He wasn't sweating.
"Knees higher, Zack!" Ryu called out cheerfully, tossing a chip into the air and catching it in his mouth. "You're dragging your heels! If Sephiroth was here, he'd have sliced your hair off by now!"
Zack groaned, forcing his knees up an inch higher. "Sephiroth... doesn't... wear depleted uranium!"
"That's why you're gonna beat him!" Ryu cheered.
Two miles away, perched atop a skeletal, half-finished support pillar, three figures watched the training session through high-powered binoculars.
"I don't get paid enough for this," Reno sighed. He leaned back, adjusting his goggles, his unbuttoned Shinra suit flapping in the hot wind. "Babysitting the Executive's pet monster. Why didn't Tseng take this shift?"
Rude stood perfectly still beside him, arms crossed, bald head gleaming in the sun. He didn't answer. He just adjusted his dark sunglasses.
Crouched below them was a teenage girl. She wore a standard Turk suit that looked a size too small for her acrobatic frame, her short, auburn hair blowing across her face. Cissnei. The youngest prodigy in the Department of Administrative Research.
"Target is consuming his third bag of synthetic carbohydrates," Cissnei reported into a small recorder, peering through her scope. "Subjects Zack Fair and Yuffie Kisaragi are showing a 40% increase in muscle density over the last forty-eight hours. The weighted clothing is having an absurd physiological effect."
"Yeah, yeah," Reno waved a hand, lighting a cigarette. "Just don't let Scarlet find out her little angel is hanging out with the Wutai rat again, or she'll have us executed. We're just here to observe."
"Are you sure about that?"
Reno froze.
The voice didn't come from his earpiece. It came from directly behind his left ear.
Reno drops his cigarette. Rude's sunglasses slide down his nose. Cissnei whips around, her hand flying to the massive shuriken strapped to her back.
Ryu was sitting on the rusted steel beam next to them. He was holding the bag of chips out.
"Want one?" Ryu asked. "You guys have been up here for three hours. Your Ki is super tense. It's bad for your digestion."
Reno slowly turned his head. His eyes were wide. "How... how did you get up here? We didn't even see you move."
"Instant Transmission," Ryu lied smoothly. (He didn't know the technique yet, but he was just moving really, really fast). "Anyway, if you're gonna stalk me, you should at least join the workout! Scarlet told me to not train with grunts, but you guys are Turks! Elite black ops! That counts as high-class training, right?"
"We are strictly on observation duty," Cissnei said, trying to maintain her professional Turk composure, though her heart was hammering. The boy had bypassed all her enhanced senses.
"Observation is boring," Ryu grinned. He reached into his deep gi pockets.
Clank. Clank. Clank.
Ryu pulled out three dark blue vests. He tossed one to Reno, one to Rude, and one to Cissnei.
"Put 'em on," Ryu commanded. The playful innocence vanished from his eyes for a split second, replaced by the terrifying, unyielding aura of an apex predator.
Reno caught the vest. His arms plummeted, his knuckles smashing into the steel beam. "Gah! What the hell is this?! A neutron star?!"
"One hundred pounds," Ryu beamed, his innocent smile returning instantly. "Now jump down. We're doing laps."
Rude silently picked up his vest. He slipped it over his massive shoulders. His knees buckled slightly, but he stayed standing. He gave a single, respectful nod to Ryu.
"Show-off," Reno muttered, struggling to lift the fabric.
Cissnei strapped the vest over her suit. The weight was crushing. It forced the air from her lungs. But she was a Turk. She wouldn't show weakness to a twelve-year-old.
"Fine," Cissnei grunted. "A training exercise. We can write it off as field testing."
Down in the Wasteland
"Four... hundred..." Zack wheezed.
"Whoa!" Yuffie stopped her handstands, dropping to her feet. She pointed at the three new arrivals staggering into the clearing behind Ryu. "The suits! They followed me from Wutai!"
"Relax, they're with me," Ryu clapped his hands. "Alright class, listen up! These are the Turks! They're assassins, spies, and kidnappers! Which means they have excellent footwork! Today's lesson is evasion!"
Reno leaned against a rock, sweating through his suit. "I'm going to shoot him. Rude, I'm going to shoot the kid."
"Negative," Rude rumbled. "Scarlet would skin us."
"Okay, evasion training!" Ryu announced. He cracked his knuckles. "I'm going to throw rocks. If a rock hits you, you do fifty pushups. With the weights on."
Cissnei frowned. "Rocks? That's child's play."
"Begin," Ryu said.
He didn't bend down. He just flicked his boot against the dirt. A pebble shot into the air. Ryu backhanded it.
FWOOSH.
The pebble broke the sound barrier. It blurred into a streak of gray, ripping through the air and grazing Cissnei's shoulder pad. The kinetic force spun her around, knocking her flat onto her back in the dust.
Cissnei lies in the dirt, her eyes blank with shock. Did he just fire a pebble like a sniper rifle bullet?!
"Fifty pushups, new girl!" Ryu chirped.
Reno swallowed hard. "Okay. Evasion. Got it."
For the next twenty minutes, the Sector 6 wasteland turned into a warzone. Ryu flicked, kicked, and threw pebbles with the velocity of a Vulcan cannon.
Zack, used to the weight, was actually dodging them. His Ki was flaring slightly, giving him pre-cognitive flashes of danger. Yuffie was using her ninja acrobatics, twisting her small body through the barrage.
The Turks, however, were suffering. Reno was rolling in the dirt, his expensive suit ruined, swearing loudly. Rude was calmly taking the hits, already dropping to the ground to do his two-hundredth pushup. Cissnei was panting, her pride shattered, pushing her heavy body off the ground.
"You guys rely too much on your eyes!" Ryu yelled, floating a few feet off the ground. "Feel the air pressure! Feel my intent! Ki isn't just about blowing things up; it's about connection!"
"He's a demon," Reno sobbed into the dirt. "He's a spiky-haired demon."
Suddenly, Ryu stopped.
He dropped to the ground. His ears twitched. His tail, which had been swishing lazily, went completely rigid.
"Class dismissed," Ryu said, his voice dropping an octave.
Zack collapsed. Yuffie cheered.
"Get up," Ryu commanded, not looking at them. He stared out into the twisting labyrinth of rusted pipes to their left. "Your heart rates are up. Your muscles are warm. Good. Because company is here."
Cissnei forced herself to her feet, her Turk instincts kicking in despite the crushing weight of the vest. She reached for her shuriken. "Who?"
BOOOM.
A massive explosion rocked the wasteland. A rusted Shinra transport flew through the air, crashing into the dirt just fifty feet from them.
From the smoke, a dozen figures emerged.
They wore dark, tactical gear, completely unbranded. Their faces were obscured by black masks. They carried heavy, military-grade assault rifles and massive, crude broadswords.
Leading them was a mountain of a man. He was built like a tank, wearing a sleeveless leather vest. His right arm was a massive, hydraulic mechanical claw.
Shears. Executive Commander of AVALANCHE.
"Well, well, well," Shears' voice boomed over the wasteland. He crushed a rock in his mechanical claw, letting the dust fall. "Intelligence said Scarlet's little lapdog was out here playing in the dirt. But to find two Turks and a SOLDIER pup too? This is a jackpot for the Planet."
"AVALANCHE," Reno hissed, drawing his electromagnetic baton. "The eco-terrorists. They've been bombing Sector 8 all month."
"We are the immune system of Gaia!" one of the masked soldiers yelled. "Death to Shinra!"
Ryu tilts his head, picking his ear with his pinky finger. Immune system? Do they fight viruses? That sounds cool.
"Listen up, eco-freaks," Reno stepped forward, spinning his baton, trying to look cool despite being covered in mud and wearing a 100-pound vest. "You're trespassing on Shinra property. Surrender, or we'll—"
"Kill them all," Shears ordered.
The AVALANCHE soldiers raised their rifles.
"Wait!" Ryu held up a hand.
The soldiers paused, confused by the child commanding the battlefield.
Ryu turned around, looking at Zack, Yuffie, Reno, Rude, and Cissnei.
"Lesson three," Ryu smiled, his eyes flashing with the thrill of combat. "Live combat under extreme gravity. You five take the grunts with the guns."
"Are you insane?!" Yuffie shrieked. "They have guns! I have a fifty-pound rock tied to my wrist!"
"Use your Ki!" Ryu yelled back. "Push the energy to your skin! A bullet can't pierce a strong aura! Trust yourselves!"
"And what about the giant with the robot arm?" Zack asked, drawing his broadsword. The blade felt heavier today, his arms screaming in protest.
Ryu turned back to face Shears. He settled into the Turtle School stance, his feet sliding apart, fists raised. A faint, white, pulsing energy began to bleed into the air around him. The temperature in the wasteland spiked.
"The big guy," Ryu grinned, "is mine."
Shears scoffed. "A kid. Scarlet's secret weapon is a brat. Fine. I'll crush you myself!"
Shears charged. The ground shook with every step. He pulled his hydraulic arm back, the pistons hissing, preparing to deliver a blow that could shatter a steel vault.
Ryu didn't move. He let Shears close the distance.
The massive claw swung down, aimed directly at Ryu's head.
"Die for the Planet!" Shears roared.
Clang.
The hydraulic arm stopped dead. It didn't hit the ground. It didn't hit Ryu.
Ryu had caught the massive, crushing claw with a single hand. He wasn't even pushed back an inch.
Shears' eyes went wide beneath his bandana. He pushed harder, the hydraulics screaming, blowing steam into the air. Nothing happened. It was like trying to punch a mountain.
"You're strong," Ryu evaluated, looking at the mechanical arm. "But it's fake strength. You rely on the machine. Your real arm is weak."
Ryu squeezed his fingers.
CRUNCH.
The reinforced steel of the hydraulic claw buckled, crumpled, and shattered. Oil sprayed into the dirt.
Shears howled in shock, stumbling backward, clutching his ruined prosthetic. "What... what are you?!"
Behind them, the AVALANCHE grunts opened fire.
"Move!" Zack yelled.
Zack flared his Ki. The warm ember in his stomach exploded into his limbs. For a moment, the 200-pound shirt felt like nothing. He vanished, reappearing amidst the gunfire. He swung the flat of his broadsword, knocking two soldiers into the air.
"I am the wind!" Yuffie screamed. She channeled her tiny spark of Ki into her legs. She bounded off a rusted pipe, flipping over the bullets. She landed on a soldier's shoulders and used her weighted wristbands to deliver a devastating double axe-handle strike to his head, knocking him out instantly.
The Turks, meanwhile, were fighting dirty.
Rude ducked a sword swing. He couldn't move fast with the vest, so he didn't try. He caught the soldier's wrist, pivoted, and used a judo throw to slam the man head-first into the dirt.
Reno dodged a bullet, groaning as his spine popped under the weight. "I'm billing Shinra for a chiropractor!" He swung his baton, sending a shock of electricity through an AVALANCHE soldier, dropping him to the ground.
Cissnei, adapting the fastest, unhooked her massive shuriken. She didn't throw it; the weight of her vest made that impossible. Instead, she used it as a shield, deflecting bullets before stepping in close and delivering a flawless, high-kick to a soldier's jaw.
Back with Ryu, Shears was panicking. He pulled a massive, high-yield explosive charge from his belt.
"If I go down, I'm taking you and Scarlet's ambitions with me!" Shears yelled, arming the bomb. "For the Lifestream!"
He threw it directly at Ryu.
Ryu sighed. He didn't punch the bomb. He didn't dodge it.
He opened his mouth.
"Kiai."
A concentrated beam of pure sound and air pressure erupted from Ryu's mouth. It hit the bomb mid-air. It didn't just stop the explosive; it caught it in a slipstream of force and shot it directly upward, straight into the stratosphere.
Five seconds later, a massive explosion painted the sky in clouds of orange and black, miles above Midgar.
Shears dropped to his knees. His weapon was gone. His ultimate attack was literally yelled into space. He looked at the boy, realizing the terrifying truth.
This wasn't a Shinra weapon. This was a force of nature.
"You guys," Ryu said, walking up to the trembling AVALANCHE leader. "You talk a lot about the Planet. But if you keep blowing up cities, you're just gonna hurt the people living on it."
Ryu tapped Shears lightly on the forehead with two fingers.
Shears' eyes rolled back, and the massive man collapsed into the dirt, out cold.
Silence fell over the wasteland, broken only by the groans of the unconscious AVALANCHE soldiers.
Zack leaned heavily on his sword, panting. Yuffie fell onto her back, starfish-style, completely exhausted. The Turks looked at each other, battered, bruised, but undeniably alive.
"We... we won," Zack breathed, a massive grin spreading across his face. "Ryu! Did you see my speed?! The aura blocked the bullets!"
"Seven out of ten!" Ryu gave a thumbs up. "Your form is still sloppy, but your energy output was great!"
Reno ripped the weighted vest off, throwing it into the dirt. "I'm done. I am officially done. Scarlet can fire me. I'm going to a bar."
"Wait!" Ryu ran over to Reno. "A bar? Are you going to 7th Heaven?"
Reno blinked. "Uh. Yeah? It's the only decent place in the Sector 7 slums."
"Take me with you!" Ryu cheered, his stomach giving a loud, thunderous rumble that sounded exactly like the bomb that had just gone off in the sky. "Tifa promised me free burgers for life! And I'm starving!"
Cissnei watched the boy. He had just dismantled the leader of the most dangerous terrorist organization on the planet with two fingers, and now he was begging for burgers.
He is an anomaly, Cissnei thought, a faint smile touching her lips. A very hungry anomaly.
"Alright, class dismissed for real!" Ryu yelled, floating a few feet in the air. "Zack, Yuffie, keep the weights on! Turks, you guys have to wear them on your next mission, or I'm telling Scarlet you were slacking!"
"I hate you," Reno muttered, already dreading the walk back to the city.
As they marched back toward the neon glow of Midgar, Ryu looked up at the sky. The explosion had cleared a patch of the smog, revealing a few stars.
Planet Vegeta is gone, Ryu thought, feeling a rare moment of peace. But this planet... Gaia... it's got good food, good fighters, and fun friends.
And with the thought of Tifa's massive burgers, Ryu's speed doubled, leaving his exhausted students in the dust.
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