Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ The Great Tournament ❯ Tifa's chance to shine ( Chapter 2 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Chapter 2 : Nyaa - Tifa

Cloud watched as the fights took place easily keeping up with the speed the fighters. They were good but he wasn't expecting either one of them to be a threat. Each one gave a series of combos but then rested a bit to let the other have their chance for an attack. That was their weak point from what Cloud could see, when he was in a battle and got his chance for an attack he wouldn't stop till they were down. That usually ended the fight rather quickly and was a good thing too, the longer a fight lasted the greater chance you had of losing.

He gazed across the stands getting bored of the fight, trying to pick out any familiar faces. He could see Reeve taking a seat on the South stand looking quite happy to keep out of the actual fighting. Couldn't blame him really, he was a pencil pusher not a fighter when it came down to it.

"So how ya doing there Cloud?"

Recognizing Barret's voice he turned to see him making a quick walk over to where he was stood with Tifa following at the same speed looking quite annoyed. He smiled knowing Barret had done or said something wrong to get her mad and Tifa was usually one who would not leave the score uneven. Knowing that from his personal experiences of course.

"I'm fine, you?" He asked glancing at Barret then nodding to Tifa.

"Oh yeah never better I..Oww!" Finishing off with a cry and kneeling down to rub his ankle from where he'd just been kicked. He looked up to see Tifa starring down at him looking slightly less annoyed.

"That'll teach you!" She said sharply. Then walking off to where the others were stood.

Clouds smile was now from one side of his face to the other, he was trying desperately to keep himself from bursting out with laughter knowing if Tifa heard she would probably come back to do the same to him.

"So...What you done to get her that mad?" He asked trying to hide his amusement. "I usually have to do something pretty big to get her to use violence."

"Err well nothing really. I think she just needs to blow off some steam."

"Hmm so anyway, how's life in Corel?" He questioned. "Its been what? Eight months since I last saw you."

"Seems a long time huh. I would have come to visit but I never seemed to catch a break."

"Oh yeah I heard they offered you the position of mayor." Cloud remembered the citizens of Corel were happy to welcome Barret back after he'd saved the planet not too mention the time he stopped Shinra from running a train straight through the town. Cid was always happy to state how great of a leader he was when Cloud was having his little breakdown.

"They did but it's not for me. I'm just not the paper work type of guy." He replied pointing to his gun arm. "So instead they offered me the position head of security, its still a big job though."

Since Mako power was no longer used it meant that all the other methods of creating power were put back to use and that included coal. This gave Corel a huge amount of business and in the past 2 years Corel had turned from a heap of tents a scrap metal into a small Midgar. Of course it wasn't a dump like Midgar was or rather use to be.

After Meteor nearly hit, Midgar was still directly in its path and although many tried to rebuild the place it just kept falling apart. Eventually people just gave up and abandoned it, and then the plans to build a Neo Midgar were bought up. That's where Reeve came in, since he had designed most of the original Midgar it was though best that he should be in charge of designing the new one. Of course this one was a little different from its predecessor Neo Midgar was not reliant on Mako instead in place of the eight reactors that surrounded the old city there were eight solar panels which supplied the power. Also there were no slums this time he made sure of that, the city was still set high above the ground but everything below the actual city buildings were used for the subways and sewers. Each time someone even mentioned the city Reeve couldn't help but boast about its design.

Barret didn't mind much though it was true that Neo Midgar was the most advance city on the planet and he was more than happy to see the Mako reactors shut down. To him that was all that he cared about when it came to the city, as long as Shinra and their Mako reactors were gone he would happily move on at get on with the rest of his life.

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'I hate them all.' The man kept thinking as he walked through the crowded corridor on his way to the stadium.

'It's all their fault, who knew that they possessed such power?'

He was a tall man, young with short red hair that was set forward. He wore a long brown coat with a white shirt a highly polished shoes all very expensive looking. He carried on walking with his hands in his pockets and a serious look on his face.

'Especially that girl, I thought she was taken care off before Meteor was even called but it seems she still possessed the power to stop it even in the after life'

'And him that useless vessel. Even with the power of the Lifestream it wasn't enough, he still couldn't destroy those fools.'

He stood at the entrance to the stadium and gazed round. After a few second he saw them standing altogether. 'I could do it now' He thought. 'They are no match for me, I could simply walk up to them and kill them one by one' He smiled imagining the thought. 'Just think of the chaos, the pain, the blood and best off all the expressions of horror and fear on their faces as I tear their bodies apart knowing that they are helpless to stop me'. His smile was now a wide hideous grin on his face.

"Hey why don't you stand aside so people can get through you moron?" The man behind him shouted impatiently.

He tilted his head round to look at the man. 'Why do I put up with these creatures?' He took a few steps to the side and the man stomped by looking at him angrily. He looked back to the others watching the one with the long spiky hair blocking attacks from the young longhaired woman. 'No not yet, I have a plan and I'm going to stick to it. I'll make them pay and when I'm done they will wish I had just ripped them apart'.

He walked along to one of the stands seeing there was room underneath it, there was no one there either, properly because everyone here wanted to watch the fights. It was the only dark place in the entire stadium thanks to all the blazing light cast down from above. He stood there for a moment enjoying the darkness when he felt someone else walk up to him.

"Hand over your wallet." The man said pointing a gun equipped with a silencer at him. He looked up at the mugger not really threatened or even interested for that matter.

"Oh it's you!" The mugger announced. "Maybe this will teach you to get in peoples way."

He noticed it was the same man who had annoyed him earlier. "Can I help you with something." He asked already deciding the mugger's fate.

"Yeah you can hand over you wallet and all your other valuables!"

"Really? And what makes you think I'm going to do that?" He questioned with a more cocky tone in his voice.

The mugger looked at him more angrily. "Cause if you don't I'm going to have to make a mess of that nice coat your wearing." He pressed the gun up to his chest.

"So those are my choices then?" He asked taking a step back and cupping his chin tapping his finger on his cheek. "Hmm... Well then I guess my coats going to have get a bit dirty."

The mugger looked at him surprised but then turned his face serious again. "Fine have it your way." He lifted the gun up and started to pull the trigger.

But it never happened. There was no gun shot instead he felt a sharp pain on his arm and then it stopped as sudden as it had occurred. Not sure what happened the mugger looked down at his arm with a confused look on his face. That look off confusion quickly turned to a look of pure horror as he brought what was left off his arm up in front of him, his eyes widened and he watch the blood flow down his arm. Then the pain kicked in realising what had happened. He looked up at his 'victim' the calm look in his eyes as the red liquid sprayed onto his face.

He felt another burst of pain as he looked down seeing the hideous claw that had puncture his stomach passing straight through his body and stuck out through his back. He felt himself being lifted up off the floor the pain becoming unbearable. He tried to cry out but his voice was lost under the cheering off the audience just a few meters above him. Another shot of pain ripped through his body, his vision turned to a blur. He managed to look down at his attacker unable to make out the features on his face although he could tell that what he was looking at wasn't the same calm, handsome, well groomed business man he just tried to mug. Instead the face in front of him looked like something you'd see in a horror movie. It just made no sense.

A third blow to his chest, he coughed bringing up blood. Finally the mugger realised his fate he tried to bring up words but could only manage a gurgle. There was blood everywhere, his blood, it coated the walls the floor it was all over.

"Why so upset?" That attacker asked. His voice not the cool unworried tone it was before, now with each word he spoke was like a screech it made his head fill with pain. "Isn't this what you wanted?" He looked at the creatures arm as it levelled its self at his face. "There's just no pleasing some people." The arm shot forward and then with a short moment of pain it all went dark.

The body dropped to the floor and the young man just stood and look at it for a while smiling. He looked down at his clothes noticing they were covered with blood.

"I guess he was right, he really did make a mess of my coat." He said grinning widely at his little joke. "Lets see if I can fit into something more comfortable."

He took a step forward, his hair growing longer, his brown eyes changing to a soft glow of green. His figure changed from muscular to a more feminine style, the brown coat he wore closed and filled with pink changing to a long thin dress with the top changing to a stylish red jacket the blood disappeared as the transformation took place. The long red hair twisted round turning a light brown, a pink ribbon tied its self round the top holding the hair in place.

She finished the step, the thick brown boots making a heavy thump as they touched the floor. She smiled to herself brushing her dress off. "Much better."

______________________________________________________________< /div>

The fist shot through the air but Cloud easily dodged to the side grabbing hold of it and throwing her to the ground.

"You're going to have to do better than that." He taunted.

"Just you wait, I'm going to wipe that smile right off your face." Tifa jumped back up swinging her leg round making contact with Cloud's hip. The blow knocked him off balance making him take a few steps back to recover. "Not laughing now are you?"

"Ha I'm still gonna kick your ass." He exclaimed. He ran forwards throwing three punches while she easily dodged them all there was no room to counter. Cloud's technique was based on attacking continuously on his target until they made a mistake in their defence. But Tifa new this, she could predict most of the moves he was going to make but that still didn't make them easy to dodge of block.

Cloud lunged at her again barely missing just catching the edge of her shoulder. But before she could return to her defence she was hit in the chest by Cloud's back kick, he put enough power behind it to knock her to the ground.

"Hey come on you guys this is only suppose to be a warm up." Reminded Yuffie but both of them ignored her and carried on. The others watching them quite amazed by the speed of their attacks, even some of the audience stopped watching the real fights and turned to watch them sparing.

Cloud leaped forward for the finishing blow but Tifa brought her legs up aiming for his chest. With a heavy push she lifted herself off the ground and hit Cloud dead centre in his chest causing him to stumble backward once again.

She leapt forward striking out with her fist but Cloud recovered quickly and caught it, he countered by pushing her back bringing his fist straight up at her face at full speed.

"Ahh!" Was Tifa's only response seeing the fist coming up to her face not having time to move, she closed her eyes waiting for the punch. After a few seconds of waiting she opened them again and saw Cloud's fist hovering an inch in front of her face. His finger flicked out hitting her straight on her nose.

"Gotcha." Cloud stated grinning.

The others took a sigh of relief that it was over. At the rate those two were going someone was going to get really hurt.

Tifa rubbed her nose and looked at Cloud who was still grinning. She took a few steps up to him and punched him on the shoulder. "Don't act so cocky I nearly had you." She ran her fingers through her hair trying to straighten it.

"So I see you are practicing, like that's going to help you." Reno's voice sent a chill down her back.

She turned round to see him and the other Turks following closely.

"What do you want jerk?" Tifa stepped up before anyone else had chance to open their mouth.

"My somebody's happy to see me, what's wrong you missed this handsome face?" He said smugly.

"In your dreams jerk. "Tifa crossed her arms trying purposely not to make eye contact.

"Stop calling me a jerk." He asked getting slightly annoyed.

"No! Jerk." Tifa's voice was raised to a yell.

Reno's hand was gripping his nightstick tempted too give her a couple of volts to shut her up.

"What do you want Reno?" Yuffie stepped in causing him to pull him hand away and concentrate on why he was here.

"Didn't you know?" He turned to look at Yuffie. "I'm Tifa's first opponent."

The others looked at him stunned for a moment except for Tifa.

"Ha well you better get ready." Yuffie walked over to Tifa putting her arm round her. "Cause Teef's gonna kick your butt." She pulled Tifa closer and the two of them smiled widely. Tifa loved the thought of kicking Reno's butt all the way across the arena.

"Yeah like that's going to happen." He said mocking them.

"You can't beat the Turk's." Elena added.

" *&%( What about all those other times we fought?" Cid said abruptly "We kick you asses then and you turned an ran away like a bunch of scared Chocobos."

"Pure tactics." Reno answer calmly. "We only needed to slow you down not kill you."

"$%£& Yeah right, that what a loser Turk would say."

"Would you like to test your luck now old man?" He asked showing a slight amount of annoyance in his voice.

"Old who you calling old? And I don't need luck to take you out." Cid snapped gripping his spear tighter.

Vincent and Rude seemed engaged in their own little battle. Both of them just stared at each other arms folded not saying a word. Cloud couldn't help but stare wondering how they could just stand there completely motionless. Finally Rude adjusted his sunglasses and Vincent nodded, the two of them then turned and walked away from each other. 'Did I just miss something?' Cloud shook his head not understanding what just happened.

Tifa came up nudged him pointing to the man walking up to them. Cloud nodded knowing what she meant.

"Will you guys give it a rest, it looks like the next fights about to start." Cloud pointed over to the man walking up to them. "And I don't think we want to get kick out for causing trouble."

The man finally reached them, Cloud noticed the Gold Saucer insignia on his coat. "Excuse me, which one of you is the No.478 Tifa Lockheart?" He asked reading from the list in front of him.

"I am." Tifa walked up to him.

"Ok and No. 324 Reno.."

"That me." Reno answered not giving the guy chance to finish.

"Good your fight is up next, if you would like to follow me up to the reception you will be shown the rules and conditions before the fight begins." He walked off towards the small office.

Tifa look round at everyone. "Wish me luck."

Reno turned his head towards them. "Yeah cause your going to need it." He carried on walking to the office.

"Don't worry Teef your gonna do great." Barret put his arms round her giving her one of his bear hugs.

"He is no match for your skills." She turned to look at Vincent surprised that he spoke.

"Thanks Vince." She said smiling.

"I'm sure you'll do fine." Red added.

"Yeah your gonna beat him into a pulp, notta problem." Yuffie shouted cheerfully.

Cloud walked up to her and put his hand on her shoulder. "Just try not to hurt him too much." He winked.

"I'll try." She winked back then turned to wave at the other and started to walk over to the reception.

__________________________________________________________

The two stood in the arena the announcer in the middle. Tifa looked round feeling slightly nervous, it was much different when you were inside the ring looking out. She could see most of the crowed had turn to watch her fight most likely because they'd seen her practicing with Cloud.

"What's a matter?" Reno asked. "You look a little nervous."

She could tell he was enjoying that fact she was intimidated by the crowed.

"Why don't you just give up now and make it easy on your self?"

Tifa snapped out of it and raised her fists. "In your dreams, I'm going to wipe the floor with you!"

"It looks like these two are ready to go!" The announcer started to back of to the side. "Remember make this a clean fight and start when you hear the bell."

Tifa readied herself knowing she couldn't lose to a guy like Reno.

The bell rang and Reno wasted no time in waiting. He brought his nightstick up and set off a burst of electricity but Tifa managed to dodge to the side and kept on running towards him. He knew he couldn't let her have a full frontal attack on him as she would be too powerful to stop, Reno was cocky but he also knew how much power Tifa could put behind one of her punches.

He let out another burst of electricity that hit her on the arm stunning her for a moment.

"Give up you know you can't win babe." He taunted.

Tifa didn't respond. She leapt forward and ducked down under his nightstick before he had chance to fire bringing her legs round sweeping along the floor. She made contact with the back of his legs knocking them out from beneath him. Reno landed hard on his back while she brought herself up ready to attack again.

"You'll pay for that!" He shouted getting back on his feet.

Tifa felt another surge of electricity whistle past her head, that little toy of his was getting annoying sooner or later he was going to get a lucky shot.

Reno ran towards her his fist back ready to punch. 'What is he thinking he knows he'll never hit me.' She brought her hands up ready to block but as soon as he reached her he twisted round to her side missing her completely. Tifa dropped her guard from the front and started turn to meet him wondering what was the point of his little bluff.

Reno expected her to block his attack and at the last moment he dropped his fist and spun round her reaching for his nightstick. 'Ha! She fell for it.' He rammed the stick straight into her side as she twisted round to meet him. She made out a yelp as he discharged the sticks full electric power straight into her side.

"I told you to give up." He said jumping back. Tifa was still stunned from receiving the shock unable to reply. He waited a few seconds letting the nightstick charge up again and making sure it didn't overheat. That was one of the drawbacks when using this weapon.

"Ugh." She finally made out rubbing her side. She didn't expect that Reno was such good tactician and it cost her a good deal, she shook her head trying to push the pain aside.

"This is your last chance give up now and I'll go easy on you." He shouted pointing the stick at her.

"Don't count on it." She brought herself back into stance.

"Fine, let's finish this." He ran at her again at full speed, she didn't know what trick he had up his sleeve this time but it was obvious she couldn't withstand another full blast from his nightstick.

She decided on her move and started running straight for Reno who didn't look too put off by her sudden change of tactics. They met each other with Reno bringing his nightstick upwards trying to slash her but as they met she dropped from her feet and pushed with her arms going right underneath Reno's body as he leapt. Tifa quickly stood up now behind Reno pleased she was now the one with the advantage.

Reno watched Tifa disappear underneath him as his nightstick hit nothing but air, mentally kicking himself for trying to use the same trick as before. She'd learned what to do much quicker than he expected. Still it didn't matter, he turn round ready to give her a full blast a blank range.

Tifa waited for him to turn, putting one hand on the ground and launching her foot in the air hoping she timed it right. Reno turned aim his weapon at where she just stood discharging the weapon before he could even see that she had dropped to the floor. Her leg came into contact with his arm sending the nightstick flying across to the other side of the arena. She grinned know that she had him.

'Dammit' He thought gripping his arm trying to ignore the pain. His weapon landed on the other side of the arena and he knew he couldn't reach it in time.

Now with that threat out of the way Tifa went on with a series of knockout blows with Reno just barely being able to block or dodge them. When she took a step back to bring herself on balance again Reno saw his chance to make a break for his weapon.

He managed to reach it kneeling down to pick it up then spun round ready to fire. "Sorry babe, but your not going to beat me thi..." He was cut off by a sharp pain in his chest. He looked up seeing Tifa, she stood there with her leg straight out aimed at Reno's chest, he watched as she seemed to get further away.

Tifa saw him pick his nightstick up but it was too late, she ran up to where he was and before he finished speaking she put all her effort into a roundhouse kick hitting him right in chest sending him straight into the arenas reinforced glass wall. Reno groaned as he slumped to the floor in a heap.

The announcer walked up to Reno kneeling down putting his hand on Reno's head. After a few seconds he stood up again and walk over to Tifa.

"And the winner of this exciting round by knockout is... Tifa Lockheart." He shouted into the mic holding up Tifa's arm.

The audience cheered she could see she had most of the attention than any other fight that was still going on. She looked over to Cloud and the other who were all waving at her.

She turned to look at Reno who was comming round. He leaned up against the wall and crossed his arms. "Don't let it go to your head you just got lucky." He said trying to hide the fact that his body felt like it was just hit by a truck.

"Aww what's wrong upset that you were beat by girl?" She taunted.

"Hmph like I said you just got lucky." He managed to stand on his own and walked by her heading for the exit.

"Nyaa" She stood there sticking her tongue out him enjoying every moment of her victory.

Cloud and Red were stood at the other end of the ring watching Tifa enjoying Reno's defeat.

"Do you think she's rubbing it in a little?" Red asked watching.

Cloud looked over seeing Reno trying very hard to ignore Tifa.

He shook his head. "Nah." He couldn't help but smile himself, watching Reno trying to hide his embarrassment while Tifa kept taunting him.

He started to make his way over to Tifa to congratulate her hoping he could pry her away from teasing Reno for a while. He smiled again, this was turning out to be a good day.