Disclaimer: Final Fantasy VII, a highly successful and critically praised video game and its equally awesome series the 'Compilation of FF7' belong to Squaresoft and Square Enix. Not fanfiction not me. Okay? Get it memorized. This is my personal tribute to the game. There are really too few OC characters that it's almost original characters only who also only belong to the company. Any criticisms are welcomed.
"I pity you. There's not a thing I don't Cherish." AC Cloud Strife.
Prologue part 1: Train Mission
Neon lights tinted with the emerald colour of nephrite shone shining streams of radiance that extended miles to infinity which lightened the crispy but slightly smoky night air. Among the rays of lights the gargantuan mushroom of metals and artificial infrastructure was emphasised in the middle. Two bold words imprinted with classic strokes calligraphy from ancient Wuttians. "神羅"
The chill of the bullet fast wind soothed the fresh young faces of the 'SOLDIER' personnel who dared to poke their head out of the windows for a gulp of the fake air around.
"Wanna enjoy the chills? Spike? It's quite refreshing!" An young enthusiastic voice shot and pierced the thoughts of a military member wearing a strange helmet with insect like red eyes in sets of 3.
"You do realize Mr. Angels told us there can be some side effects from this. So no. I'm absolutely not going to have another sick session in the filthy institute toilets. Wait and you are-" The trooper warily replied, taking off the helmet to reveal a set of short spikey blonde locks. He sat half heartedly.
"Hey chill out, my name is-" The black haired boy was cut off.
"Attentions all pioneer candidates. Attention all pioneer candidates." The electronic voice of Mr. Angels bounced and echoed throughout the train giving all the SOLDIERS and military members an explosion in their ears that made them flinch.
" I understand many of you feel bizarre...at the kind of exotic nature of this drill and its strange context. Though try to apply what you memorize beyond something of a memory but something you use better than your fingertips. You RARELY can have this level of reality for training. Like always guys, remember that test is not just the end, it's what we get out after it and get back up from any mistakes that counts."
"Why is Mr. Angel doing this weird machismo sadistic training anyway. Thought he was a pacifist. Are you guys even sure this is legal?" A voice suddenly interrupted in fear and doubts.
"Relax Wedge? Is it? It's just a training exercise." Another irritated voice answered.
"Guys. We're not actually killing anyone in-" A red haired girl who the blond remembered as Jessie was cut off by another noisy interference from Mr. Angels.
"Are we gonna improve or are we gonna just wait till the end of Gaia? It's your choice and your own dignity to decide."
Everyone signed deeply at another one of the boring speeches.
"Whatever..."One voice broke the boredom.
"Just get to the point Mr. Angels." The raven haired boy jumped in annoyance. "No more lectures about choice and honor an'everythin. Come on!"
"Alright. Alright. This is a test of the following. Your awareness and stress response. Be informed that there are no candidate pilots in this city named Mid-Midkar? Midgar and the aim is some sort of information retrieval about Maik-o, not mako reactor in... in Nibel-him, heim? Anyway. Can't pronounce the name of this damn complete works of LOVELESS.
To sum it up. You are all spies from this eco insurgency named AVALANCHE based in Wutai trying to survive SOLDIER who you are dressed as. You do not have any weapons except escaping to the nearest safe points for further re-enforcements. So know who your new friends are even if you have just met, having no lethal options will makes it harder and fine tune your stress responses and simulate the usual scenarios the pilot will face one where he only calls back ups, he or she never fights. According to this weird story, SOLDIERs are genetically augmented war criminals and barbarians with superhuman attributes, who easily slaughter towns of people and set them on fire, if such a thing can even exist and survive against the roboguards. Any questions? If not proceed."
"Thanks Mr. Angels! It's show tim-" The raven head didn't finish before everyone suddenly jerked and ducked out of instinct as something or someone had landed on the roof. The sound was loud enough to be a gunfire.
The crystal chandelier on the train furiously smashed onto the floor, starting the menace of SOLDIER already as small pieces of glass splinters stabbed at the 'spies' in the cabin.
"Well come on! We've got to survey all surroundings and get off the train. The troops at the rooftops can't hold forever."
"Nah, stop being frenzied chickens, we got plenty of-" A bullet ripped through the roof and nearly licked the boy's face.
"Drop your attitudes, Biggs." The boy presumably called Wedge called.
"I assume we have to somewhat get off this train to avoid those 'SOLDIER' guys, so my plan is to get into the next cabin and cut off the coupling on this thing and disperse onto different sect-" The blond was rudely interrupted.
"This is boring. If those guys have weapons why don't we have'em, I wanna get a sword-" The raven head nearly ate all his teeth as the train danced in madness and threw him face first onto the floor. The teenagers wildly grabbed onto anything to prevent the same fate.
Something dark purple partially visible out of the tiny windows leapt down onto the front of the train cabin like some hideous predator, the polished melee weapon cut off the coupling like a butter knife with a few sparks. The SOLDIER was already ahead of them. "SOLDIER 2nd Class Zack Fair, on the job." A faintly audible blurred by noise but quite optimistic voice for a guy doing the job claimed.
"Ooooh. Creepy, this cool guy has the same name as me." The raven haired boy was spooked.
"Shut it Zack. It must be the noise from the train, is he coming? Oh s-Come on guys let's get off." The boy named Biggs instructed and pushed in a panic in front of the blond head.
The doors flew open with a hiss, the spray of miss concealed the jerk of the edged weapon that the blond nearly lost his head as the metal impaled air and swung to the left hitting Biggs who immediately fell to the floor. The blond breathed a sign of relief that it wasn't him who got hit.
"Um. Never mind you. Let's just go." Zack grabbed the blond head through one of the windows the group broke.
"What about Wedge? He needs another chance!" The blond protested.
"No. Spikes, that's Biggs but come on, it's too late, once the SOLDIER touch you, you failed." The two got out of the train but froze at the sight of the SOLDIER who moved with agile grace.
The SOLDIER greeted them with a wave. His face was quite murky in the shadows though his hair style was very much like Zack's. He punched his fist in his palm as if wanting to punish the kids.
"Alright! It's show time!" A deadly broadsword with the polished reflection of daylight in the darkness was unsheathed from his back before someone could blink, though the spies were quicker as they're already miles ahead running.
"Angeal? Is this some trick or something? They're all just running why are Shinra guys running from us guys?" The SOLDIER chirped and lunged with incredible speed to cover three quarters of the distance that had taken the spies their burning muscles to run.
"Ah. My legs. I can't feel them." The girl with red hair collapsed in pain, her eyes went wide with shock when sparkles of blue-white spiralled in jagged pattern around her legs.
"What have you done to her!" The blond yelled at the SOLDIER in purple while fiercely dragging the blond. The SOLDIER was not annoyed but rather curious with one phone in hand, his face sill partially in the shadows. "Hey Angeal! These are really young kids about 16, 17 or so, around mine. I took one done with a materia. Why are we hurting kids now!"
The replied came over the phone, the SOLDIER was half way between an acknowledging nod before something hit him and he gave out an 'aw' like grunt to clutch his jewels after the impact.
"Yo! Do not fall too far behind!" Zack hit the SOLDIER again in the stomach.
"Don't lose your awareness folks. Get going, he didn't completely stun you. But I could have been one of em SOLDIER guys here." Zack dropped the wooden plank and dragged the two away with Jessie on his back before the SOLDIER could realize what happened.
The trio sped like missiles into the darkest possible alleyways. A metal clang came as the raven haired boy clashed onto a lamp post head on because he looked back too much.
"Okay. You've got your first aid on you-um." Jessie asked the blond.
"Um." He chuckled. "I don't think I have it."
"And you are?"
"Cirrus. Cirrus. Strife." He looked disappointed.
"Hmn." She nodded in comprehension. "Looks like we got some trouble. I'll contact Wedge to see if he could get medical attention." She brushed aside Zack's locks to reveal a blue bruise. "He's a cute guy when he's sleeping."
"You know it's not cute, he could have a haemorrhage if this is-No. I'll go. I am the reason he's not going ahead as far as he is supposed to be. I'll do it." Cirrus ran off.