Jem: Okies! I am very very very very sorry for taking forever to put this chapter up! My computer was going wacko for the longest time! I type half of it, save, go to it the next day and half of the half I wrote is gone! And it is still that way for my other stories. For some odd reason my computer decided that it liked Materia Mishap now and wanted me to finish it. XP I dunno but again I'm sorry!
Chapter Two: Bratty Puppy
Yuffie yawned as she pushed her covers off. "What do you want Vinnie? I wanna sleep in more!" She whined stretching. Oh shoot. I left my armor on last night. And why the hell am I still wearing my clothes? And GAWD! I am so damn itchy!
"Yuffie?" The tall gunman asked again as he gave the ninja a weird look.
"WHAAAAT?! Yeah I fell asleep with my clothes on and my armor? SOO? What's so amaz-" She trailed off as she noticed something. Her hands were, well, fuzzy. The teen heard Vincent say her name again but he didn't need to say any more. "WHAT THE HELL??!!" She shrieked jumping out of bed and dashing out the door.
Why is the ground so close? Why is everything so big? The ninja reached the stairs and bounded down. Even the stairs are bigger! WHAT'S GOING ON?!
-----
Tifa heard a racket coming from upstairs. "What's going on?" The brunette asked the rest of the group. No one had to answer though. A small black and white puppy with yellow, yes yellow, back paws and what seemed to be mini Yuffie clothes, even down to the armor.
The puppy didn't give any notice to the AVALANCHE members it just ran to the bathroom. Vincent walked into the room in his usual way only he seemed a bit shocked, which made the whole group curious what was up with the puppy, because any emotion shown on the man must mean something really big.
Cloud was the first to ask the question everyone was trying to say, "What's up with the puppy? And where's Yuffie?"
"…" Vincent tried to find the best way to put it. The best way was just to say it out right. "I think the dog is Yuffie."
Six jaws dropped to the ground, Nanaki has disappeared behind the little 'Yuffie Puppy' right after she had gone into the bathroom.
"The lass turned into a dog?!" Cait Sith said in his annoying voice. "That's priceless lad!" The robot yelled as he pulled out his megaphone and ran into the bathroom after Yuffie. Reeve sighed and rolled his eyes at the robot. Sometimes he regretted programming the system that allowed it to run on it's own.
"How could that have happened?" Tifa asked worriedly.
"It's a special materia, a one in a kind. It's surprising that even Yuffie, being the materia freak she is, found it." Came Nanaki's voice as he entered the room again. "It's called the Curse Materia. It has DNA of any type of animal you could imagine stuffed into it. When someone other then the owner touches it they become cursed. One of the many animal DNAs in the material becomes infused the person's own DNA. When the cursed person's energy becomes low they start to turn into the animal. The materia's definition of low is when you don't eat every meal, when you are drunk or have a hangover (though I highly doubt this will be a problem of Yuffie's), when you are tired, and after every battle a small part of the animal starts to show. For-"
"Isn't there any way to cure her?" Tifa interrupted.
"Yes, but let me finish. Now as I was saying, let's say Yuffie fights a powerful monster and only uses half of her energy. Fur or other signs of the dog DNA would appear. Yet if she eats some of it goes away. One odd thing about the Curse Materia is that whenever the one cursed sleeps they automatically turn into the animal. No matter how high their energy level is they just do. The way to cure one who is cursed is to find the owner of the materia and have them release you from the curse or become the master of the materia." He seemed to want to say more but silenced himself to let the others think about what he has said, and hopefully he wouldn't have to tell them the last bit.
"Well then let's just hope the fing bastard that owns the fing materia isn't an enemy." Cid laughed taking a deep puff of his cig. No one laughed at his joke.
A crash from the kitchen broke the silence. Then Cait's voice yelled, "If you keep stuffing you face like that, lassie, you'll explode!" Then there was a loud growl and the sound of jaws clamping down in the air. "'Ey now! Keep you fur on lassie!" There was another crash and then Yuffie's voice filled the house. "You damn cat! You pulled my fing tail!"
The door into the kitchen flung open and Cait ran out in a flash of black. "The lass is big again!" He screeched as he jumped onto Cid's shoulder.
Yuffie stumbled out of the door. "Damn cat." She mumbled rubbing her rear. "How'd you like me to pull you tail huh?! Oh and Nanaki, that was great advice to eat something! I'm back to normal! I heard all the boring explanation stuff, but what you haven't answered is where the hell the materia went!"
Cloud snickered, but quickly stopped with a glare from the ninja. Only Yuffie would be worried about where the materia that turned her into a dog was.
Nanaki couldn't help but let a small grin spread across his face. "Once it is used the materia goes back to the owner." Once again he hesitated on saying more and decided to leave it at that.
No one noticed, save the tall gunman who always noticed everything. "Nanaki is there something else you are not telling us?" He asked.
The lion-like creature hung his head down sadly. "Unfortunately… There have been four recorded cases with the Curse Materia… None of them are alive today."
"W-what?! What happened?" Tifa stammered as her jaw dropped.
"All four of those who were cursed with the Curse Materia when it was being tested died a few weeks later."
"But, I'm the Great Ninja Yuffie! Surely those people being tested were real weak and everything right?"
"Yeah Red, I gotta agree with the fing brat. There is no way a fing materia will kill her!"
Nanaki sighed and looked up at the AVALANCHE members. "It could be possible that because Yuffie has never been tested on before and she is strong it won't kill her. The four, who the materia was tested on, were used in many other experiments as well so it is possible that the materia did something to their bodies because of previous tests, but then there is the possibility that it really does kill the one cursed."
An awkward silence followed Nanaki's reply. Yuffie was the first to break it.
"Well then, let's just hope that I'm not gonna die! Now come on! Isn't today supposed to be a party?"
"But Yuffie, aren't you at least a bit worried?" Asked a very worried Tifa.
"Jeezs Teefs that's why you're getting older then Cid! You worry too much! Come on let's at least save the worrying until after we party our heads off and Cid gets drunk!"
AVALANCHE smiled and nodded in agreement. Why bother worrying over something you can't do anything about at the moment while you are supposed to partying?
"Yuffie are you sure?" Tifa asked walking over to the ninja to give her a hug.
Right as Tifa was about to wrap her arms around her Yuffie ducked and grinned. "Course Teefs! Now come on let's party!"
Everyone cheered, save one very quiet man. Vincent sighed and started to walk out the door to his room, when his attempted escape was canceled by a stern yell. "Vinnie Valentine! Don't you dare skip this party you big party-pooper!" Yuffie screeched dragging him back to the others away from the door.
"Yeah Vamp! Come on I challen' ya to a drinking contest how 'bout that?" Cid yelled, agreeing with Yuffie, as Tifa set down some beer.
Vincent immediately shook his head and tried to turn around again. Cait Sith joined Yuffie in tugging him to Cid.
"Come on lad! It's just a little 'ol drinkn' contest!"
"Yeah Vinnie! I would so totally beat Cid's ass but, Tifa won't let a single drop of alcohol get near me so beat him for me! Pleeeeaaassseeee Vinnie!"
Vincent sighed and sat down at the bar next to Cid. "One round and then I am leaving."
"Yaaay!" Yuffie cheered then turned to Barret. "I bet 100gil that Vinnie is gonna win!"
Vincent tuned out and shook his head. He could hear the demons inside of him cheering as well. 'This is going to be fun.' He thought to himself sarcastically.
'THAT'S THE WAY TO THINK.'
-----
Briiing. Da-Riiiing. Briing.
Reeve looked down at his phone and flipped it open. "Reeve here."
"Reeve, there's been sightings of men with silver hair all over!" Elena's voice said on the other side of the phone.
"What?! Are you sure it's just not some old men walking around?"
"No they are young men with silver hair! A lot of them are saying it's only one man that travels very fast but there have been various descriptions sir. Also they say a lot of people's materia goes missing the day the man leaves."
"Oh dear… Where are you Elena?"
"Rude and I are going to be in Midgar tomorrow morning."
"And Reno?"
"He's already there sir. I'm surprised he hasn't stopped by to annoy you guys while you are partying. Also he doesn't know anything because his phone is broken."
Reeve laughed and watched Vincent and Cid drink mug after mug of beer. Cid was getting tipsy and probably was going to loose because Vincent wasn't even dazed yet.
"Thank you Elena for the information. Stop by Reno's on the way to Tifa's tomorrow, I'm staying here for the night."
"Okay sir. Bye.
"Bye Elena." Reeve heard the woman hang up and sighed hanging up as well. 'First Yuffie and now this. Cloud isn't going to be happy about the silver men. Wonder if I should break the news now.'
Thunk.
"YAAAAY! GO VINNIE! CID YOU JUST GOT YOUR ASS OUT DRUNK BY VINNIE!" Yuffie yelled jumping up to give Vincent a hug. "Way to go Vinnie!"
If Vincent wasn't wearing his cape one might have noticed the small upward turn in his lips. But of course Vincent was wearing his cape so the small grin went unnoticed. Tifa and Cloud were talking on a couch in the other room and Nanaki was napping on the floor near them. Barret was paying Yuffie 100gil and Cait Sith was bonking Cid on the head with his mega phone, laughing like a maniac.
Reeve sighed again and decided that if he waited Cloud would probably snap because he hadn't told them the second he had learned about the men. "Everyone.. I really don't want to ruin our fun but I have some bad news."
Cloud and Tifa looked over to him with their eyebrows slanted in question and then everybody else did as well, except Cid who was just lying on the bar and Yuffie who was counting the gil. Well it didn't matter they were still listening.
"I've received some information from Elena and Rude that there have been sightings of silver haired men in various cities. Also whenever the silver hair man left people reported that materia has gone missing too."
"Wow so we got materia hunters on the loose?" Yuffie asked looking up. "With silver hair?"
Cloud pulled his hand into a fist and growled. "Could they be related to Sephiroth in any way?"
"It's a possibility so I was wondering if you guys could look into it along with the Turks starting tomorrow."
Cloud nodded and answered for the rest of them, "Of course. We can work out groups tomorrow when the Turks get here," He said automatically switching to leader mode. "Today lets gather some supplies because if Sephiroth is involved we'll need all we can get. Now Cid you just stay here and try to regain your strength." The blond said with a smirk. "Me, Tifa, and Barret will get the Highwind ready for the trip. Vincent, you and Yuffie are to go and buy some more Hi-Potions and Potions we are low since we haven't had any reason to have much." He paused then asked, "Reeve you had said Elena and Rude where is Reno?"
Reeve smirked and shook his head. "Reno is somewhere in Midgar with a broken phone."
Cloud sighed and rolled his eyes. "Okay then Reeve can you Cait Sith and Nanaki find Reno and fill him in on things? I don't want him asking tons of questions tomorrow while we are leaving."
Reeve nodded. "Sure. Come on Cait, Nanaki, let's go." The two followed Reeve out the door.
Yuffie looked up to Vincent and grinned. "Come on Vinnie! Just cause the party was canceled doesn't mean we can't have fun while shopping!" She giggled and skipped out the door with the tall man. Her stomach growled a bit but she ignored it. That was a mistake.
-----
The shopping trip to Wall Market went fine by Yuffie's standards. Nothing eventful happened.
'So then remind me again, why you are a dog sitting on a crate in some Sector completely lost?'
"Oh shut up me." Yuffie snapped at the little voice in her head. "But you're right. This is horrible! Stupid materia! Wait no, sorry materia didn't mean it!"
The ninja had been hungry and turned into dog when she and Vincent were leaving Wall Market. Vincent said he would go back in to get some food for her. But then Yuffie has sniffed out some materia on a passing person so she followed the person. The person kept moving farther and farther away from the Wall Market so that when Yuffie finally gave up she had no idea where she was. And it sucked like hell.
"I have no idea where I am. I am so damn starving. I am a dog. We are leaving tomorrow to find out if Sephiroth is up to something again. Plus it's getting dark. Great job Yuffie you've done a great job this time!" The ninja sighed and curled up into a ball. "Well guess I just gotta sit here and hope someone finds me." With that the tiny puppy fell into a light sleep with a very empty stomach.
-----
Vincent once again cursed at himself. How could he have possibly lost Yuffie? What if something happened to her, then it would be all his fault.
'WONDERFUL JOB VALENTINE MORE SINS YOU'VE ADDED TO YOUR LIST.' Chaos commented. 'NOW YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE GIRLS DEATH.'
"She's not dead." Vincent murmured as he walked into 7th Heaven.
Tifa was behind the bar talking to a redheaded customer. She didn't notice Vincent walk in so continued scolding the man. "Now go home Reno, with out stopping anywhere, sleep a lot and please don't complain to us tomorrow about your hangover!"
The messy redhead mumbled something incomprehensible and stood. "Well who wouldn't drink when they learn Sephiroth was back." He said again walking past Vincent to the door. "Hey Valentine, tell the brat that I'm glad I didn't run into her today." He waved drunkenly to Tifa and stumbled away.
"So you found him." Vincent stated sitting down at the bar.
"Yup." Tifa replied as she started cleaning out the glasses that Reno was drinking from. "Hey, where's Yuffie?"
The dark haired man sighed and looked away from Tifa. "She turned into a dog and I lost her."
"WHAT?!?!"
-----
Reno yawned as he trudged slowly through the Sector 7 slums. He had gotten a new apartment in the 7th Sector near Tifa's bar because he liked her drinks. So here he was just walking through the streets in the middle of the night, drunk, to his apartment when the footsteps of a couple men came from behind him. A large hand grabbed Reno's shoulder and pushed the drunk Turk to the ground.
"Hey you drunk fool did you see a mangy mutt run by? It stole our materia." One of the men growled.
"No sorry man." Reno slurred as he lazily stood up and brushed himself off. "But surely losing a few low materia to a kid can't be that bad."
Another man scowled, "It wasn't a kid. We're serious when we say mangy mutt. A damn dog attacked us and then stole all of our good materia!"
Shrugging Reno started to walk off, "It was probably some stray thinking you had food. If yah look around you'd be able to find your materia scattered around the place somewhere."
The men seemed to find that logical and started to walk off. Reno sighed and shook his head; even drunk he was smarter than most idiots. That was then he noticed something on the ground up ahead. A shiny glowing orb, a materia and then right next to the materia was a small black and white dog, with a green sweater, tan shorts, yellow back paws, and amour! Yet what surprised Reno even more was one, the dog seemed to have all of the pockets of its shorts stuffed with materia and two, was how on it's back was a large shuriken. Oddly enough the dog resembled somebody he knew, he just couldn't place his finger on it.
To make things even weirder the dog seemed to know him. It barked, "Rarfnarf," picked up the materia and trotted over to the Turk. Reno could swear the bark could be his name if someone translated it into English.
The redhead held out his hand to pet the dog, but instead the dog put the materia from its mouth into his hand. "Wazz this lil' pup? Why ya giving this to me? Shouldn't ya be giving the materia to the owner that trained you?"
The dog smiled a rather mischievous smile, which Reno decided he imagined, and started barking at the top of its lungs.
"Ahh! What the hell Fluffy? You trying to bring those dimwits back to catch you?"
Footsteps sounded behind Reno and he quickly, as quick as he could in his drunken state, turned around to face the group of burly men that had just left.
"You drunk fool! The dog is yours! Give us our materia back!" Said the man that had pushed Reno down.
Reno shook his head and quickly threw the materia back at the dog. "The dog ain't mine, yo! The fluff ball just came up to me and gave me the materia!"
"Oh sure and I'm the princess of Wutai." The man rolled his eyes. "Now hand the materia over and the dog."
The dog growled at the comment of Wutai and something clicked in Reno's mind. "Yuffie!" He said out loud without thinking. Reno bent down, with his back to the men, and stared at the dog. "You could be Yuffie's dog couldn't you? She's a big materia freak. I could see her training a dog to steal materia and then dressing it up as herself. Yes I can defiantly see that psycho doing that."
The dog stuck its tongue out at Reno and started barking a very annoying bark.
"Yup defiantly somehow connected to Yuf-" The suddenly barked a distressed bark and Reno felt something clunk against his head, very hard.
"Pff. That's what you get for ignoring us you drunk fool."
That was all Reno heard before everything went black…..
Dun dun dun.
Jem: Nya nya before I get comments about having a party like in the middle of that day I have to say something. They are weird so they have weird parties. Kapiesh? Kapiesh.
Reno: Sure I come in but I get knocked out!
Yuffie: Well hey at least you were smart enough to figure out the puppy was me!
Jem: Actually he only realized you as a puppy was like you…
Yuffie: …
Jem: Weell ookay! And I say you don't have to comment unless you have advice! I shall update when I update!