Chapter 1 - Mako Reactor #1
He jumped from the train and saw two bodies on the floor. He assumed that part of the team had already arrived. His adrenaline was pumping and he knew that there was no turning back. He quickly moved up to the motionless guards and took the healing balm they had with them. He could probably sell them later on.
No sooner had he removed it from them, two other guards came running from the alley. They pulled out their guns as soon as they saw him, and he knew that if he did not fight back, they would kill him, without asking any questions. He jumped between the two train cars and reached to his back. The hilt felt cool and comforting in his hand, but he had no time to dwell on it. The guards moved up to the dead men and quickly started to shoot in his direction. Cloud closed his eyes, and no sooner had he opened them did one of the men fall to the floor and burst into flames. The other guard jumped back and watched his partner in horror, realizing too late that he was the next target. The sting in his abdomen subsided as soon as it started, and he felt the sword that had thrust through it being drawn back as everything around him hazed away.
Cloud sheathed his sword, and ran. He knew where he had to go, and he knew that he did not have much time to work with. He hoped the guards didn't have enough time to call for help. He could handle a few of them on his own, but even his materia gems could not help him against anyone from Soldier. He ran across a corner and saw a man in the shadows. The man gestured towards him and he saw someone else running a few yards behind him. They all met at a guard post. "What's your name?" Cloud turned and saw an overweight man smiling at him.
"Name's Cloud, ex-Soldier."
The other man stepped back in surprise, "Soldier, isn't that the enemy."
"Hey! Back up Vicks, he said ex-Soldier right, so he's on our side." The overweight man looked at him again "My name's."
"Don't care! Once this job's done I'm gone." Cloud brushed passed them to get a better look at the structure they were headed to.
"Leave him Wedge, guess he still misses Soldier."
"I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU GUYS NEVER TO MOVE IN GROUPS!" The black man was of great built and looked almost normal, except that a gun had been grafted into his right arm. "Keep moving forward you guys." He moved towards Cloud and looked him straight in the eyes. "Don't trust ya."
Cloud looked on as everyone darted in their own directions. He saw his target: The Number 1 Mako Reactor. It stood about 40 floors high, spewing gas that could be smelled miles away. He wondered a bit how he came to this situation, but the thought didn't seem to come to him, so he ran towards the reactor.
As he reached the first set of doors, the black guy came up to him. "We're putting in the security clearances. Is this the first time you've been in a reactor?"
Cloud looked at him with disinterest, "Course not, I was in soldier after all."
"That's it, you're coming with me from now on."
"Barret, the door is open." The feminine voice came from the door. She looked at them, and he could see the fatigue in her eyes.
They hurried towards the door and looked inside. The air smelled stale, and with too many chemicals to take a sane breath. They walked over to the next security check and she quickly punched in the keys that were stated in the piece of paper in her pocket. Wedge walked up to Cloud "Can you imagine how many people had to die to get these codes." Cloud just walked past and by the time he got to the security point, the door was open and they were heading for the elevator. The two other men stayed behind and it was just him, Barret, and the lady, which he realized now, was technical strength of the group.
"Push that button over there." He complied to what she said, and they were soon descending into the bowels of the reactor.
Barret laid back on the wall of the elevator and made a fist. "Shinra keeps on making these machines which suck the life out of the planet. They ruin the planet to the point that even plants don't grow for miles around."
Cloud looked on indifferent. "Don't care, I just want to get in and out before anyone from Soldier comes."
"Shit!! How can you say that when everything around you is being destroyed by the Shinra?" He clenched his fists, but did not make a move towards Cloud. He hired this renegade from Soldier when his own men ran low, but like anyone from Soldier, he had demeanor that was chiseled to strike fear, and an eerie glow in his eyes that did all but keep a person calm.
The doors opened and the lady ran in front. "Hurry up!"
When Cloud and Barret caught up to her, she pointed them to a service ladder. "At the bottom you will find the connection bridge that will take you straight to the reactor. Place the bombs and leave."
She continued to talk, but the words did not seem to get through to Cloud, and he continued towards the reactor. The closer he seemed to get to the reactor core, the more tense he got, and the more adrenaline he felt course through his veins. They reached the bottom of the service ladder and the final doors where right in front of them. "There it is. Those damn Shinra will pay for what they are doing to the planet." Barret shook his left hand, in apparent pain.
"Apparently service ladders are not made for one armed terrorists."
"Shut the h*ll up Cloud, or I'll. "
"You'll what?" Before they could even start, a mako guard showed up. Barret dropped to the floor and a few rounds were heard.
"What the h*ll was that Cloud?"
"It's a mako guard, it scanned us and pretty soon all of the automated defenses should come up. The ones here are particularly lethal because they are equipped with materia gems."
"I thought only living things could use materia gems."
"Listen, clod, we don't have time for this here. Lets go." Cloud brandished his sword ran into the reactor core room. As soon as he got in, he heard shots behind him and turned to see Barret attacking two mechanized droids.
"Barret, cover your eyes!" Cloud placed his sword in front and felt all his hairs stand on end. At that instant, Lightning started to strike the machines. The walls seemed to be alive with sparks flying from end to end and sticking all of the machines. "Hurry up, lets get this over with."
Barret looked at the machines fall to the ground and saw how many parts just melted away. He thought about the metal grafted to his arm and he felt a chill run down his back when he thought about what could have happened if he had actually taken action against Cloud.
They both ran in towards the reactor room. They saw the bridge that connected the core with the door and Cloud felt his heart pump faster and faster, more intensely with every step he took towards the reactor until his head couldn't take any more as he screamed in pain and fell to the ground momentarily.
*This is not a normal reactor. *
"Are you alright?"
Cloud looked up to see Barret staring directly at him. He wondered where the voice he heard came from. There no longer seemed to be any pain, but his heart continued to race. "Sure, fine."
Barret then turned around and headed toward the reactor, stopping momentarily to pick up something from the floor. Cloud saw him put it in his pocket and continue towards the reactor. "Well, get on with it Cloud."
"Shouldn't you do it?"
"I still don't trust you. Just place the bombs and lets leave."
Cloud proceeded to take the bombs out of his side pack and set them all for 10 minutes. "There, done." Cloud turned to Barret and saw parts of the wall move as if they had a life of their own. Before he could even open his mouth there was a loud siren and all of the machinery started moving. "The defenses are on! We've got to leave!"
They ran towards the door, and from the wall, a machine dropped in front of them. "O' shit." Barret moved back, but he knew the bridge did not have a place to seek refuge anywhere. Who ever planned the security knew this and made it easy to enter because leaving alive would be impossible. He looked at Cloud and could not find the first hint of fear. He could not believe a person could be this brave. or stupid.
"Barret, stay as close to the reactor as possible. It probably has programming that prevents it from damaging it, so it will not shoot." Cloud took out his sword and looked over to Barret who had already gotten as close to the reactor as possible.
The machine moved forward and they could see an array of cutting parts that it intended to use on them. It weight and girth would make it impossible for them to push it over the edge, that is, if they could get close enough without the machine slicing them to shreds.
"What now, Ex-soldier?"
"Make yourself usefull and shoot it, I'll try and fry its circuits."
Barret immediately started shooting at different parts of the machine. But he could barely manage to put a dent into it. The machine took out some light beams and started moving them at Barret. "Cloud, the damn thing is targeting me. Hurry up."
As he was talking, a slight rumble was sounding and suddenly, a bolt of lighting shot through the machine. Parts of its moving seemed to be affected, but it continued towards them. "It seems to be protected against shocks, we have to blow some holes into it." Cloud look at Barret as he seemed to be doing something to his Gun graft. He saw the green light fall on Barret and no sooner did it get a clear view of him, did the machine shoot some rounds at Barret who bent in pain. Cloud quickly moved up to the machine hitting away some of the saw blades and cut the gun part off. "Are you alright, Barret."
Barret nodded and showed cloud the bulletproof vest under his jacket.
Cloud felt rage go through him as he held his sword. He ran once more towards the machine and hit the laser beam projector. The machine raised a tail like appendage and started seemed to be preparing itself to fire.
Barret kept on tinkering with his gun and motioned Cloud to come closer. "Jessie told me about this thing. Since you broke its laser sensor, it has to wait until someone attacks it so that it knows where to shoot."
"Thanks, but what the heck are you doing, shoot the damn thing."
Barret looked up, and seemed to be finished. "Sure thing. Cloud, get ready to fry this thing." Barret pointed his gun and grabbed it with his other hand. Suddenly a loud bang was heard as the gun blew a hole into the machine. The machine quickly replied with an intense laser beam coming from its tail. Barret and Cloud fell back as they felt the beam burn through their clothes. The smell of burnt flesh covered the air and Cloud and Barret stood up.
Cloud clenched his sword and one of the gems encrusted on the hilt started to glow and another bolt of lightning fell on the machine. The machine seemed to recoil in what would be considered pain, if a machine could feel such a thing. It rolled to the side and fell off.
"Yes! That's what you get for messing with Avalanche. You f***ing beast." Barret tried to raise his hand in joy and felt the sting of the burn. He then looked at Cloud pull something out of his pack.
"Catch." Cloud threw a small plastic vile at Barret.
"Thanks man." Barret quickly opened the vile and pored it on his hand, and on his wounds. "Should've known you'd have some of these. My men have mine."
"I always carry a few." Cloud opened his vile and pored it over the burns the machine gave him, and watched them as they seemed to dissipate. He always enjoyed watching the effects of liquefied herbs mixed with mako, regenerate wounds. He knew, though that this light mixture would not be able to heal bigger wounds and burns. He even wondered if it was healthy to be exposed to those chemicals. Yet in all of the time that people had been using them, it seemed that none have had harsh reactions to it. In fact, some people make a living out of making some that have been known to cure every type injury, the only exception being the actual regeneration of body parts or reviving those that have died. It is not useful for poisons either. It would keep the person alive longer, but would not eliminate the poisons from the body. Some people actually died because they felt better from the potion, but were not cleansed of the poison. The only harsh reaction was if people exposed themselves to huge quantities of pure mako. And even this was just a rumor. Cloud looked at his watched and placed his sword back on its sheath. "We have about 6 minutes to get out of here, hurry up!"
Barret ran alongside Cloud and noticed that his eyes had a weird glow, somehow brighter than when they first met. He figured this was not the time to ask. He stopped and pick up the gun that Cloud had loped off. It could withstand a jolt of electricity and if it was powerful enough to be felt through the heavy vest, he figured it must have some radical power. He tied it to his back and ran behind Cloud They got up to the service ladder and climbed as fast as they could. Barret again had to endure some pain as he had to pull his weight on his only hand. When Cloud reached the top, he saw Jessie struggling to move. Cloud ran up to her and saw her foot stuck between two pipes. He helped her loose and they all ran to the elevator.
"How much time do we have, Cloud."
Jessie looked at him with a fearfull look in her eyes and he figured she must have heard the explosions and the gun shots. Cloud looked at his watch and looked back at her. "Less than 3 minutes." He saw the shock in her face. It had taken them about 5 minutes to go through the checkpoints, and they all knew that if they weren't out of there quick, they were going to go up with the blast.
"What took you guys so long to get here."
"We ran into a defense droid with an attitude."
Barret pounded on the wall. "The h*ll we did. We ran into the scorpions tail."
Jessie looked at them as smelled the viles that they used. "I assumed it did a number on you two." They were reluctant to answer and they moved off the elevator as quick as they could. They saw Vicks waiting for them. "2 minutes Vicks." Jessie reached the door and punched in the key code from memory. To her delight, the door opened and then vicks ran to the next one and pressed in his code. The door opened and they ran out. They heard Wedge call out to them and followed him into the tunnel. They saw a blinding flash from behind them and quickly felt the shock of the sound wave as it broke through the innards of the tunnel they had just entered..
The blast had thrown most of them together but had not caused actual harm on any of them. Wedge got up and new that the escape route was his to lead. "Keep moving! The opening is up in front." After some moving, Wedge noticed that the tunnel had caved in from the blast.
Barret looked at the expression on Wedge's face and new what happened. "We can't move back. The place will be crawling with guards. Jessie, give me some of those bombs you made, there doesn't seem to be much rocks here so we can blow them away."
She looked at Barret and knew that he was serious. "There will be a big fireball, and some of the tunnel might cave in, so we will have to jump through as soon as the explosion takes place."
"All right, you heard her men, brace yourselves." Barret placed the bombs on the sides of the tunnel, angled so that most of the blast would go in the direction of the pile of rocks. He moved back and pressed the switch.
There was a loud bang and they felt the air around them sucked in the direction that the explosion happened. They knew it worked and they all ran through the fires that were left over from the blast. Wedge ran out last and his pants caught fire, so he threw himself on the floor to put it out. Cloud looked at this sight and felt that this was a minimal price to pay for the destruction and deaths they had caused by blowing up the reactor.
Barret quickly picked himself up and gained the attention of the group. "Alright, we move out now, everyone their own way, we have to make it to the outgoing train before reinforcements come and completely surround this area."
Everyone agreed and they departed in separate directions once more. Cloud walked out to the main square. His heart beat stopped racing and his mind cleared up a bit. He took a look at the stores and the surrounding neighborhood. There was a drunk on the street, a few workers on their way home and even some suits from Shinra Headquarters.
"What happened?" He turned to look at a young lady with a flower basket. She had a ribbon with a gem of unusual color on it, and a dress unusual for the girls in that area.
Cloud began to stare, but quickly looked away. "Nothing." He felt she knew what he had done, but he decided to forgo that thought. "What are you doing in a place like this, at this hour?"
"I'm selling flowers, you want one? It's only 1 gil." She picked up one of the delicate yellow flowers in her basket and handed it to cloud.
He looked at her in the eyes, and felt stirred by her words and actions. "Sure, I'll have one." He paid her and she continued to walk. He stared at her as she moved away, and wondered what had brought her to this type of situation, even though he knew that the root of all those problems would be Shinra. He put the flower in one of the small boxes he used to carry the explosives and placed it in his side pack. In the distance he could hear the whistle of the locomotive. If he didn't hurry, he would miss it, so he started on his way to the station.
"There he is! Lets get him!"
Cloud turned to see some guards from the Local Shinra building run towards him. He thought they must have heard from the people in the area that he was involved. He knew he could eliminate them with ease, but this was no time for a fight, he had to get to his train, or he will be stuck in this part of town with many more guards. He ran around the corner only to find more guards in that direction, he turned and saw a few more coming from the other side. This time he was surrounded, and he would not be able to kill all of them, without he himself getting killed. He moved back to the ledge above the train tracks, and felt the tell-tell roar of the coming train. If he was going to get killed, he thought, it wasn't going to be by the hands of these guards. He got on the ledge. and jumped.
He jumped from the train and saw two bodies on the floor. He assumed that part of the team had already arrived. His adrenaline was pumping and he knew that there was no turning back. He quickly moved up to the motionless guards and took the healing balm they had with them. He could probably sell them later on.
No sooner had he removed it from them, two other guards came running from the alley. They pulled out their guns as soon as they saw him, and he knew that if he did not fight back, they would kill him, without asking any questions. He jumped between the two train cars and reached to his back. The hilt felt cool and comforting in his hand, but he had no time to dwell on it. The guards moved up to the dead men and quickly started to shoot in his direction. Cloud closed his eyes, and no sooner had he opened them did one of the men fall to the floor and burst into flames. The other guard jumped back and watched his partner in horror, realizing too late that he was the next target. The sting in his abdomen subsided as soon as it started, and he felt the sword that had thrust through it being drawn back as everything around him hazed away.
Cloud sheathed his sword, and ran. He knew where he had to go, and he knew that he did not have much time to work with. He hoped the guards didn't have enough time to call for help. He could handle a few of them on his own, but even his materia gems could not help him against anyone from Soldier. He ran across a corner and saw a man in the shadows. The man gestured towards him and he saw someone else running a few yards behind him. They all met at a guard post. "What's your name?" Cloud turned and saw an overweight man smiling at him.
"Name's Cloud, ex-Soldier."
The other man stepped back in surprise, "Soldier, isn't that the enemy."
"Hey! Back up Vicks, he said ex-Soldier right, so he's on our side." The overweight man looked at him again "My name's."
"Don't care! Once this job's done I'm gone." Cloud brushed passed them to get a better look at the structure they were headed to.
"Leave him Wedge, guess he still misses Soldier."
"I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU GUYS NEVER TO MOVE IN GROUPS!" The black man was of great built and looked almost normal, except that a gun had been grafted into his right arm. "Keep moving forward you guys." He moved towards Cloud and looked him straight in the eyes. "Don't trust ya."
Cloud looked on as everyone darted in their own directions. He saw his target: The Number 1 Mako Reactor. It stood about 40 floors high, spewing gas that could be smelled miles away. He wondered a bit how he came to this situation, but the thought didn't seem to come to him, so he ran towards the reactor.
As he reached the first set of doors, the black guy came up to him. "We're putting in the security clearances. Is this the first time you've been in a reactor?"
Cloud looked at him with disinterest, "Course not, I was in soldier after all."
"That's it, you're coming with me from now on."
"Barret, the door is open." The feminine voice came from the door. She looked at them, and he could see the fatigue in her eyes.
They hurried towards the door and looked inside. The air smelled stale, and with too many chemicals to take a sane breath. They walked over to the next security check and she quickly punched in the keys that were stated in the piece of paper in her pocket. Wedge walked up to Cloud "Can you imagine how many people had to die to get these codes." Cloud just walked past and by the time he got to the security point, the door was open and they were heading for the elevator. The two other men stayed behind and it was just him, Barret, and the lady, which he realized now, was technical strength of the group.
"Push that button over there." He complied to what she said, and they were soon descending into the bowels of the reactor.
Barret laid back on the wall of the elevator and made a fist. "Shinra keeps on making these machines which suck the life out of the planet. They ruin the planet to the point that even plants don't grow for miles around."
Cloud looked on indifferent. "Don't care, I just want to get in and out before anyone from Soldier comes."
"Shit!! How can you say that when everything around you is being destroyed by the Shinra?" He clenched his fists, but did not make a move towards Cloud. He hired this renegade from Soldier when his own men ran low, but like anyone from Soldier, he had demeanor that was chiseled to strike fear, and an eerie glow in his eyes that did all but keep a person calm.
The doors opened and the lady ran in front. "Hurry up!"
When Cloud and Barret caught up to her, she pointed them to a service ladder. "At the bottom you will find the connection bridge that will take you straight to the reactor. Place the bombs and leave."
She continued to talk, but the words did not seem to get through to Cloud, and he continued towards the reactor. The closer he seemed to get to the reactor core, the more tense he got, and the more adrenaline he felt course through his veins. They reached the bottom of the service ladder and the final doors where right in front of them. "There it is. Those damn Shinra will pay for what they are doing to the planet." Barret shook his left hand, in apparent pain.
"Apparently service ladders are not made for one armed terrorists."
"Shut the h*ll up Cloud, or I'll. "
"You'll what?" Before they could even start, a mako guard showed up. Barret dropped to the floor and a few rounds were heard.
"What the h*ll was that Cloud?"
"It's a mako guard, it scanned us and pretty soon all of the automated defenses should come up. The ones here are particularly lethal because they are equipped with materia gems."
"I thought only living things could use materia gems."
"Listen, clod, we don't have time for this here. Lets go." Cloud brandished his sword ran into the reactor core room. As soon as he got in, he heard shots behind him and turned to see Barret attacking two mechanized droids.
"Barret, cover your eyes!" Cloud placed his sword in front and felt all his hairs stand on end. At that instant, Lightning started to strike the machines. The walls seemed to be alive with sparks flying from end to end and sticking all of the machines. "Hurry up, lets get this over with."
Barret looked at the machines fall to the ground and saw how many parts just melted away. He thought about the metal grafted to his arm and he felt a chill run down his back when he thought about what could have happened if he had actually taken action against Cloud.
They both ran in towards the reactor room. They saw the bridge that connected the core with the door and Cloud felt his heart pump faster and faster, more intensely with every step he took towards the reactor until his head couldn't take any more as he screamed in pain and fell to the ground momentarily.
*This is not a normal reactor. *
"Are you alright?"
Cloud looked up to see Barret staring directly at him. He wondered where the voice he heard came from. There no longer seemed to be any pain, but his heart continued to race. "Sure, fine."
Barret then turned around and headed toward the reactor, stopping momentarily to pick up something from the floor. Cloud saw him put it in his pocket and continue towards the reactor. "Well, get on with it Cloud."
"Shouldn't you do it?"
"I still don't trust you. Just place the bombs and lets leave."
Cloud proceeded to take the bombs out of his side pack and set them all for 10 minutes. "There, done." Cloud turned to Barret and saw parts of the wall move as if they had a life of their own. Before he could even open his mouth there was a loud siren and all of the machinery started moving. "The defenses are on! We've got to leave!"
They ran towards the door, and from the wall, a machine dropped in front of them. "O' shit." Barret moved back, but he knew the bridge did not have a place to seek refuge anywhere. Who ever planned the security knew this and made it easy to enter because leaving alive would be impossible. He looked at Cloud and could not find the first hint of fear. He could not believe a person could be this brave. or stupid.
"Barret, stay as close to the reactor as possible. It probably has programming that prevents it from damaging it, so it will not shoot." Cloud took out his sword and looked over to Barret who had already gotten as close to the reactor as possible.
The machine moved forward and they could see an array of cutting parts that it intended to use on them. It weight and girth would make it impossible for them to push it over the edge, that is, if they could get close enough without the machine slicing them to shreds.
"What now, Ex-soldier?"
"Make yourself usefull and shoot it, I'll try and fry its circuits."
Barret immediately started shooting at different parts of the machine. But he could barely manage to put a dent into it. The machine took out some light beams and started moving them at Barret. "Cloud, the damn thing is targeting me. Hurry up."
As he was talking, a slight rumble was sounding and suddenly, a bolt of lighting shot through the machine. Parts of its moving seemed to be affected, but it continued towards them. "It seems to be protected against shocks, we have to blow some holes into it." Cloud look at Barret as he seemed to be doing something to his Gun graft. He saw the green light fall on Barret and no sooner did it get a clear view of him, did the machine shoot some rounds at Barret who bent in pain. Cloud quickly moved up to the machine hitting away some of the saw blades and cut the gun part off. "Are you alright, Barret."
Barret nodded and showed cloud the bulletproof vest under his jacket.
Cloud felt rage go through him as he held his sword. He ran once more towards the machine and hit the laser beam projector. The machine raised a tail like appendage and started seemed to be preparing itself to fire.
Barret kept on tinkering with his gun and motioned Cloud to come closer. "Jessie told me about this thing. Since you broke its laser sensor, it has to wait until someone attacks it so that it knows where to shoot."
"Thanks, but what the heck are you doing, shoot the damn thing."
Barret looked up, and seemed to be finished. "Sure thing. Cloud, get ready to fry this thing." Barret pointed his gun and grabbed it with his other hand. Suddenly a loud bang was heard as the gun blew a hole into the machine. The machine quickly replied with an intense laser beam coming from its tail. Barret and Cloud fell back as they felt the beam burn through their clothes. The smell of burnt flesh covered the air and Cloud and Barret stood up.
Cloud clenched his sword and one of the gems encrusted on the hilt started to glow and another bolt of lightning fell on the machine. The machine seemed to recoil in what would be considered pain, if a machine could feel such a thing. It rolled to the side and fell off.
"Yes! That's what you get for messing with Avalanche. You f***ing beast." Barret tried to raise his hand in joy and felt the sting of the burn. He then looked at Cloud pull something out of his pack.
"Catch." Cloud threw a small plastic vile at Barret.
"Thanks man." Barret quickly opened the vile and pored it on his hand, and on his wounds. "Should've known you'd have some of these. My men have mine."
"I always carry a few." Cloud opened his vile and pored it over the burns the machine gave him, and watched them as they seemed to dissipate. He always enjoyed watching the effects of liquefied herbs mixed with mako, regenerate wounds. He knew, though that this light mixture would not be able to heal bigger wounds and burns. He even wondered if it was healthy to be exposed to those chemicals. Yet in all of the time that people had been using them, it seemed that none have had harsh reactions to it. In fact, some people make a living out of making some that have been known to cure every type injury, the only exception being the actual regeneration of body parts or reviving those that have died. It is not useful for poisons either. It would keep the person alive longer, but would not eliminate the poisons from the body. Some people actually died because they felt better from the potion, but were not cleansed of the poison. The only harsh reaction was if people exposed themselves to huge quantities of pure mako. And even this was just a rumor. Cloud looked at his watched and placed his sword back on its sheath. "We have about 6 minutes to get out of here, hurry up!"
Barret ran alongside Cloud and noticed that his eyes had a weird glow, somehow brighter than when they first met. He figured this was not the time to ask. He stopped and pick up the gun that Cloud had loped off. It could withstand a jolt of electricity and if it was powerful enough to be felt through the heavy vest, he figured it must have some radical power. He tied it to his back and ran behind Cloud They got up to the service ladder and climbed as fast as they could. Barret again had to endure some pain as he had to pull his weight on his only hand. When Cloud reached the top, he saw Jessie struggling to move. Cloud ran up to her and saw her foot stuck between two pipes. He helped her loose and they all ran to the elevator.
"How much time do we have, Cloud."
Jessie looked at him with a fearfull look in her eyes and he figured she must have heard the explosions and the gun shots. Cloud looked at his watch and looked back at her. "Less than 3 minutes." He saw the shock in her face. It had taken them about 5 minutes to go through the checkpoints, and they all knew that if they weren't out of there quick, they were going to go up with the blast.
"What took you guys so long to get here."
"We ran into a defense droid with an attitude."
Barret pounded on the wall. "The h*ll we did. We ran into the scorpions tail."
Jessie looked at them as smelled the viles that they used. "I assumed it did a number on you two." They were reluctant to answer and they moved off the elevator as quick as they could. They saw Vicks waiting for them. "2 minutes Vicks." Jessie reached the door and punched in the key code from memory. To her delight, the door opened and then vicks ran to the next one and pressed in his code. The door opened and they ran out. They heard Wedge call out to them and followed him into the tunnel. They saw a blinding flash from behind them and quickly felt the shock of the sound wave as it broke through the innards of the tunnel they had just entered..
The blast had thrown most of them together but had not caused actual harm on any of them. Wedge got up and new that the escape route was his to lead. "Keep moving! The opening is up in front." After some moving, Wedge noticed that the tunnel had caved in from the blast.
Barret looked at the expression on Wedge's face and new what happened. "We can't move back. The place will be crawling with guards. Jessie, give me some of those bombs you made, there doesn't seem to be much rocks here so we can blow them away."
She looked at Barret and knew that he was serious. "There will be a big fireball, and some of the tunnel might cave in, so we will have to jump through as soon as the explosion takes place."
"All right, you heard her men, brace yourselves." Barret placed the bombs on the sides of the tunnel, angled so that most of the blast would go in the direction of the pile of rocks. He moved back and pressed the switch.
There was a loud bang and they felt the air around them sucked in the direction that the explosion happened. They knew it worked and they all ran through the fires that were left over from the blast. Wedge ran out last and his pants caught fire, so he threw himself on the floor to put it out. Cloud looked at this sight and felt that this was a minimal price to pay for the destruction and deaths they had caused by blowing up the reactor.
Barret quickly picked himself up and gained the attention of the group. "Alright, we move out now, everyone their own way, we have to make it to the outgoing train before reinforcements come and completely surround this area."
Everyone agreed and they departed in separate directions once more. Cloud walked out to the main square. His heart beat stopped racing and his mind cleared up a bit. He took a look at the stores and the surrounding neighborhood. There was a drunk on the street, a few workers on their way home and even some suits from Shinra Headquarters.
"What happened?" He turned to look at a young lady with a flower basket. She had a ribbon with a gem of unusual color on it, and a dress unusual for the girls in that area.
Cloud began to stare, but quickly looked away. "Nothing." He felt she knew what he had done, but he decided to forgo that thought. "What are you doing in a place like this, at this hour?"
"I'm selling flowers, you want one? It's only 1 gil." She picked up one of the delicate yellow flowers in her basket and handed it to cloud.
He looked at her in the eyes, and felt stirred by her words and actions. "Sure, I'll have one." He paid her and she continued to walk. He stared at her as she moved away, and wondered what had brought her to this type of situation, even though he knew that the root of all those problems would be Shinra. He put the flower in one of the small boxes he used to carry the explosives and placed it in his side pack. In the distance he could hear the whistle of the locomotive. If he didn't hurry, he would miss it, so he started on his way to the station.
"There he is! Lets get him!"
Cloud turned to see some guards from the Local Shinra building run towards him. He thought they must have heard from the people in the area that he was involved. He knew he could eliminate them with ease, but this was no time for a fight, he had to get to his train, or he will be stuck in this part of town with many more guards. He ran around the corner only to find more guards in that direction, he turned and saw a few more coming from the other side. This time he was surrounded, and he would not be able to kill all of them, without he himself getting killed. He moved back to the ledge above the train tracks, and felt the tell-tell roar of the coming train. If he was going to get killed, he thought, it wasn't going to be by the hands of these guards. He got on the ledge. and jumped.
