Chapter One: Enter AVALANCHE
Green embers floated lazily in the air as she crouched in front of he conduit. She reached out and touched one of the tiny motes of light, absorbing the green energy into her hand. She frowned as the Mako flowed into her, and she caught a momentary jolt of ideas and emotions, jumbled and confused.
She shook her head and stood up, leaving the damaged conduit and the leaking Mako behind. Most people would avoid leaking Mako because of the danger inherent with the substance, but she didn't. She wasn't afraid of the Mako, though its presence saddened her as she felt the pain and suffering inflicted by the "miracle of modern science." It was this substance that had given birth to her city.
She stepped out of the alley, a basket of flowers hanging idly from her left hand, and looked up and down the street. As always, this section of Midgar was lit by yellow lamps and blazing lights. People meandered along the sidewalks of the main streets, and cars drove past, moving through the streets with a whiff of noxious gasoline trailing in their wake.
From where she stood, she couldn't see much of the city, just the next row of apartment buildings in Sector Eight. They stretched up into the night, like brown teeth, stained with pollution from the nearby industrial factories. The city of Midgar was the home of the headquarters of Shinra Inc., the worldwide industrial conglomerate that effectively ruled the world. Only the far-off land of Wutai had ever resisted Shinra's control, and that just barely.
The corporation was the pinnacle of corruption and the worship of money, a powerful, faceless monstrosity whose nest further exemplified these sordid ideals. That was what Midgar was: the product of aggressive expansion and the rape of both the natural world and mankind, raised on the backs of the poor and oppressed and fueled by the energies of the planet itself. It was Shinra's cancerous crown, the largest city in the world, where all their power was centered and from which their power had extended to encompass the world. It was huge, awe-inspiring, and at the same time, an abomination.
But for her, it was also home.
She stepped out onto the sidewalk and walked down the noisy street toward the topside Sector Two train station. However, she paused, listening, for over the din of the city street, she thought she faintly heard the sound of conflict, of distant sirens sounding near the border between Sector One and Sector Eight.
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A quartet Shinra guards were on duty outside to Sector One Mako Reactor train station, their weapons slung over shoulders that slumped from long days of boredom. That was understandable in the military, as soldiers spent most of their time with nothing to do, except for that rare moment in which they would have to act. That moment, however, came so rarely that many soldiers didn't realize it was coming until they were already dead.
When the #20 Train squealed in the middle of the night, unexpectedly, the guards looked up, somewhat surprised but hardly alarmed. The men, military police trained in security protocols, approached the unannounced train, though only one of them bothered to draw his weapon, a heavy assault rifle. He glanced to his comrades, though he didn't see their faces behind the blue helmets with the tinted visors across their faces.
One of the soldiers, the ranking officer, stepped toward the engine, looking for the engineer driving, but paused, surprised to see no one in the engine car. He turned back, but at that moment, the instant that he and his fellows needed to act was suddenly and unexpectedly thrust upon them.
The sliding doors of one of the train cars slid open, and two men, barely out of their teens, stood in the opening, brandishing sub- machineguns. Their weapons blazed, and a barrage of metal slugs tore into the two MPs unfortunate enough to be standing in their line of fire. Both men dropped, bleeding from their ripped torsos, blood staining their blue uniforms.
The ranking soldier shouted something and took a step forward, hands going for his rifle, when a figure from inside the engine car suddenly moved out of her hiding spot. A pair of bladed sai slid out of belt sheaths, and she dropped down silently from the engine car even as the lead soldier was reacting to his comrades' deaths. One of the sai rose up, and she flipped it over to grasp the weapon by its tip. A flick of her wrist sent the bladed sai into the back of the soldier's neck, and he stopped in mid-motion, hands grasping at the weapon embedded in his body. The Shinra soldier then fell forward, dead before he could grip the weapon.
The last soldier, the only one who had drawn his weapon, raised his rifle toward the two men inside the train, when a shadow eclipsed him. He looked up in time to catch a descending foot in the visor that laid him out flat. The man that foot belonged to, a blonde teenager with a frightening lightning tattoo across his face, looked up and scanned the station, even as the fifth and final member of the assault team dropped from the train, checking their six to ensure there were no other threats.
"Move out!" Zell Dincht, the martial artist and team leader, shouted, and the two men and the woman nodded. Zell then turned back to the last team member, and waved for him. The scarred man nodded, and followed Zell as the other three team members ran ahead, ducking through an alleyway that would lead to the gates of the Mako reactor complex.
The fifth man, a short, black-clad figure with long, messy brown hair, suddenly stopped near a door. Zell glanced back, confused and about to shout for the man to follow, when the door to the inside of the station burst open, and a trio of Shinra guards leaped out. The blue-clad military police were brandishing rifles and turning to aim them at Zell, when the black-clad man's weapon rose. The gunblade known as the Revolver sliced up into the back of one guard's neck, cleanly severing the soldier's head. He then chopped down, the gunblade cleaving through the second soldier's back. He screamed in pain, and the third guard, just becoming aware of the unexpected threat from behind them, found his rifle batted aside as Zell entered the fray. The rifle was knocked out of line, and in that moment of vulnerability, the metal knuckles on Zell's gloves smashed repeatedly into the soldier's faceplate. The MP hit the floor hard, quite unconscious.
"Nice moves," Zell said to the Revolver's wielder. "Glad to know I made a good investment." The black-clad man said nothing, instead running on. Zell followed him into the alley, and the pair weaved their way through the twisting ways between buildings. They leaped over another dead Shinra fire team, who were ripped apart by a combination of bullets and quick, lethal slashes of slender blades, obviously the work of the rest of the team.
"Sorry we're late," Zell called as they rounded a corner, the rest of the assault team coming into sight. The two men crouched with rifles ready, while the woman' hands were buried in the wiring of the Mako reactor's gate control system. "Ran into some Shinra trouble."
"Nothing serious, sir?" asked one of the men, clad in a yellow jacket, brown pants, and a blue watchcap. His name was Watts, and he was the most timid member of the assault team.
"Nah," Zell replied waving his hand dismissively. He hooked a finger over his shoulder. "You should have seen this guy in action! Snuck right up on them and killed two before they could twitch!"
"Wasn't he a SeeD?" the second man, a dark-haired fellow named Zone, asked. The black-clad man nodded wordlessly.
"SeeD's with Shinra, aren't they, sir?" Watts asked, but Zell shook his head.
"Not this one anymore," he explained. "He cost a big wad of gil, but it was worth getting him for this operation."
"Nice to meet you," Zone replied. "I didn't catch your name at the briefing."
"Squall," Squall Leonhart responded with another nod. He turned to Zell. "How long will this take? They'll be reacting within a few minutes."
"Just another second," the woman replied, shaking her head. She was named Xu, and was clad in a light gray jacket and dark pants, a bandana wrapped around her head, just below her dark brown hairline.
"Was this guy really a SeeD?" Zone asked, not immediately impressed by the small, unimpressive figure Squall cut. Zone then looked up, and stopped, noticing Squall's blue eyes, which shimmered with an unnatural, glowing light. That was all the answer Zone needed.
"Another second," Xu added. "And . . . there!"
The solid metal gate leading deeper into the Mako reactor clicked once as the hydraulic locks were opened, and then slid open. The team quickly moved in, Zell and Squall taking the lead. They moved through the complex swiftly, ducking down twisting pathways between cramped buildings, their route lit by burning lamps and neon signs. No guards rushed out to greet them, and no civilian workers emerged from any of the myriad of buildings outside the reactor itself.
Squall paused briefly at one point, looking up through the narrow space between two buildings, at the towering structure above. Sector One's Mako reactor loomed above them like a solid steel monolith, an impregnable titan emblazoned with the Shinra logo on the side. Green steam floated lazily out of the top of the structure.
Squall shook away the memories associated with another reactor he had been to before, and rushed on. He had a job to do, which involved striking the vulnerable heart of this invincible behemoth.
Soon, they passed beyond the outer structures of the complex and came into sight of a steel bridge spanning a deep chasm. The bridge connected the outer complex with the reactor itself, and also connected to a secondary access point that was sealed off - for the moment.
The team stepped out onto the bridge itself, and Zell whistled, awed by the massive structure of the Mako reactor. Squall, however, looked down, as the bridge overlooked the slums of Midgar far below. Squall saw thousands of pinpricks of light, those of the citizens of Midgar who were forced to live below the city's upper plate, in the polluted wastelands of Midgar's slums at ground level. Below, he could also see the Mako reactor descend all the way to the surface, the tower that supported Midgar's power supply burying deep into the earth's surface.
"Sweet Hyne this thing is huge!" Zell shouted, looking up at the massive shape towering above and descending far below. However, despite any awe Zell possessed, he also viewed the massive reactor as a monument to corporate greed, and he knew precisely what to do with such monuments.
"Zone, Watts, open up our back door," Zell called, pointing toward the sealed rear entrance. "We've got to blow this joint." With that, Zell led the team across the bridge, onto the branching span of the metal structure that led into the Mako reactor. Squall and Xu followed him into the gaping doorway, and into the heart of the beast.
Through the outer doorway the trio entered a long, blank hallway, periodically marked by doors and ladders leading to ventilation shafts and maintenance access ways. They ignored them, bounding down a short flight of stairs and through a set of double doors. A quick turn to the right took them down another hallway.
"Access to the elevators should be on the second set of doors on the right," Zell reminded the party, and Xu and Squall nodded. They were even then approaching the first set of double doors, Xu running ahead to reach the second set first. Every second mattered.
Xu got two steps past the doors when they burst open, and an entire squad of Shinra military police rushed out. Both Zell and the police were surprised by the sudden encounter, but Squall, ever alert and senses primed, reacted with lightning speed. His gunblade leaped up in a cleave that sliced through the chest of one man, dropping him with an accompanying fountain of blood, then flashed across, the deadly edge taking the throat of another soldier.
Zell crashed heavily into one Shinra guard, knocking the man down. Zell fell over him, but reacted in midair, planting both hands on the floor as he fell and somersaulting forward to land lightly on his feet. The brawler spun toward the Shinra forces, and twisted aside as one man attempted to rifle-butt him. Zell looped an arm around the man's right arm and pulled out, stretching the arm to full extension, then smashed the soldier's elbow with his free hand, formed into a fist. Before the man even screamed in pain, Zell shoved him forward into the squad of Shinra soldiers, bowling over two more.
Xu had spun back to the battle, but Zell looked over his shoulder and spotted her. He waved an arm, indicating for her to run on, and then his fists weaved, deflecting another rifle butt and smashing that soldier's faceplate in.
"Go on! We'll take out the trash!" Zell shouted, throwing himself to the side as another soldier leveled his rifle at the brawler. Bullets pursued Zell as he scrambled to the side, and leaped toward one of the walls. The martial artist hit the wall running, planting his feet on it and taking two steps forward, seemingly defying gravity, before kicking off. The Shinra soldier tried tracking him, but the unexpected maneuver threw his aim off just long enough for Zell to flip over in midair and plant a devastating double kick into the man's chest and face. The soldier went flying away into unconsciousness. Zell spun on the two men he had dropped, and a quick barrage of jabs and hooks laid them out flat even as they were rising.
Squall stepped forward, closing with the last pair of Shinra soldiers. One took a step back, raising his rifle to fire at Squall, while the other actually rushed forward, reaching to his belt and tearing out a tonfa. The soldier swept the tonfa across, the club aimed for Squall's head, but it never reached his skull. The Revolver weaved into the tonfa's path, deflecting the club, and then the gunblade chopped down, biting into the soldier's chest before he'd even been aware of the parry.
Squall spun around, tossing the body with a roundhouse kick that hurled the dying soldier into his comrade. The last soldier was knocked off his feet by the macabre missile, and landed on his back. The soldier began to rise when a foot smashed into the side of his head, Squall's boot knocking him out cold.
"SeeD through and through," Zell commented, seeing how Squall had easily dispatched his foes. The ex-SeeD said nothing and ran past Zell, who quickly followed.
In the time it had taken Zell and Squall to deal with the Shinra soldiers, Xu had already reached the door and wired it open. They rushed through the next anteroom, where they found an elevator waiting to take them deeper into the complex. The trio boarded the elevator and Xu punched the button for the lowest levels. Squall leaned against the wall opposite the entrance, waiting through the long process of descending into the bowels of the reactor.
"You know why we're doing this, right?" Zell asked. Squall glanced up, realizing the question was aimed at him. He said nothing, letting Zell explain. Squall had been told nothing about their intentions at the short briefing before they'd hijacked the train, just what was expected of him.
"These Mako reactors are sucking all the energy out of the planet," Zell explained, pointing to the floor of the elevator. "You know how all the land around Midgar is empty and barren, right?" Squall nodded. "That's because all the energy's been sucked up, little by little, by these reactors. If we don't stop Shinra, the whole planet's going to die."
"Not my problem," Squall responded nonchalantly.
"The planet's dying!" Zell repeated, but Squall shrugged.
"Whatever," he replied. "Like I said, it's not my problem. All I care about it blowing this place before the Roboguards arrive. That's what you hired me for, right?"
Zell growled and turned around, punching the air a few times to let off steam. Xu glanced back and forth between them, but said nothing. After another minute or so, the elevator came to a stop. The trio stepped out onto a rarely used maintenance access way.
"Damn, look at that," Zell commented on the view. Squall nodded, understanding the source of Zell's amazement. They were standing on a narrow access passage overlooking a massive pool of Mako energy about two hundred feet below. The raw, unrefined energy glowed a soft green and blue light. All throughout the wide chamber, machinery could be heard thrumming and operating smoothly, sedately, as if the havoc that was being wreaked above could not touch this region.
Dozens, in fact hundreds, of pipes spanned the massive, circular chamber, which seemed to stretch almost five to six hundred feet across. A thick cylinder shot up through the far wall, housing the core of the Mako absorbing and processing machinery. Every pipe featured railings and ladders, allowing maintenence personnel easy access to pretty much any point in the chamber.
Squall scanned the room, and spotted a bridge reaching from their edge of the chamber to the far side. He followed the ladder leading up from the bridge, and nodded as he saw it intersect with a pipe nearby, one they could easily reach. Squall tapped Zell on the shoulder and pointed to the bridge.
"There's a ventilation shaft where that bridge meets the far wall," Squall shouted, in order to be heard over the din of the operating machines. "We'll put the bomb in there. It should ignite the stored Mako energy and blow this entire reactor apart."
"Good thinking!" Zell replied. He turned to Xu. "Keep the way open for us, we shouldn't be long." Xu nodded, and Zell and Squall quickly moved out, scrambling across pipes and down ladders, until they reached the ladder leading down to the bridge.
Squall led the way, taking the bomb they would be using from Zell. It was a moderately powered weapon, suited for destroying something armored, like a military vehicle, but if it was set in the Mako, it would be like putting a detonating cap in a mound of explosive material, igniting a far greater explosion. He ran across the bridge, ignoring the shimmering Mako just fifty feet below his position. Normally, most maintenance personnel would come down here with protective gear, but Squall needed none, and neither he nor Zell would be around long enough to worry about Mako poisoning.
For an instant, Squall recalled another reactor he had visited, which had been more than just a reactor, but he brushed aside the memory, and instead crouched near the ventilation shaft at the wall. He armed the bomb and set it for ten minutes, then opened the shaft.
Squall jerked as an alarm erupted from nowhere, the klaxon sounding over the machinery.
"The shaft has an alarm on it!" Zell shouted, scanning the wide chamber for any threats. Squall quickly turned back to the shaft, ignoring Zell's blatant statement of the obvious, and dropped the bomb inside. He glanced at his watch, and tapped a button on it, synchronizing its clock with that of the bomb. He then spun, drawing his weapon again, and joining Zell in his scan.
Mere moments later, however, the scan became unnecessary, as they heard a powerful stomping sound somewhere above, like iron jackhammers pounding into metal. Both men looked up to see a massive, four-legged form clinging to the ceiling somewhere far above. Even as they spotted the massive machine, it detached itself from the roof of the underground chamber, and dropped several hundred feet to land on the bridge, right in front of Squall and Zell. With a thunderous, mechanical piston-like stomping sound, its legs spread out, balancing the heavy weight of the machine. The weapon turned its attention towards the intruders, as if sizing them up.
For a moment, no one moved. Squall had heard of a weapon like this, code-named X-ATM092. It was huge, twice Squall or Zell's height, and as wide as it was tall. It had a long, rectangular body, supported on four large, cylindrical legs, spread out like the legs of a spider, with sharp, clawed tips. It was painted matte black, excepting bluish designs on its legs, red markings across its body, and the steel-gray grating on the front of the machine. Behind this grating, something glowed a dark red, a sensor perhaps. Whatever it was, it was looking directly at the cadets. A quartet of turbines in the back powered the machine, and a pair of black and gray metallic pinchers, like those of a scorpion, waved around like that of a real scorpion just in front of the gray grating of its "head." Scrawled on the weapon's side in crude, white paint were the words "Black Widow," positioned just above the familiar logo of Shinra Inc.
"The hell?" Zell growled, never having seen anything like this weapon. Squall, on the other hand, knew all too well about the dangers a weapon from Shinra's "X-ATM" series could present. Immediately, Squall focused, reaching deep into himself, and calling forth the energies within. He sensed the power within his body, the latent magical energies he stored within, and called them forth.
A blast of crackling electrical energy erupted from Squall's outstretched left hand, and smashed into the towering robot before them. Electrical energy played along its grille, inflicting havoc on its forward sensor array. Zell glanced at Squall, and nodded at his expenditure of magic. The brawler raised one of his own fists, and from his wrist there was a green flare.
X-ATM092 rushed forward, shaking off the effects of Squall's magic spell, and raised its pinchers in an effort to grab and slice the intruders apart. The weapon's clawed feet punched through the solid steel of the bridge, bowing it inward, as it advanced.
Electrical magic from Zell rippled forward, from his glowing metal glove, striking the Shinra war machine across its "face." X-ATM092 slowed, but only briefly, long enough to begin to recover from the second blast of magic, but in that instant, Squall leaped forward, his gunblade rising and coming across in a cleaving slash that tore into the robot's front right leg, at the joint. As the weapon bit in, there was an explosion, and suddenly X-ATM092's front right leg was blasted apart, the limb damaged by an explosive blast from Squall's weapon. The robot buckled forward, its limb no longer supporting its heavy weight. However, as it fell forward, the weapon's pinchers shot forward, trying to spear Squall where he stood.
The ex-SeeD was too quick for that, however, and long before the pincher reached him, Squall was already ducking. His gunblade rose and shot across, the blade biting into the pincher's joint. Another explosion from his gunblade sheared the pincher cleanly off, the metal arm flying over Squall's head.
Another blast of lightning struck the war machine, throwing it further off balance, and Squall leapt up onto the machine's "head." He ran forward along X-ATM092's back, and called up the magical energies once more, this time aiming for the turbines on the weapon's backside. Electrical energy flowed from Squall's hand, ripping into the turbines and overloading them. Two of them blew apart, and a third simply ceased operating. The fourth still pumped, however, and X-ATM092 tried rising.
"Not so fast, you oversized toaster!" Zell roared, leaping into the fray. He came forward with a flying forward kick the smashed the machine's grille inward, crushing the sensor within. X-ATM092 thrashed, blinded by the shockingly powerful kick. Squall glanced behind him, surprised at Zell's power, but took advantage of the brawler's distraction to send a final spell into the turbines, spearing the lone operating unit with a blast of magic that turned it into slag. With the destruction of the last turbine, the weapon's movements slowed dramatically, and it settled to the bridge. Squall didn't wait to check on the machine. He knew all to well that they had no time to waste, and dropped off the weapon's back.
"Zell, hurry!" Squall shouted as he ran toward the ladder, and the brawler nodded, hopping up over the machine and running after Squall.
"How much time is left?" Zell asked, worried that their battle had taken too long.
"Nine minutes," Squall called back, reaching the ladder. "Enough time to escape if we hurry."
"Then what's wrong?" Zell asked as he reached the ladder. They could easily get to safety in nine minutes as long as nothing delayed them.
"You don't want to be there when that machine gets back up," Squall replied, already halfway up the ladder.
"Gets back up?" Zell echoed, matching Squall's frantic pace. "What do you mean, we trashed it!"
"Shinra's X-ATM series includes built-in repair robots that automatically repair any damage," Squall replied. "We've got maybe a minute before it gets back up. And once it locks on to a target, it's going to keep going after it until either it or the target has been destroyed."
"How do you know so much?" Zell asked, now climbing even more quickly up the ladder after Squall's bit of news.
"I've had a run-in with one in the past," Squall said cryptically, and let the matter drop. He and Zell continued scaling the ladder to the top, and began running along the pipes to where Xu was waiting. Squall checked his watch and nodded grimly. They had eight minutes.
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Shinra computer technicians and programmers were quite skilled, and their programming capabilities were shown in their ability to program their army's military robot forces. They had even developed an advanced artificial intelligence program, which was still in its experimental stages . That AI program was capable of learning from its mistakes and adjusting for them, as well as developing new methods and solutions to a problem. Such an AI had yet to have been tested in the field, so the Shinra military had decided to put the program into use on a relatively minor task for the moment, guiding sentries in their Mako reactors, to determine its effectiveness. It had been installed along with a new round of upgrades in the "X-ATM" series, which also included redundant systems, new weaponry, and a sophisticated self-repair mechanism intended to delay intruders until reinforcements could arrive.
Those engineers would not have been disappointed in X-ATM092's seemingly easy defeat at the hands of the two intruders; those engineers would have merely smiled at the terrorists who now thought they were safe and the weapon was wrecked. In fact, the weapon was far from it.
Even as Squall and Zell fled, within X-ATM092 tiny robots, controlled by the central AI, swarmed over its overloaded and damaged electronics. Like a horde of frenzied mechanics, the tiny robots reassembled and repaired X-ATM092's wounds.
Less than a minute after its defeat, X-ATM092, the Black Widow, rose anew, its scanners repaired, and marked its prey.
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Zell led the way onto a ladder, scrambling up, when Squall heard the metal jackhammer sound from far below over the klaxons and machinery. The ex-SeeD looked down and spotted X-ATM092 standing, dozens of tiny repair robots still skittering across its hull as it turned its "head" toward them. The red sensor glowed frighteningly once more as it spotted them, and hunkered down low to the bridge.
"Zell, look out!" Squall warned as he scaled the ladder. The brawler looked down in time to see the huge spider-like robot leap into the air, its angle taking the weapon up toward the wall near the pipes they were climbing. The robot didn't make it all the way up to that point, but it met the wall about fifteen below their position. Its clawed legs dug deeply into the concrete walls of the chamber, and it began hauling itself up.
Zell and Squall moved even faster than before, and finished scaling the ladder before the war machine had taken two steps. The robot, however, was already close enough, Squall knew, and he reached forward and pulled Zell down.
A bolt of condensed energy ripped through the air above Zell, right where his head had been, and struck a blank spot on the wall some fifty feet away. The spot on the wall exploded as if it had been hit by an anti- tank rocket, and Zell did not want to think what it would have done to his cranium if Squall had not grabbed him.
Squall looked back to the robot for an instant, to see another ball of energy forming directly beneath its sensor array. Then another ball, this one of fire, struck the robot's head from somewhere above.
"Xu's covering us!" Zell exclaimed, and Squall nodded, looking up to where Xu was located even as a second fireball lanced down and struck the war machine. She was somewhere above, on a metal strut spanning the chamber, but Squall didn't know where she was until a green flare erupted faintly in that general region, and a third fireball shot down. Squall and Zell took advantage of her covering fire and continued climbing.
X-ATM092 didn't take kindly to being interrupted like it had and pointed its head in Xu's general direction. The ball of energy reformed beneath the weapon's sensor array, the bright yellow light filling the air around the weapon, before it fired another bolt.the yellow energy lanced up into the strut and exploded, blasting a huge chunk of the metal apart.
"Xu!" Zell shouted, looking at the place where she had seemingly vanished under X-ATM092's blast. However, his fears were unfounded, as he quickly spotted Xu, crawling along the strut, obviously trying to avoid drawing anymore fire from the war machine. X-ATM092 seemed content to leave her, and turned its head back around to face Squall and Zell.
"Aim for the legs," Squall quickly told Zell, who looked up at the ex- SeeD. Squall pointed a hand down at the machine as energy began forming under its sensor array once more. Zell nodded and pointed one of his own gloved fists at the weapon, the knuckle flaring green again.
"Now!" Squall ordered, and two bolts of lightning shot down at the war machine, each striking one of its front legs. The lightning shot through the robot, playing hell with X-ATM092's guidance and control systems. The machine stopped in place, and then its front legs detached from the wall. However, X-ATM092's rear legs were undamaged, and held on fast, even as the forward pair came loose and the weapon seemed to flip over strangely, its front end pointing down atthe Mako pool farbelow. The weapon stayed attached to the wall, though just barely.
"Now the rear legs," Zell added, shifting his aim lower. Squall nodded, but pointed his left hand at Zell for an instant. Zell noticed the movement, and was briefly confused at squall's actions, which was only compounded when shining blue energy streamed from Zell's hand to Squall's. The brawler stared, not sure what had happened.
"Quick, cast!" Squall shouted, now pointing his arm down at X-ATM092, even as it was raising its detached legs back to the wall. Zell shook his head, leaving the questions for less life-threatening situations, and focused. His fist glowed once more, and another pair of lightning bolts lanced out and struck the war machine rear legs. As with the forward legs, the electricity fried the electronics, and caused the rear legs to detach from the wall.
With nothing anchoring it to the wall, X-ATM092 plummeted, falling down and smashing through the bridge far below to plunge into the untreated Mako pool, leaving the intruders with six minutes to spare.
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"What the hell was that?" Zell asked as the elevator began rising. They still had enough time, even with the battle against X-ATM092, to escape from the reactor. By Xu's estimate, they would be up on the escape level with a full minute to spare, and if they ran all the way they would be out quickly enough.
"SeeD technique," Squall explained, crouching next to Xu. A piece of shrapnel from the explosion had gouged itself into her shin, and he was helping her bandage the wound. "It's how I can cast without materia."
"You can use magic without materia?" Xu asked, surprised. She had heard of rumors of warriors who could use magic without the special orbs, but had never thought them to be true. It was like firing bullets without a gun. Materia was required for using magic.
"One of the SeeD techniques," Squall repeated with a shrug. "The wound's not too bad, but you won't be running for a while."
"How do you do it?" Zell asked, and Squall shrugged.
"Its complicated, but I think anyone could pull it off with proper instruction," Squall explained. "It's a lot easier than ki manipulation, though."
"You noticed, huh?" Zell asked, grinning. He pounded his chest proudly.
"Only a SeeD or a student of Zangan's school could have hit with that power," Squall replied with another shrug as he stood up.
"I'm not just a student of Zangan," Zell said proudly, tapping his chest. "Zangan's my-"
The elevator rocked as a tremor shot through the shaft. Even before the lift stopped shaking, Squall had rushed to one side of the small room and opened a lower access panel. He looked down, then immediately stood.
"Its back," he muttered, just before the other two occupants heard the familiar industrial pounding that heralded X-ATM092's approach. "Climbing the elevator shaft."
"How?" Zell exclaimed, though somewhat impressed with how easily Squall handled the weapon's seemingly impossible return. "It was dunked in raw Mako!"
"Mako only poisons living beings," Squall responded, glancing up to the sign above the elevator door, showing what level they were on. They were about ten floors below where they needed to go. "Robotic units aren't effected beyond getting a nice bath from the fluid . . . .
"Zell, help me get up to the panel," Squall said, stepping across the elevator to a second access panel, this one in the ceiling. Zell nodded, and crouched below the panel. Squall stepped up on his shoulders, and the brawler lifted him easily. A second later, Squall had removed the access panel and climbed up onto the roof of the elevator car.
"We need to get Xu up here," he said, and again, Zell nodded. Between Squall and Zell, they were easily able to get the wounded woman onto the rooftop. A second later, Zell leaped easily onto the roof, requiring no help. As soon as he arrived, the brawler saw that Squall was grasping onto the cable pulling the car up, and sizing the metal cable up.
"Are you thinking what I think you are?" Zell asked, and Squall nodded.
"Probably," the ex-SeeD said. "Drop back down inside the car and stop us just below the level we need to get off of." Zell nodded and dropped back down inside. A few moments later, the car stopped.
"This car weighs easily over seven tons," Xu commented as Squall stepped over to her. "You're going to drop it, aren't you?" Squall nodded, and hooked an arm under her armpit. He helped her climb onto his back, and then began climbing even as Zell leaped back up through the hole. The brawler quickly joined them as Squall ascended to the same level where they'd originally entered the complex, and, holding onto the cable with his left hand, drew his gunblade. He thrust the blade into the gap between the outer elevator doors, and pulled the weapon's trigger.
The explosion blasted the doors apart, and Squall spun around on the cable, moving Xu toward the opened doors. She stepped off his back and out into the anteroom beyond the doors, gingerly putting her weight on her torn leg. Squall followed, and Zell brought up the rear. As soon as Zell was out of the shaft, Squall turned back and swiped his gunblade across into the elevator's cable. There was another explosion from the unusual weapon, and the blast easily severed the cable. Immediately, the elevator car fell, plummeting down the shaft where it would easily smash the war machine flat. A couple of seconds later, as the trio turned to leave, they heard yet another tremendous explosion. Squall's eyes widened, and he spun toward Xu and lifted her onto his shoulders.
Neither of the other members of the team understood for a brief moment, until they both recalled the powerful ray weapon X-ATM092 possessed. That explosion had simply been the weapon blasting the descending car out of its way.
And with no car dropping onto the weapon, it meant there was nothing between the machine and them.
The metallic stomping reverberated up the elevator shaft, like a foretelling of doom, and none of the trio waited for X-ATM092 to finish climbing. They ran, as fast as they could, out of the antechamber and down the hallway, bounding over the corpses of the guards Squall and Zell had slaughtered. Xu clung tightly to Squall's back, knowing she couldn't escape on her damaged leg.
"We've got less than thirty seconds!" Zell shouted, checking his watch. Squall risked a glance at his own as they turned down the main corridor. The brawler was right, and now the countdown was down to twenty- seven seconds.
Zell surged ahead, not because he wanted to get out first, but simply because he could move faster without being burdened by Xu on his back, and he could tell Zone and Watts to get the door open earlier. No doubt they had finished unsealing it and were waiting for the others' return, but if Zell could get to them ahead of time they could open the door before Squall arrived with Xu.
Somewhere down the hallway, metal could be heard tearing apart. The X- ATM092 must have made its way to their level, judging by the sounds of walls being ripped apart by the huge war machine trying to fit through corridors too small for its bulk. The metal jackhammer sound of its advance could be heard all too clearly through solid metal walls that no one should have been able to hear the sound through under ordinary circumstances.
Squall ticked down the seconds mentally as he ran, Xu bouncing over his shoulders. They had twenty-three seconds left, and it seemed that if X- ATM092 had its way, they had even less than that.
Zell bounded ahead, dashing down the hall as fast as he could manage, which, considering the situation, was pretty damn fast. He bounded down the short staircase just before the entrance about five before Squall, barreling outside with a scream of "Open the door right the hell now!" Zone and Watts jumped on it even before Zell was finished, opening the rear entrance and diving through. They knew about the estimated power of the coming detonation, and they didn't want to be anywhere nearby without a very solid wall in the way.
Squall hoofed his way through the hallway, counting down the seconds, seconds that passed by far too quickly. Metal continued ripping and tearing behind him as the relentless machine continued the chase, smashing through intervening walls with almost frightening ease. By the time he reached the door leading out of the reactor itself, less than fifteen seconds remained before the coming explosion.
Even as he charged out of the door, Xu still on his back, the final intervening wall was torn down, and X-ATM092 finally came into sight of its prey. The weapon had already charged up its energy cannon in preparation, and as soon as Squall and Xu came into view, it fired.
Squall knew as soon as he heard the last wall come crashing down that the weapon would fire, and he threw himself to the side, almost off the bridge. The bolt ripped past Squall, barely missing him and Xu, the heat scorching their backs.
X-ATM092 charged forward, smashing through the doorway and chasing after Squall as he continued to run toward the door where Zell, Zone, and Watts waited with thirteen seconds remaining, just enough time. The weapon saw Squall continue to run, and understood his destination, and furthermore, knew that its target would manage to escape before it could catch up. X-ATM092's legs gathered beneath it like a cat ready to pounce, and it leaped clear over Squall to land ahead of him, where the bridge branched off.
Squall realized he was trapped, but didn't stop running. X-ATM092 took a step forward, raising its pinchers and preparing to end the chase with a quick stab.
Nine seconds remained.
The pinchers rose as high as they could, and the weapon took one final step, almost putting Squall and Xu into range. Clinging to Squall's back, Xu clutched the ex-SeeD tighter and closed her eyes.
Eight seconds remained, and the pinchers descended. They struck, and hit only metal.
Squall was airborne, having leaped to the right, his feet propelling him across the gap between the branching segments of the bridge, toward the unsealed door where the remainder of the strike team watched in awe. For Squall's leap was incredible, a jump that was carrying him and Xu across what was easily fifty feet of empty air.
Squall's feet connected with the metal of the bridge with a resounding clang, and he turned and ran straight for the unsealed door, with only five seconds remaining.
X-ATM092 realized its error even as the pinchers were digging in, and its energy weapon began charging again. It turned, the ball forming beneath its sensors even as Squall dashed through the door with three seconds left.
"Shut it! Shut it now!" Zell shouted, and Watts and Zone slammed the heavy, reinforced metal door down as a single second remained on the clock of the bomb deep within the reactor.
X-ATM092 locked onto the door, and issued the fire command. The ball broke down, the energy gathering and projecting forward into an explosive blast of death that would breach the door and kill all five intruders behind it.
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Deep within the reactor, a small explosion detonated within the raw, unrefined pool of Mako energy. The small explosion set of a cataclysmic chain reaction as the Mako energy, the living lifeblood of the planet, stolen by Shinra, was turned into the very weapon that would destroy what the corporation had wrought.
In the blink of an eye, every drop of Mako in the reactor became pure, unbridled energy that expanded outward, consuming walls, machinery, corpses, and those soldiers and robotic sentries unfortunate enough to still be inside the perimeter of the facility. White fires ripped up through the chamber, throughout the lower levels, up into the reactor core and through the control rooms and offices, consuming the destroyed elevator that Squall, Zell,and Xu had used, and continuing on.
It tore through each level, consuming all in its path as it advanced, a wall of unstoppable fire that rose up to the level even with Midgar's upper plate and onward, exploding up and out of the top of the reactor and far into the night sky.
Energy ripped out of the reactor, blasting through the halls and channeled out the torn door toward the bridge where X-ATM092 was firing its energy weapon at the intruders. In the blink of an eye, the weapon went from firing to on fire, the converted power of the stored Mako blasting into the war machine with incredibly destructive fury that interrupted its shot and saved all five intruders' lives.
All of Midgar heard the resounding explosion, and everyone in Sectors One and Eight would tell of the shockwave from that blast, and the night that all of Midgar would know the name of the rebel terrorist organization that Zell Dincht had christened AVALANCHE.
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Obviously, if anyone's read Daz Shier's work, then this will sound a bit like an echo. Heh. Similarly, he used Zone, Watts, and Xu, as well as X- ATM092 in his work for this chapter. There's only so much I can do with this without copying from his work, but I do what I can. Trust me that, despite the initial similarities, this work will be different from Daz's, especially character placement.
Green embers floated lazily in the air as she crouched in front of he conduit. She reached out and touched one of the tiny motes of light, absorbing the green energy into her hand. She frowned as the Mako flowed into her, and she caught a momentary jolt of ideas and emotions, jumbled and confused.
She shook her head and stood up, leaving the damaged conduit and the leaking Mako behind. Most people would avoid leaking Mako because of the danger inherent with the substance, but she didn't. She wasn't afraid of the Mako, though its presence saddened her as she felt the pain and suffering inflicted by the "miracle of modern science." It was this substance that had given birth to her city.
She stepped out of the alley, a basket of flowers hanging idly from her left hand, and looked up and down the street. As always, this section of Midgar was lit by yellow lamps and blazing lights. People meandered along the sidewalks of the main streets, and cars drove past, moving through the streets with a whiff of noxious gasoline trailing in their wake.
From where she stood, she couldn't see much of the city, just the next row of apartment buildings in Sector Eight. They stretched up into the night, like brown teeth, stained with pollution from the nearby industrial factories. The city of Midgar was the home of the headquarters of Shinra Inc., the worldwide industrial conglomerate that effectively ruled the world. Only the far-off land of Wutai had ever resisted Shinra's control, and that just barely.
The corporation was the pinnacle of corruption and the worship of money, a powerful, faceless monstrosity whose nest further exemplified these sordid ideals. That was what Midgar was: the product of aggressive expansion and the rape of both the natural world and mankind, raised on the backs of the poor and oppressed and fueled by the energies of the planet itself. It was Shinra's cancerous crown, the largest city in the world, where all their power was centered and from which their power had extended to encompass the world. It was huge, awe-inspiring, and at the same time, an abomination.
But for her, it was also home.
She stepped out onto the sidewalk and walked down the noisy street toward the topside Sector Two train station. However, she paused, listening, for over the din of the city street, she thought she faintly heard the sound of conflict, of distant sirens sounding near the border between Sector One and Sector Eight.
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A quartet Shinra guards were on duty outside to Sector One Mako Reactor train station, their weapons slung over shoulders that slumped from long days of boredom. That was understandable in the military, as soldiers spent most of their time with nothing to do, except for that rare moment in which they would have to act. That moment, however, came so rarely that many soldiers didn't realize it was coming until they were already dead.
When the #20 Train squealed in the middle of the night, unexpectedly, the guards looked up, somewhat surprised but hardly alarmed. The men, military police trained in security protocols, approached the unannounced train, though only one of them bothered to draw his weapon, a heavy assault rifle. He glanced to his comrades, though he didn't see their faces behind the blue helmets with the tinted visors across their faces.
One of the soldiers, the ranking officer, stepped toward the engine, looking for the engineer driving, but paused, surprised to see no one in the engine car. He turned back, but at that moment, the instant that he and his fellows needed to act was suddenly and unexpectedly thrust upon them.
The sliding doors of one of the train cars slid open, and two men, barely out of their teens, stood in the opening, brandishing sub- machineguns. Their weapons blazed, and a barrage of metal slugs tore into the two MPs unfortunate enough to be standing in their line of fire. Both men dropped, bleeding from their ripped torsos, blood staining their blue uniforms.
The ranking soldier shouted something and took a step forward, hands going for his rifle, when a figure from inside the engine car suddenly moved out of her hiding spot. A pair of bladed sai slid out of belt sheaths, and she dropped down silently from the engine car even as the lead soldier was reacting to his comrades' deaths. One of the sai rose up, and she flipped it over to grasp the weapon by its tip. A flick of her wrist sent the bladed sai into the back of the soldier's neck, and he stopped in mid-motion, hands grasping at the weapon embedded in his body. The Shinra soldier then fell forward, dead before he could grip the weapon.
The last soldier, the only one who had drawn his weapon, raised his rifle toward the two men inside the train, when a shadow eclipsed him. He looked up in time to catch a descending foot in the visor that laid him out flat. The man that foot belonged to, a blonde teenager with a frightening lightning tattoo across his face, looked up and scanned the station, even as the fifth and final member of the assault team dropped from the train, checking their six to ensure there were no other threats.
"Move out!" Zell Dincht, the martial artist and team leader, shouted, and the two men and the woman nodded. Zell then turned back to the last team member, and waved for him. The scarred man nodded, and followed Zell as the other three team members ran ahead, ducking through an alleyway that would lead to the gates of the Mako reactor complex.
The fifth man, a short, black-clad figure with long, messy brown hair, suddenly stopped near a door. Zell glanced back, confused and about to shout for the man to follow, when the door to the inside of the station burst open, and a trio of Shinra guards leaped out. The blue-clad military police were brandishing rifles and turning to aim them at Zell, when the black-clad man's weapon rose. The gunblade known as the Revolver sliced up into the back of one guard's neck, cleanly severing the soldier's head. He then chopped down, the gunblade cleaving through the second soldier's back. He screamed in pain, and the third guard, just becoming aware of the unexpected threat from behind them, found his rifle batted aside as Zell entered the fray. The rifle was knocked out of line, and in that moment of vulnerability, the metal knuckles on Zell's gloves smashed repeatedly into the soldier's faceplate. The MP hit the floor hard, quite unconscious.
"Nice moves," Zell said to the Revolver's wielder. "Glad to know I made a good investment." The black-clad man said nothing, instead running on. Zell followed him into the alley, and the pair weaved their way through the twisting ways between buildings. They leaped over another dead Shinra fire team, who were ripped apart by a combination of bullets and quick, lethal slashes of slender blades, obviously the work of the rest of the team.
"Sorry we're late," Zell called as they rounded a corner, the rest of the assault team coming into sight. The two men crouched with rifles ready, while the woman' hands were buried in the wiring of the Mako reactor's gate control system. "Ran into some Shinra trouble."
"Nothing serious, sir?" asked one of the men, clad in a yellow jacket, brown pants, and a blue watchcap. His name was Watts, and he was the most timid member of the assault team.
"Nah," Zell replied waving his hand dismissively. He hooked a finger over his shoulder. "You should have seen this guy in action! Snuck right up on them and killed two before they could twitch!"
"Wasn't he a SeeD?" the second man, a dark-haired fellow named Zone, asked. The black-clad man nodded wordlessly.
"SeeD's with Shinra, aren't they, sir?" Watts asked, but Zell shook his head.
"Not this one anymore," he explained. "He cost a big wad of gil, but it was worth getting him for this operation."
"Nice to meet you," Zone replied. "I didn't catch your name at the briefing."
"Squall," Squall Leonhart responded with another nod. He turned to Zell. "How long will this take? They'll be reacting within a few minutes."
"Just another second," the woman replied, shaking her head. She was named Xu, and was clad in a light gray jacket and dark pants, a bandana wrapped around her head, just below her dark brown hairline.
"Was this guy really a SeeD?" Zone asked, not immediately impressed by the small, unimpressive figure Squall cut. Zone then looked up, and stopped, noticing Squall's blue eyes, which shimmered with an unnatural, glowing light. That was all the answer Zone needed.
"Another second," Xu added. "And . . . there!"
The solid metal gate leading deeper into the Mako reactor clicked once as the hydraulic locks were opened, and then slid open. The team quickly moved in, Zell and Squall taking the lead. They moved through the complex swiftly, ducking down twisting pathways between cramped buildings, their route lit by burning lamps and neon signs. No guards rushed out to greet them, and no civilian workers emerged from any of the myriad of buildings outside the reactor itself.
Squall paused briefly at one point, looking up through the narrow space between two buildings, at the towering structure above. Sector One's Mako reactor loomed above them like a solid steel monolith, an impregnable titan emblazoned with the Shinra logo on the side. Green steam floated lazily out of the top of the structure.
Squall shook away the memories associated with another reactor he had been to before, and rushed on. He had a job to do, which involved striking the vulnerable heart of this invincible behemoth.
Soon, they passed beyond the outer structures of the complex and came into sight of a steel bridge spanning a deep chasm. The bridge connected the outer complex with the reactor itself, and also connected to a secondary access point that was sealed off - for the moment.
The team stepped out onto the bridge itself, and Zell whistled, awed by the massive structure of the Mako reactor. Squall, however, looked down, as the bridge overlooked the slums of Midgar far below. Squall saw thousands of pinpricks of light, those of the citizens of Midgar who were forced to live below the city's upper plate, in the polluted wastelands of Midgar's slums at ground level. Below, he could also see the Mako reactor descend all the way to the surface, the tower that supported Midgar's power supply burying deep into the earth's surface.
"Sweet Hyne this thing is huge!" Zell shouted, looking up at the massive shape towering above and descending far below. However, despite any awe Zell possessed, he also viewed the massive reactor as a monument to corporate greed, and he knew precisely what to do with such monuments.
"Zone, Watts, open up our back door," Zell called, pointing toward the sealed rear entrance. "We've got to blow this joint." With that, Zell led the team across the bridge, onto the branching span of the metal structure that led into the Mako reactor. Squall and Xu followed him into the gaping doorway, and into the heart of the beast.
Through the outer doorway the trio entered a long, blank hallway, periodically marked by doors and ladders leading to ventilation shafts and maintenance access ways. They ignored them, bounding down a short flight of stairs and through a set of double doors. A quick turn to the right took them down another hallway.
"Access to the elevators should be on the second set of doors on the right," Zell reminded the party, and Xu and Squall nodded. They were even then approaching the first set of double doors, Xu running ahead to reach the second set first. Every second mattered.
Xu got two steps past the doors when they burst open, and an entire squad of Shinra military police rushed out. Both Zell and the police were surprised by the sudden encounter, but Squall, ever alert and senses primed, reacted with lightning speed. His gunblade leaped up in a cleave that sliced through the chest of one man, dropping him with an accompanying fountain of blood, then flashed across, the deadly edge taking the throat of another soldier.
Zell crashed heavily into one Shinra guard, knocking the man down. Zell fell over him, but reacted in midair, planting both hands on the floor as he fell and somersaulting forward to land lightly on his feet. The brawler spun toward the Shinra forces, and twisted aside as one man attempted to rifle-butt him. Zell looped an arm around the man's right arm and pulled out, stretching the arm to full extension, then smashed the soldier's elbow with his free hand, formed into a fist. Before the man even screamed in pain, Zell shoved him forward into the squad of Shinra soldiers, bowling over two more.
Xu had spun back to the battle, but Zell looked over his shoulder and spotted her. He waved an arm, indicating for her to run on, and then his fists weaved, deflecting another rifle butt and smashing that soldier's faceplate in.
"Go on! We'll take out the trash!" Zell shouted, throwing himself to the side as another soldier leveled his rifle at the brawler. Bullets pursued Zell as he scrambled to the side, and leaped toward one of the walls. The martial artist hit the wall running, planting his feet on it and taking two steps forward, seemingly defying gravity, before kicking off. The Shinra soldier tried tracking him, but the unexpected maneuver threw his aim off just long enough for Zell to flip over in midair and plant a devastating double kick into the man's chest and face. The soldier went flying away into unconsciousness. Zell spun on the two men he had dropped, and a quick barrage of jabs and hooks laid them out flat even as they were rising.
Squall stepped forward, closing with the last pair of Shinra soldiers. One took a step back, raising his rifle to fire at Squall, while the other actually rushed forward, reaching to his belt and tearing out a tonfa. The soldier swept the tonfa across, the club aimed for Squall's head, but it never reached his skull. The Revolver weaved into the tonfa's path, deflecting the club, and then the gunblade chopped down, biting into the soldier's chest before he'd even been aware of the parry.
Squall spun around, tossing the body with a roundhouse kick that hurled the dying soldier into his comrade. The last soldier was knocked off his feet by the macabre missile, and landed on his back. The soldier began to rise when a foot smashed into the side of his head, Squall's boot knocking him out cold.
"SeeD through and through," Zell commented, seeing how Squall had easily dispatched his foes. The ex-SeeD said nothing and ran past Zell, who quickly followed.
In the time it had taken Zell and Squall to deal with the Shinra soldiers, Xu had already reached the door and wired it open. They rushed through the next anteroom, where they found an elevator waiting to take them deeper into the complex. The trio boarded the elevator and Xu punched the button for the lowest levels. Squall leaned against the wall opposite the entrance, waiting through the long process of descending into the bowels of the reactor.
"You know why we're doing this, right?" Zell asked. Squall glanced up, realizing the question was aimed at him. He said nothing, letting Zell explain. Squall had been told nothing about their intentions at the short briefing before they'd hijacked the train, just what was expected of him.
"These Mako reactors are sucking all the energy out of the planet," Zell explained, pointing to the floor of the elevator. "You know how all the land around Midgar is empty and barren, right?" Squall nodded. "That's because all the energy's been sucked up, little by little, by these reactors. If we don't stop Shinra, the whole planet's going to die."
"Not my problem," Squall responded nonchalantly.
"The planet's dying!" Zell repeated, but Squall shrugged.
"Whatever," he replied. "Like I said, it's not my problem. All I care about it blowing this place before the Roboguards arrive. That's what you hired me for, right?"
Zell growled and turned around, punching the air a few times to let off steam. Xu glanced back and forth between them, but said nothing. After another minute or so, the elevator came to a stop. The trio stepped out onto a rarely used maintenance access way.
"Damn, look at that," Zell commented on the view. Squall nodded, understanding the source of Zell's amazement. They were standing on a narrow access passage overlooking a massive pool of Mako energy about two hundred feet below. The raw, unrefined energy glowed a soft green and blue light. All throughout the wide chamber, machinery could be heard thrumming and operating smoothly, sedately, as if the havoc that was being wreaked above could not touch this region.
Dozens, in fact hundreds, of pipes spanned the massive, circular chamber, which seemed to stretch almost five to six hundred feet across. A thick cylinder shot up through the far wall, housing the core of the Mako absorbing and processing machinery. Every pipe featured railings and ladders, allowing maintenence personnel easy access to pretty much any point in the chamber.
Squall scanned the room, and spotted a bridge reaching from their edge of the chamber to the far side. He followed the ladder leading up from the bridge, and nodded as he saw it intersect with a pipe nearby, one they could easily reach. Squall tapped Zell on the shoulder and pointed to the bridge.
"There's a ventilation shaft where that bridge meets the far wall," Squall shouted, in order to be heard over the din of the operating machines. "We'll put the bomb in there. It should ignite the stored Mako energy and blow this entire reactor apart."
"Good thinking!" Zell replied. He turned to Xu. "Keep the way open for us, we shouldn't be long." Xu nodded, and Zell and Squall quickly moved out, scrambling across pipes and down ladders, until they reached the ladder leading down to the bridge.
Squall led the way, taking the bomb they would be using from Zell. It was a moderately powered weapon, suited for destroying something armored, like a military vehicle, but if it was set in the Mako, it would be like putting a detonating cap in a mound of explosive material, igniting a far greater explosion. He ran across the bridge, ignoring the shimmering Mako just fifty feet below his position. Normally, most maintenance personnel would come down here with protective gear, but Squall needed none, and neither he nor Zell would be around long enough to worry about Mako poisoning.
For an instant, Squall recalled another reactor he had visited, which had been more than just a reactor, but he brushed aside the memory, and instead crouched near the ventilation shaft at the wall. He armed the bomb and set it for ten minutes, then opened the shaft.
Squall jerked as an alarm erupted from nowhere, the klaxon sounding over the machinery.
"The shaft has an alarm on it!" Zell shouted, scanning the wide chamber for any threats. Squall quickly turned back to the shaft, ignoring Zell's blatant statement of the obvious, and dropped the bomb inside. He glanced at his watch, and tapped a button on it, synchronizing its clock with that of the bomb. He then spun, drawing his weapon again, and joining Zell in his scan.
Mere moments later, however, the scan became unnecessary, as they heard a powerful stomping sound somewhere above, like iron jackhammers pounding into metal. Both men looked up to see a massive, four-legged form clinging to the ceiling somewhere far above. Even as they spotted the massive machine, it detached itself from the roof of the underground chamber, and dropped several hundred feet to land on the bridge, right in front of Squall and Zell. With a thunderous, mechanical piston-like stomping sound, its legs spread out, balancing the heavy weight of the machine. The weapon turned its attention towards the intruders, as if sizing them up.
For a moment, no one moved. Squall had heard of a weapon like this, code-named X-ATM092. It was huge, twice Squall or Zell's height, and as wide as it was tall. It had a long, rectangular body, supported on four large, cylindrical legs, spread out like the legs of a spider, with sharp, clawed tips. It was painted matte black, excepting bluish designs on its legs, red markings across its body, and the steel-gray grating on the front of the machine. Behind this grating, something glowed a dark red, a sensor perhaps. Whatever it was, it was looking directly at the cadets. A quartet of turbines in the back powered the machine, and a pair of black and gray metallic pinchers, like those of a scorpion, waved around like that of a real scorpion just in front of the gray grating of its "head." Scrawled on the weapon's side in crude, white paint were the words "Black Widow," positioned just above the familiar logo of Shinra Inc.
"The hell?" Zell growled, never having seen anything like this weapon. Squall, on the other hand, knew all too well about the dangers a weapon from Shinra's "X-ATM" series could present. Immediately, Squall focused, reaching deep into himself, and calling forth the energies within. He sensed the power within his body, the latent magical energies he stored within, and called them forth.
A blast of crackling electrical energy erupted from Squall's outstretched left hand, and smashed into the towering robot before them. Electrical energy played along its grille, inflicting havoc on its forward sensor array. Zell glanced at Squall, and nodded at his expenditure of magic. The brawler raised one of his own fists, and from his wrist there was a green flare.
X-ATM092 rushed forward, shaking off the effects of Squall's magic spell, and raised its pinchers in an effort to grab and slice the intruders apart. The weapon's clawed feet punched through the solid steel of the bridge, bowing it inward, as it advanced.
Electrical magic from Zell rippled forward, from his glowing metal glove, striking the Shinra war machine across its "face." X-ATM092 slowed, but only briefly, long enough to begin to recover from the second blast of magic, but in that instant, Squall leaped forward, his gunblade rising and coming across in a cleaving slash that tore into the robot's front right leg, at the joint. As the weapon bit in, there was an explosion, and suddenly X-ATM092's front right leg was blasted apart, the limb damaged by an explosive blast from Squall's weapon. The robot buckled forward, its limb no longer supporting its heavy weight. However, as it fell forward, the weapon's pinchers shot forward, trying to spear Squall where he stood.
The ex-SeeD was too quick for that, however, and long before the pincher reached him, Squall was already ducking. His gunblade rose and shot across, the blade biting into the pincher's joint. Another explosion from his gunblade sheared the pincher cleanly off, the metal arm flying over Squall's head.
Another blast of lightning struck the war machine, throwing it further off balance, and Squall leapt up onto the machine's "head." He ran forward along X-ATM092's back, and called up the magical energies once more, this time aiming for the turbines on the weapon's backside. Electrical energy flowed from Squall's hand, ripping into the turbines and overloading them. Two of them blew apart, and a third simply ceased operating. The fourth still pumped, however, and X-ATM092 tried rising.
"Not so fast, you oversized toaster!" Zell roared, leaping into the fray. He came forward with a flying forward kick the smashed the machine's grille inward, crushing the sensor within. X-ATM092 thrashed, blinded by the shockingly powerful kick. Squall glanced behind him, surprised at Zell's power, but took advantage of the brawler's distraction to send a final spell into the turbines, spearing the lone operating unit with a blast of magic that turned it into slag. With the destruction of the last turbine, the weapon's movements slowed dramatically, and it settled to the bridge. Squall didn't wait to check on the machine. He knew all to well that they had no time to waste, and dropped off the weapon's back.
"Zell, hurry!" Squall shouted as he ran toward the ladder, and the brawler nodded, hopping up over the machine and running after Squall.
"How much time is left?" Zell asked, worried that their battle had taken too long.
"Nine minutes," Squall called back, reaching the ladder. "Enough time to escape if we hurry."
"Then what's wrong?" Zell asked as he reached the ladder. They could easily get to safety in nine minutes as long as nothing delayed them.
"You don't want to be there when that machine gets back up," Squall replied, already halfway up the ladder.
"Gets back up?" Zell echoed, matching Squall's frantic pace. "What do you mean, we trashed it!"
"Shinra's X-ATM series includes built-in repair robots that automatically repair any damage," Squall replied. "We've got maybe a minute before it gets back up. And once it locks on to a target, it's going to keep going after it until either it or the target has been destroyed."
"How do you know so much?" Zell asked, now climbing even more quickly up the ladder after Squall's bit of news.
"I've had a run-in with one in the past," Squall said cryptically, and let the matter drop. He and Zell continued scaling the ladder to the top, and began running along the pipes to where Xu was waiting. Squall checked his watch and nodded grimly. They had eight minutes.
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Shinra computer technicians and programmers were quite skilled, and their programming capabilities were shown in their ability to program their army's military robot forces. They had even developed an advanced artificial intelligence program, which was still in its experimental stages . That AI program was capable of learning from its mistakes and adjusting for them, as well as developing new methods and solutions to a problem. Such an AI had yet to have been tested in the field, so the Shinra military had decided to put the program into use on a relatively minor task for the moment, guiding sentries in their Mako reactors, to determine its effectiveness. It had been installed along with a new round of upgrades in the "X-ATM" series, which also included redundant systems, new weaponry, and a sophisticated self-repair mechanism intended to delay intruders until reinforcements could arrive.
Those engineers would not have been disappointed in X-ATM092's seemingly easy defeat at the hands of the two intruders; those engineers would have merely smiled at the terrorists who now thought they were safe and the weapon was wrecked. In fact, the weapon was far from it.
Even as Squall and Zell fled, within X-ATM092 tiny robots, controlled by the central AI, swarmed over its overloaded and damaged electronics. Like a horde of frenzied mechanics, the tiny robots reassembled and repaired X-ATM092's wounds.
Less than a minute after its defeat, X-ATM092, the Black Widow, rose anew, its scanners repaired, and marked its prey.
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Zell led the way onto a ladder, scrambling up, when Squall heard the metal jackhammer sound from far below over the klaxons and machinery. The ex-SeeD looked down and spotted X-ATM092 standing, dozens of tiny repair robots still skittering across its hull as it turned its "head" toward them. The red sensor glowed frighteningly once more as it spotted them, and hunkered down low to the bridge.
"Zell, look out!" Squall warned as he scaled the ladder. The brawler looked down in time to see the huge spider-like robot leap into the air, its angle taking the weapon up toward the wall near the pipes they were climbing. The robot didn't make it all the way up to that point, but it met the wall about fifteen below their position. Its clawed legs dug deeply into the concrete walls of the chamber, and it began hauling itself up.
Zell and Squall moved even faster than before, and finished scaling the ladder before the war machine had taken two steps. The robot, however, was already close enough, Squall knew, and he reached forward and pulled Zell down.
A bolt of condensed energy ripped through the air above Zell, right where his head had been, and struck a blank spot on the wall some fifty feet away. The spot on the wall exploded as if it had been hit by an anti- tank rocket, and Zell did not want to think what it would have done to his cranium if Squall had not grabbed him.
Squall looked back to the robot for an instant, to see another ball of energy forming directly beneath its sensor array. Then another ball, this one of fire, struck the robot's head from somewhere above.
"Xu's covering us!" Zell exclaimed, and Squall nodded, looking up to where Xu was located even as a second fireball lanced down and struck the war machine. She was somewhere above, on a metal strut spanning the chamber, but Squall didn't know where she was until a green flare erupted faintly in that general region, and a third fireball shot down. Squall and Zell took advantage of her covering fire and continued climbing.
X-ATM092 didn't take kindly to being interrupted like it had and pointed its head in Xu's general direction. The ball of energy reformed beneath the weapon's sensor array, the bright yellow light filling the air around the weapon, before it fired another bolt.the yellow energy lanced up into the strut and exploded, blasting a huge chunk of the metal apart.
"Xu!" Zell shouted, looking at the place where she had seemingly vanished under X-ATM092's blast. However, his fears were unfounded, as he quickly spotted Xu, crawling along the strut, obviously trying to avoid drawing anymore fire from the war machine. X-ATM092 seemed content to leave her, and turned its head back around to face Squall and Zell.
"Aim for the legs," Squall quickly told Zell, who looked up at the ex- SeeD. Squall pointed a hand down at the machine as energy began forming under its sensor array once more. Zell nodded and pointed one of his own gloved fists at the weapon, the knuckle flaring green again.
"Now!" Squall ordered, and two bolts of lightning shot down at the war machine, each striking one of its front legs. The lightning shot through the robot, playing hell with X-ATM092's guidance and control systems. The machine stopped in place, and then its front legs detached from the wall. However, X-ATM092's rear legs were undamaged, and held on fast, even as the forward pair came loose and the weapon seemed to flip over strangely, its front end pointing down atthe Mako pool farbelow. The weapon stayed attached to the wall, though just barely.
"Now the rear legs," Zell added, shifting his aim lower. Squall nodded, but pointed his left hand at Zell for an instant. Zell noticed the movement, and was briefly confused at squall's actions, which was only compounded when shining blue energy streamed from Zell's hand to Squall's. The brawler stared, not sure what had happened.
"Quick, cast!" Squall shouted, now pointing his arm down at X-ATM092, even as it was raising its detached legs back to the wall. Zell shook his head, leaving the questions for less life-threatening situations, and focused. His fist glowed once more, and another pair of lightning bolts lanced out and struck the war machine rear legs. As with the forward legs, the electricity fried the electronics, and caused the rear legs to detach from the wall.
With nothing anchoring it to the wall, X-ATM092 plummeted, falling down and smashing through the bridge far below to plunge into the untreated Mako pool, leaving the intruders with six minutes to spare.
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"What the hell was that?" Zell asked as the elevator began rising. They still had enough time, even with the battle against X-ATM092, to escape from the reactor. By Xu's estimate, they would be up on the escape level with a full minute to spare, and if they ran all the way they would be out quickly enough.
"SeeD technique," Squall explained, crouching next to Xu. A piece of shrapnel from the explosion had gouged itself into her shin, and he was helping her bandage the wound. "It's how I can cast without materia."
"You can use magic without materia?" Xu asked, surprised. She had heard of rumors of warriors who could use magic without the special orbs, but had never thought them to be true. It was like firing bullets without a gun. Materia was required for using magic.
"One of the SeeD techniques," Squall repeated with a shrug. "The wound's not too bad, but you won't be running for a while."
"How do you do it?" Zell asked, and Squall shrugged.
"Its complicated, but I think anyone could pull it off with proper instruction," Squall explained. "It's a lot easier than ki manipulation, though."
"You noticed, huh?" Zell asked, grinning. He pounded his chest proudly.
"Only a SeeD or a student of Zangan's school could have hit with that power," Squall replied with another shrug as he stood up.
"I'm not just a student of Zangan," Zell said proudly, tapping his chest. "Zangan's my-"
The elevator rocked as a tremor shot through the shaft. Even before the lift stopped shaking, Squall had rushed to one side of the small room and opened a lower access panel. He looked down, then immediately stood.
"Its back," he muttered, just before the other two occupants heard the familiar industrial pounding that heralded X-ATM092's approach. "Climbing the elevator shaft."
"How?" Zell exclaimed, though somewhat impressed with how easily Squall handled the weapon's seemingly impossible return. "It was dunked in raw Mako!"
"Mako only poisons living beings," Squall responded, glancing up to the sign above the elevator door, showing what level they were on. They were about ten floors below where they needed to go. "Robotic units aren't effected beyond getting a nice bath from the fluid . . . .
"Zell, help me get up to the panel," Squall said, stepping across the elevator to a second access panel, this one in the ceiling. Zell nodded, and crouched below the panel. Squall stepped up on his shoulders, and the brawler lifted him easily. A second later, Squall had removed the access panel and climbed up onto the roof of the elevator car.
"We need to get Xu up here," he said, and again, Zell nodded. Between Squall and Zell, they were easily able to get the wounded woman onto the rooftop. A second later, Zell leaped easily onto the roof, requiring no help. As soon as he arrived, the brawler saw that Squall was grasping onto the cable pulling the car up, and sizing the metal cable up.
"Are you thinking what I think you are?" Zell asked, and Squall nodded.
"Probably," the ex-SeeD said. "Drop back down inside the car and stop us just below the level we need to get off of." Zell nodded and dropped back down inside. A few moments later, the car stopped.
"This car weighs easily over seven tons," Xu commented as Squall stepped over to her. "You're going to drop it, aren't you?" Squall nodded, and hooked an arm under her armpit. He helped her climb onto his back, and then began climbing even as Zell leaped back up through the hole. The brawler quickly joined them as Squall ascended to the same level where they'd originally entered the complex, and, holding onto the cable with his left hand, drew his gunblade. He thrust the blade into the gap between the outer elevator doors, and pulled the weapon's trigger.
The explosion blasted the doors apart, and Squall spun around on the cable, moving Xu toward the opened doors. She stepped off his back and out into the anteroom beyond the doors, gingerly putting her weight on her torn leg. Squall followed, and Zell brought up the rear. As soon as Zell was out of the shaft, Squall turned back and swiped his gunblade across into the elevator's cable. There was another explosion from the unusual weapon, and the blast easily severed the cable. Immediately, the elevator car fell, plummeting down the shaft where it would easily smash the war machine flat. A couple of seconds later, as the trio turned to leave, they heard yet another tremendous explosion. Squall's eyes widened, and he spun toward Xu and lifted her onto his shoulders.
Neither of the other members of the team understood for a brief moment, until they both recalled the powerful ray weapon X-ATM092 possessed. That explosion had simply been the weapon blasting the descending car out of its way.
And with no car dropping onto the weapon, it meant there was nothing between the machine and them.
The metallic stomping reverberated up the elevator shaft, like a foretelling of doom, and none of the trio waited for X-ATM092 to finish climbing. They ran, as fast as they could, out of the antechamber and down the hallway, bounding over the corpses of the guards Squall and Zell had slaughtered. Xu clung tightly to Squall's back, knowing she couldn't escape on her damaged leg.
"We've got less than thirty seconds!" Zell shouted, checking his watch. Squall risked a glance at his own as they turned down the main corridor. The brawler was right, and now the countdown was down to twenty- seven seconds.
Zell surged ahead, not because he wanted to get out first, but simply because he could move faster without being burdened by Xu on his back, and he could tell Zone and Watts to get the door open earlier. No doubt they had finished unsealing it and were waiting for the others' return, but if Zell could get to them ahead of time they could open the door before Squall arrived with Xu.
Somewhere down the hallway, metal could be heard tearing apart. The X- ATM092 must have made its way to their level, judging by the sounds of walls being ripped apart by the huge war machine trying to fit through corridors too small for its bulk. The metal jackhammer sound of its advance could be heard all too clearly through solid metal walls that no one should have been able to hear the sound through under ordinary circumstances.
Squall ticked down the seconds mentally as he ran, Xu bouncing over his shoulders. They had twenty-three seconds left, and it seemed that if X- ATM092 had its way, they had even less than that.
Zell bounded ahead, dashing down the hall as fast as he could manage, which, considering the situation, was pretty damn fast. He bounded down the short staircase just before the entrance about five before Squall, barreling outside with a scream of "Open the door right the hell now!" Zone and Watts jumped on it even before Zell was finished, opening the rear entrance and diving through. They knew about the estimated power of the coming detonation, and they didn't want to be anywhere nearby without a very solid wall in the way.
Squall hoofed his way through the hallway, counting down the seconds, seconds that passed by far too quickly. Metal continued ripping and tearing behind him as the relentless machine continued the chase, smashing through intervening walls with almost frightening ease. By the time he reached the door leading out of the reactor itself, less than fifteen seconds remained before the coming explosion.
Even as he charged out of the door, Xu still on his back, the final intervening wall was torn down, and X-ATM092 finally came into sight of its prey. The weapon had already charged up its energy cannon in preparation, and as soon as Squall and Xu came into view, it fired.
Squall knew as soon as he heard the last wall come crashing down that the weapon would fire, and he threw himself to the side, almost off the bridge. The bolt ripped past Squall, barely missing him and Xu, the heat scorching their backs.
X-ATM092 charged forward, smashing through the doorway and chasing after Squall as he continued to run toward the door where Zell, Zone, and Watts waited with thirteen seconds remaining, just enough time. The weapon saw Squall continue to run, and understood his destination, and furthermore, knew that its target would manage to escape before it could catch up. X-ATM092's legs gathered beneath it like a cat ready to pounce, and it leaped clear over Squall to land ahead of him, where the bridge branched off.
Squall realized he was trapped, but didn't stop running. X-ATM092 took a step forward, raising its pinchers and preparing to end the chase with a quick stab.
Nine seconds remained.
The pinchers rose as high as they could, and the weapon took one final step, almost putting Squall and Xu into range. Clinging to Squall's back, Xu clutched the ex-SeeD tighter and closed her eyes.
Eight seconds remained, and the pinchers descended. They struck, and hit only metal.
Squall was airborne, having leaped to the right, his feet propelling him across the gap between the branching segments of the bridge, toward the unsealed door where the remainder of the strike team watched in awe. For Squall's leap was incredible, a jump that was carrying him and Xu across what was easily fifty feet of empty air.
Squall's feet connected with the metal of the bridge with a resounding clang, and he turned and ran straight for the unsealed door, with only five seconds remaining.
X-ATM092 realized its error even as the pinchers were digging in, and its energy weapon began charging again. It turned, the ball forming beneath its sensors even as Squall dashed through the door with three seconds left.
"Shut it! Shut it now!" Zell shouted, and Watts and Zone slammed the heavy, reinforced metal door down as a single second remained on the clock of the bomb deep within the reactor.
X-ATM092 locked onto the door, and issued the fire command. The ball broke down, the energy gathering and projecting forward into an explosive blast of death that would breach the door and kill all five intruders behind it.
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Deep within the reactor, a small explosion detonated within the raw, unrefined pool of Mako energy. The small explosion set of a cataclysmic chain reaction as the Mako energy, the living lifeblood of the planet, stolen by Shinra, was turned into the very weapon that would destroy what the corporation had wrought.
In the blink of an eye, every drop of Mako in the reactor became pure, unbridled energy that expanded outward, consuming walls, machinery, corpses, and those soldiers and robotic sentries unfortunate enough to still be inside the perimeter of the facility. White fires ripped up through the chamber, throughout the lower levels, up into the reactor core and through the control rooms and offices, consuming the destroyed elevator that Squall, Zell,and Xu had used, and continuing on.
It tore through each level, consuming all in its path as it advanced, a wall of unstoppable fire that rose up to the level even with Midgar's upper plate and onward, exploding up and out of the top of the reactor and far into the night sky.
Energy ripped out of the reactor, blasting through the halls and channeled out the torn door toward the bridge where X-ATM092 was firing its energy weapon at the intruders. In the blink of an eye, the weapon went from firing to on fire, the converted power of the stored Mako blasting into the war machine with incredibly destructive fury that interrupted its shot and saved all five intruders' lives.
All of Midgar heard the resounding explosion, and everyone in Sectors One and Eight would tell of the shockwave from that blast, and the night that all of Midgar would know the name of the rebel terrorist organization that Zell Dincht had christened AVALANCHE.
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Obviously, if anyone's read Daz Shier's work, then this will sound a bit like an echo. Heh. Similarly, he used Zone, Watts, and Xu, as well as X- ATM092 in his work for this chapter. There's only so much I can do with this without copying from his work, but I do what I can. Trust me that, despite the initial similarities, this work will be different from Daz's, especially character placement.