Chapter 2: Anxious Hearts

The debris filled tunnel presented something of a challenge. First, Wedge brought out the large search lamp he carried with him - something to do with him being scared of the dark.

And second, there was little to no cover, for Jessie had packed the emergency charge she brought with a bit too much explosive.

Wedge came barreling out of the freshly created hole before everyone else, screaming about how his eyebrows were on fire.

It took at least thirty seconds for Biggs to calm him down and stop screaming before Shinra picked them up again.

"Well," Biggs said, kneeling to catch his breath. "That should keep the planet going. For at least a little longer."

"Yeah, now let's get outta here!" Barret said. "Rendezvous at the Sector 8 station. Split up and get on that train!"

Tones of affirmation went around and the three AVALANCE member ran off in different directions.

Cloud and Barret, however, stayed behind.

"Hey," Cloud began.

"If it's about yer money, save it 'til we get back to the hideout." Barret snarled over his shoulder before running off.

Cloud shook his head and ran up a nearby set of stairs to the street above.

The street was complete pandemonium. Cars had crashed, thugs were looting everything in sight, at least until the Shinra riot control parties showed up, and people ran for their lives.

And those who appeared to be decent, honest people were now brandishing sidearms for their protection.

And in the midst of all of it, there was a seemingly helpless girl in a small red denim mini-jacket over a pink dress. The girl dusted herself off after being thrown to the ground, and picked up a basket full of flowers.

As Cloud made his way through the wreckage, she approached him.

"Excuse me?" the flower girl asked. "What just happened? I heard an explosion."

"Nothing." Cloud said, a little too quickly. It wasn't every day he saw a girl this pretty. Her hair was a light shade of brown, and her eyes were a pale green light, with a constant smile reflected in them. "Hey, listen, don't see too many flowers around here."

"Hmm?" The girl asked. "Oh, these. Do you like them? They're only a gil."

Cloud dug into his pocket, finding a small abundance of the coins. After finding a one gil value, he handed it over to her.

"Oh, thank you!" The flower girl smiled, only making her look even prettier. She dug for a flower in her basket and retrieved a pale yellow one. "Here you are." She said and moved off.

Cloud stared at the flowers, wondering what the hell possessed him to buy a flower amidst the wreckage of a Mako reactor he helped destroy.

Balancing out, perhaps? After dealing with so much death, trying to surround himself with life?

Cloud tucked the flowers inside his pocket and ran off, towards the main square. The interruption of Mako energy caused several lights to short and dangerous blue arcs to be cast from several control antennae.

As Cloud approached the Sector 8 tunnel, a voice called out from behind.

"Hey! You there!"

Shinra! Damn! They'd picked him up. Even if he played innocent, they'd take him to the Shinra tower and question him. Then the truth would come out. That and the large sword on his back was something of a dead giveaway.

Cloud halted in his tracks, waiting for the soldiers to come up alongside him. The, as one of the reached for a notepad, he grabbed the man's wrist and threw him over his shoulder.

The soldiers partner reached for his Oppressor, but Cloud grabbed the stock of the gun, and drove his elbow into the man's chin, separating the gun from its user. The user never got back up.

With his cover blown, Cloud ran down a nearby alley and into the street. Two more soldiers opened fire from behind him.

Cloud somersaulted out of their line of fire, using a building for cover.

Until three more soldiers flanked him from the right, bringing their nightsticks and combat shields out.

Cloud's Buster sword came out slashing through one soldier. He fell, screaming and Cloud brought the sword around again, taking down another.

The remaining soldier finally got his gun cocked and prepared to fire. Cloud brought the sword down again, cutting off the stock of the Oppressor, and bringing his elbow to the soldier's face.

Seeing more reinforcements on their way, Cloud turned about face and ran in the opposite direction. One of the arcing wires was above the fresh batch of soldiers that had appeared before him.

Kicking the service pistol out of one of the soldier's hands, Cloud caught the pistol in mid air and in the same follow-through motion, took careful aim and fired.

The wire came down onto the men, who crossed over a puddle. The three were electrocuted instantly, with Cloud turning about, purposely trying to avoid the smell of burning flesh.

The Shinra MPs had closed in now. One for every man he had just defeated.

That brought the count up to eight against one. Not very promising odds, especially with Cloud's back against a rail.ing

"That's as far as you go!" One of the men called.

Just after the words escaped his mouth, Cloud heard the rumble of a train approaching, just under him. The tunnel ended just behind him, giving him a small window to get on the train Barret had mentioned.

"I don't have time to be messing with you guys." Cloud said, and without another word, he vaulted over the railing before any of the men could get off a shot and onto the roof of the passing train. Before any of the Shinra men could so much as get off a shot, the train had disappeared into a tunnel. And Cloud with it.

--

One of the drawbacks of the AVALANCE crew was their ability for pointing out the obvious.

"Cloud never came." Wedge said, sadly. The heavy machine gun by the large man was a direct contrast to his soft and tender personality.

"Hmph." Biggs said at the other end of the cargo car. "Cloud. Wonder if he was killed?"

Barret simply shook his head. "No way." He had seen the way Cloud fought, a guy like that didn't go down so easy.

And everyone couldn't be sure, but they thought they heard a soft whisper of "Cloud…" coming from Jessie at the very rear of the car.

A loud thumping from the roof drew everybody's attention, but was dismissed as the tracks all too quickly.

"Say," Biggs piped up. "D'ya think cloud's gonna fight to the end for AVALANCHE?"

"The hell would I know?" Barret boomed. "I look like a mind reader to you?" He hit a nearby crate to voice his frustration. "If y'all weren't such screw-ups…"

"H-hey Barret?" Wedge asked timidly. "What about our money?"

Another slam on the crate showed Wedge it was not the appropriate time to ask.

And then the thumping continued, as if it were coming from the main door. And then without warning the door flew open, and a flash of navy blue and blonde came into the car.

"CLOUD!" Everyone called.

Cloud, a bit dirty from the train's smoke, wiped his eyes to clear his vision. "Looks like I'm a little late." He said, dryly.

"You damn right you're late!!" Barret shouted. "Come waltzin' in here, makin' a big scene!"

"It's no big deal." Cloud said. "Just what I always do."

"Shit!" Barret hissed. "Havin' everybody worried about ya, don't care 'bout nobody but yourself."

"You were worried about me?" Cloud said, feigning ignorance to see Barret squirm.

And squirm he did. "I'm takin' it outta your money, hotshot!" Barret boomed. "Wake up, all of ya! We're movin' out! Follow me!"

Barret led the way through the boxes to the cars further ahead.

"Hey, Cloud!" Wedge whispered. "You were great back there!"

Biggs was next to pay his respect, by clapping Cloud on the shoulder. "Ha ha, Cloud! We'll do even better next time!"

The door closed as Jessie made her way through. "Oh, Cloud!" She said. "You're face is as black as soot! Here." She took out a handkerchief, rubbing away the worst of it.

Reminds me of my mother. Cloud thought, squirming slightly the way he used to in his younger days.

"There." Jessie smiled. "That's better! Say, thanks for helping me out back at the reactor."

She went back along the route the others had taken, Cloud at the end.

The adjoining car was considerably nicer in terms of design. Cloud noticed that the most luxurious accommodation was that the car actually had seats.

The intercom announced that he was aboard the last train out of Sector 8, bound for the Train Graveyard in Sector 7, at about twenty three minutes after midnight, Midgar standard time.

A span of sixty kilometres in fifteen minutes. The train systems speed only showed just how big of a city Midgar really was.

And such a big city had to be inhabited by people of equal scale, as Barret Wallace burst though the door, making a ruckus and scaring off the majority of the passengers. If his entrance didn't convince them to leave, the Gatling gun on his arm did.

"Huh!" He said, bringing his bulk down onto the beaten red leather seat with a sharp slap. "Funny how it cleared up so damn quick!"

With all the seats empty, the AVALANCHE members took their pick, while Cloud simply stood.

"Stop actin' like a damn kid!" Barret reprimanded him "Siddown and shut up!"

Cloud shrugged, not wanting another argument and plopped himself down beside Wedge.

The big man leaned in close to Cloud and spoke "Someday, AVALANCE is gonna be famous! And me too!"

"Hmm," Cloud grunted, nodding to make the big man hush.

Just as Wedge opened his mouth to follow up, Jessie piped up.

"Hey, Cloud! Come look at the map reader with me."

The feisty redhead grabbed Cloud's arm and dragged him over to a terminal. "This is a map of the Midgar rail system. It'll start in a little bit. I like this kinda stuff. Bombs, monitors, y'know. Flashy stuff."

The display certainly wasn't disappointing. The circular city appeared before Cloud and Jessie, showing a lime-green wire frame blueprint of the city at a one to ten-thousandth scale. Even then, it took up the entire sixty inch monitor.

The route of the train was highlighted along a spire that stretched along the very foundations of the towering Corporate Plaza. The Shinra building was at the dead center of the city, matching in height what the city did in breadth.

The map even displayed the numbered sectors, on the surface of the metal plate the citizens of Midgar lived on, where they got a clear view of the sky. Where the Mako reactors and corporate workers were housed, the plate stood fifty meters off the ground, allowing for a generous "basement" as the public works administration called it.

In that basement beneath the plate, however, there was a completely different city altogether. The residents of the lower city, the slums, as they were known, were confined in filthy conditions, little to no money and all but hidden from the upper plate. The only thing Shinra did was maintain the support structures of the plate, keeping it safely above ground. The primary one being underneath the Corporate plaza, while each numbered sector had their own support pillars.

The same Sectors existed, and transportation was possible between the upper and lower plates. However, most people from the slums never even made it to see the sun or the stars, so poor were they.

In addition to the conditions that were imposed on them, the people of the slums also had to deal with a much higher crime rate. The Shinra Corporation, which controlled everything in the city, had all but forsaken the slums. Not even the police would venture down into the slums, leaving the residents to fend for themselves against gang activity and multiple offences to grievous and numerous to even consider.

But, all the map was designed to show were the stops the trains made. And that's just what it did.

"Each city in Midgar used to have a name." Jessie said. "But nobody remembers them anymore. Now, instead of names, we just refer to them as numbered sectors, each with its own Mako reactor."

Jessie leaned in towards Cloud and whispered. "The number one we just blew up was in the northern section." After re-establishing her distance, she peered at the map. "

"We're coming up on an ID transponder." Jessie said, keeping her voice down. "Those are established at certain checkpoints, after Shinra won the war against Wutai. It checks the identity and background of everyone on the train and relays the information back to Shinra Headquarters, where all the files are stored in the central databank."

Jessie allowed herself a wide grin. "The fake IDs I set up will allow us to pass through."

Without warning, the lights in the car turned red, causing Wedge to jump.

"Speak of the devil." Jessie said. "There's the ID checkpoint now."

After a few moments, the light faded and Barret peered out the window.

"Look," He said. "You can see the plate surface now. The city under the plate don't have no day or night. If it weren't for the plate, we could see the sky."

Cloud looked out the window as well, seeing the underside of the plate recede as the train plunged deeper into the city. "A city on stilts," He said. "Pretty unsettling when you think about it."

"Never expect ta hear that outta someone like you." Barret snorted. "You jes fulla surprises. The upper world, a city on a plate, it's cuz of that fuckin' pizza that people down here are sufferin'! And down here, the city's fulla polluted air. An on topa that, the reactors keep drainin the energy clean outta this planet."

"Then why doesn't everyone move up onto the plate?" Cloud said. "If it's so bad down here?"

"Dunno." Barret said. "Mebbe it's cuz they ain't got no money. Or mebbe cuz they love their land so much that they'll stick with it, no matter how polluted it gets."

"Yeah," Cloud said, peering out the window again. "Nobody lives in the slums because they want to. It's like this train. It can't run anywhere except where its wheels take it."

As Barret eyed Cloud after hearing this from the man who said the planet dying wasn't his problem, the train whistle blew and the cavalcade came to a halt at the Sector 7 station.

Everyone piled out, eager to go and get some rest. Barret stood in the middle of the platform and called out "Git over here, all of ya!"

Cloud walked over, while Biggs and Wedge ran to get there first. Jessie came last, after bidding the conductor good night.

"This mission was a success, but don' get lazy now. The hard part's still to come. Don't y'all be scared of that explosion, cuz the next one's gonna be even bigger than that!"

After a collective cheer, Barret hushed everyone back up. "Meet back at the hideout. Move out!"