Disclaimers: FFVII and DNAngel are legal properties to the owners and companies, so I'm filching off them.
000
Chapter One:
Dark clouds of smoke rose into the rafters as dim noises faded and rose over the sounds of rattling engines and trains. Small huddled figures tried to make themselves as small as possible, as to avoid being noticed by those stronger and a lot scarier than themselves, but no one was there to really say of do anything. As long as what they did didn't threaten the larger companies, then those living in the slums would be okay; they wanted no trouble, so they caused no trouble. That was the simple notion of the balance between peace and all-out war, in which residents would be unable to protect themselves.
And yet, there were some who would try and rebel against those with the higher powers.
Who were they? Why did they do it?
AVALANCHE.
That was what they were known as.
Above the deafening noise of the rattling as the train sped onwards, it plunged deeper into the darkness and pungent smells that would meet any approaches senses and make them recoil in disgust. The slums were far from sanitarily safe, but there was nothing they could do about it. The entire section of Midgar had long since been polluted to the point that it was quite common for the people living within them to die of some form of poisoning or another.
There was no colour, no matter where one looked. Dark browns, greys and black seemed to make up most of the surrounding area and no one had even bothered to make civilised pathways from one area to another in the first place, to dust clouds seemed to be common as well.
But that was beside the point and no one seemed to give a damn about it anyway. Entering a large tunnel, the carriages and the people within were instantly engulfed in the darkness, yet they didn't make a sound; never spoke, never moved. They didn't need to.
Catching sight of the platform, a brunette wearing a faded red bandanna waved to her companions; all of which had been sitting on the uncomfortable plastic seats and staring listlessly out without much interest. But as soon as she had made the gesture, they were instantly alert and were up on their feet. Anyone else in the carriage was either asleep or indifferent as the small band of people left that area and into a carriage that was completely deserted.
"So we're nearly there?"
"Yeah, this is our stop."
"All the other passengers won't notice the chaos outside then?"
"Doubt it. Look at them; they've already lost whatever strands of livelihood they may have had in the first place."
"I kinda pity them…"
"And you should be rightfully!"
Ignoring the bickering between two of the members, a redhead stood a little away from the rest, plucking at the frays of his shirt, which was black, and ignoring the slight jab in his side when his – rather – large sword swung over his shoulder. It was surprising at all to even consider him a fighter, as he was quite small in statue and his eyes flickered with innocence and sincerity, but all the same…
((Can't they just shut up already?))
(Oh, you're awake?)
((Only because of them.))
(Makes sense.)
The train screeched to a halt suddenly and the sharp blow of a whistle reached their ears. There was a murmur of complaint from the other passengers with the waiting, but the group – which consisted of one woman and three other men – instantly made a beeline for the opening hatch right above their heads. And yet the redhead didn't move.
It wasn't long before the sounds of muffled yells and surprised yelps reached his sharp hearing, as well as the hefty thud of either someone tripping or getting their head knocked into the side of the carriage; which left a pretty firm dent in it, which was quite alarming.
((Should we go?))
He inclined his head for a moment, listening for any other sounds of life; (Yeah, I think it's all clear.)
With ease that screamed long-since experience, the redhead hopped upwards and caught the edge of the open hatch without much difficulty and pulled himself up. Flipping over the steel edge and onto the actual platform, he frowned at the two limp forms of the station guards that had already been dealt with.
Tucking both hands into the pockets of his pants, he looked around, as is waiting for something.
((Think they're carrying anything of use for us?)) Asked the voice in his head curiously.
(I doubt it.)
((Then let's move on.))
(Right.)
He had only taken two steps towards the only way out of the place when two more guards made themselves present. As the low whistle of the train carried overhead into the once still place, the two red-garbed soldiers held up their weapons menacingly, warily watching the redhead from under their helmets.
"This is a restricted area," one of the guards said slowly, voice muffled thanks to the helmet.
Smiling innocently, the redhead slowly pulled his weapon out of its sheath, "Really?" he asked.
"Yes. Now clear off, kid."
There was a snigger in the back of his mind, ((Whoops. Wrong answer.))
The smile never left the teen's face, "Of course."
What happened next was more of a blur: the redhead had darted forward with his sword withdrawn and before either of the guards could have reacted, he had slammed one fist – accompanied with the hilt of his weapon - into one of their faces while the other ended up being kneed incredibly hard. They both collapsed silently in a head and with a look of disgust, he re-sheathed his weapon.
(I hate it when they do that,) he grumbled to himself, well aware that the other voice would reply.
((Well, they just don't ever learn, do they?))
Shaking his head, he exited the platform and caught sight of the rest of the group. The woman was by a giant mechanism that served as the door, which was obviously secured tightly, and she fiddled with the control panel on its right. As he approached them, one of the members turned around curiously.
"Hey, we never got around to your backgrounds," he said conversationally. "What's your name again?"
((I can't believe that they accepted you and they didn't even catch your name,)) was the displeased snort as he smiled just slightly as the voice sulked in indignation; if that was even possible.
"It's Daisuke," he replied.
"Okay then; I'm Biggs, he's Wedge and that's Jessie."
"Got it." ((Of course, you already knew that…))
"But hey," Wedge, a short-pudgy-ish man, blinked and turned as well, looking apprehensive, "Weren't you from SOLDIER?"
"SOLDIER?" barked another voice unexpectedly from their right, "I don't trust him then."
An elite force that fought and trained within Shinra's boundaries, SOLDIER was the 'hit force' of the company and usually caused the most pain in the smaller resistance groups. They usually had no mercy or sense of humanity, and that was just the beginning.
The speaker was a tall male with tanned skin and golden-mixed-with-brown hair that looked rather unnatural in the end. Yet where his right hand used to be had been replaced by a large gun, which only made one wonder what had happened. He glared at Daisuke mistrustfully through pale silver-amethyst eyes, but the woman – Jessie – corrected them.
"He USED to be from SOLDIER, true," she agreed, "But he broke strings with them ages ago. So he's pretty much one of us now."
((Smart lady; I'll give her credit for that.))
(Hush.)
There was a small beeping noise and Jessie laughed lightly in triumph as the security gate slid open. Running ahead with Wedge and Biggs, the redhead was about to follow, but stopped when the other – the speaker who was still glaring at him – blocked his way.
"Don't think about playing around while you're here," he muttered softly, meeting his eyes, "Because I really don't trust you."
"Alright," he shrugged at this and got a sharp jerk of a nod in return, (Gee… what an attitude crisis. What was his name again?)
((Argentine, wasn't it?))
(Right. Thanks Dark.)
((No prob.))
Glancing up at the forbidding building that shot out dark clouds of poisonous gas, Daisuke shook his head and entered.
AVALANCHE's first target?
Mako Reactor number one.
---
Threading through the machinery that made most of the open grounds, it wasn't hard to avoid the monsters and guards that prowled the area. Watching them impassively, Daisuke ignored the voice in his mind who was currently making random comments to the monsters below, but seeing as they couldn't hear them, there was nothing to be done about it.
Running a hand through his hair, which was in that oh-so strange way of being spiky-like, the redhead glanced around and found a safer path to avoid the creatures that seemed to bounce around the place dangerously, waiting for someone to stick a leg out so that they could bite it. That being the guard dogs, anyway. The shinra soldiers couldn't fight to save their life; as so proved just a few moments back.
The reactor was a large piece of metal, all in all, and wasn't all that great to look at, but it was obvious the sort of attraction for depression and no longer wanting to hope for anything, so it was all good in the end and the team were about to blow it into kingdom come anyway.
A sort of wavering and stifling heat hit him as soon as the doors to the actual reactor slid open and he caught sight of the rest of the team already running onwards. Why they were so enthusiastic on the idea of destroying another one of Shinra's life-sucking machines, he had no idea, but it wasn't like he was about to do anything about it anyway. He was hired to do his job here, so he had no opinion on the matter. At least he was being paid well for this.
The interior of the reactor wasn't as complex as one would have thought, but a lot of metal, ladders, and steps seemed to be the idea of the day when the workers and builders made this place into a reality. A horrible, giant, grey-coloured-building reality.
It was deserted – thanks to the prowling guards all outside that would keep meddlesome children out and only children – yet he could hear the faint whirl of machine-driven mechanisms coming to life. If they had to face anything in a fight, it would be them.
Daisuke shook his head slightly at the thought and jogged off after the others. Passing through the lage main room, which seemed to have an emergency exit, he took the right path and entered through the door. The next room he came upon was less humid and he slowed down when he noticed that AVALANCHE seemed to be working on hacking through another security system.
((We could've had that open in a second,)) snorted Dark loudly.
(We won't get extra pay for that though,) Daisuke shot back. (So we leave them to do all the hard work.)
There was a snort and a sigh, and he could almost visualise the owner of the voice rolling over in a sulk, ((They're incompetence is just so damn trying on my patience, that's all.))
Not commenting, yet still sympathising with the irritation of the situation, Daisuke turned his attention back as Jesse messed with the lock without much progress.
"So you, Jessie, and Daisuke are going on ahead," clarified Biggs as he watched over Jessie's shoulder and frowning slightly.
Argentine nodded once, "You and Wedge will be keeping an eye out for any guards that might get in the way while we're down there."
"Just leave it to us then," Wedge saluted vaguely and then went back to an at-ease position before turning to face the redhead. "You know what we're doing exactly then?"
Of course he did; he had been given the briefing by Jessie before they'd gone on the train, "We're going to blow up the reactor."
"Yeah, but there are guards around here--"
"Like you should know," finished Argentine stiffly, giving the redhead a sharp, mistrustful glance and then turning away as Jessie finally cracked the code and the door allowed them access.
"Argentine, you have to stop being so mistrustful," Biggs said calmly, "Daisuke's one of us now, when you think about it."
"I'm a mercenary." ((I'm a mercenary.)) Both Daisuke and Dark said at the same time, correcting them.
"So if you were paid triple from Shinra, you'd work for them, wouldn't you?" barked Argentine, eyes narrowing to slits.
The redhead was spared from answering such a question as the door finally opened and allowed them access and Jessie pulled on Argentine's arm to get him to move on. Daisuke couldn't help but just stand there for a moment with a grimace hovering across his face.
(Is that what they think we are…?)
((Want me to come out and teach them a lesson they will never forget?)) Offered Dark, once more showing that he wasn't about to fall asleep anytime soon, no matter what was said.
(I really don't think that that's necessary, Dark. they probably thought that all along… but they needed the help,) at this, there was a flicker of faint amusement on his features as he walked over to where the team now watched Biggs wrestling with another security-measured door. He didn't take as long as Jessie and it wasn't long before he was being beckoned into an elevator, while Biggs and Wedge waited just outside. They were wary, looking around them every few seconds, as if waiting for something intensely evil to pop out, but it was actually quite peaceful.
There was the sound of a bell going off and the doors to the elevator slid shut smoothly, cutting off the light supply from the room before. The boxed mechanism had only a dark-greenish-blue light to shine over them and it wasn't the most pleasant of experiences as they felt it shudder downwards; further into the reactor and towards its core.
Shifting on his feet and leaning against one of its corners, Argentine continued to throw randomly-placed glares at Daisuke once in a while, but chose to say nothing. Jessie was working the elevator and seemed intent on keeping the peace – and death quiet-ness – and the redhead continued to hold a conversation with the voice in his head; the one he called Dark.
(But how hard can it be, anyway? I mean, it's just one little thing--)
((With a giant explosion following after it,)) agreed Dark readily, ((maybe they just want to avoid getting hurt too badly, you know. And if not, you can always be used as a scapegoat.))
He frowned at this, (That's… nice to know…)
((Isn't it?))
"Hey."
"Huh?" Daisuke snapped his head upwards and his eyes met with that of Argentine's. There was still the spark of mistrust that had been floating around those silver-amethyst irises since their first meeting, but there seemed to be… something else hovering there. Who knew what it was.
"It's obvious that we'll have to work together to get this place down," the brunette said slowly, "so I'm going to give you one chance. Mess it up and…" He held up his gun arm as the sentence trailed off, but Daisuke got the picture. Yet he couldn't stop the smirk.
"You don't have to trust me. You just have to make sure that I don't end up becoming a backstabber," he touched the hilt of his sword lightly and then smiled, "But even in SOLDIER they never said to be so… dishonorable."
Argentine made a face at this, but didn't say anything as the elevator jerked to a halt and the doors opened, allowing them to exit. Shooting Daisuke a wary glance that seemed half-exasperated, Jessie ran on ahead and they fell into a sort of staring contest that was broken off at the sounds of machinery tinkering about.
"You've got attitude. I'll give you that."
This seemed to be the only basis of agreement that meant that, for once, the redhead was accepted into the team without as much mistrust as there had been before. And Argentine hadn't even seen him fight yet.
Despite the seriousness of the situation, Daisuke couldn't help but smile.
000
And that's chapter one; intros, the situation kinda and yeah. Fighting scenes are all adjusted to some form of reality and yeah, Dark is in Daisuke, which means all the fun for the former Phantom Thief. Uh… yeah.
Review please? I know this is probably unorthodox, but I'd love to hear what you people think of this.
neko-nya: Yeah, I just keep doing that, huh? And not finishing anything else. XO yup, confuzzling to the point of wacky insanity XD but it'll (hopefully) make sense in the end. If not… well… (shrugs) W00t font :D Great way to pass time.
chrnoskitty: Yeah, the idea has actually been with me for… a year! o.O I didn't know that. But I've changed the main plotline since then, and you get a basic idea on who the charaters are from the pic XD Thanks and hope you'll be back for more :P