My eyes slowly opened as the haze around the edges of my vision began to fade. I could hear voices above me conversing among themselves. I pretended to still be unconscious so that I could eavesdrop.
"I say that we slit his throat right now, take the materia and run!" said one of them. The group reaction to this idea was positive and my hand began to slide towards my sword.
Then another voice spoke up, "Maybe we should steal his materia and leave?" The rest of them laughed and scoffed at him as I could hear knives being drawn from their sheaths. Instantly I sprang to my feet and whipped out my sword in one swift motion. A gang of punks who right then looked pretty surprised had surrounded me.
"Get away from me," I said in a cold steady voice that was meant to intimidate.
"Look," said the leader, "Gramps wants to fight, maybe you should get that shoulder looked at by a hospital before you try lifting that heavy sword, you might get hurt." The others laughed at this and began to close in on me.
I grunted and focused my thoughts on my Restore materia, "I'm not going to be the one needing the hospital joker boy!" This got him really angry. The materia's power flowed through me and I could feel my shoulder healing itself, now I was ready to fight.
"Dren, go and show this man why the Icers are the biggest, strongest, and meanest gang in Midgar!" He stepped aside as a giant of a man took his place in the semi-circle and began to approach me. He cracked his knuckles and leered at me through a mouth of broken teeth.
"Come here little man, I'm not going to hurt you...much," He said as he drew near. With growl he lunged at me and threw one of his massive fists right in my face. I barely dodged the attack and brought my sword up, cutting him on the side. He roared and attacked me again, this time I was ready for it and jumped aside as he attacked. This time he received a nick on his cheek. His rage blinded him and he began to attack without heed to personal safety. I used this to my advantage and very soon Dren was nothing more than a walking mass of cuts and bruises. Meanwhile the leader of the Icers, or whatever they called themselves, had been getting very worried as a wasp brought down his giant champion. I jumped in to sting him and leapt aside before he could even touch me. Finally he simply stopped and looked at me as his feet began to sway. His eyes rolled back into his head and he collapsed onto the pavement. I looked at the leader and saw him staring at his fallen champion in shock and amazement.
"Come on joker, your turn," I said as a grin spread across my face. I spun my sword around and flipped it into the air as expertly as a circus performer might. I caught it with my right hand and pointed it at joker boy. "Come on and see what this old man has ready for you!"
He threw down his knife and I hoped that he would run. Instead he pulled out a large silver pistol with a green materia locked into the side of it. "No one plays around with the Icers! I've had this ice materia since I was little and I've already gotten it up to level 2! I'm gonna blow you away!" His brows furrowed as he concentrated on it. Suddenly the air around me grew chill and I felt like icicles had just skewered me. Then it was over and the pain abated somewhat. Joker was standing with a cocky smile on his face, apparently expecting me to fall dead to the ground.
"That was good," I said, "but now let me try!" I concentrated on the Contain materia and focused on the Freeze attack. Joker looked pretty surprised when the freezing wind started to blow around him. As he was encased in a block of solid ice the expression of shock froze with him. He posed as a pretty comical figure actually and I couldn't help but laugh. The rest of the gang took one look at me and started running like the devil himself was after them.
I had solved the present and most obvious problem but there was still the matter of getting to Shinra HQ. I stepped out of the alley where I been laying and began to walk along the crowded and noisy streets. The buildings here were much nicer than those in the slums, and everything overall seemed considerably more prosperous. Darkness, however, seemed to hang like a shroud over the entire city so that even in the day the light never really reached the streets. Venders were advertising their wares as guards in uniform marched up and down the streets. Cars drove by and their fumes made me choke. Before long I was completely lost in the labyrinth of streets. I couldn't find so much as a map to guide me.
I kept on walking until I heard a train whistle over the background noise. The kid had told me that I had to use the train to reach Shinra HQ so maybe I was close to a train station. It was the best lead I'd had yet so I began worming and pushing my way through the crowds in the direction of the whistle. I was proved right when I came to a platform guarded by more of the uniformed men. Behind them people were filing into the train. I didn't see a ticket booth so I just got in line with the rest of the passengers and walked right past the guards. It took some doing before I finally found a seat in the very back of the train. I heard the conductor call something out and the train began to move. It was early morning commute and many of the passengers were wearing suits. I found out to my great pleasure that the train was going directly to Shinra Station, which was right outside of the main HQ. As we neared the end of a tunnel, bright red lights on the sides of the cabin began to flash.
I sat up to watch them out of curiosity when the loudspeaker came on, "The check point revealed an unidentified passenger, a search of the cars will commence immediately." I looked around at my fellow travelers; a look of confusion was on all of their faces. I realized that I must be the unidentified passenger! Guards had entered the cabin and were checking identification cards. One of them spotted me and began to approach.
"Please produce your ID badge for me sir," he asked in a cold mechanical voice. I acted like I was searching through my pockets while the guard became more impatient. "Your card sir!" he asked again.
"O man," I tried to look sincere, "I must have forgot it at home, can't you jut let it go?"
"I'm sorry sir, but President Rufus has ordered that anyone traveling without ID is to be taken in. You don't need to worry sir, if you are telling the truth we'll simply take you down to Police HQ and look you up on the Database. If you've told me the truth you'll be issued a temporary ID badge that will allow you to get back home. If you're lying then well, lets just say that we've been ordered to be very strict in dealing with possible terrorists."
I looked at him and let my eyes wander around the apartment. His friends were over on the other side checking cards and would not be able to react immediately to something happening over on this side of the car. Without uttering a sound I brought my knee up into his groin as hard as I could. He bent over moaning in pain as my knee came back up again right into his face. He fell over onto his back, blood squirting from his broken nose. In desperation he brought up his rifle and tried to shoot be, but I ducked to the side and grabbed hold of the barrel before he could pull the trigger. I wrestled the gun from his grasp and kicked him in the face again, knocking him out. The bystanders started to scream, the other guards looked over to see me holding a gun and standing over the body of one of their friends. The nearest one began to run towards me as the second one took aim with his rifle. Everyone fell to the floor as gunshots echoed through the cabin. Another guard came running in and was immediately dropped by several rounds. I dropped the smoking gun to the floor and made a run for the back door with the guard right behind.
"Stop, stop!" shouted the guards as if I was going to obey them. I grabbed a briefcase from off of a seat and flung it through the window in the back of the train. As I jumped the guard grabbed onto my back and we both went sailing out of the train. We rolled and rolled and rolled down the tracks until coming to a standstill. I slowly managed to stand up on my shaky legs as my head swam. I saw the guard several yards away and I went to check on him. His neck was bent in a very awkward way and he had no pulse. I left him where he lay and began to run down the tracks. As I exited the tunnel I found myself below street level with two brick walls on either side of me. Ahead of me another tunnel began. I could hear the whistle of another train coming up from behind me. Looking around I could not see any easy way of getting out onto the street. So I spit on my hands and started to climb, it was difficult going because the bricks were close together and the wall was perfectly vertical. I was almost to the top when I saw headlights coming out of the tunnel. The train was almost on me when with one last pull of strength I was out of the train's path and out onto the street. I lay there and rested for a few moments before standing up and looking around.
This was the cleanest part of Midgar that I had yet seen with clean office buildings and suits that were as common as cockroaches were in the slums. I figured that I probably didn't fit in but I didn't care because there above me loomed the massive building that I knew to be Shinra HQ. The distance was deceiving, although it looked like I was right underneath; it took me several hours to actually reach the front entrance. Without a second glance back I opened one of the doors and walked inside.
It looked like I was in some sort of huge lobby. There were receptionists' desks in front of me and a lot more of those annoying guards walking around. I walked up to one of the receptionists, a small woman with one of those plastic smiles that makes you think it was practiced in the bathroom before work.
"Hello sir and welcome to Shinra HQ, how may I help you?" she asked while somehow managing to maintain that stupid smile. I really didn't know how I should respond; I didn't even really know where I was supposed to go. Records, I remembered, were usually kept in a library of some kind.
"Well...uh, do you have a library here?" I asked.
"Why yes we do sir, it contains all Shinra records from before and after the war up until present day, however it is on the 62 which is off limits to tourists."
I was getting frustrated again, "Well I need to go and look up some files there so could you please let me go up?" I asked as nicely as possible.
"I'm sorry sir but that is completely out of the question, no unauthorized personnel are allowed up there." I noticed that her smile was getting more and more strained.
"Really Ms. I have to get up there, its very important," I asked again, but this time she noticed my sword and her eyes opened wide in fright.
"Sir did you know that we have a strict no weapons policy in place?" she asked.
"No I didn't," I smiled, "but who's gonna enforce it? You?" I laughed, "So lets say that you let up to the library, hu?" I saw her hand slip beneath her desk, as I turned my head one of the guards put his hand over his earpiece and looked directly at me. This was just what I needed, more trouble. Five guards were approaching me at once as a group.
Their leader stepped foreword, "Is there a problem here?" he asked.
The receptionist wasn't smiling anymore, "This man insists that he be allowed into restricted levels. He is also carrying illegal weapons in this building."
"Well now," said the guard, "that's pretty serious sir." He looked around at his comrades, "I think that you're going to need to come with us sir...for questioning." Once again I was getting pretty angry with these stupid cretins that kept on getting in my way! I saw that all of them were pointing their guns at me and that I wouldn't be able to get out of this situation without killing someone. More guards were walking towards us, I had to act now or never, so I acted. I concentrated on my Contain materia and unleashed a Flare attack into the small group. The charred bodies of the guards flew across the room. I heard someone calling for backup over the drone of machine guns. I saw twin elevators at the back of the lobby; it was my only shot so I took it. I cast Haste on myself and was running as fast as I could while trying to dodge the bullets although I was still grazed by a few. As I neared the elevator on the right I saw a guard step out of double doors. He raised his gun to take aim but I was too fast. I leapt into the air and brought the blade of sword down on his neck, effectively removing his head from his body. Blood had covered the floor making the ground slick but I stood firm and pressed the 'up' button on the control panel. The air was hot with lead and the walls were covered with bullet holes. As I stepped into the elevator I was shot in the shoulder and the side, the pain was intense and I collapsed onto the floor of the elevator. I saw the guards running towards me and with my last bit of strength I managed to push one of the level buttons. The doors closed just as the guards reached the elevator and I could hear them banging on the doors as I rose up away from them.
I pulled out my Restore materia and used it to cure my wounds. Then I got up to see just where I was going. I had selected Floor 59, which was as high as I could get on this elevator. I was still pretty far away from getting to Floor 59 so I sat down to rest. I watched as the floors flew by on the monitor until it was finally at 59. I got up and prepared to disembark but the elevator didn't stop. I kept on going up and I was expecting some kind of ambush. The elevator stopped at 62 and the doors opened but no one was there. Curious, I stepped out to see where I was. On the wall off to the side was a plaque that read 'Archives and Records'. This was the first good thing to happen to me all day. I went to explore and found a man standing by a door. He was wearing a black and white stripped shirt and didn't look at all like a guard. I approached him and was about to ask for help but he beat me to it.
"You must be the one the Mayor was talking about," he said. "You should go in immediately, no telling when that idiotic Shinra Security will think to look on this floor. You don't need to worry, the Mayors expecting you." I was pretty dumbfounded, what did a mayor want with me, and how did he know I was here? The man was right though, the guards would no doubt be right on my tail and I needed help if I was going to escape them. So I took a deep breath and walked through the door to see what the Mayor wanted.
"I say that we slit his throat right now, take the materia and run!" said one of them. The group reaction to this idea was positive and my hand began to slide towards my sword.
Then another voice spoke up, "Maybe we should steal his materia and leave?" The rest of them laughed and scoffed at him as I could hear knives being drawn from their sheaths. Instantly I sprang to my feet and whipped out my sword in one swift motion. A gang of punks who right then looked pretty surprised had surrounded me.
"Get away from me," I said in a cold steady voice that was meant to intimidate.
"Look," said the leader, "Gramps wants to fight, maybe you should get that shoulder looked at by a hospital before you try lifting that heavy sword, you might get hurt." The others laughed at this and began to close in on me.
I grunted and focused my thoughts on my Restore materia, "I'm not going to be the one needing the hospital joker boy!" This got him really angry. The materia's power flowed through me and I could feel my shoulder healing itself, now I was ready to fight.
"Dren, go and show this man why the Icers are the biggest, strongest, and meanest gang in Midgar!" He stepped aside as a giant of a man took his place in the semi-circle and began to approach me. He cracked his knuckles and leered at me through a mouth of broken teeth.
"Come here little man, I'm not going to hurt you...much," He said as he drew near. With growl he lunged at me and threw one of his massive fists right in my face. I barely dodged the attack and brought my sword up, cutting him on the side. He roared and attacked me again, this time I was ready for it and jumped aside as he attacked. This time he received a nick on his cheek. His rage blinded him and he began to attack without heed to personal safety. I used this to my advantage and very soon Dren was nothing more than a walking mass of cuts and bruises. Meanwhile the leader of the Icers, or whatever they called themselves, had been getting very worried as a wasp brought down his giant champion. I jumped in to sting him and leapt aside before he could even touch me. Finally he simply stopped and looked at me as his feet began to sway. His eyes rolled back into his head and he collapsed onto the pavement. I looked at the leader and saw him staring at his fallen champion in shock and amazement.
"Come on joker, your turn," I said as a grin spread across my face. I spun my sword around and flipped it into the air as expertly as a circus performer might. I caught it with my right hand and pointed it at joker boy. "Come on and see what this old man has ready for you!"
He threw down his knife and I hoped that he would run. Instead he pulled out a large silver pistol with a green materia locked into the side of it. "No one plays around with the Icers! I've had this ice materia since I was little and I've already gotten it up to level 2! I'm gonna blow you away!" His brows furrowed as he concentrated on it. Suddenly the air around me grew chill and I felt like icicles had just skewered me. Then it was over and the pain abated somewhat. Joker was standing with a cocky smile on his face, apparently expecting me to fall dead to the ground.
"That was good," I said, "but now let me try!" I concentrated on the Contain materia and focused on the Freeze attack. Joker looked pretty surprised when the freezing wind started to blow around him. As he was encased in a block of solid ice the expression of shock froze with him. He posed as a pretty comical figure actually and I couldn't help but laugh. The rest of the gang took one look at me and started running like the devil himself was after them.
I had solved the present and most obvious problem but there was still the matter of getting to Shinra HQ. I stepped out of the alley where I been laying and began to walk along the crowded and noisy streets. The buildings here were much nicer than those in the slums, and everything overall seemed considerably more prosperous. Darkness, however, seemed to hang like a shroud over the entire city so that even in the day the light never really reached the streets. Venders were advertising their wares as guards in uniform marched up and down the streets. Cars drove by and their fumes made me choke. Before long I was completely lost in the labyrinth of streets. I couldn't find so much as a map to guide me.
I kept on walking until I heard a train whistle over the background noise. The kid had told me that I had to use the train to reach Shinra HQ so maybe I was close to a train station. It was the best lead I'd had yet so I began worming and pushing my way through the crowds in the direction of the whistle. I was proved right when I came to a platform guarded by more of the uniformed men. Behind them people were filing into the train. I didn't see a ticket booth so I just got in line with the rest of the passengers and walked right past the guards. It took some doing before I finally found a seat in the very back of the train. I heard the conductor call something out and the train began to move. It was early morning commute and many of the passengers were wearing suits. I found out to my great pleasure that the train was going directly to Shinra Station, which was right outside of the main HQ. As we neared the end of a tunnel, bright red lights on the sides of the cabin began to flash.
I sat up to watch them out of curiosity when the loudspeaker came on, "The check point revealed an unidentified passenger, a search of the cars will commence immediately." I looked around at my fellow travelers; a look of confusion was on all of their faces. I realized that I must be the unidentified passenger! Guards had entered the cabin and were checking identification cards. One of them spotted me and began to approach.
"Please produce your ID badge for me sir," he asked in a cold mechanical voice. I acted like I was searching through my pockets while the guard became more impatient. "Your card sir!" he asked again.
"O man," I tried to look sincere, "I must have forgot it at home, can't you jut let it go?"
"I'm sorry sir, but President Rufus has ordered that anyone traveling without ID is to be taken in. You don't need to worry sir, if you are telling the truth we'll simply take you down to Police HQ and look you up on the Database. If you've told me the truth you'll be issued a temporary ID badge that will allow you to get back home. If you're lying then well, lets just say that we've been ordered to be very strict in dealing with possible terrorists."
I looked at him and let my eyes wander around the apartment. His friends were over on the other side checking cards and would not be able to react immediately to something happening over on this side of the car. Without uttering a sound I brought my knee up into his groin as hard as I could. He bent over moaning in pain as my knee came back up again right into his face. He fell over onto his back, blood squirting from his broken nose. In desperation he brought up his rifle and tried to shoot be, but I ducked to the side and grabbed hold of the barrel before he could pull the trigger. I wrestled the gun from his grasp and kicked him in the face again, knocking him out. The bystanders started to scream, the other guards looked over to see me holding a gun and standing over the body of one of their friends. The nearest one began to run towards me as the second one took aim with his rifle. Everyone fell to the floor as gunshots echoed through the cabin. Another guard came running in and was immediately dropped by several rounds. I dropped the smoking gun to the floor and made a run for the back door with the guard right behind.
"Stop, stop!" shouted the guards as if I was going to obey them. I grabbed a briefcase from off of a seat and flung it through the window in the back of the train. As I jumped the guard grabbed onto my back and we both went sailing out of the train. We rolled and rolled and rolled down the tracks until coming to a standstill. I slowly managed to stand up on my shaky legs as my head swam. I saw the guard several yards away and I went to check on him. His neck was bent in a very awkward way and he had no pulse. I left him where he lay and began to run down the tracks. As I exited the tunnel I found myself below street level with two brick walls on either side of me. Ahead of me another tunnel began. I could hear the whistle of another train coming up from behind me. Looking around I could not see any easy way of getting out onto the street. So I spit on my hands and started to climb, it was difficult going because the bricks were close together and the wall was perfectly vertical. I was almost to the top when I saw headlights coming out of the tunnel. The train was almost on me when with one last pull of strength I was out of the train's path and out onto the street. I lay there and rested for a few moments before standing up and looking around.
This was the cleanest part of Midgar that I had yet seen with clean office buildings and suits that were as common as cockroaches were in the slums. I figured that I probably didn't fit in but I didn't care because there above me loomed the massive building that I knew to be Shinra HQ. The distance was deceiving, although it looked like I was right underneath; it took me several hours to actually reach the front entrance. Without a second glance back I opened one of the doors and walked inside.
It looked like I was in some sort of huge lobby. There were receptionists' desks in front of me and a lot more of those annoying guards walking around. I walked up to one of the receptionists, a small woman with one of those plastic smiles that makes you think it was practiced in the bathroom before work.
"Hello sir and welcome to Shinra HQ, how may I help you?" she asked while somehow managing to maintain that stupid smile. I really didn't know how I should respond; I didn't even really know where I was supposed to go. Records, I remembered, were usually kept in a library of some kind.
"Well...uh, do you have a library here?" I asked.
"Why yes we do sir, it contains all Shinra records from before and after the war up until present day, however it is on the 62 which is off limits to tourists."
I was getting frustrated again, "Well I need to go and look up some files there so could you please let me go up?" I asked as nicely as possible.
"I'm sorry sir but that is completely out of the question, no unauthorized personnel are allowed up there." I noticed that her smile was getting more and more strained.
"Really Ms. I have to get up there, its very important," I asked again, but this time she noticed my sword and her eyes opened wide in fright.
"Sir did you know that we have a strict no weapons policy in place?" she asked.
"No I didn't," I smiled, "but who's gonna enforce it? You?" I laughed, "So lets say that you let up to the library, hu?" I saw her hand slip beneath her desk, as I turned my head one of the guards put his hand over his earpiece and looked directly at me. This was just what I needed, more trouble. Five guards were approaching me at once as a group.
Their leader stepped foreword, "Is there a problem here?" he asked.
The receptionist wasn't smiling anymore, "This man insists that he be allowed into restricted levels. He is also carrying illegal weapons in this building."
"Well now," said the guard, "that's pretty serious sir." He looked around at his comrades, "I think that you're going to need to come with us sir...for questioning." Once again I was getting pretty angry with these stupid cretins that kept on getting in my way! I saw that all of them were pointing their guns at me and that I wouldn't be able to get out of this situation without killing someone. More guards were walking towards us, I had to act now or never, so I acted. I concentrated on my Contain materia and unleashed a Flare attack into the small group. The charred bodies of the guards flew across the room. I heard someone calling for backup over the drone of machine guns. I saw twin elevators at the back of the lobby; it was my only shot so I took it. I cast Haste on myself and was running as fast as I could while trying to dodge the bullets although I was still grazed by a few. As I neared the elevator on the right I saw a guard step out of double doors. He raised his gun to take aim but I was too fast. I leapt into the air and brought the blade of sword down on his neck, effectively removing his head from his body. Blood had covered the floor making the ground slick but I stood firm and pressed the 'up' button on the control panel. The air was hot with lead and the walls were covered with bullet holes. As I stepped into the elevator I was shot in the shoulder and the side, the pain was intense and I collapsed onto the floor of the elevator. I saw the guards running towards me and with my last bit of strength I managed to push one of the level buttons. The doors closed just as the guards reached the elevator and I could hear them banging on the doors as I rose up away from them.
I pulled out my Restore materia and used it to cure my wounds. Then I got up to see just where I was going. I had selected Floor 59, which was as high as I could get on this elevator. I was still pretty far away from getting to Floor 59 so I sat down to rest. I watched as the floors flew by on the monitor until it was finally at 59. I got up and prepared to disembark but the elevator didn't stop. I kept on going up and I was expecting some kind of ambush. The elevator stopped at 62 and the doors opened but no one was there. Curious, I stepped out to see where I was. On the wall off to the side was a plaque that read 'Archives and Records'. This was the first good thing to happen to me all day. I went to explore and found a man standing by a door. He was wearing a black and white stripped shirt and didn't look at all like a guard. I approached him and was about to ask for help but he beat me to it.
"You must be the one the Mayor was talking about," he said. "You should go in immediately, no telling when that idiotic Shinra Security will think to look on this floor. You don't need to worry, the Mayors expecting you." I was pretty dumbfounded, what did a mayor want with me, and how did he know I was here? The man was right though, the guards would no doubt be right on my tail and I needed help if I was going to escape them. So I took a deep breath and walked through the door to see what the Mayor wanted.