this chapter is getting a rewrite. I don't like how it came out.
Too much like the script and not enough like a story.

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ch3 - The beginning of the game. A job begun.
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As the adrenaline hit, Jessie was amazed to find that she and Biggs had
taken out the two guards as if they'd choreographed it. The rush of success
left her giddy, and they'd only started!

Calm down... we aren't even at the Reactor yet.

She ran around the corner, and stood next to the gate. Trying to hide her
nerves was getting harder. It seemed that the excitement was finally getting
to Biggs, too. He tried to strike up a converation with Tifa's mystery friend.

"Wow! You used to be in Soldier, huh? ... Not everyday ya find one in a group
like Avalanche."

Oh! That's right! He did mention being in Soldier. But...

She pivoted to look at Biggs and the blonde, confusion and mistrust on her
face.

"What's he doing with us in Avalanche?"
She just couldn't figure it. Those elite fighters were ShinRa property, why
would one be running around with slum kids?

Biggs shook his head.

"He WAS in SOLDIER, Jessie. But he quit and is with us now." He winked at her,
and turned his head to ask the stranger, "I didn't catch your name..."

The ex-Soldier seemed reluctant to speak. "...Cloud."

Biggs, not to be put off by the newcomer's attitude, continues on.
"Cloud, eh? I'm..."

Cloud shook his head abruptly and interrupted Biggs.
"I don't care what your names are. Once this job's over... I'm outta here."
He glowered slightly and stood stiffly, obviously uncomfortable with the
situation.
Jessie couldn't really blame him. He must have some reason to be here, and
he knew what they were doing... so he must have something against ShinRa.
But it was one thing to say the 'enemy of my enemy is my freind', and
another thing enirely to stand there chatting with your former enemies.

Barret ran around the corner and joined them, after making sure they
weren't followed. As usual, he was angry.

"The hell you all doin'? I thought I told you never to move in a group! Our
target's the North Mako Reactor. We'll meet on the bridge in front of it."

As soon as the door opened, the group slipped inside. This had been the easy
part.

As he's pushing past the door, Barret throws back over his shoulder at the
spike head, "Ex-SOLDIER, huh? I don't trust ya!"

Not that he trusted much of anybody. Just his close freinds. It would have
been unreal for him to have trusted this new guy right away. Jessie shook
her head to herself, and noticed out of the corner of her eye, Cloud was
looking up at the Reactor.

Cloud walked in behind everyone, and watched as Wedge hurried over to his
assigned spot.

Wedge was thankful that they'd gone over this so many times in advance. If
they hadn't he'd probably have frozen with fright by now. He noticed Cloud
watching him, and tried to look confident.

"I'll secure our escape passage. You concentrate on the mission, Cloud."

Safe in his position, Wedge started talking to himself again. A habit they'd
never broken him of, and the reason they never gave him jobs requiring
stealth.

"Geez, we're really gonna blow this huge furnace up? This'll be somethin' to
see!"

The others headed towards the control room ahead. Thankfully, there was no
unexpected staff to deal with.
As Cloud ambled up, with that closed and bored look on his face, Barret
decided he wasn't taking this seriously enough.
"Yo! This your first time in a reactor?"

Cloud turned to look at Barret, not sure what the point of the question was.
"No. After all, I did work for Shinra, y'know."

A manic gleam entered Barret's eyes, and he started winding up for one of
his (in)famous speeches.
"The planet's full of Mako energy. People here use it everyday."

Cloud just shrugged. Unimpressed with this bit of information that a even a
three year old knew.

Barret was irritated at Cloud's lack of enthusiasm for his favorite topic.
"It's the life blood of this planet. But Shinra keeps suckin' the blood out with
these weird machines."

He probably would have gone on in great detail, but fortunately, their new
hired mercenary wanted to make sure they got things over with before the
shift change.

Cloud looked Barret straight in the eye.
"I'm not here for a lecture. Let's just do it."

Barret just shrugged. He'd just have to keep an eye on this Spikey headed
punk.
"Alright! You come with me from now on." He stood close and cast frequent
glares over at Cloud, just to make sure the kid knew he was being watched.

Jessie smiled up at Cloud, and nodded to Biggs.
"Biggs and I got the code for this door."

Biggs wandered casually over to the first big door, locked with a keypad.
"Code deciphered." The door opened, and he smiled slightly, relieved that the
code was correct.
"Think how many of our people risked their lives, just for this code..."
He had nightmares thinking of what could have happened if any of his freinds
had gotten caught. But, now it seemed things were paying off.
Jessie ran on ahead of Barret and Cloud, and quickly punched in the next
passcode.
"Code deciphered." Her eyes sparkled with enthusiasm. This was working
perfectly!

Biggs stayed to make sure no one interfered from up here, and the others
ran onto the waiting elevator. Jessie took charge briskly, with a swish of her
ponytail.
"Push that button over there!" She nodded at Cloud and pointed at the
controlls on the other side of the lift.

As the elevator hummed into motion, Barret gave in and filled the silence,
trying to continue his speech to Cloud from earlier.
"Little by little the reactors'll drain out all the life. Then that'll be that."

Cloud, however, was less than pleased that Barret had chosen the middle of a
mission to expound on his beliefs.
"It's not my problem." With a turn of his head, and a fixed stare at the
elevator doors, Cloud hoped that Barret would get the hint and shut up.

All his apparent apathy did was make Barret mad.
"The planet's dyin', Cloud!" Barret was astounded that Cloud could be so cold.
This was a serious situation, and the kid was pretending it didn't matter!

"The only thing I care about is finishing this job before security and the
Roboguards come." Which was true. If they got caught by security before
setting the bomb, things would get very difficult.

Barret bit back his next retort and just consoled himself with slamming his
fist into the wall behind him. You can't make someone interested in your
causes, after all. Although he admitted to himself he was disappointed in
Tifa's freind. He'd thought any friend of Tifa would care more about the
Planet.

The elevator doors opened, and everyone filed out. Time for the next part.

Jessie passed Cloud and paused before taking her spot.
"Hey, make sure you hang on to the ladder real good, it's kind of damp in
here, wouldn't want you to fall." She smiled cheerfully, and hopped on over to
her watch post. Cloud looked at her oddly before beginning his climb down.
SHe watched as Barret and Cloud made their way to the Reactor Core.
I hope they don't mess up my bomb. I made the interface real simple, so
Barret wouldn't have a problem with it. Oh! Looks like he's going to have
Cloud do it. Yeah, probably doesn't want to seem clumsy with his one hand in
front of the mercenary.

The sound of their conversation carried easily up to where she watched, just
out of their sight.

Barret passed the bomb to Cloud, and took what he thought was a
commanding tone. "When we blow this place, it ain't gonna be nothin' more
than a hunka junk. Cloud, you set the bomb."

Cloud blinked in confusion, and accepted the bomb.
"Shouldn't you do it?"

Folding his arms, Barret answered testily, "Jus' do it! I gotta watch to make
sure you don't pull nothin'."

With a small scowl and a hitch of his shoulders, Cloud stepped forward.
"Fine, I'll do it."
Inwardly, he was rolling his eyes.

There'd been a small noise over by the ladder, and Jessie turned her head to
check. Just a drip of water. She looked back to the floor below, and the next
thing Jessie saw was Cloud's knees buckling, and he fell to the floor.
She gasped at the unexpectedness of it, and worried to herself.

Oh dear! What could have happened, I only turned my head away for a
second... I didn't see any enemies... Oh!

Barret, however, didn't seem very worried. Just irritated that the boy was
being a prima donna.
"What's wrong?" He scowled down at the blonde, but the look in his eyes
showed a hint of worry.

Not that Cloud noticed. His eyes had the glazed look of someone who'd hit
their head.
"Huh?" Cloud shook his head to try and clear it, and started to stand back up.

Barret sighed in relief that his new partner hadn't died of a brain seizure orsomething. Now, if the kid would quit playing around. This was no time to nap!
"What's wrong, Cloud? Hurry it up!"

Cloud shook his head again, and took a better hold of the bomb.
"...Yeah, sorry." He still seemed a bit confused, like he didn't know what had
happened either. But regardless, he strode over to the Core and knelt down
to fiddle with the bomb's controls.

The Reactor's security system finally goes off, and a siren deafens the
group. It was expceted, that was why the two best fighters were chosen to
set the bomb and deal with whatever the security system set at them.

Barret saw it coming first. A first rate Gaurd Scorpion, much like a huge
robot.
"Heads up, here it comes!" He yelled to Cloud, who was already preparing to
fight.

All Jessie could do was watch. She was too far up to give any assistance,
even something simple like throwing a grenade. Not that her aim was all that
good anyway. She held her breath, and winced every time one of her
teammates got hit. It was obvious that they could handle things, but...

Oh, please make it out of this all right! We still have our escape to
make!

She was so busy watching the fight below, that she didn't take enough care
with her feet. One leg slipped right through the wide spaced grating, and
caught between a pipe just below it and the grating itself.

Dammit! Of all the times! Jessie, you idiot, you know better than this!
Letting yourself get distracted when it was obvious they'd be ok! Ah! If I
mess things up, that's it for us. I've got to get free!

Jessie struggled with her cuaght leg for a bit, until a shadow fell over her.
Cloud knelt down beside her, and held out a hand.
"You all right?"

Embarrassed, Jessie kept her words short.
"My leg got stuck." With his help, her stuck leg got unstuck easily, and shestood up. She tested it, and discovered it was wrenched slightly. Well, she'd just have to be careful then. Jessie brushed her hands off on her legs, and
chirped out a quick "Thanks!" before bouncing off.

She winced to herself as soon as she was faced away from Cloud.

Oh, man. I must seem like such a loser to him. Ah! He held my hand!
Wow.

As soon as everyone got back into the last room, Biggs nodded impatiently to
everyone.
"Let's go!"
He'd had a rough time waiting without being able to see what was going on.
He'd vaguely heard battle noises, and things seemed to have dragged out
horribly. He was impatient to get out of here so they could relax again.

They trotted over to the next door, which was locked with a keypad. Jessie
had this code, and ran up to punch it in.
"Code deciphered." She smiled briefly as the door opened, and they all ran
past to the next one. There were still random enemies around here to be
cautious of.
"Alright, be careful." It was more of a reminder from her than anything. They
were all too nervous to get careless just yet.

Up to the next door with a keypad. It was Biggs' turn. He ran his fingers
across the keypad with more practice than Jessie would have imagined.
"Code deciphered." He just nodded when it slid open. All was going as they'd
planned.

The group ran through the door, and into the hallway. There was Wedge,
standing at the left of the intersection at his designated spot. He was wide
awake and ready to go. They'd been gone long enough he was worried he'd
have to head out without them.

It was time for the reunited group to hightail it out of there, and make their
escape before the bomb went off. Just as the entire group had almost made
it to the door, Jessie's sore ankle chose to finish going out, and she slammed
to her knees, barely missing a faceplant.
Cloud looked back at her short exclamation of pain, and without thinking ran
back to help her up.

They made it to the other side of the door just as the timer on the Reactor
hit zero. The rumbles of it's explosion shook the walls. Wedge looked
nervously at Jessie. This was her cue to make sure it would take a while for
anyone to get back inside.

She knelt by the door and set up the smaller charge she'd had prepared.
Grimly focused on her task, she didn't notice Cloud watching her deft fingers
as they flew.

Biggs relaxed slightly, now that the most dangerous part was over. He went
back to his casual front, and smirked over at Barret.
"That should keep the planet going... at least a little longer."

Wedge heaved a sigh of relief.
"Yeah." He hoped no one had noticed his knees shaking when they'd met up
with him at the door. He wanted to pull of the calm and collected appearance
his freind Biggs had, but he just wasn't that cool.

There was a distracted nod from Barret, agreeing with Biggs. He wasn't
really paying attention, already thinking of the next step.

Jessie stood quickly and turned around. This bomb was on a much shorter
timer, and would blow a hole in the wall for them to escape by.
"OK! Now everyone get back." She set the example and pressed herself
against the opposite wall.

The explosion is just a tad bit bigger than she'd expected, and no one needed
any urging to dive through the newly created opening to escape the smoke,
fire, and falling debris.

With a variety of rolls, dives, and stumbles, team Avalanche found itself
safely outside. Mission complete.

Before anyone could starte congratulating themselves, Barret took control
of the situation and reminded them that the mission wasn't quite complete.
They had to get home safely first.
"Alright, now let's get out of here. Rendezvous at the Sector 8 station! Split
up and get on the train!"
Biggs, Jessie, and Wedge make no reply. They hastily make their way out to
the next level on the street and do their best to blend in.

Cloud stands there for a moment, a little alarmed. Tifa hadn't said anything
about this part. He trotted up and stopped Barret before the big man could
run off, and opened his mouth to ask where the Sector 8 Station was. Just
because he used to be in Soldier, didn't mean he knew Midgar's layout. They'd
come out at a totally different area than where they'd gone in, and it wasn't
obvious to him where he was supposed to go. He watched the three with red
bandanas run off, and saw the big guy with the gun arm get ready to leave in
a different direction. Fear set in, as he realized they were all leaving him
stranded.
"H-hey!"

Barret mistook Cloud's intentions, and shrugged the blonde off.
"If it's about your money, wait 'til we get back."

Cloud was left staring after Barret's back as the big man ran off.