AN: K, I don't own the FFVII characters (summat the characters should be grateful for pmsl), nor the storyline, yadda yadda yadda and I'll be updatin this every Wednesday. What I'm actually doin with this fanfic is, basically the plot of the game, but I changed the characters to people that I know and speak to. Most of the dialogue is pretty much like it is in the game, but there will be errors (which suits me cos I didn't want it to be exact anyway), so please don't expect it to be 100 percent perfect, if you're a FFVII expert! Anyway, enough gassing, on with the fic lol
A dark night, the stars shining out, glowing brightly, causing a huge contrast with the pitch black sky. Large threads of neon green strands of some strange substance, which seemed to be neither liquid nor gas floated up towards the twinkling stars, with a few smaller strands of the same substance, but blue, and a few shining green orbs hovering with them.
The threads entangled amongst themselves, before trying to untie, the overall effect looking like a glowing cobweb in the air. The green and blue threads dissipated, leaving the small orbs just hanging in the air, swirling around in small circles, resembling a group of flies buzzing about.
A woman was crouching in a street, looking at a building wall, mesmerised by the luminous green ball of energy stuck in a niche. She stared at it fixedly, the smaller green orbs flying lazily out, past her head and into the road behind her. She slowly stood up, clasping her hands together. A wicker basket was hanging from her right arm, filled with flowers. She looked to her left, and then started to walk down the road of the slums she was in, coming to a stop when she reached a junction, cars zipping past both left and right. There were a few cautious, or perhaps careless people walking in the middle of the road, not seeming to care about the vehicles that were thundering along.
A large city, completely circular in shape, with a long support tower directly in the centre, where a large plate was attached, eliminating the view of the sky to the people below, in the slums. The enormous city was split into eight sections. Each section had a large reactor, emitting vast amounts of fluorescent green smoke into the air, from their bases at the very edges of the city. Train wheels locked as the driver pressed on the brakes. Sparks shot off the wheels as it came to a grinding halt, a horrible screeching noise of metal on metal sounding from the wheels and the tracks. It came to a safe stop at one of the sector's train stations, as a figure appeared on the roof of the train. He leapt off, a magnificent and huge sword flailing in his right hand. It made a deafening clang as it struck the concrete pavement. He hauled himself back upright, not so much as staggering in the slightest against the weight of the heavy weapon he held easily in one hand.
The figure was dressed from head to foot in black. Black clothing, black armour. He had large, heavy duty gloves on his hands, and also arms. The slightest bit of colour on his was the belt that reached around his waist, and then fastened over his shoulders and at the back, almost like braces. It was fitted over a dark sleeveless turtleneck top. His trousers were large and very baggy, the bottoms of the legs tucked into thick brown boots.
The sword he carried in his hands, his pride and joy, the Buster Sword, had a very unusually thick blade, with a slim wooden handle, which seemed to be too thin to support the weight of the heavy steel. There were two holes that had been drilled into the blade. The blade itself was not only thick, but also very long, and reached a point near the tip that slanted off to the right.
He had long, blonde hair, which had been styled into spikes. They stuck out on all sides of his head, moving slightly every time he made the slightest movement of his head. He had shocking bright blue eyes. They appeared to be glowing.
He looked back as four more figures exited the train behind him. The only female of the group and one of the other men ran forwards, to knock out the two guards that had given the man wielding the Buster sword strange looks. The guards fell down to the ground, unconscious, only seconds later. The other two remaining men also started to walk past. The one that was clearly the leader shot a glance at the Buster sword, and the person holding it.
'C'mon, new comer. Follow me,' he grunted, in a deep and gruff voice.
The other four ran off, away from the unconscious guards, leaving the 'newcomer' on his own to walk at a casual pace. He stopped at the out-cold guards, and rummaged around in their uniforms. He found two Potions.
Those'll come in use for later, he thought to himself, and pocketed them.
He walked through a doorway, and saw the women and two men working at a locked gate. The gang's leader was nowhere to be seen. One of the men, who had long dark hair that flopped down over a red headband turned back to look at him. When he spoke, his voice was full of awe.
'Wow!' he gasped, 'you used to be in SOLDIER, alright. It ain't everyday you find one of 'em in a group like AVALANCHE.'
The ex-SOLDIER rolled his eyes sarcastically as the woman cast him a suspicious look.
'SOLDIER?' she repeated, her voice sounding thoughtful. 'Aren't they the enemy? What's he doing with us?'
'Whoa, hold it Jessie,' replied the man, in a soothing voice. 'He used to be in SOLDIER. He quit, and he's one of us now.' He cast the silent figure a look. 'Didn't catch your name.'
'...James,' he replied, after a moment of hesitation.
'Cool, James, eh? I'm -'
'I don't care what your name is,' snapped James, interrupting callously. 'As soon as this job's over, I'm outta here.'
At that moment, the leader of the small group AVALANCHE came thundering over. James could practically feel the ground shaking under the running feet.
The leader of AVALANCHE was a large, well muscled black man, with black hair and beard. He wore a military style name tag around his neck. He wore an open brown jacket, revealing his muscular chest. The area where the sleeves should have been were fraying; it looked like the sleeves had been pulled clean off. He wore black trousers supported by a belt, as well as what looked to James to be two strips of steel around his waist. The leader's boots were even bigger and chunkier than James', but the same colour. The leader's right hand had been replaced with a gatling gun. He carried the air of the ever angry, and snapped at the three working on the gate.
'The hell are you doing?' he snarled at them, 'I thought I told you never to move around in a group! What if the enemy had spotted you and taken you all out at once? Fat lot of use you'd be to me then!' He took a calming, cleansing breath. 'Our target's the Northern Mako Reactor. We'll meet on the bridge in front of it.'
The woman known as Jessie managed to get the gate to open, probably slightly out of fear of the leader; the last thing she wanted, like the rest of them, would be for him to have a go at her. They all filed through the gate, but the leader reached it before James did, and shot him a disdainful look.
'Ex-SOLDIER, huh?' he sneered. 'Don't trust ya!'
Without another word, he turned and walked away from James, but not before he got a chance to read the name tag around the leader's neck. It read: BARRET WALLACE.
James followed the others to yet another gate, where the small group were gathered. Jessie and her two male companions were watching Barret carefully. It seemed as though they were waiting for him to say something. Barret kept his dark eyes trained on James as he came closer. James stared back at him, matching perfectly the look of dislike.
'Yo!' called Barret, still staring intently at James. 'This your first time in a reactor?'
'No,' replied James wearily. He spoke as though trying to explain something to a slow minded toddler. ''Cause after all, I did work for Shinra.'
Barret's face scrunched up in mild anger at the mention of Shinra. Despite he thought he was about to tell James things that he already know, Barret still launched into the lecture he had waiting to be said.
'This planet's full of Mako energy, an' people here use it everyday. It's like the lifeblood of the planet...but Shinra...But Shinra keeps suckin' the lifeblood out with these weird machines,' he said, gesturing around him.
'I'm not here to be lectured,' retorted James, coolly. 'Let's just hurry it up.'
This angered Barret who pointed at James aggressively and yelled 'Right, that's it! You're comin' with me!' Jessie made her way to the door, and punched a code into the security dial at one side. She worked for a minute, not once taking her eyes off the nine buttons in front of her. At last, she got it open.
'Code deciphered,' she announced.
They walked through the door, except for the one man that James noticed had not said a word yet. He just stood by the dial Jessie had put the code into. Jessie, Barret, James, and the one that had questioned him about his name made their way over to a second door. This time it was the nameless man's turn to put in a code. Like Jessie, when he put it in correctly, he announced 'Code deciphered'. James saw that this second door was the door to an elevator.
James and Barret entered, whilst James pressed the buttons to go to a lower level. Barret seemed ready to continue his lecture. James still did not want to hear it.
'Li'l by li'l the reactors'll drain out all of the life, an' then that'll be that.'
James shrugged.
'I don't care, it's not my problem.'
'The planet's dyin', James!' exclaimed Barret, seemingly appalled by James' lack of interest. James merely shrugged again.
'The only...only thing that I care about is finishin' this job and gettin' the hell outta here before security and the Roboguards come,' he replied, his voice flat, bored.
Barret angrily drew in a sharp breath, appearing to be holding onto a violent burst of expletives that he would like nothing more than to fire at the uncaring man he was working with. The elevator had reached their destination, and they exited. James followed Barret through the many passageways, over high rails, clambering up ladders, jumping over small gaps above a distressingly distant ground. At last they reached the reactor.