The Terran Rangers/Final Fantasy VII by Heather Ray (cat reading book .txt) 📖

not my baby's fault you have such a weak stomach," Cid growled, glaring down at the teenager.

"Would you quit yer yappin!" Barrett grumbled, his wide arm wrapped around the yellow Huge Materia. "This thing is heavy!!"

"Yes, let's get to the tower," Cloud decided, glancing at the red Huge Materia he was holding. "The sooner we get answers from Bugenhagen, the sooner we save the planet from Sephiroth and his Meteor spell."

Cloud glanced ominously at the enormous rock that filled the majority of the horizon. "We don't have much time left."

"I'll lead the way," Red XIII announced, bounding in front of the rest of the party and hurrying up the stairs. "Grandfather is probably in his observatory."

Zack, Billy, Yuffie, Tifa, Vincent, Cloud, Cid, Barrett, and Cait Sith followed the excited wolf up the stairs as quickly as possible, considering the latter four were still burdened by the large pieces of materia they confiscated. After climbing several flights of stairs, they reached the doorway to the wisest being alive, the ancient sage Bugenhagen of Cosmo Canyon.

"Grandfather!" Red XIII exclaimed, hurrying through the entrance towards the elderly, bald man within. The latter smiled when he saw his adoptive grandson, and scratched his forehead in greetings.

"It's wonderful to see you again, Nanaki," he said, kneeling on the ground to look him eye to eye. "How has your quest fared?"

"We've brought the four Huge Materias," Red announced, gesturing behind him. Bugenhagen rose to his feet when he saw the train of heroes that followed Red inside, with the four last ones each carrying a single Huge Materia.

"Wonderful!" Bugenhagen exclaimed. "The Huge Materia is far too powerful for the Shinra Corporation to control. Hopefully, the intense magic dwelling within each crystal will aid you in your mission to defeat Sephiroth. His power grows with each passing day, you realize."

"Yes, we do," Tifa spoke up. "But now that we have this materia, what do we do with it?"

"For now, you can store it in my laboratory, so I can examine it further," the elder decided, glancing across the crowded room to a computer console. The hem of his green robe ruffled slightly as he ascended from the ground by several inches, and floated to the machine. He beckoned to Cloud with his hand.

"Cloud, Barrett, Cid, Cait...please step on the platform. Just lay the Huge Materia within the dome."

The four men nodded, and stepped to the slightly elevated platform in the center of the lab. Bugenhagen pulled the lever, causing the platform to lift off the ground, and through an opening in the ceiling.

"Uh, Mister Bugenhagen," Zack said suddenly, stepping forward towards the ancient wiseman, "we have another problem that we were hoping you could help us with."

Bugenhagen squinted at Zack, and then removed his thick glasses and wiped the darkened lenses with his robe. He then put his glasses back on, and squinted at him once again.

"Ho ho hooo...I don't think I recognize this young man, Nanaki!"

Red XIII stepped forward. "He is Zack Taylor, and his friend here is Billy Mitchell. They have traveled a great distance in search of healing magic to restore a friend of theirs to health."

"Hmm," Bugenhagen muttered, gazing at Zack and Billy with new interest. "What kind of symptoms does your friend suffer from?"

Zack bit his lip, mulling through his brain to decide the best way to explain the situation to the elder. It was difficult to make someone who had no experience with disease understand Aisha's condition.

Bugenhagen noticed the discomfort in Zack's dark eyes, and nodded when he saw the same look expressed in Billy's blue ones. He then fingered his gray beard, and once again rose from the ground.

"That bad, eh?" he commented.

"It's...really difficult to explain --" Billy started.

"As a matter of fact," Tifa said suddenly, stepping forward, "their friend is suffering symptoms similar to what Zack himself has, but on a magnified scale."

Bugenhagen's peering gaze fell once again on the Silver Ranger, who nodded in agreement. "Yeah, we both have the same...uh, problem. But she's dying! I'm just, not feeling my best."

"Interesting," Bugenhagen said, clenching his hands together. The long sleeves of his robe draped over his hands, covering them completely. "Then the first thing to do is examine what is wrong with you, young man."

Bugenhagen glanced up when he saw the platform lower again. Once it reached the ground level, Cloud, Cid, Barrett, and Cait Sith stepped off, towards the remainder of the assembled heroes.

"Would you all excuse the three of us for a few minutes?" Bugenhagen asked, floating onto the platform. "The two strangers and I have a problem to discuss."

"Sure," Cloud said. "We just left the Huge Materia in the lab."

"Thank you," Bugenhagen said, beckoning Billy and Zack to step on. Then, the platform once again ascended through the ceiling, and stopped once it was level with the observatory floor.

Both Billy and Zack gaped in astonishment. The observatory was a large dome, with lifelike images of the nearby stars and constellations projected onto the tiled surface of the dome. In the center, several feet above their heads, a large, yellow ball floated, spinning slowly on its own axis. Several smaller balls revolved around the miniature sun, each at its own speed. Also, a purplish rock, about one tenth the size of the sphere representing Midgar, hovered near it, glowing faintly. Finally, hovering only about three feet off the floor, the four Huge Materia were placed in a square shape, with the center being the platform itself.

"This is...amazing

," Billy mumbled, staring up at the model solar system. "So, you are an astronomer also, Bugenhagen?"

The wiseman nodded. "There is infinite knowledge in the surrounding planets of the universe, Billy. The only way to truly understand one's own world is to understand as much of its environment as possible. The majesty of the universe must remain in mind when studying one's own problems. It is the proper perspective."

Bugenhagen's gaze turned from the two young men to a computer terminal along the wall. He floated towards it, and pressed a sequence of buttons, causing the model of the solar system to vanish.

"So," he said, not turning around, "how is Zordon anyway?"

Chapter Twenty-Four

It took the brilliant young scientist a few moments to recover from the overwhelming shock resulting from Bugenhagen's question. His blue eyes locked with the darkened lenses of the sage's glasses, and stared at them in absolute puzzlement. An amused grin crossed the elder's face, and he nodded his head slightly.

"Yes," Bugenhagen said, "I do know Zordon of Eltar. A truly brave and admirable being, so dedicated to his cause."

"How...?" Billy started.

"Ho ho hooo," Bugenhagen chuckled, "Zordon is famous throughout the universe, young man. I'm surprised he sent you both here without telling you he had spent several months studying with me in Cosmo Canyon."

This shocked Billy and Zack even more. "Zordon...studied with you?" Zack repeated.

"Indeed. Zordon may be a highly skilled telepath and wizard, but when he came to me he was still lacking a deep understanding of the harmony of nature. That understanding is as necessary to the keeper of the Zeo Crystal as air is for you Earthlings."

"What?" Zack said suddenly. "How did you know we are from Earth?!"

"Perhaps I should start from the beginning," Bugenhagen decided, hovering off the ground. "You see, the Eltarians were selected by Roma, the Omniversal Majestrix, to protect the Zeo Crystal, which is a shard of the M'Kraan Crystal. I'm sure you know that much by now."

Billy and Zack nodded mutely.

"Good. Well, Zordon became the Zeo Crystal's guardian, and he was destined to form a team of young humans to wield the awesome power of Terra. As you know, the Terra power is the force of nature itself, focused into six forces of nature: fire, wind, earth, lightning, water, and light. Yet Zordon, who was a brilliant wizard, lacked the philosophical knowledge of the delicate harmony of nature, and he realized how important that understanding was to truly comprehend the power of Terra. So he came to Midgar after learning of my famous studies of nature. I was the one who helped connect the wise warrior to the power of nature. That enabled him to fully grasp the power of Terra, and figure out exactly how to give the power of nature to humans. Without that study, he never would have been able to turn the Morphin' Grid into the individual Terra shards. My my...that was several centuries ago. How time flies..."

Zack and Billy were still overwhelmed by this revelation. "Small universe," Zack muttered.

A toothy grin crossed Bugenhagen's face. "Zordon's fame has touched all the corners of this galaxy. Even a backwater planet like this one..."

Bugenhagen leaned forward, as if to tell the two young men a guarded secret, "...but I'm the only one on Midgar to know he's from another planet. Everyone else assumed he was simply visiting from some other country. Most of the planet is in the dark about the rest of the universe, because we have enough problems of our own. Eventually, when this civilization is united, then we can more aptly deal with existence on a larger scale."

An ironic smile appeared on Billy's face. Midgar sounded so very much like Earth...torn with civil wars to such an extent that humanity in general is completely unprepared to deal with alien existence. That's probably why most people don't really believe in the invasions of Angel Grove. It's far more comforting to believe life is more or less predictable.

"I still don't get it," Zack suddenly said, an expression of complete and utter puzzlement wrinkling his features. "How did you know we were Zordon's students?"

"The power signature of Light is within you, Zack," Bugenhagen replied, "I sense the Zeo shard isn't with you just now, but its energies won't leave you completely until your ultimate mission is complete."

That said, Bugenhagen tapped his chin in thought. "Enough small talk, though. We have a crisis on our hands. So, what is the matter with your friend?"

"Well, she has come down with a Space Virus," Billy answered. "Are you familiar with diseases?"

"Yes, I am. Almost every other planet capable of accommodating life has harmful bacteria or viruses, yet this planet does not. As a matter of fact, the Space Virus is a terrible plague, deadly to almost all humanoid species, like Earthlings, Kerovans, Aquitians, or Midgarians, to name a few. A similar disease struck the homeworld of the Cetra, or Ancients, and wiped out much of their population. That's why a small number of them fled the planet, hoping to find a world in which they could find a cure to the disease that slowly killed their entire species. They made