"Zax." Angeal spoke up from behind him, having also made the jump from the helicopter to the train.
Zax harrumphed, he was impatient to get started. But he turned to his mentor to see what Angeal wanted.
"Focus." Angeal urged.
Zax grit his teeth. it had been a small while since Angeal and he had returned from Kalm. Their dynamic had improved in the intervening time, and as a consequence Zax had been doing better in training. Even Zax could sense that his performance had been elevated recently.
But Angeal seemed determined to hold Zax's hand every step of the way, like Angeal didn't trust him. To Zax who had been independently minded since he could remember, it felt like he was being limited by this treatment.
"There are no ShinRa troops on this train. Understood?"
Zax lifted his brows at this statement from his mentor. If that was Angeal's way of telling him to cut loose, then he wasn't going to look the gift chocobo in the beak.
Turning from Angeal. Zax eyed the path he would take up over the roofs of the train carriages. He punched the center of one palm with the other fist in eager anticipation. This simulation might just provide a challenge after all.
With this thought in mind. Zax took off it a sprint, gaining on the hijacked train, vaulting each gap between carriages as he went. Just as he jumped one such divide, his position was shot to pieces by gun fire, and he had to dance picking up his heels to avoid taking any led. Zax was almost forced off the back of the carriage, but he managed to fall forward and to the side on hands and knees instead.
"Wo…Hello to you too!" Zax said to the simulated mission in general, when he had to tug his hand out of the way of a straggling shot.
Pushing himself back to his feet, he resumed his charge down the line of the trains carriages. This time he kept ahead of the gunfire, not allowing his enemy to lead their target, so as not to run into it like he had almost done. On his way he weaved the gantrys and bridges, vaulting some, ducking beneath others.
There they were, the gunmen, they had reloaded and where moving into range to accurately target him. Oddly they were ShinRa infantry, but Zax already had experience fighting Lost Force, so he wasn't going to let these simulated troopers stop him.
"Come and get it!" Zax challenged. Taking the sword from it's place at his back, he used it in deflecting the first close range volley. On the back of a train there was little room to maneuver side to side, but he managed to brute force his way past the first two lines.
The third line however had come armed with hand held rocket launchers, these could not be deflected with the sword Zax had. Zax clicked his tongue against the inside of his teeth. If he had had a weapon like Angeal's he could have taken the third line on directly, but now he was going to have to worry about them flanking him. Fortunately rocket launchers had the disadvantage of being heavy, cumbersome, and slow to reload. Additionally the ammunition was bulky so the simulated foe would have little of it, to mimic a real scenario.
The virtual infantry fired on him, Zax felt the heat of the rockets as they neared. But he managing to give himself enough of a boost, so that he moved through the air over their heads, faster then then even the train was traveling.
"Soldier second class Zax has arrived!" He came down in the junction between two carriages, severing the coupling there with is sword, before leaping to the carriage in front. Leaving the virtual infantry and the tail end of the train, to grind to a halt on the tracks.
Returning his sword to his harness, Zax turned instead to watch as the train came into the virtual sector 1 plate station.
"Continue on to Phase 2. You will be ranked by your superiors." Came the instruction from the helicopter hovering overhead still.
Brimming with adrenaline Zax swung up into a handstand atop the train, and flipped down to the sector 1 platform.
Wandering up the platform, Zax was trying to guess at what exactly phase two of the mission might entail. When his PHS rang. Taking the handset from his pocket, he flipped it open and answered the call. "Zax speaking."
"Making progress Zax?" Came Angeal's voice.
"What's going on Angeal, why are we fighting ShinRa troops?" Zax asked confusedly. It was one thing for Zax to have dispatched Lost Force operatives off the record without the company's knowledge, or for SOLDIER and infantry to participate in joint training. But Zax had never fought simulations of ShinRa's own military.
"They're Wutai troops in disguise." Angeal insisted, but truthfully it had probably just been a decision made by the programmer. "Now head to the open area above." Angeal instructed.
"Towards sector eight?"
"Yes." Angeal confirmed. The stairwell at the end of the platform would bring Zax to the neighboring sector 8. "But first you have to clear a path."
"Clear a path?"
"You'll see what I mean" Angeal half warned, half assured his protoge. "Be careful." As he said this last he heard the sounds of gunfire reaching him from Zax's end.
"so I can cut loose right?" There was a smile in Zax's voice.
"Use some discretion." Angeal requested.
When Zax ended the call. Angeal settled down on the edge of the VR version of sector 8's fountain. His attention was focused on the screen of his PHS, which listed each VR event included in the simulation as it happened, keeping Angeal up to date with Zax progress. When Angeal saw that the last trooper included in the platform ambush had been neutralized he called Zax once more.
"Not too bad."
Zax replied with a confident. "Piece of cake, I'll make first in no time!"
"Go up the stairs at the end of the platform."
"You got it." Zax agreed after a moment's pause. He had probably, or rather hopefully, been inspecting the stairwell for enemies.
On schedule the mission boss, behemoth, was inserted into Zax's next encounter. A notification told Angeal that Zax had put himself between the threat, and the virtual civilians as per SOLDIER protocol. Soon another alert let Angeal know that the simulation's boss encounter had ended.
Angeal held his PHS to his ear, to listen to the post mission evaluation of Zax's performance as compared to his last VR session. Instead the artificial voice announced a 3rd phase to the mission unknown to Angeal.
"Impossible!" Angeal glanced at the screen of his PHS to see that below the 3rd phase alert, was a notification of Sephiroth's data having been inserted into the encounter.
The simulation was full contact, Angeal had to get to Zax without delay or he would be seriously injured if not killed outright.
"Showing your back to the enemy, over confidence will destroy you."
The voice along with the sword, came from over Zax's shoulder. With a frustrated exhale he lifted his hands in the way that signaled to the computer in charge of the simulation, to cease any offensive action. Angeal was going to let him hear all about how he lost his focus and awareness of the situation, how he got carried away fighting the behemoth, how he should have been paying attention and thinking past his fists.
And ofcorse Angeal would be right too, lack of situational awareness had almost cost him dearly when Lost Force had ambushed Kunsel and himself on that first mission together. But he had genuinely wanted and tried to do better, for his own sake, and that of his alleys too. Instead he had faltered again.
Grudgingly he turned to face whatever enemy he had neglected to notice. His breath left him, startled by what he saw. "Wh…what is this?"
He didn't get an answer. Instead the program somehow ignored the surrender safety command, and the virtual 1st class Sephiroth made to stab at him.
The onslaught was like lightning precision striking. But Zax managed by a hairs breath to keep up, spinning so that the masamune connected with the sword in its place on the back of his harness. He then drew the sword as he came out of the turn to meet data Sephiroth blow for blow, before engaging in a match of strength. Despite his best efforts, he was losing ground quickly.
Angeal reached the scene, just as Zax's inferior weapon fractured beneath the pressure of going head to head with Sephiroth. Without his sword Zax was thrown back, and Angeal's heart stuttered within him.
For a terrifying split second as Angeal rushed to put himself between Zax and the virtual Sephiroth. He imagined that Zax had been nicked by the stray half of his broken sword, the same way Genesis had been, before the injury had lead to Genesis becomeing ill. But when he had stopped the attack that would surely have killed Zax, he was able to look the young SOLDIER over, finding him whole and uninjured. Angeal let go of the breath he had been holding, however his heart was still racing.
"Thank's Angeal." Zax said as he sat up with a grown.
The virtual Sephiroth had backed off and stood to the side, dormant and unblinking.
Angeal frowned. Sephiroth's data had not been a part of the simulation when it had been demonstrated to him, there was only supposed to be one mission boss, and that was ether a randomly generated behemoth or a general's tank. And while he understood that General Sephiroth's data was also kept under a filename with 'General' in it, an error like this was unacceptable, it had almost cost Zax his life. Angeal determined to put forward a complaint about the clearly lax safety procedures that the science decision observed.
Taking out his PHS, Angeal scrolled down the simulations event list, aborting the mission at it's current stage. He then waited for the simulated world to dissolve most of the way, before he spoke again. "Training's over." Angeal resisted the impulse to cover his still shaken heart with a hand.
Zax was fast to his feat. "Wha? Why?" He demanded.
It was his own broken sword thrust out toward him, that Angeal gave as his answer.
"You serious?" Zax asked. Unbelievable, at this rate he was never going to make 1st if even a broken sword was enough to end training. He would swear Angeal was trying to hold him back if he didn't know better, what was his deal anyway.
Tearing off his biorhythm-testing headset. Zax pressed. "I was just getting warmed up!"
For his part Angeal spun the sword in his hand, to offer the grip to Zax.
Zax took the shattered weapon from his mentor, and looked it up and down. Cut short, like this training session he thought.
"Zax," Angeal drew Zax's attention as he made for the exit.
"Hum?" Zax returned to show he was listening.
Angeal paused at the door. "Hold on to your dreams."
"Huh?" Zax wondered at what Angeal was referring to.
"If you want to be a hero you need to hold onto your dreams, and also…your pride."
"Ha…hum…" Was all Zax could muster. He supposed that was what most SOLDIER operatives and SOLDIER hopefuls were after. The SOLDIER program was advertised as glamorous heroic work after all, so naturally it drew people that way inclined. But even so it had seemed to Zax like Angeal hadn't been talking to Zax really, like Zax was just a stand in for someone else.
