Ramiel was equipping his team and they were all excitedly talking about their party.
"Okay everyone, let's talk about what our roles are." Tifa reigned them in and was obviously the leader of their little group.
"Alright, so we have some roles too?" Zack was amazed they already thought this through so much.
"Hehe~ it's because of this thing here though." Aerith took out a virtual reality head gear and explained that they used to play Ramiel's rpg all the time.
"So... Aerith is the black and white mage healing and main damage, Tifa is the monk who focuses on support and heavy blunt damage, while Cloud is the warrior tank." Zack recounted their roles.
"Umu, and you are the commando that can do all those because you don't have a specialty yet." Cloud nodded at his words.
"Then what's our party leader's role?" Zack pointed at Ramiel who was watching them strategize with a pleased expression.
"Oh? He's a special class called a dragoon. His main weapon is a halberd. Ramiel-nii specializes in divide and conquer tactics due to his speed." Tifa explained and Ramiel clapped at her.
"That's right, I specialize in crowd control. Though I can do everything all at once. While Alex loves scorched earth tactics. Just destroy everything." He chuckled and Zack broke into cold sweat with what they could do.
"So? What are we gonna do for now?" Zack asked and Ramiel hummed, thinking of their sync. Zack wasn't exactly experienced in fighting. Especially with groups.
"I guess we can check what you can do for now. Maybe a little spar with Aerith here?" He smirked once Zack looked at Aerith.
"Why though? Shouldn't it be Cloud or something? She's the mage of the group right?" Zack gave a pretty good reason.
Everybody tried hiding a laugh, as Aerith was obviously the least physically strong. But Zack is gonna learn today.
"It'll teach you how to deal with mages then, she'll be a great replacement for enemies that focus on ranged attack." Ramiel gave a fake reason why he picked Aerith.
"Why are you so apprehensive Zack? You scared of little old me?" Aerith teased him and he squinted his eyes. "I'll definitely beat you! I'm gonna be a hero after all."
"Excellent, then let's go to the training room." Ramiel led them. "Okay, let's go and battle!" Aerith was excited and wanted to beat up Zack.
Tifa then pulled on Ramiel's shirt. "Hey, Ramiel-nii. Isn't this like a bad idea? Not to be offensive to Zack. But aren't we like one of the elites of the elite in Shinra?"
Cloud nodded in agreement and shivered when he remembered being tossed back and forth between Ramiel and Alexandra. Then they were made to Duke it out with Vincent, Genesis, and Angeal.
They have more battle experience than even veterans that have fought for decades. Fighting with elites made their battle sense so rich. Aerith would thrash Zack.
The two of them went on a standoff and Zack was still a bit apprehensive. Not just because she is a mage, but because he thinks she's really cute.
"You sure about this?" Zack was worried, but Aerith winked at him. "I think you'll be surprised, how about we begin?"
Ramiel then began the countdown. And when the fight started, Zack gave a battle roar. Charging with his sword, surprised that he was a lot faster and stronger.
Aerith smiled though and blocked his attack with her staff made of Orichalum. Shocking him greatly, because he didn't hold back.
She then cast a stop on him and Zack was frozen in time. "Oh no, she's going to beat him up." Cloud frowned deeply as he remembered her using that on him.
"Damn, she's really going to give that to him?" Tifa could also use it, but it was a pretty vicious set of attacks.
"1 second has passed." Aerith appeared right in front of Zack and slugged him on his right side. Cloud winced as Zack will definitely feel that later when his time begins again.
"2 seconds have passed." She didn't want to beat him up too much so she just took off his shoe and put it in his mouth.
"3 seconds have passed." Aerith casted some blizzaga spells all around him to make him cold. Then her stop spell wore off.
Zack groaned immediately as he dropped on the ground from receiving a brutal liver shot. But he couldn't have any respite as blizzard spells froze him.
"I win~" Aerith poked him on the cheek with her staff, but he just groaned on the ground. She then casted a cure on him to make him feel better.
"I don't think you're gonna be much help in our journey Zack, no offense." Aerith gave it to him on the face and he got depressed.
She was about to make him feel better about it by cheering him up, but he stood up and did a guts pose.
"Then I'll learn everything I need in our adventure! Believe it!" Zack bounced back immediately and Aerith was stunned. She then laughed and patted him on the back.
"I guess so, Ramiel-nii. Zack is probably a low 3rd class SOLDIER right now. He's gonna need some milk." Aerith concluded upon seeing his speed and experiencing his blow.
"R-really? I can already be a 3rd class?" Zack was happy though, because he was more about the simple things in life.
"Hmm, he'll reach far with that attitude. I guess that's why Alex-nee took him in?" Tifa looked at Ramiel for answers and he nodded.
"Yeah, she immediately noticed that this little guy has the makings of a hero. Even more than Genesis, who has a boner for being a hero." Ramiel nodded in satisfaction at Zack's display.
Before he could train them a bit so they'll have a bit more synergy. He received a call from Lazard. "Ramiel, I need your opinion on something."
"Why don't you just talk about it with Scarlet? She's pretty competent." Ramiel raised a brow and thought there was a problem.
"Ahhh, you see. We're actually talking about the idea of that guy. It's about making a space program." Lazard explained and Ramiel was gonna tell him to ignore it. But his brain suddenly clicked on something.
"I'm gonna meet him soon, just make him stay put. That program is going to be very important to make my grand fleet."
Ramiel squinted his eyes. The stores of Orichalum, Adamantite, and Mithril were awfully low after he made Bismarck. He underestimated the rarity of the metal.
Bismarck's worth is unimaginable in Gaia. It would basically be the price of the whole world if it was for sale. Its engineering was the best in the world after all. And it was made up mostly of those three metals.
So mining asteroids might be a good alternative for getting some magical metals. What did he know? Magic is some weird shit, it might make those in space.
"Tifa, Cloud, Aerith. How about you show Zack some training methods for now? I need to talk to somebody real quick." Ramiel suggested and they nodded.
He made his way to the R&D department. Seeing a blonde guy arguing with Scarlet about the space program.
"I told you, the world is vast! If we go to space and explore, we will see a whole new world that we haven't explored yet!" The blonde guy argued his point.
"Well, who will fund your space program then? The masses? And I'm telling you that rockets don't cost a few thousand gil." Scarlet gave a good point and the man couldn't retort.
"Okay, what seems to be the idea here?" Ramiel went between them and the blonde guy looked up at him with wide eyes. Not exactly expecting him to be more than a foot taller than him.
But he shook his head and sobered up. "Mr. Ramiel, I'm Cid Highwind! I'm actually a part of the research department about space. And I have proposed a space program!" Cid gave his proposal with excitement.
"Ramiel, the rockets are going to cost a lot. And the people we would need to give up to them if you do agree will be about 50% of the whole R&D department." Scarlet argued that he shouldn't accept it.
Ramiel raised his hand and gave them the palm. So they shut up as he read the proposal with extreme speed and closed the file. Making Cid nervous, thinking he wasn't interested.
"Scarlet, let me explain to you why I'm going to accept this." Ramiel announced and she apprehensively nodded.
"Wait... You accept!? For real!?" Cid's eyes sparkled, but Ramiel cleared his throat to make him shut up again.
"You see, I own Shinra. Everybody knows that, so I want to accept." Ramiel smiled and Scarlet's eyebrows twitched at his response.
"But wait, don't get your panties in a twist. It's a bit more than because I just want to make more ships or something, ahem. It's to gather asteroids and mine them." Scarlet frowned a bit as she was confused.
"You see, everybody takes technology for granted. Terbium, Neodymium, and Tantalum for example are needed to make a lot of the tech we use work." Ramiel started his story and Scarlet listened, but she didn't know what he was going for with his story.
"And mining causes mass destruction of landscapes as well as air and water pollution. We haven't done mass mining for centuries yet. But it will take a toll on the planet." He took out a whiteboard and calculated everything in his head.
"Metallic asteroids even just the size of a kilometer wide contains septillions worth of gil in industrial and precious metals." Ramiel drew some figures and fixed his glasses that suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
Scarlet went wide eyed and Cid was pleasantly surprised that he learned something from him. Which was shocking to him, because he was supposed to be the one convincing him.
"And my greatest creation, Bismarck. My darling baby girl has protected Wutai and Midgar from apocalyptic scenarios that would bring down any country in the world. And her sister needs hundreds of thousands of tons of rare magical metals." Ramiel nodded sagely and imagined a fleet.
Scarlet then squinted her eyes and thought it was because of his hobby then. She already knew that it was his love child because of Alexandra's story about how it was made.
"Yes, only the flagship has been made! That's heresy! We need the cruisers! The destroyers! The aircraft carriers goddamnit!" Ramiel was frustrated he couldn't make more of them in the past years.
"Boss... You created that beauty yourself!?" Cid was about to shed manly tears at the gorgeous piece of engineering and magic. He has found one of his people.
"That's right! Impressive ain't it?" They then stared at each other for a few seconds and gave a handshake.
"Ugh, men. Why do I sleep with you again?" Scarlet rolled her eyes and gave a wry smile. Thinking that her man was a damned nerd. A hegemonic one, but still a nerd.
"Shut up woman! You don't understand the true beauty of engineering!" Ramiel pointed at her like a heretic and Cid nodded.
"So, I want you to support Cid's space program. We could probably power them up with huge Materias. Just ask me for some, we could go into relativistic speeds if we use them up in their entirety." Ramiel had tons of ideas in his head.
"You know what? I'll gather them myself. That's the best fucking idea I've ever had. We'll be swimming in resources!" Ramiel was giddy.
"Of course you want to do it yourself." Scarlet rolled her eyes. "Well, if you want the pilots of the ship to live, then yes. Because if they're going at relativistic speeds in space. Then they'll have to output as much energy to slow down when they reach the destination, silly."
"Whatever this is a long ass project anyway. Just leave it to him, just give him anything he wants. He understands what he needs to do. Trust in him." Ramiel patted Cid on the back and he was about to shed tears.
"I won't let you down! We'll explore space!" Cid cheered. Though they didn't quite know that it was one of his back up plans if Meteor do sets off.
If things come to shove and they couldn't use holy. Then he'll load the rockets up with supercharged huge Materias that would go kaboom when it hits it.
Bismarck will then take care of the smaller meteors before it could heat up the atmosphere due to friction.
"Okay then, case closed. See ya, we have an adventure to go to." Ramiel ran away and left everything to them.
Scarlet sighed and squinted her eyes at Cid. "Now talk, how do we do this crap?"
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Back at the training room, everybody amused themselves with Zack having a hard time doing calisthenics while under the influence of a gravity spell.
"99... 100! Hah, hah. You guys do this all the time? I gotta admit, you're tough as nails." Zack panted as he sweated like a faucet. Just finishing in doing some pushups.
"Well, that's just the easier part for now. You're not even being pushed to the limits yet. Aerith and Tifa can help you with that later with white magic." Cloud shrugged and Zack got fired up.
Ramiel then went crashing through the thick steel doors and was in a good mood. "Alright, you guys. We're going on a trip now!"
The trio then cringed when they heard his words. Remembering their little video. Ramiel sold it worldwide as a children's music video and it was a hit.
Now, everybody knew them as the little ensigns by the public. So they didn't quite like going out into the streets.
"What's with the face, you guys were so cute there." Ramiel teased them and they went red from embarrassment. They were teenagers now after all.
"Ramiel-nii! You sold it to the public! Everybody calls us little ensigns even if we're grown up now. You even sold merchandise of us!" Tifa pouted at him.
"Sorry, sorry. How about I give you something in return?" Ramiel patted her head to console the sulking Tifa.
"It better be good." Aerith puffed her cheeks. Zack then had a realization what they were talking about and laughed his ass off.
"The little ensigns! Hah, hah... Can I have your autograph? It would definitely fetch a high price!" Zack teased them and Tifa smacked him on the head.
"Shut up you! Or I'll make sure you won't pass on any descendants!" Tifa squinted her eyes at him and he saluted immediately. "Yes ma'am, sorry ma'am."
Ramiel chuckled and led them near to the agricultural area of Midgar. The four of them then heard a peculiar sound.
Tifa and Aerith gasped, while Zack and Cloud were clueless. "Ramiel-nii! Are you gonna give us one of your world renowned Chocobo's!?" Tifa and Aerith squealed.
Ramiel and Alexandra made a Chocobo farm of course. It's one of her wishes after all. She even has this white one that was all souped up. Can use magic and shit due to Minerva cells.
"That's right~ We're gonna be the Chocobo knights!" Ramiel announced. The girls were really stoked, but Cloud and Zack preferred cooler things of course. Rather than cute Chocobos.
Tifa noticed it and she gave them the stink eye. "Ramiel-nii, if they don't want it. Make them walk or something."
They were about to say that was bullshit, but Ramiel already prepared for it. He made a call and said it was time.
After a few minutes, they heard a muscle motorcycle's engines roar and it stopped right in front of them with a screech.
A huge ass motorcycle that has a side car arrived and the driver, a meowfficer took off its shades like a cool dude.
"Nyan~" Its voice was husky and matched its coolness. It then wrote into its notebook that the ride's here.
"What the hell is that cat? It's so cool." Zack got frustrated and amazed by it. "Wait, don't tell me we'll ride on the side car?" Cloud looked at Ramiel and he shrugged.
"It's not my fault you don't have driver's licenses yet. So my bro Nyantetsu will drive for you." Nyantetsu raised his helmet to greet the two boys.
"Why does its name have to be cool too? Iron? Really? But you had to add Nyan to it?" Zack just thought he was messing with them.
"Okay girls, let's go pick you a Chocobo. While we let them get acquainted with Nyantetsu." Ramiel led them inside the ranch and the two boys were awkward.
"Nya, nyan~" The cat took out something from the side car and it was a bottle of fireball whiskey. He smoked some wood with a small fire spell and lit up a cigar.
The boys then read his notes and it said. "I remember my first journey outside Midgar. Let me tell you boys a little story." Nyantetsu blew some smoke and they really thought he was a bit too cool for a cat.
Aerith came out of the ranch with a pink Chocobo, while Tifa chose a black one to match her hair. They were really pleased and were already riding it. With Tifa having a nice aesthetic with hers as she was wearing cowgirl clothes.
"This is the best day ever! We finally get to have Chocobos!" Tifa jumped went down and glomped on Ramiel.
"Oof, don't get too excited now. You might hurt yourself." Ramiel patted her head. "Un, thanks Ramiel-nii! You know we love Chocobos!" Aerith cheered.
They then saw the two guys that were intently reading Nyantetsu's adventures outside Midgar. They were captivated by the cat's charisma and coolness.
"Well, that's it boys. The boss is here, we don't have any more time for old tales." Nyantetsu wrote and they were disappointed.
"What? Can you continue your story later when we get a break? We gotta know what you did with the malboro that appeared." Zack and Cloud were invested and Nyantetsu shook his head wistfully.
"Come on everybody, we gotta go on an adventure so you could fight enemies for real." Ramiel rode on his own vanilla Chocobo. But it was decked in white armor that made it look majestic. (pic)
"Oh wow, that Chocobo looks like it means business." The two boys slightly regretted that they couldn't have their own mounts, seeing the Chocobo in armor.
"Alright then, let's go explore the world." Ramiel announced and they began their journey. To hopefully find some clues, and to give the newbies some experience as well.
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Thank you for reading everyone, ciao.