Squareenix owns Final fantasy VII and all the characters involved in it. I do not own any of the things mentioned in both my text and FFVII, but I do own this story and all the "new" characters (i.e. Characters not seen in FFVII or other products made by Squareenix)
Clyde took another sip from his drink. He was tired of waiting; the man he had agreed to meet with, said he'd be there half an hour ago. He looked around. Well, he looked as much as it was possible to look around. There wasn't much light in this bar, or any other place in New Midgar. Not since Neo Shinra had decided to put an end to most of the mako-reactors, due to a massive amount of pressure
(oh, and Cloud and his companions helped as well, didn't they, oh yes, Shinra learned that the planet really could be killed if we stopped the mako-flow)
from the people of the planet.
35 minutes late.
And then, when people started being friendly towards Shinra again, President Rufus had suddenly died, while staying at the hotel in the (at that time) small town of New Midgar. Then everything had gone straight to Hell. Vice President Brohn became President Brohn, Shinra became Neo-Shinra, and that's when the terror started. Actually, about the same time as the first Mercenaries started to emerge from the nothingness. Oh, and did President Brohn want to get them bad? You bet he did.
40 minutes now.
Then the rumours of a secret underground organisation, a sect, a clan, whatever you chose to call it, of Mercenaries started. The rumour became the sole thing that people talked about. People worshipped these Mercenaries, as they had worshipped Cloud and his companions, back in the days of post-meteor, when they had still been active in the world of resistance against old Shinra.
45 minutes.
Then the elite-anti-Mercenary group, Neo-Soldier, was formed. They were allowed to kill Mercenaries at sight, and to arrest anyone they assumed to sympathise with the Mercenaries. And then, for the last couple of years, nothing had happened. A couple of Mercenaries was killed, and Shinra
(New Shinra is the name, but why call it something it's not, it's just the same old Shinra, with new faces)
claimed to have killed the leader of the Mercenary group at least twice a week. No-one believed them.
50 minutes now.
And Clyde kept on waiting. He really needed to talk to this man. This man should be able to get rid of all his problems. Oh, but wasn't those words
(should be)
exactly the key-words in that sentence? How did he know, that the man really would be able to help him? He didn't, that was the answer to that question. Then why did he remain here?
55 minutes now.
A man sat down next to Clyde, but Clyde didn't even look at him, out of pure reflex. If you wanted to keep all of your limbs in a town such as New Midgar, you never looked to long at anybody, unless you knew them already. But then the newly-arrived talked, in a deep, growling voice. "Holy Wally, they don't even have rice-cakes in here."
That was it. Now what was he supposed to say to him? Shit! He had forgotten it. It was something with going
(I haven't seen any rice-cakes in any of these bars, wanna go to the restaurant around the corner)
somewhere. Oh, that was it.
"A-a-I ha-haven't suh-seen uh-uh-anybody sell rwa-rwa-rwa-rice-cakes in uh-any of these ba-ba-bars, d'you wa-wa-wa-wanna guh-guh-go to the restaurant uh-uh-around the co-co-corner?" he said, once more cursing his stutter to the deepest, most dark regions of whatever dimension of Hell it came from.
"Great idea. After you, my new friend" he growled, and got up. Clyde threw the money his drink had cost on the counter, and started walking towards the entrance of this gloomy bar, aware that the man with the growling voice followed. Outside, he finally could get a good look at the man. Or rather, of the man's clothes. The man had a full-body raincoat
(smart, why didn't I do that, it's raining)
with a large hood that shrouded his entire face with shadows.
"So, you want some help, I've heard?" he said.
"Y-y-yes, Ah-ah-ah-I'm a me-member uh-uh-of …"
"Do you really think this is the place to talk about this kind of thing?" the man asked, and nodded towards the Neo-soldier standing under the yellow glow of a lamp.
"Lu-let's guh-guh-guh-guh-go to mah-mah-my puh-puh-place," Clyde said, and started walking towards the trainstation.
The man followed.