Vincent kept slumping against the window, until it turned into siding. He kept sliding until he landed on the floor. "I need help up."
"What the fuck?" Dr. Kaines said aloud, hearing some banging sounds from the ceiling. "They’re coming out of the woodwork—Ahhh!"
The ventilation panel fell from the ceiling with a crash. "Hey, there are sirens outside, hurry up!"
"The fuck?" Dr. Kaines yelled.
"Yuffie! What took you?" Cloud yelled. "Here, give us a hand." Cloud helped Vincent stand and Barret lifted him up into the duct. "Come on, guys."
"Since when can you do that?" the doctor yelled.
"Since always," Reeve said, climbing up. "I worked for the guys who invented these."
"Wait up, I’m not as young as I used to be," Cid yelled.
"This is fucking ridiculous!"
Cid’s feet disappeared into the ceiling and the doctor could hear them yelling about who was going which direction and stepped on who’s hand.
* * * * *
"Fucking hell, Vincent, what happened? You look like shit and you’re about to keel over."
"I’ll be fi—" Vincent said, interrupted as he slipped, falling face first on the floor of the duct. He pulled himself of and dragged himself forward. "Where’d the others go?"
"They’re getting’ themselves out and watching our backs."
"So where are we going?"
"Roof."
"Cid, I think we’re going in circles."
"Then we go this way. All we need to do is keep going up."
There was another thud as Vincent tripped again. He was beginning to wish that at least one of his friends could plan something more elaborate than ‘Run in circles,’ ‘Watch people,’ or ‘blow up/kill [insert noun here.]’
* * * * *
"You’re a doctor, I thought you’d be able to do this, yourself."
"I am a professor of mental health. Ow. Watch it!" Dr. Kaines yelled at the police flunkie bandaging his shoulder.
"Told you, Lenny," his friend said.
"Shut up Carl."
"Wait, lemme get this straight," a third guy said. "You’re a professor of mental health, and you say five people broke in and let an alien out through the ducts."
"Check the damn cameras! I can get the test results, a copy of the tape from the hospital he crashed into! I’ll prove to you what he is!"
"And that would be…?" Lenny asked.
"Well, technically, we haven’t really identified him as anything specific…"
"So they took off with your unidentified alien," Steve said.
"He’s a UFO?" Lenny asked.
"Dummy! That’s a spaceship!"
"Carl!" Steve yelled.
"A spaceship? Cool!"
"Lenny!" Steve yelled.
Dr. Kaines sighed and tapped his fingers on his forehead with his right hand. His left one was in a sling and useless. "Please tell me you have a superior officer I can talk to."
"So what’s so bad about him being a space… thingy?" Lenny asked.
"Didn’t you hear about the last two things? Were you born yesterday?"
"I heard one of them was hot," Lenny commented.
"She was not!" Carl said.
"She was too! Wait, shut up!" Steve said.
"So what did happen?" Lenny asked.
"You don’t know?" Carl asked.
"Hey, it’s not like I was there!" Lenny yelled.
"If you are through!" Dr. Kaines yelled. "One summoned Meteor and the other summoned the Weapons."
"Maybe we’re out of things to summon," Lenny said.
"Yeah, that’s gonna make everything safer," Carl said.
"I am surrounded by morons!" Dr. Kaines screamed.
"You work at a mental hospital, I thought you’d be used to it."
* * * * *
"Okay, so I took a shortcut, come on, we’re at the roof," Cid said.
After a few tries, Vincent managed to haul himself out of the duct. Standing was another thing entirely.
"Shit, don’t bother!" Cid hit the roof as a searchlight passed over them. "Fuck!"
Vincent stood up when the searchlight had passed, leaning heavily on the Death Penalty. He took a few wobbling steps and fell, catching himself on the side of some shed-like thing.
He leaned over and looked down at the streets. "I didn’t know it was night." All he could really see were a few flashing lights. He could hear yelling down on the streets. Vincent wondered what to do to the other voices in his head. The demons each gave a mental equivalent of a shrug and ran off to another part of his mind.
"Hey!" Cid yelled, running up to Vincent. He had noticed Vincent was slipping forward, and Vincent hadn’t.
He grabbed Vincent back so hard they both fell backwards on the roof, avoiding another searchlight.
"I could shoot someone if you held me up," Vincent said.
"Hey, captain!" someone yelled from above.
Cid looked up.
Vincent concentrated on not falling over, which was rather easy since he hadn’t gotten back up.
Out of the clouds, Cid could see the rope ladder of the Highwind waving in the wind. "Come on!"
"I can’t dumbasses! It’s too far away! Get closer!"
"Can’t. We’ll be seen!"
"Screw that! I can’t reach!"
"We’ll be shot down!"
"Well what am I supposed to do?"
"Jump!"
"Are you crazy?"
"You’re the one still at the mental hospital, Cid."
"Look, there’s just one problem with me jumpin’ off a building!" Cid yelled.
"Help me up," Vincent said.
"Two problems."
"We can’t get any closer Cid. And the wind’s about to pick up soon."
"If I’m pizza, I’ll be pissed!" Cid yelled. He picked Vincent up and steadied him on his feet. He sung the strap of the Death Penalty over Vincent’s shoulder. "Don’t fall over," he ordered.
Vincent just stood there, which took most of his concentration, as Cid backed up a few steps.
"Hope you’re paying some attention, Lady Luck," Cid said. He took a deep breath and ran. Not stopping, he grabbed Vincent, who immediately wrapped himself around Cid, and jumped.
He was airborne for a second, then, his hand hit a run of the ladder and he grabbed onto it so hard he almost ripped it off. He jammed his feet over the rungs, the heels of his boots against them and keeping him from slipping.
He panted and looked down. He never realized how high up the building was from looking at it on the ground. It was too dark to see movement down below, but judging from how tiny the lights were; he could judge just how much distance there was between him and the ground, and there was a lot of it.
He had just leapt off a building and onto a bunch of rope and wood; his feet had left everything solid behind them and he had shot through the air. No safety whatsoever. He had flown. He had flown for real. It had to have been the most exhilarating thing in his life. "That was the stupidest fucking thing I’ve ever done!" he yelled. He felt the ladder move as the plane rose slowly into the cloud cover and the crew started hoisting the ladder up. With Vincent clinging to him so tight it was almost hard to breathe, he’d kill himself trying to climb up.
"God, I need a cigarette," Cid said, falling onto the deck and struggling to pry Vincent off himself. "Make that an entire pack."