The Shin-Ra were the ones who owned the Mako reactors. The Mako reactors made Materia. so it was logical that to get a lot of Materia, you had to go to the Shin-Ra. And Yuffie had reasoned there was one place where there would be a lot of rare Materia. The Shin-Ra building, the Headquarters of the massive world-ruling company.
And to be blunt, Yuffie hadn't been impressed by the security. She could walk around freely to explore the lower levels, and there wasn't so much as a guard to block the stairs that led up. Halfway up, she realised they probably expected people to have died of boredom or heart failure from it.
But she had been going slowly, with a paranoid caution that there was some kind of hidden security measure that would blare into life any minute that kept her on edge and taking care with every step. Rather than feeling confident after no alarms the further she went, she grew more paranoid until finally, she was on the upper levels.
And to her quickly concealed shock, completely ignored by the one security guard near the entrance. It was like the Shin-Ra were asking her to steal something. It just made her more paranoid that there was some kind of trick or surprise waiting for her. She decided to pick a random room and see what was in there.
It seemed to be an office, small and claustrophobic, but apart from the computer sitting by the desk there was only one valuable thing. Materia. an unusual yellow-green one sitting beside a small notebook, and what looked like a all Materia. A mastered one, too. Useful and valuable. However, the strange materia and the notebook caught her eye.
"Notes on Supermorph Materia?" Yuffie said, reading the title of the notebook out loud. She'd never heard of anything like that...
She flicked through it, ignoring the detailed explanations of the Materia and its discovery, and found a summary near the back that explained what it did. Before she could read the first line of this summary, the door opened behind her.
"Hey, who are you and what are you doing here!?" A blonde woman in a suit asked.
Yuffie felt her stomach drop in fear. She knew this woman was a Turk, and that she had been caught red-handed. Without an excuse to be there, she only really had one option to avoid being arrested. She would grab the Materia and try to use it to fight her way out.
With her fast reflexes, the blonde barely had time to open her mouth, let alone move to stop her, before Yuffie had the materia in her hands and glowing. She managed to cast whatever spell the Materia had, and the Turk before her vanished in a puff of smoke and a startled cry, replaced by a small green toad that ribbited angrily.
"It's just a transform Materia?" Yuffie asked in confusion as she examined the notes.
The toad leapt towards her, but she caught it on one hand, holding the transformed Shin-Ra worker as she squirmed, getting even angrier by the way Yuffie ignored her as she read the book in her other hand.
The second line of the summary told her that this 'Supermorph' Materia would default to a toad transformation, but the first gave her an idea. It claimed the Materia could transform the target into anything she wanted... And Yuffie felt very eager to test this. Grinning, she aimed at the hopping mad Turk-turned-Toad and cast again. The ribbits vanished, and the toad suddenly stopped moving.
The slimy wet skin changed into fluffy green wool, and the angry expression morphed into a cartoon grin and googly eyes. The Materia transformed the former human turned toad once more, into a stuffed plush frog. Yuffie grinned and picked up the new toy.
"Well, that takes care of you, froggy." She taunted. The Guard however had heard the Turk agent cry out.
"Miss Elena? Is there a problem?" He shouted as he walked down the corridor. Yuffie glanced out the door to see him approaching, and decided that there was only one choice. She cast the Materia again. The Guard never even made a sound as he vanished in a puff of smoke and was replaced by a backpack.
"You'll come in handy for anything else I need to carry." She told the guard-turned-rucksack.
Having turned the two Shin-Ra employees who had encountered her into inanimate objects, Yuffie felt confident enough to root around the floor for anything else valuable. She had found nothing and was going to leave once she checked an office full of tall pot plants out.
Unfortunately, it seemed there was someone working late there, a middle aged woman looking glum while she sat at a computer. Yuffie couldn't have that... She read the notes summary again. The notes claimed four things: Shape, size and mind could be altered. Gender and species too. Targets couldn't be liquid or gas. The target seems to be invincible and incapable of being harmed...
She would have read the rest, but the woman had stood up in the meantime and was now standing in the doorway.
"Hey, who are you!?"
Almost without thinking Yuffie used the Materia. The office worker vanished to be replaced by another pot plant, identical to the rest. Yuffie stared in surprise for a moment, then decided to move the pot plant out of the way inside, as well as have a little look for things to take with her. Unfortunately, the office was devoid of anything useful. The woman had left her purse thiugh. Yuffie wasn't a common thief, but she wasn't going to pass up the chance of some money.
***
In a way it was a disappointment. All that way for one lump of Materia, a few hundred Gil, a plush toad and a rucksack. True, the last three would never have been gained without the admittedly very useful Materia, but Yuffie had expected more for the risk she took. Even the way out was easy, and she felt like she'd wasted her time. But this Materia had promise. She would leave Midgar as fast as possible though, in case she had been seen and identified. All she really needed was her fake ID and she could ride a train down to the bottom and then escape or hide. After she got on, picking an empty carriage, she decided to read up on the Materia a little more. She quickly grew bored with the detailed text, and read the summary notes instead.
"-Inanimate objects that have never been alive cannot be brought to life.
-The target cannot become anything significantly larger than twice the size they originally started as but can become smaller down to 1% of original size.
-Objects can only be very simple items. Targets transformed into items like firearms, computers, Materia and even a bomb were found to be non-functional.
-The user cannot target themselves or anything they currently wear deliberately, but the spell can be reflected or blocked by a ribbon
-Target, if sentient and made inanimate, will be unaware they have been transformed if reverted. If the caster wishes them to remain aware though, subjects report the feeling of not having changed, but being inanimate yet retaining sensory functions, including sight despite lack of eyes in many cases.
-If the effect of the intended change matches a spell that exists with normal Materia it appears to mimic, and be cured by, the same effects as that spell.
-A transformed object or person can be changed again whilst still a different object. Their original form decides the rules of this next change."
Yuffie realised that there was a checkpoint soon, and conductors usually checked ID after them even if there were no alarms. They got suspicious if people didn't have them ready, so she felt in her pockets for her fake card. She checked everywhere, and then panicked. It was gone! she'd dropped it somewhere, and with it she'd dropped herself into trouble! She looked around the carriage in the hope either it was going to be there on the floor, but apart from her, the entire carriage was empty.
The checkpoint got closer every second. They'd find out she had no card and catch her. Maybe she could jump from the train...
"Hey you." A voice said suddenly, breaking her from her train of thought.. Yuffie froze. A Conductor!
"Let me see your ID card." He demanded
"Um..." She stuttered, fear gripping her. She turned to see the Conductor, an angry looking man.
"You don't have one?" He said, then smiled maliciously as she shook her head.
"Oh good. No card, no train ride! I'm supposed to throw you off. While we're moving."
Though she'd planned to jump (well, considered it as a last resort...), she had a feeling the guard would probably not let her try and control her landing. Yuffie felt two things then. Fear, and a sudden recollection. Shee could make ID. Without even realising it, she readied the Materia in her pocket. The man cried out,and with a puff of smoke, became a small card. Yuffie stared in confusion, realised what she had done, and then picked up the card. She cringed when the train went through a checkpoint while she did it, but nothing happened. The guard had become her ID! This Materia really was something...
***
The train pulled into Sector Seven Yuffie was giddy from the realisation of what power she had. She wanted to celebrate, and her new fake ID could let her. She quickly realised thanks to the new ID, she could enter a bar to get nice and drunk! Wutai let her drink at her age of sixteen, but Midgar made you have to be twenty.
Well, that wasn't a problem. The Guard-turned-ID was perfect, almost like the real thi... Wait. What did it say her name and age was?!
"Yuffie Kisaragi. Age Sixteen."
She groaned. It was a real ID! Well, not real. It used to be a man, but it was useless. She wasn't trying to be Yuffie, she was trying to be some other person to hide for now! Oh, and and get a drink. How could she do that now?
A policeman walked past, and she realised that they were alone here in this place. Just her and the cop. Well, not for long. Soon, Yuffie Kisaragi age sixteen and the policeman wouldn't exist here. Yuffie Kisaragi, under a fake name and age, would be all that was left.
***
With the former policeman in her hand, Yuffie walked into Sector Seven. She saw a bar, ever so imaginatively named Seventh Heaven. Bad name aside, it looked run down and was probably not the place to care how fake an ID looked.... Or even care about taking it as true if it was a paying customer, much like everywhere in the lower part of the city.
Yuffie, however, wasn't risking anything and wanted every outcome covered as she walked in.. The woman there glanced up from behind the counter. The Wutaian girl thought she looked like the usual kind of barmaid, a dumb bimbo who wouldn't care even if she could spot it as a fake ID. Probably not all that skilled but likely popular with patrons for two obvious reasons....
"Can I help you?" She asked.
The two were alone in the bar, so Yuffie hoped that maybe, just maybe, ID might not be needed. Barmaids were low paid, right? They'd not go out of their way to follow the law if it meant a happy, tipping, customer, right?
"Yes. I'd like a drink." Yuffie tried.
The woman glared at her. Yuffie felt a chill up her spine.
"Can I see some ID? You look a little young..."
Yuffie handed over the former cop. The woman looked it over intently... very intently. Crap, she wasn't some dumb big-breasted bimbo after all! This raven haired woman was going to figure it out!
Well, Yuffie had a way to stop that... And get her to act more like her looks
"What are you doing?!" The woman said in alarm as Yuffie produced the Materia.
She answered with the spell. The puff of smoke changed the woman only slightly. Her fierce stare became a warm, dumb smile, and her black locks became blonde.
"Nothing. Is my ID okay?" Yuffie said sweetly.
"Of course! What would you like?" Tifa giggled.
Yuffie had transformed her into the barmaid she'd wanted with the materia. Accordingly, she wondered if maybe she could trick the altered woman into giving her a tab...
Before she could ponder how, two men in suits entered. One bald, one red-haired. Yuffie tried not to make it obvious she was terrified as the barmaid became more interested in them.
"Hello there! What would you handsome fellows like?" She said, walking over in a flirtatious manner.
The bald one looked flustered. The redhead however stared at Tifa and Yuffie like Tifa had before her alteration. There was a moment of silence until redhead broke it.
"Her." He said, pointing at Yuffie.
"Oh gawd..." Yuffie squeaked.
"Her? But she's not on our menu..." Tifa said, puzzled.
Yuffie cast a spell again, the two Turks barely having a second to realise before they vanished in puffs of smoke. Two dresses took their places. Tifa, now the personification of the term 'ditzy' barely even seemed to realise there had been anything happen.
"Oh... where did the two men go?" She asked, picking up the dress that had been the bald man.
It was red, and Tifa seemed to like it. The red-head had become a black dress, which Tifa picked up too.
"These are really nice dresses. My size too..."
"Uh, yeah, you can keep them. I have to go." Yuffie said. Tifa squealed and hugged her.
"Thanks! They're really pretty!" Tifa said.
Yuffie nervously shook her off and walked away fast. Turks and Shin-Ra were onto her already...
***
Others had seen her use the Materia, and so not just Shin-Ra were after. Three of Tifas friends followed Yuffie as she fled, Biggs, Wedge,and Jessie. They waited until they were almost alone.
"Hey! what did you do back there?" Jessie asked as the trio leapt out in front of her. Yuffie cursed.
"This!" She said, snapping her arm forth and casting a spell.
The three startled avalanche members vanished. She reasoned she was getting spotted too easily, and needed a disguise. The fat man became a blonde wig, the other man became a blue shirt, and the woman became a knee-length black skirt.
"It'll hide me for a while I guess..." She remarked to her new disguise.
She picked them up, and began to change into them around a corner. She was about to pull her new disguise on when a huge man appeared in front of her and levelled a massive gun into her face.
"Um... hello..." She said, staring into the gun.
"What the hell are you doing here, Missy?" Barret demanded.
Yuffie reached for the Materia. He grabbed her hand with his other hand, and she realised that he had a gun for an arm! This guy must have been nuts or dangerous to have to do something like that...
"I don't think so, fool. What the hell is that Materia and what the hell did you do to Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie?"
"Nothing!"
"Then what are these?" Barret demanded, pointing at the wig, shirt, and skirt. Yuffie stammered.
"C-clothes! I'm getting changed!" She said.
"Why?"
"I.... I'm in trouble, okay? I need to look different." She tried.
However, the "lost little girl" style of getting people to back off seemed to be losing power in Midgar. He seemed no less aggressive in the face of her fear, or, he saw right through the act.
"Damn right you're in trouble. You'll look different in a minute though.A lot deader unless you tell me what you're up to."
Yuffie sighed.
"I'm up to no good." She said, and kicked him between the legs.
The big man gasped, and she shook herself away from him. He raised his gun. She raised the Materia. She got there first. The huge man changed, becoming a yellow-feathered bird - A Chocobo. Yuffie grinned.
"Now you're a lot cuter and a lot less dangerous!" She smirked.
In response, the bird began pecking her angrily.
"Ow! Quit it!" she protested, casting another spell to change the temperament of the man-turned-bird.
He now warked happily as she approached warily. Confident her planned escape bird was now a bit more polite, she changed her clothes, stuffing her old clothes in her rucksack beside the frog plushy and the fake ID cards.
"Let's get out of here." She said to the bird. He warked in response.
"You know? I like you a lot better when you don't have a gun arm in my face..."
***
She rode out of Midgar, heading for the nearby town of Kalm. The trip was uneventful for a few miles until suddenly, a group of men were in her way. She had the Chocobo stop quickly. They didn't look like Shin-Ra, but more like bandits. She quietly sighed as one walked over, grinning the usual grin of someone who thinks they have the upper hand
"Hand over your valuables, and the bird." He demanded. Yuffie tried to look at the various bandits, but the sun was in her eyes...
She hated bandits. Always jumping out and robbing people just passing by... That was her job!
"I've got a better idea. Give me the hat and your friends run away." She said.
The bandits laughed in response to this.
"What hat?" The leader said.
"You, of course."
They laughed again. Then their leader vanished in a puff of smoke, replaced by a hat. They stopped laughing.
Yuffie merely smiled at them as she reached down and put the hat on.
"That sun is murder, huh, boys? Gotta keep in the shade."
They stared in surprise. Their leader was now a hat on the head of the girl they planned to rob!
"But I could maybe use some sunglasses too..." She said, grinning slightly.
They ran.
***
It was nearly sundown, and apparently, the bandits had decided to get help. They appeared again near Kalm, and this time they had her utterly surrounded.
"Hand us back the boss and whatever you used to change him!" One of them demanded.
"You rats think I'm going to just give up? I have bad news. I've got an all Materia too..." She grinned.
The bandits, realising what she had just said, tried in vain to run. After the many puffs of smoke vanished, the terrified swarm of rats scurried away. Yuffie simply kept going, smiling all the way to Kalm. Now they'd only ever steal grain and cheese...
***
Yuffie woke up feeling refreshed. She'd spent the night in the Kalm inn, the money she'd taken from the woman who was now a pot plant having paid for her room. Yuffie decided to take a look at the rest of the notes. again, the detailed parts bored her. she read the summary. two more lines were there. she read them. she read them again.
"That was the most important thing! Gawd, why couldn't that have gone first?!" she asked the paper.
"The victim is restored completely to normal after 24 hours even if further spells are cast upon them.
this limitation makes the Materia useless for all purposes as far as the Shin-Ra are concerned"
She didn't care about the last line, but the second last meant that instead of a problem solver, it was a problem enhancer! the frog would soon be an angry Turk, the rucksack a guard, a pot plant in the Shin-Ra HQ a secretary, her ID cards a conductor and cop, a barmaid in Midgar would be surprised to find herself possibly wearing an unfamiliar dress that would turn into a Turk a few minutes later, her clothes and Chocobo would be four angry people, her hat would be a bandit...
"Is there something wrong?" A voice asked. Yuffie turned and saw a maid in the door. Yuffie thought fast.
"Oh, no problem at all..." She lied, feeling for the Materia in her pocket.
She'd walked out of town in her old clothes, the unfortunate maid serving as a temporary replacement wig. She wondered how much trouble she'd be in if she was ever met the people she transformed again. But for now, she needed a way out fast from the soon-to-revert objects she'd left behind. The wig maid was going to be her new Chocobo in a few moments, once she was clear of the town.
Before she did that though, she transformed her clothes, wishing she had another wig to disguise herself better, but all she would really change was her shirt and shorts to different garments, if only to confuse any descriptions of her for a few moments at most. She rode off, and after a few moments without any pursuit or signs of problems behind, began to grin when she thought of the chaos she'd caused. And maybe, just maybe, at the chaos to come. It could still be useful to her even with those limitations...