Light from Darkness
The Final Fantasy VII Chronicles

Chapter 2- "First Strike"

The lone female of the gathering had opted to run off ahead, while Barret and Cloud exited onto a large yellow and black striped platform, crafted of solid steel, and surrounded at the perimeter by a yellow railing. At the center of the approached platform, a small ladder was visible, ascended to another circular platform containing a computerized interface, most likely designed to access the Reactor's maintainance programs.
Seeing it of no interest to the operation, Cloud and Barret headed to the right, to a long stairway. As they stepped onto it, they caught a quick glimpse of Jessie, found dashing down the stairway, and to yet another platform, which held up the one above it with pillars of metal.
Jessie then proceeded to the next stairway, which ended in the middle, and went off in another direction. Cloud and Barret followed after her..until three hover-robots sealed off their intended path, lasers fired wildly from their beamed-extenditures. Barret emitted a growl as he cought a shot in the arm, the attack quickly retaliated with several shots from his Gun-Arm, the robot blown apart immediately thereafter. In the meantime Cloud, the shots deflected off his massive blade, swung at the robots, both of which were torn perfectly in half with a surgical, deadly slice.

Following this, the mercenary's blade was elegantly spun around in one hand, before it was replaced down his back's restraint.. meanwhile, Barret let out a triumphant cheer, gun-arm leveled victoriously into the air. Soon after, they came to the door at the bottom of the lengthed stairway, and began heading into the connected doorway.. while two smaller, as yet unnoticed, robots descended from behind.
One of the robots' initial action was the emittation of a wailing siren, along with the vivid blaring of a emotionless mechanical voice. "Warning! Warning! Enemy sighted!" Cloud and Barret, easily hearing this, had spun around to destroy them.. but the recognition came too late.. by this time, approximately ten of the Shinra Company's soldiers had already run out to join the attack.
"There's too many of them! We have to keep going!"
"Ta hell with that! I'm taking 'em out!" With that decree, Barret raised his arm, and shot off his gun quickly, with little intended accuracy. This alone was more than enough to dispatch five of the soldiers, and injuring a number of the survivors. Cloud gave a light disinterested shake his head, and sped off through the doorway, which addtionally left Barret behind.
"Hey! You ain't leavin' without me, rookie!" Barret hesitanted, particularly to blast off a few more rounds. Upon witnessing their useless deflecting from the durable armor of the robots, he opted to quickly follow Cloud's example.

*********

After their eventual exit from the doorway, Cloud and Barret climbed a small stairway, and caught up to Jessie, who was found standing in front of a small gap, which contained a diagonally-descended yellow ladder.
Jessie turned to them upon their arrival, with a grin on her face. "Just jump down, grab on, follow me, and try not to get left behind!"
Her intent proclaimed, she swiftly leapt down, simultaneously taking hold of the ladder in an agile display. True to her word, she was off for the bottom of the descent like a rocket. Not one to be outdown, Cloud quickly jumped also, following the given lead. Barret blinked a few times, observant of the ..lengthy drop, then reluctantly went after them.
Time passed, and Cloud and Barret eventually reached the descent's end, after which they both leapt from the ladder, a soft clang resounded as both sets of feet impacted against the cold metal below. This aforementioned metal, of course, took the form of a narrowed path which lead onward, to a doorway marked "Exit". Coincedentally enough, this was the one Jessie appeared to be blocking off.
Cloud glanced downward, at a far-below located series of pipes, platforms, and ladders, which lead further down into the depths of the Reactor, visible blasts of steam shot out from the insides of several worn-away piping systems. The.. disturbing sight forgotten for the time being, he instead approached Jessie, though his focal point of interest was rather upon the discarded blue vial at her feet, which any chemist well knew, was quite the useful remedy for all manners of wounds and illnesses. Jessie took little note of this, and incited the two to hurry on, informing them of her intended plan to guard the path from any "unwelcome guests".
Cloud and Barret understandingly nodded, and moved to traverse the perplexing maze of pipes, ladders, and stairs downward. Eventually, they came to a long, narrow bridge below, possessing of a railway along the top. Barret took a quick glimpse over the side, widened stare bearing witness to the bright blue-green pool of liquid, far below their location, which had multiple pipes and connections leading into it, and drawing from it. Varied green clouds of energy-smoke seeped from this, as well.
Anyone witnessing of Barret's expression during this moment would have seen the visage of a man stilled with a mixture of startlement, and to a far greater extent, anger.
"This's the place where they take out the Mako from the planet!," he exclaimed, though it was barely conveyed a hint of the disgust this sight instilled in the man's mind.
Cloud, unknowing and uncaring of all this, gave a slight, uncaring shrug. "So what? The main valve of the reactor is this way. When we reach it, we should place the explosives there. That'll cause a chain reaction, and destroy this entire place."
Barret glared, and opted for a mere silent nod, as they headed down.. he didn't have the time to waste beating down an overzealous spikey-haired merc, after all. Their path was soon blocked once again by a large tank-like robot, constructed of dark yellow and grey metal, possessing of two imposingly massive cannons for arms. The mechanical monstrosity was flanked at the sides by two beings identifiable as Shinra Robo-Guards. They could be described as resembling humans, were it not for their metal cannon-limbs, and dark glowing orbs of red light where eyes would have typically been found. The latter of this robot group wasted no time, cannon-limb raised to fire off multiple beams of light at Barret. The massively-built of the two humans took little damage from this. He may well have shrugged it off, but seeing as how he was only human.. it certainly stung.
Cloud, meanwhile, had gotten blasted by machine-gun fire from one of the tank-robot's arms. Suffice it to say, what didn't stop the mercenary seemed to only make him that much more determined.
Cloud's narrowed stare turned to the tank-robot, sword's handle clenched tightly. An orange aura began to swell around him, following this, clearing drawing from the anger the attack was fueling into his thoughts. In an action no less swift than a blur, the mercenary leapt upward, and from there, dove down at the robot's location, rending the startled device it in two with the full power of his blade's discontent, leaving a bright pink trail of flame flaring amongst the robot's smoldering, severed remains.
Barret seemed amazed by this display, yet snapped out of it quickly, returned to the situation at hand upon another blast of laser's unexpected, and far less ignorable, impact. Briefly fazed by this, Barret utilized a small potion upop himself, which healed the minor injuries.. in the same instant of which he fired back at the two lesser guards, blowing them to shreds.
The two of them moved past the wreckage of the robots, and came to the end of the bridge, where a small square device had lain, attached to a rusted brown wheel . Cloud had begun walking to it, before a strange, glowing orb caught his attention, which he picked up a moment later, commenting thoughtfully.. as if to no one but himself. "Materia.. Didn't expect to find any here."
"Materia? What the hell's that?"
"I'll explain later."
"Whatever, when we blow this place, this ain't gonna be nothin'; more than a hunka junk. Cloud, you set the bomb."
Cloud turned his head to the side, arching a brow at Barret in a quizzical display. "Shouldn't you do it?"
"Jus' do it! I gotta watch to make sure you don't pull nothin'. I still don't trust ya."
Cloud gave a narrow smirk to this accusation. "Fine, be my guest." Suddenly, Cloud blinked out of a less natural startlement.. a red haze began to obscure his vision, accompanied by a ..subconscious..? voice driven into his thoughts.
'Watch out! This isn't just a reactor!'
The momentarily befuddled Cloud shook his head, which gave him a respite from the thickened crimson haze, content to fade off along with the mysterious commentary that accompanied it.
Barret blinked at this unusual course of actions, before he spoke over to Cloud, with a tone of light concern. "....What's wrong?"
"Huh?"
Barret raised his arm once, and sharply drew his fist back down by his side with uncontained annoyance. "What's wrong, Cloud? Hurry it up!"
"..Yeah, sorry." Cloud silently returned to the task at hand, and moved over to the valve on the machine, attaching a batch of unusually crafted explosives onto it. He reached forward and activated the 'homemade', as certain persons would proudly refer, detonation device..and sharply leapt back, sworn drawn to a ready stance. Alarms had begun screeching and wailing from every depth and mechanical segment around them.
Barret paused.. briefly confused by this, but only briefly. Abruptly, he shot his arm upward to a leveled stance, aiming the accompaning weapon-limb at part of the wall, which his discernful stare had witnessed the parting of. "Heads up, rookie! Here it comes!"
As expected, the wall soon was torn apart by a gigantic mechanical robot contained within, designed in the frightful visage of a dark red scorpion, that was possessing of a giant grey tail, and multiple cannons for arms, along witha posture supported by six massive, pointed legs.
Cloud took this sight into account, before calling over to the other man warnfully. "Watch out, Barret! It's the Guard Scorpion!"
"Why th' HELL didn't ya tell me 'bout this thing before?"
Before Cloud could answer, which he likely wouldn't have bothered doing, a small panel on the robot had slid to an opened position, releasing a series of two criss-crossing beams of green-yellow and blue. These discernfully swirled around Barret, seemingly scanning his presence.
Barret quickly raised up his gun-arm, and launched a series of multiple shots into the revealed panel, doing light damage at best.
"You can't damage it with bullets.. It's advanced Proto-Armor, and bullet proof. It's main weakness is lightning. Using anything else might damage it, but only make it really angry."
The robot soon proved Cloud's spoken point, suddenly launching multiple bullets of its own at Barret, the pained impacts of which incited his weakened lowering upon one knee.
Cloud spun his blade and re-sheathed it, as several bolts of lightning rained down following a hastily prepared incantation, which blasted across the surface of the mechanical creature.
Sparks flew out from the damaged areas in immediate response, while the body's mechanical voice screeched agonizignly in addition. Barret, meanwhile, had suddenly begun to channel his own inner strength, punctuated by the light glow of faint-orange he had taken on, in the form of a surrounding aura. He next, charging his power from surpressed pain-driven anger, directed the energy to his cannon, which took the imposing form of spherical crimson flame.. that blasted outward and into the Scorpion, driving it backward by sheer force of impact alone, not to mention the charred enflamed hole the blast left in the robot's body mass.
"Nice shot," spoke Cloud, as he quickly took advantage of the situation, with a forward-taken dash. The blade he wielded was rapidly thrust forward, unleashed into the Scorpion's recently-exposed middle.. until it was violently torn back out, along with the sprayed display of exploded parts and mechanic insides.
The Scorpion, understandably enough, appeared as if it was on the brink of final collapse.. but this was furthest from its planned course of action. Rather, the as-yet unutilized tail was raised up, the spike of which was leveled at Cloud and Barret.
Barret smirked, unfazed by this display, gun-arm raised responsively, in addition to his pride-driven outcry. "I'll blow the damn thing to hell!"
Cloud turned to Barret quickly, his tone one of hastened, warnful addressing. "No! Don't! It'll-" The comment came too late, just in time for a rapid hail of bullets to spray out from Barret's gun, blasted into the creature..which, rather than falter, utilzed the attack to fuel the strength of its own channeling unleashal. The tail soon had charged a massive ball of blue lightning, which shot forth for the duo faster than the eye could perceive, exploding beneath them in a violent, energetic display.
Cloud managed to slowly arise, utilziing another set of the potions upon himself and Barret, healing most of the brutal injuries, the latter of whom may not have been able to arise so swiftly without it.
"I was TRYING to tell you.. It counters any attacks we throw at it with it's tail laser while it's like this!"
The large machine lowered its tail momentairily, as it turned to Cloud, the eerie yellow-green and blue lasers from before busying themselves with a scan of him also. Following this, a mechanical voice coldly informed "Target Acquired".
"You won't get the chance," Cloud evenly responded, a narrow smirk forming upon his face, as he raised his blade and slammed it fiercely downward, in the midst of emitting a dark blue beam of energy horizontally directed into the mechanical monster. The edged cleaving beam simply tore the Scorpion in two right upon impact, which froze for a moment in a display of seeming shock, unaware that it had just been obliterated, before the two halves of the mecha-best fell spiralling down off the sides of the bridge, into the glowing Mako liquid with the barely overheard effect of a dissolving splashdown.
Cloud returned the multi-talented sword to his back-sheath, after having spun it around, in a showboating manuever. "Target destroyed," he added with a light smirk.
Barret shook his head at this, attention directed to more important matter at hand, the bomb they had only just set.. the display of which was flashing vividly, and read '10:00.'
Cloud turned to him, also having witnessed this sight. It only took a moment's understanding, and they both nodded at each other, before they dashed off down the bridge, hurriedly climbing back up the long path. As they jumped back onto the yellow walkway, shortly after destroying two more Robo-Guards, Cloud had glanced to the left.. and the sight of an entrapped Jessie, knelt down, struggling with a pinned foot. Cloud calmly went over to her, and knelt beside her, carefully.. but swiftly.. pulling her limb free.
"..You alright?"
"I'm fine.. Thanks!" Jessie smiled at Cloud, before their lack of time was again made apparent.. and she knowingly dashed up the ladder. Cloud and Barret followed closely behind, hastily climbling back up through the mechanical insides of the Mako Reactor.
Cloud and Barret stopped for a moment at the long stairway, against their will..due to the intervention of a dual set of hovering robots. Neither of the two wasted any time. Just when the pair had begun their assault, their opponents already had theirs well in effect. Cloud deflected an off-aimed laser shot in the middle of his forward dash, thereafter splitting one robot in two with a swift cleave, while Barret simply blew the other one apart with a firearmed discharge of his own.

*********

The alarms continued to wail undyingly, as Barret, Jessie, and Cloud finally reached their destination, the elevator of which was entered with no lack of hurry.
Cloud reached out and shoved his fist into the ascension button, which icnited the elevator to a painfully long ascent, at the end of which the trio ran out, to the sight of a very relieved Biggs. A nod, and a warnful outcry of "Let's go!", and off the newly-formed quartet continued. The obstacle of a resealed door proved little trouble for their combined efforts, and after a moment, they continued unabated.. right into two more of the ever-numerous Robo-Guards. Biggs smirked, at this sight who nodded to Jessie. As did she in response, before giving a sidelong, knowing glance to Cloud and Barret. "Don't worry, boys.. They're ours."
Biggs and Jessie each sprinted up to the robots, and in a poetically-timed display, each leapt into the air, and each dispatched one of the two targets with a strategically placed kick to the throat of either device, leaving both headless, and collapsed. Another smirk passed between the victorious pair.. until they kept moving, through a second of the (very briefly) sealed doors, which Cloud and Barret followed after. Somewhere in the buried, forgotten depths of the Reactor, meanwhile.. a timer ticked down to 0:09 with a light, unheard beep.

The four of them dashed out of the Mako Reactor's main exit, not a moment too soon, to the awaiting Wedge. He nodded, and ran through the exit ahead, followed by the others.. all but Jessie, who tripped in the middle of her frantic sprint, bolts of lightning spiralling upward through the detonating reactor. Cloud glanced back just in time to witness this, and sped back to her, pulling her to her feet with a sharp grasp of a gloved hand. In but a second's time following, they ran through the exit and dove from it, just out of the path of a outward-driven explosion of flame that obliterated the very floor they had been standing upon.

*********

The calm, consistent darkness of the city of Midgar was abruptly pierced by a red explosion of flame, in a lone violent momentous display. In immediate response, a green-tinted shockwave of unleashed energy flew outward across the spherical city's tallest points, before dissipating in an opposingly silent display.
In the middle of all this, the crumbled ruins of a Mako Reactor smoldered among the multitude of bright lights, trailing pillars of smoke remained as the lone trace of the sabotuers who had pulled off the construct's obliteration.
Eventually this too, much like their presence, faded off into the still night.