Junon
Blam. Blam. Blam. Blam. Blam. Blam. Blam. Blam. Blam. Blam. Blam. Click. Click. Click. Click.
Switching guns, Evan fired a burst that brought down three Mono Drives. He was down to his last few rounds, and the things just kept coming. The seventeen survivors shot jets of flame at him that he was hard put to dodge. Some of them he didn't. They were coming from eleven pipes around the room, ten of which he'd managed to seal, but the last one was pretty heavily guarded. He wasn't going to reach it. Jumping off the ladder, he took the fall on his shoulder and rolled upright on the floor of the room, prompting many of the Mono Drives to follow. Giving him a clearer shot at the pipe. He wasted his last few machine-gun bullets shooting at the clip stopping the pipe's cover from sliding down over it. Throwing the empty gun at a Mono Drive that was getting close; he took out his rifle and finally managed to hit the clip.
Clang. Game over. Now he just had to get out. Easier said than done. The surviving Mono Drives descended. He didn't have enough ammo to kill half of them. Shrugging, he raised empty hands.
"Simulation over." said a pleasant robotic voice "Thank you for your time."
Retrieving his guns, Evan walked over to the door. At first, it had struck him as odd that the final test involved Mono Drives, where in previous levels he'd been fighting Hammer Blasters and Kalm Fangs. But skill wasn't everything. The door opened, and the Senior Grunt in charge of his new squad handed him a few Hi-potions. Then they headed to the locker room, where his new uniform awaited.
- - - - - - - -
It was an old Junon tradition that the rookies in the garrison served for a while with the elites. So he was serving with the best unit in Junon. He'd been promoted to Attack Squad immediately, and had signed for Submarine crew training in his free time. After his assessment simulation, his unit had been given the evening off to show him around Junon. Since he had nothing to wear but his armour, for obvious reasons, they'd brought him shopping and were now on their way back to the barracks to change.
"Hey."
Six guns were instantly trained on the alley that the voice had spoken from. The other three were scanning in all directions in case the voice was a diversion.
"Hey, guys."
"...Yeah?" The Senior Grunt (her name was Nicole, he thought)
answered cautiously.
"I need you to do something for me."
"And you are?"
"That doesn't matter."
Catching Nicole's attention, Evan mouthed the word 'Sephiroth' at her. He recognized the voice from the Shinra building security footage. She inclined her head slightly, and said aloud "So what's this service?"
"Nothing much. If you see a man with yellow hair and Mako eyes, tell him a man in a black cape is wandering around the city. Yellow hair, not blond, as in Chocobo feather yellow. Make it interesting, say he's killed some of your soldiers or something."
"Have you?"
"Not yet." Not stupid, Nic recognized the menace in that tone and let it drop. Evan spoke up.
"Do we get a reward?"
Just kill him. It's less expensive.
"Mother, wait!
Seeing the glow, Evan dived aside just as a Bio3 passed through where he would have been standing and started eating into the pavement. The squad was just about to fire when a pair of empty hands emerged from the shadows. One of them had the number '1' inked on it. Meanwhile, there was the sound of somebody kicking flesh, and Sephiroth saying, quietly but audibly "Mother. Don't you think they'll balk if I kill one of them? Besides, I don't have Masamune and you're not strong enough yet. We might kill three or four, but we'd both die in the process. Well, this Clone'd die and you'd need a few years to re-form. Think things out before you act, or I'll cut you up and send you back to Hojo for his birthday." Then, louder "A reward? Why not? Catch." One of the hands disappeared briefly and a large bag came out of the shadows and landed just beyond them. Going closer than Evan thought he personally would have dared, a man named James opened the bag with his gun barrel, and, once he'd ascertained that there were no nasty traps inside shared out the coins inside, amounting to 2,000 gil each.
"Satisfied?" asked Sephiroth softly. "You'd better be. That's all I can spare. Incidentally, if you see the man I'm talking about and DON'T tell him that, I'll find you and skin you all alive. Understand?" Without waiting for a response, the hands vanished.
"Well, that was...interesting. Where to now?" James asked brightly, startling them all.
"So what do you think of him?" Nic asked Emma, another squad member, as they continued to the barracks, shaken but not unduly worried. Sephiroth hadn't asked anything difficult.
"Who, Sephiroth or Evan?"
"Evan. We can't do anything about Sephiroth for the moment."
"Smart. Doesn't take stupid risks, he won't get himself killed angling for a promotion. A decent shot, but not a great one-You or me would've hit that clip straight away. Tends to waste bullets making sure his targets are really dead, which is all part of the 'avoid stupid risks' instinct, but that's what got him killed in the end. If he'd had more ammo near the end he would've destroyed all those Mono Drives. He's definitely good, might even have made this squad eventually. Shame about the talent for making enemies."
Nic glanced across. Evan was talking to James but his eyes were moving, watching for shadows. A man of average height, with grey green eyes and black hair. A permanent hunted expression, probably justifiable considering why he'd left Midgar. He might be smart, but seemed to speak without thinking a lot. That remark to Sephiroth almost got him killed. Not for the first time, Nic found herself wondering about that stupid tradition. Their other rookie at present, Zack(A.K.A. Spike because of his spiked black hair) was walking on Evan's other side. He was just a kid, fifteen or sixteen, and was barely able to salute without knocking himself out. What a crew.
"Y'know that Bottomswell that was attacking all the cargo ships?"
"Yeah, what about it?"
"They found its dismembered corpse washed out to sea. So Rufus is coming here to sail to Costa Del Sol."
"Yes, we know. It was kinda hard to miss the music."
Evan lit a cigarette and zoned out. He was no chain smoker-you didn't last long in the military if you were, unless you were Cid Highwind- but he did like the effect of breathing a plume of smoke. He was settling in to Junon, after just one day, but he couldn't understand why they were arguing. So the Prez was coming here, what about it? One of the great things about being in with the elite squad was that you were exempt from the rehearsals-you were expected to know what to do. But his squad were terrified that one of the recruits-a boy named Zack- would mess up the parade, to the point that they'd hidden his uniform. So three of the squad-Evan and two others he couldn't remember the name of, plus Nicole, were lying around in the locker room to make sure he didn't find it. Oddly enough, they hadn't said anything of the sort to him. Not that it bothered him. Guard duty in Midgar was nothing but parading around looking impressive.
One of them suddenly put a hand to their ear "The President has arrived."
They looked to Nic, who shrugged and said "He won't find it now. Let's go." Emerging from the locker room, they attempted to look caught by surprise by Rufus' sudden arrival, shouting "He's here he's here!" etc, etc.
A guy with spiked blond hair and Mako eyes was standing in front of the door to the airfield. Not daring to react, Evan ran past him and out to town, skidding to a halt as soon as he was out of eyeshot. The other two soldiers paused, then turned back, one saying "Get to the parade. We'll handle this." over his shoulder. Evan obeyed, just managing to slip into place in the parade before it left. The others'd be late. The parade was easy, after which the people from the elite squad were scheduled to line up in front of the Prez and Heidegger, while the rest of the army hit the barracks. Somehow, Nic and the others made it on time. After Heidegger and Rufus left, the soldiers gathered around to chat.
"What a disaster."
"Heidegger was really irritated."
Nic inclined her head towards the cadet in front of her, and a soldier chimed in "The man in the Black Cape's been roaming the city, but we can't find him."
"Man in a black cape?" the guy asked innocently. You could almost hear his ears pricking.
"He showed up two or three days ago, and killed a few of our soldiers."
"He disappeared right after that. There's a rumour going around that it was Sephiroth" Evan put in subtly.
Nic decided that was enough "Attention! Dismissed." They scattered, except for Nic's recruit. She ran over and said in her best psychotic drill sergeant voice "Hey you! You messing with the army?"
Evan missed his response from where he was lurking, but she responded "You're too lazy! No break for you! Get over here!"
Oh, that was slick.
She obviously wasn't going to let him out of her sight while Rufus was here, in case he was a threat to Junon. But she wouldn't have to follow him around now, perhaps raising suspicion.
After he left, the others emerged from various hiding places.
"James, Emma, come with me. I'll need you to keep drilling him till the sendoff. Evan, Jareth, I want you to go find Spike and make sure he's okay. The rest of you are dismissed for now. Well done."
They went their separate ways. Evan and Jareth set about hunting down Spike.
Emergency over.