James Robinson had never known such pain in his entire life.  Every square inch of his
body hurt.  And he could not see.  This didn't bother him much, at first, but when he realized he
could not sense anything either, that worried him.  That meant he was either alone..or shielded,
somehow.  He hoped it was the former, for that would afford him a chance to escape.  Then he
heard a voice from nowhere in particular, and mentally groaned.
     "Don't even think about escaping.  You'll never make it."
     Jim recognized the voice immediately as Hojo's.  He wanted to reach out, and squeeze his
thin neck until his eyes popped out and his face turned blue, but he couldn't move.  He wanted to
yell and scream and shout and curse and fume, but he couldn't speak, either.  Something was
covering his mouth.
     "Try to relax.  This won't last much longer," said Hojo.
     Yeah, sure, he thought.  For all I know, I'll be stuck in this damn thing for the rest of my
life.
     Something was lifted from his face.  The light blinded him at first, but found that his
eyes adjusted to it very quickly.  Much more quickly than they naturally would have.  He darted
his eyes around the room, and things came into sharp detail.  He was strapped to a table, and
there was a heavy mask covering most of his face.  His arms and legs were bound, to keep him
from moving.  An IV ran into one of his arms.  The rest of the room was filled with tubes, and
wires, and mainframe computers.  He heard a faint scratching noise, and looked to see a mouse
scurrying across the floor, almost 10 meters away.  He never could have seen that, much less
heard it.
     "What have you done to me?" asked Jim, surprised that his voice had come back to him.
     "I have improved on Nature's design.  I have infused your body with Mako energy,
making your senses sharper, and your body stronger, and more resilient to injury," said the
professor.
     "Is that a fact?  And if I may be so bold as to ask why?"
     "That is not for you to know."
     "Figures."
     Hojo walked to a display, and frowned.  Then he looked again, and cursed.  "It's not
working.  Why is it not working?" he asked.  "The cells should have taken effect by now."
     "Cells?  What cells?" he asked.  Then he remembered what had been done to Cloud. 
That thing, that alien.  What was it called?  Then it came to him.  "Jenova."
     "Ah, so you know of the failed Jenova project.  I see you've taken a few history lessons
while you've been here."
     "I've been told of the Jenova project, all right.  They told me of all the horrors it caused. 
And they told me all about you, Hojo.  Just let me free, just for five seconds, and I'll give you my
special brand of good-old fashioned American justice."
     "Temper, temper.    You don't want to lose your cool, now."
     "Too late," he spat.  He looked around again, and saw a pair of green orbs sitting on the
table.  He concentrated slightly.  One was a Restore.  The other was a mastered Bolt.  More than
adequate.  He concentrated harder, and Bolt 3 ripped through the lab, frying all the computer
equipment.  Jim's harnesses released, and he jumped off the table and bashed through the solid
Mythril door like it was balsa wood.  He skidded to a halt, his sneakers leaving skidmarks on the
tile floor.  He stared at the door he had just knocked down.  "What the hell did they do to me?"
he asked, to no one in particular.  He decided that now would not be the best time to find out, so
he once again tore down the hall, to the stairs.  He took the door to the stairway right off its
hinges, and leapt down the stairs at an alarming rate.  Within a minute, he was at the bottom of
the stairs.  He barrelled through the front office, which by now was vacant of regular employees. 
Several guards lined up by the front doors to detain him, but he simply charged straight through
the line of Shinra soldiers, and crashed through the glass doors, and out into the sidewalk.  He
turned in the same direction as the Cuda went, and bolted down the alley.
     Yuffie was having a great deal of trouble keeping the Cuda on the highway.  As she raced
back toward Junon, the car slewed from side to side, sending other cars swerving out of the way.
     "How does he keep control of this thing?!" she yelled, the car continuing its erratic path
toward the Junon Shinra offices.  Once she got in the city, she wisely slowed down.  On her way
back in, she passed several Shinra police cars headed in the other direction, all with sirens
blaring.  Then, for some reason, the car swerved onto a side-street, under auto control again, and
stopped in a dark alleyway.
     Yuffie stared out into the darkness.  She saw a pair of eyes.  Green eyes.  No, not green. 
Glowing. . .  The figure stepped into what light there was.
     Jim stopped walking, and ran to the Cuda.  Yuffie jumped out, and ran to him, hugging
him.
     "Oh, gawd, I thought they killed you for sure!" she said, rather excited.
     "Well, they did something to me...Hojo decided to play around...he injected me with
Mako...and Jenova cells," he told her.
     Yuffie stood back, and stared in horror.  "Oh no. . .Are you all right?"
     "Yes, I'm fine.  Those Jenova cells don't seem to work on me.  But this Mako thing..I'm
stronger, faster, and more agile.  But I feel strange.  Like I'm not quite myself anymore."
     "I'm just glad you're all right."
     "I see you didn't listen to me."
     "Aren't you glad I didn't?"
     "Yeah, I am.  Now let's get the hell out of here, before they find us.  We'll have to come
back with reinforcements for Reno and Rude."
     "All right.  You drive, Jim."
     "Cuda too much to handle for you?"
     "I've never driven one before."
     "I'll teach you when this is over, OK?"  The two jumped into the car and sped off, out of
the city.  As they did, police sirens wailed behind them.
     "Damn!  I don't have the time, or the energy for this crap."  Jim flipped a pair of switches. 
The trap door below the license plate opened up, and a pair of .50 caliber machine guns opened
fire on the police cars, sending them swerving off the road, and pirouetting in the air, resulting in
a few very spectacular explosions.  The cops broke off pursuit, and Jim headed out of Junon as
fast as the Cuda would take him.  Within minutes, they were back over the water, headed for
Costa del Sol.  This trip would not be as relaxing, though.  Soon after they hit the water, a flotilla
of Shinra attack ships were closing in on them.
     "This is bad.  Jim, what are we gonna do now?  We don't have any materia!"
     "Look in the glovebox.  I stashed a few there.  See what we've got."
     She opened the glovebox, and three orbs fell out.  "Restore, Barrier, and Choco/Mog. 
Not a real good selection."
     "They'll have to do.  Cast a barrier or something while I try to out run them."
     No sooner had Yuffie cast Wall then shells started raining down on the craft.  The shells
bounced off the barriers, and fell harmlessly back into the ocean.
     "What about this?" asked Yuffie.  She pulled a large revolver from under the seat.
     "Yeah, that'd be like trying to kill a Valkorados with a pea shooter.  No good."
     "I lost my Conformer.  It's still in Junon."
     "Yeah.  My staff, too.  And all my materia."
     "Can't you use other people's materia?"
     "Only line-of-sight, or if it's on my person somewhere.  If I don't know it's there, I can't
activate it."
     A bullet ricocheted off the reinforced hood.  "Cast Wall again.  The first one is wearing
out."
     "I can't!  It's out of power!" she yelled over the increasing hail of bullets.
     "Then we'd better get moving."  Jim flipped a cover up on the gearshift, and pressed the
red button underneath.  In the rear, a pair of small turbines extended outward, and started up. 
The car/hovercraft took off, forcing both Yuffie and Jim back into the seats.  They broke through
the blockade, and were soon clear of the ships.  Within a minute, they were totally out of sight.
     Jim waited a few minutes more, then disengaged the two turbines.  They retracted back
into the trunk.  They had open water clear to Costa del Sol.
     "Thanks," said Jim, looking at Yuffie.
     "For what?" she said.
     "For coming back.  You didn't have to."
     "Yes I did."
     "Why?  Did I have some of your materia?"
     "No. . .I came back for a reason more important than materia."
     Jim almost laughed.  "What's more important to you than materia?"
     "This."  She leaned over, and kissed him lightly on the cheek.  "That's what's more
importnat.  More important than anything."
     Jim looked over at her.  She looked pretty shabby.  Her armor was gone, and her clothes
were stained with sweat and dirt.  Her face was also smeared with dirt.  But her eyes were
shining, and they had a feeling inside of them that could only be one thing.  They leaned toward
each other, and kissed, long and deep.
     Jim decided to let the auto pilot take them to Costa del Sol, as the windows darkened.