2. On the way.
Cloud was the last to wake up the next
morning and made a decision, he opened up his back pack and pulled out some
purple clothing. His old Shinra uniform, since he quit he had removed all of
the Shinra markings from the garments and all other sources removed all his
relations to Shinra bar one, his helmet. The helmet…
'Well done buddy, you deserved
it!'
A present from an old friend, it was strong
so strong that the blacksmith he had asked to remove it couldn't. He put on the
purple clothing attaching his armour to its usual places. He then reached for
the other overcoat the one he had worn all those years ago, that still fitted.
He picked up Executioner taking it out of the plain black sheath.
He looked at the gap between the Materia
slots to see the three Runes imprinted on to the weapon, the Executioner
the last momento of his father. As well as he knew, his father was a Runesmith,
one of those trusted with the wisdom of the Ancient skill, Runes were a way of
gaining extra abilities into weapons or armour making them more powerful or
have better defensive. The Rune on the right was the Rune of Growth a
Rune that effected the growth levels of Materia. The Rune of Execution
in the centre allowed the blade to slice through any material with inhuman ease
and the touch of the blade could draw blood. The right Rune was the Rune of
Power a Rune which guided the weapon to an opponents weak spots always
causing more damage. Each Rune emitted a slight glow but unlike Materia their
glow was continuous. He checked his Materia slots to make sure that his Long
Range Materia was there.
He quickly took off the old piece of Shinra
Alpha and dug out of his pack his father's Dragon Armlet. His
mother had given him this just before he had left Nibelheim, when the Turks
found him and asked him to join SOLDIER. The Armlet had four Runes, another Rune
of Growth and The Fire, Lightning and Ice Runes, which halved the
damage done by those elements. He put the Armlet on and then moved his Restore,
All, Lightning, All and Ice Materias into it.
He removed the shoulder pad from the ripped
overcoat and moved it into his other which was of a better quality. He slipped
it on and did up the buttons before picking up the satchel he slung it into
position before placing his sword into its sheath and the placing them on his
back, deciding to leave the helmet in the bar. He then headed up the stairs
where Barret and Tifa waited for him.
"Hey Cloud glad your up." Tifa
welcomed him.
"By the way in case Jessie hasn't told
you already we're going to be attacking the No.5 Reactor today." Barret
stated.
"And I'm coming along too!" Tifa
exclaimed.
"Cloud by the way. I don't know how to
use Materia, If you teach me how to use it I'll give you all the Materia we
found."
"Sure I've got the time…" Cloud
went through all he knew about Materia with Barret on how to equip it to how to
cast magic and use commands in about fifteen minutes Barret was still as
stumped. "Huh? I don't get it. I'll get Jessie to tell me later. Anyway
you're in charge with the Materia from now on." Barret passed him two Restore
Materia, a Lightning and a Fire Materia.
"By the way the man from the weapons shop
contacted us he said that he had some supplies for us." Cloud nodded as
they headed out the door but before he went to the weapons shop he went to the
Materia store.
As he entered he heard the man behind the
counter sigh. "If I don't sell anything soon this place is going under.
There's just no one to buy good Materia in the Slums…" He stopped as Cloud
moved up to the counter. "I hate to ask but… Are you a customer?"
Cloud nodded his head. "Welcome! We buy,
we sell."
"What have you got?" he gave Cloud a
price list.
"I'll have a Restore, and an Ice
Materia please." Cloud stated as he counted the gill and passed it to the
man. He also bought five potions from the man as well as five Antidotes.
They moved over to the weapons shop where
Cloud brought two Iron Bangles for the others. They took off
their old arm bands, replace them with the new ones and handed them to Cloud
who sold them for the gill.
They moved upstairs and got the Ether,
a few more potions, a Tent and an All Materia. Cloud took
the time to equip his team mates, with the Iron Bangles and gave
Tifa the Restore and Lightning Materia and Barret the Restore,
Fire and All Materia where he linked Fire and All
in his Assault Gun and put the Restore in his new Bangle.
"Cloud?" Tifa asked.
"Yea?"
"Why do we all have Restore?"
She asked.
"Well in SOLDIER they only gave Curative
magic to one person in the party, this way if one of us is downed the others
can still cure themselves." Cloud pointed out as they headed to the train.
As they reached the station all the others jumped onto the train, headed for
sector four.
The train was quiet, near empty apart from a
man in a red suit sitting where Barret usually sits. "This trains kinda
empty all of a sudden. What's going on?"
"AVALANCHE says that there's going to be
more bombings. Only royal employees of Shinra would work at a time like
this."
"You work for the Shinra!" Barret
aimed his gun-arm at him.
"I won't give in to violence and I won't
give up my seat either!" He called putting his head protectively in his
hands.
"Barret!" Tifa shouted and he
backed down.
"So anything else I should know."
Cloud took a serious tone.
"Oh listen to Mr. All so serious about
his work."
Couldn't you be less serious
Cloud.
"Well as Jessie may have told you may
have told you, the top plate has an ID check system…"
"Which the Shinra are very proud
of." Tifa piped in.
"Anyhow anyway we can't use our fake IDs
anymore so before the sensor were jumping off."
"Train heading to Sector 4, ETA
11:45" An announcer said.
"That means in three minutes were
jumping off." Barret called as he took a seat.
"Hey Cloud come have a look at the map
with me." Tifa said.
Cloud approached Tifa's position but paused
by the Shinra manager. "You alright?" He asked.
"I will be. Your friend is a bit
violent." He nodded to Barret.
"Don't worry he's on anger management
courses." Cloud mused with the man, causing him a laugh.
"Thanks." He replied.
Cloud nodded and then went to Tifa.
"Looks like you've already seen this. Oh well."
That was when the alarm went off. "What
the…" Barret cried as Jessie ran in.
"We're in trouble." She said.
"What?" Barret called back.
"No time to explain, quick get into the
next carriage." She ran back through the door.
"Someone blew it!" Barret called as
they moved through the doorway followed by the others.
Jessie was in the next carriage. "If we
keep going we can out run the sensors." Jessie said then started running,
followed by the others, Cloud drew out the Executioner, only for the
reason to stop people picking his pockets. As they arrived in the final
carriage Barret open the door.
"Scary huh?" Tifa said.
"No time for that now." Cloud
stated as she moved to the opened door.
"I've decided I'm gonna jump." She
said as she jumped out.
"Want to go first." He asked
Barret.
"No a leader always stays to the
end." Barret stated as Cloud then moved to the door.
"Alright." Cloud jumped out of the
train, drawing the Executioner back and embedding it into the tunnel
wall, leaving him hanging a foot from the ground. He drew out the weapon and
easily fell to the floor landing on his feet.
"Damn show off!" Barret shouted as
he got off the floor. "The reactor is down this way com' on." He led
the way to the reactor after they got Tifa up.
As they moved they found some resistance,
Shinra security sensors. "We can't go any further." Cloud stated as
he begun to look around. Then he saw it, a small tunnel.
"Yo Cloud what yea found." Barret
asked.
"Tifa have a look at this." He
called her over and she looked down.
"It leads to the lower plate, the only
problem is it's one way." Tifa said.
"We're going down." Cloud said as
he quickly slid down before the two could argue.
"Oh great!" Barret said as Tifa
followed him and then he went down.
As they continued only stopping to get an
Ether that Cloud found and to fight any guards they found on the way the bumped
into Wedge. "The Reactor is up that ladder, good luck." He said as
they started to climb, it was then they found Jessie waiting at the junction
they came to.
"Sorry about the problem on the train.
Cloud's ID malfunctioned. I tried my best and failed." She put down her
head.
"Don't worry." Cloud said as he put
a hand on her shoulder. "These things happen."
"Thanks, when I get back to the hideout
I'll start work on something really special." With that they all headed
down a ladder to meet Biggs.
"The Reactors Just through that door.
We're gonna pull out now. It's up to you to take down the Reactor. Good
luck." With that Biggs started to head back.
The travel to the reactor was easier than
last time. When they arrived that the core Tifa collapsed her hands on her
head.
'Papa…'
'Sephiroth!?'
'Did Sephiroth do this to you?'
' Sephiroth…'
'SOLDIER…'
'Mako Reactors…'
'Shinra…'
'I hate them all.'
"Tifa?" Barret asked coming to her
side.
"Yea I will be." She replied as
Barret helped her to her feet. With this Cloud set the bomb.
"Twenty minutes." He said as he
started towards the ladder. The Executioner in his hand ready to take
out anything that came into his range, Tifa followed her fist dying for some action
and Barret at the rear his Assault Cannon ready. They reached the upper
floor to see a door shut.
"Jessie told me about this." Tifa
said as she ran into a side room followed by Cloud and Barret. "You have
to push all the buttons together the door will open."
"Alright." Barret said. "Lets
get this the first time, after three push. One… Two… Three…" They all
pushed the buttons opening the doors wide.
"Be on your guard." Cloud called as
he took out a cloth and cleaned the Executioner. "This has been too
easy."
"Ever heard of good luck Cloud?"
Tifa asked.
"Yes but this is against the Shinra. I
know what it's like in the war, they used so many dirty tricks it could make
people sick." Cloud replied remembering a single year where he had wished
he had missed.
"What yea saying Cloud that this might
be a trap." Barret replied.
"I don't know but, I do know that Shinra
are up to something. I mean after the small force we met on the way in we met
little or no resistance. Where was the Guard Scorpion? Why wasn't it there? I
mean this is a Mako reactor, they can't afford to have these down, it means
that Shinra can't line his pockets. I think we should be on our guard."
"You've got a point, alright everyone on
their guard." Barret said as he re cocked his gun-arm.
"Come on lets get out of here."
Tifa called as she punched her fist into her palm. They moved through the door
onto to the catwalk.
"This way." Barret said as he
started to run into Sector 4.
"Freeze!" Eight members of SOLDIER
First-Class ran in from Sector 4 causing Barret to move back.
"A trap." Barret called as he
readied his gun-arm.
A man in a red suit appeared from the
entrance they had just came from. Slightly overweight and defined the man
walked up to where the rebels stood. "Hmm… So you all must be… What was
it…" President Shinra started.
"AVALANCHE and don't you forget
it!" Barret called as he.
"Hmm… Pity we have to destroy a Reactor
to get rid of vermin like you." Shinra answered.
"Vermin why you…" Barret said.
There was a clash and the Executioner tapped
the ground bringing attention to its owner. "It can't be…" Shinra
said as Cloud moved forward.
"Long time no see Shinra." Cloud
said his voice showing no emotion, but his eyes showing the deep hatred he
developed for the man over the past 5 years.
"Well Strife, at least Hojo will be
pleased to know you're alive. Then it must be true." Shinra said as he
moved forward.
"What's he talking about." Barret
said to Cloud but he was locked in his showdown with Shinra.
"Was that the sword you used to kill Sephiroth?"
Shinra asked.
"What!?" Barret called as he looked
on the mercenary for his reaction.
"You've got guts to show yourself
Shinra. Especially after what your creation did to Nibelheim." Cloud said
"Hmm. I wish I could stay to bicker with
you Strife but I have previously set engagements. But no matter, I've already
made arrangements for you." The mechanical construction moved onto the
floor. "This is Air Buster, A techno soldier weapons development designed.
I'm sure the info it draws from your friends dead bodies will be useful.
Farewell." It that Shinra jumped into his helicopter and the SOLDIERS
vanished.
"Yo Cloud we've got to do something
about this thing." Barret said as it cut off Barret and Tifa from Cloud.
"This is from Soldier?" Tifa asked.
"No way it's mechanical. It has no
soul." Cloud replied as he came up behind it.
"Let's just bust it up!" Barret
shot at the machine to find that he was only denting its armour.
"Counter attack: program No.1 Big
Bomber." The metal machine hit the ground, causing an earth quake that
knocked Tifa off her feet.
"Leave it to me." Cloud said. The
talk with Shinra had pushed him to the limit.
'Braver'
The Limit Break smacked into the back of Air
Buster causing mass damage. "Program malfunction: Turning operation
unavailable." A mechanical voice. With this Tifa cast cure on herself as
Barret shot at the weakened point in it armour putting a hole in it.
"Counter attack: Rear Gun." It shot
Cloud with two rear weapons. Cloud fell but quickly stood up. The recent fights
had levelled up his Materia making his spells more powerful. He started to
concentrate and gather energy.
'Thundara'
The machine malfunctioned and blew up sending
Cloud into the air and down the hole in the catwalk. Quickly Cloud grabbed a
girder standing out.
"Cloud!" Tifa shouted. "You
can't die now! I have so much to tell you."
"I know Tifa." Cloud said as he
sheathed the Executioner and gripped the girder with his other hand.
"You gonna be alright?" Barret
asked as he gripped Tifa.
"I'll be fine. Take care of her
Barret." Cloud said.
"Alright hold on." With that the
bomb blew. He lost his grip on the girder and started to plummet to the grounds
below.
End of Chapter Two.
