Happy Friday! I hope everyone had a good week :)
So I really, really underestimated how time-consuming it would be to move... like, in my head, this was going to take 3 days tops, but yeah... that's not what happened lol. We're still not done and this week has been an absolute scramble, but I was able to squeeze a little writing in! Hope you enjoy it :)
Cloud had thought that the harsh mako scent outside of the reactor had been bad, but the inside was worse. Far worse, and the pungent scent of metal and ozone had him stumbling backwards the moment Biggs had opened the entrance to Mako Reactor One. Somehow he had managed to follow Barret and Jessie inside, but now it was an effort to focus on the task in front of him. His eyes burned from its sheer intensity of the mako fumes, and his stomach rolled – rolled like he was going to be sick, but he swallowed the choking sensation down. Or at least, he tried to. But it was getting harder and harder the longer he stood within the reactor's curved walls, and soon it was becoming borderline impossible to control his swelling panic.
"Cloud?"
He had the vague notion that Jessie had said something to him, said something familiar, but her voice passed through his consciousness like static. Meaningless noise. He stumbled towards the railing, and his luminous eyes wide. His gaze drifted from the sheer walls of the reactor plunging into mako pool below him, to the pipes jutting out of it like tangled veins, then down, down to the reactor's burning core. He could hear the hum of its engine as it drilled deep into the Planet.
Cloud's breath hitched.
This place was a tomb. A coffin, one made of metal and mako, and he was being buried alive in it. He could almost hear Tifa's screams echoing against the walls, could hear Zack ordering him to finish Sephiroth with his final, gasping, dying breathes, could hear Sephiroth's faint chuckle as he whispered to the… the thing, Jenova, embedded in the reactor's core. Could hear Sephiroth call the thing Mother, and Cloud's gaze dropped further down as the word mother bounced around in his skull, bounced and bounced even as his eyes descended onto the mako pool deep below them. It churned and bubbled beneath the lowermost platform, and he could almost hear Sephiroth splash into it after he had ripped Jenova's head out of the core...
Cloud's fingers twitched at his side.
Suddenly, it wasn't Sephiroth that was drowning in mako, but Cloud.
It was Cloud's lungs that were being filled with the thick, warm, burning liquid.
It was Cloud that could the churning mako flood his ears, mute his senses, until everything was dark and he couldn't hear anything anymore.
This place will be your tomb.
"Cloud!"
A hand on his shoulder snapped Cloud out of his murky thoughts, and he jerked backward, reeling from the disjointed thoughts, emotions, images. But it was only Jessie who had touched him. Jessie, who was watching him with a worried look, her lips pursed and brow furrowed. "You okay?" she asked.
It took Cloud a moment to process the question, but then he was nodding, a faint jerk to his head. "Y – Yeah." His mouth felt dry, like it was full of sand, and he thickly swallowed. "I'm fine."
A blatant lie. The room seemed to sway beneath him, and it took all of his self control not to grab the railing to steady himself. Already his earlier thoughts were fading back into the fog that rolled in his mind, and it was rapidly becoming more difficult to string two thoughts together. It was an effort to concentrate on what Jessie was saying - like she was speaking through a tunnel, and he could only catch every other word. Something about how he looked pale, and that his hands were shaking…
But then all he could think about was that he arm was still on his shoulder. His bare shoulder, and he could feel her palm against his skin, the clamminess of it, the heat... and it was too much. Too much. He didn't want to be touched, touched by anyone, and so he took a fumbling step backwards.
Jessie dropped her hand, a look of hurt flickering across her face... but only for a moment, and then her small, worried smile at returned. "You sure?"
"I'm fine," Cloud said again, firmer now.
"You better be," came Barret's voice. "We haven't finished the job yet!"
Job. Cloud's mind snagged on the word, turned it over and over and over again, rolled it around in his mind. Job. That's right; he was on a job, and he only agreed to go because Tifa had needed him. Because she had needed his help, and hadn't he made her a promise that he would be there for her? That he would help her whenever she was in trouble?
Cloud clenched his fists as sudden clarity flickered through his mind. She needs me.He had a job to do, and that meant that he had to keep it together.
No more freaking out.
"Well?" Cloud finally said. He glanced to the rest of the group, his eyes luminous in the poorly lit entranceway. "Are we going?"
Barret loudly huffed. "We were waitin' on you, ya know."
"Let's hurry," Jessie said, cutting Barret off. She headed over to the edge of the railing and pointed to the bottom of the cavern, far below them, to the engine nestled against the reactor wall. "Do you see that?" she asked. When neither Barret nor Cloud replied - Cloud was far too busy looking anything but the bottom of the reactor, at the mako pool bubbling there - she continued, "That's the reactor core. We'll plant the bomb at its base, blow it all to hell, and then get out of here." She flashed them a grin. "Easy."
"Got that, merc?" Barret asked.
Cloud curtly nodded. It sounded simple enough, anyway. And if he was lucky, they'd finish the job quickly so they could get the hell out of here.
"Good!" Barret grinned in approval, wild and almost feral. He began moving towards a ladder at the end of the platform, one that would drop them to a lower level. "Then let's get down there."
With that, they began descended deeper into the reactor core. Jessie lead the group, as she had spent the most time studying Biggs' various maps, while Cloud stayed in the middle and Barret took up the rear - 'so that our little SOLDIER-boy here doesn't quit the party early!' as he had put it. There were no elevators to aid their descent. No escalators or staircases; just ladders, long and spindly, that joined the various platforms together. It was almost as if they had been used during the reactor's construction, and no one had bothered to take them replace them with something less... flimsy.
"Goddamn..." Barret muttered as he carefully made his way down a ladder. It was particularly awkward for him as he only had the use of one hand, but he was shockingly good at it. "I can practically taste the mako in here."
Cloud wordlessly agreed. He had been trying to breathe as lightly as possible as possible during their descent, but the further down they went, the stronger the mako scent became. Even the air felt thicker from the sheer density of the mako until it was almost uncomfortably humid, and Cloud could all too easily imagine the slimy, sticky condensation dew on his bare skin. He tried not to think about it, tried to push it out of mind, but his earlier anxiety was beginning to seep back into his bloodstream with equal parts ice and fire.
At the very least, Barret's constant muttering provided the perfect distraction to Cloud's unease. "My heart's pounding like a jackhammer," Barret was saying. His heavy footsteps echoed hollow against the platform as the trio made their way to the next ladder. "Damn, I can't believe we're actually doin' this. I've been dreaming about this for years."
"Gods, you're loud," Cloud muttered as he grabbed the next ladder.
Barret only smirked as he dropped down the platform below them. "You scared?" he said as he followed Cloud down. "My talkin' making you nervous, merc?"
The leather on Cloud's palms glistened from condensation, undoubtedly from mako dewing against the ladder's metal, and he impatiently wiped it against his pants. "No."
"Head's up, boys," Jessie interjected. She was waiting for them at the end of the platform, right beside the ladder that would drop them down the lowermost platform – and the mako reactor core that waited there. "End's in sight."
"Thank the gods." Barret lumbered forward, nearly pushing the much smaller Cloud out of the way. Cloud made an indignant noise of protest, one that went ignored as Barret continued, "I've been waitin' for this!"
Jessie only laughed and handed him something – a dark, heavy box. "I know you have," she grinned. "Go blow her mind."
Cloud frowned. "You're not coming?"
"Nah." Jessie waved an impatient hand over the railing. "There's security down there, which'll probably mean fighting and stuff. It's just not my thing, you know?" she continued, and pushed her hair over her shoulder. "I'm sure it won't be a problem for you though, Mr. SOLDIER-boy. Or should I say, Mr. Ex-SOLDIER-boy?" she added, grinning.
Cloud frowned, which had Jessie laughing as he followed Barret down the ladder.
The next few minutes passed in a foggy blur. He and Barret had dropped to the lower platform, but there were a handful of Monodrives hovering there - small, sentient drones that more-or-less reminded Cloud of ice-cream cones... if ice-cream cones were made of a long, veiny needle that was topped with a massive bloodshot eye. Their purpose was to simply push boxes around to the various levels, and Barret and Cloud had no trouble dispatching them. Barret in particular seemed to enjoy using them as target practice, and the only close call was when one of the Monodrives had singed Barret's vest by spitting out some sort of blue, pulsing laser.
Cloud was stunned that the entirety of Midgar hadn't heard Barret's following cursing.
"I hate robots," Barret continued to hiss as they neared the reactor's core. "I hate 'em. Especially those weird-ass half-alive machines. Why combine livin' things with robots, huh? Why not just keep 'em separate? Goddamn!" he roared as he shot down another Monodrive. It jerked in the air before falling to the ground, green blood seeping out of its metal components, before the artificial life shuddered once more and disintegrated.
Cloud gingerly stepped over the resulting sparks of pyreflies. "Dunno," he said, but in truth, he was no longer paying attention to Barret's constant complaining. He was far too aware of the mako bubbling beneath them and that, if he looked down, he would be able to see the thick green mass pooling through the holes in the grated floor. He could taste it, the sickly sweet metal on his tongue. He squeezed his eyes shut, suddenly nauseous.
Keep it together, he ordered himself. You have a job to do, rememeber? You can't freak out now.
"Say," came Barret's voice, but it sounded distant, as if it was from coming underwater. "You think, if we fell in, we'd sink right down to the bottom? To the Planet's core?"
Cloud shakily inhaled. He didn't want to imagine falling into it, didn't want to even contemplate how easily the floor could fall out beneath them, or an accident happened and the reactor began to flood, or anything like that.
"No," he finally managed. "The reactor's engine would..." He thickly swallowed. "It would suck us back up."
"Delightful," Barret deadpanned. "But anyway…" A pause, a rustle of fabric. "Uh, Spikey, you good? You ain't lookin' so hot."
Spikey.
Cloud's head snapped to Barret, eyes wide and flaring... but then, all of a sudden, it wasn't Barret standing there but someone else. Someone just as tall, but with black hair, long and slicked back, and an easy, almost carefree smile...
Cloud's eyes widened a fraction.
"Zack," he breathed.
Zack's expression contorted in confusion. "Zack? Who the hell is Zack?" He shifted his weight to his other foot, still frowning. "You hit your head or somethin'?"
Cloud blinked. What? And he was almost about to ask, but then the image... shattered. Shattered and disintegrated, until it was no longer Zack staring at him but Barret.
Barret, who was looking more and more confused. And Cloud felt as if he had been dunked in ice water.
He tore his gaze away, his hand flying to his temple. "Shit," he muttered. It was the mako fumes. They were... They were making him see things, things that weren't really there. It almost made him laugh. How could he even think that Zack would be here? Zack was dead, killed by Sephiroth in Nibelheim, along with everyone else he cared about.
Except Tifa, he recalled.
"Yo Spikey, you good?" Barret asked after a pause. "You're kinda... actin' weird. Well," he sniffed, "weirder."
Cloud shook his head, dropped his hand. "I'm fine. It's... It's the mako fumes."
"Huh." Barret sounded unconvinced.
"And don't... don't call me that." Cloud lifted his head, his eyes bright and luminous. "You can't call me that."
Barret arched an eyebrow. "Call you what?"
"Spikey." Zack once again flickered across his vision, all sunshine and smiles, and Cloud's expression darkened further. He had been right earlier - this place was a tomb, and now all he could see were ghosts. "You can't call me that," he repeated. "Don't call me that."
"Well, ain't you just a ray of sunshine straight outta a chocobo's ass," Barret scowled. But when Cloud said nothing, only continued to stare, Barret finally sighed. "Fine," he said, scratching the back of his head. "It don't matter to me anyhow."
"Good." A headache pulsed between Cloud's eyes, thick and heavy. Gods, he was tired. Tired and... and he wanted Tifa. Wanted to be near her, to see her, because she always seemed to make him feel better.
But the only way to see her was to finish this mission, and they were close. So, so close.
Cloud shook his head again, as if to clear it. "You got the bomb?" he asked.
Barret grinned at that. "Hell yeah I do!" Having seemingly forgotten Cloud's earlier episode, he turned back to the reactor core with a feral, lethal smile. "Let's blow this place sky high!"
Cloud only nodded, and with that, the two continued until they reached the reactor. Until they were so close that Cloud could feel the engine's heat against his skin, even though he was still standing a good distance away.
"Well!" Barret suddenly, and loudly, exclaimed. Turning to Cloud, he continued, "How about you do the honors!" With that he pulled the black box Jessie had given him out of one of his vest pockets, and then held it out to Cloud. Held it out as if he was handing Cloud a fancy cocktail instead of a homemade bomb. "Go on," he continued, holding the bomb a little further towards Cloud. "You do it."
Cloud shifted his weight to his other foot. "Isn't this your dream?"
"It is," Barret said solemnly, "but I need somethin' from you." At Cloud's arched eyebrow, he added, "You need'ta prove to me that you're really the man that Tifa says you are."
Huh? Cloud blinked. "But I -"
"You gotta!" Cloud could see the vein fluttering in Barret's neck, the tell-tale sign that he was about to lose his patience. "And don't forget that I'm payin' to order you around, remember?" He jerked the box closer to Cloud. "So do the damn job!"
Cloud's gaze dropped to the bomb, at its black exterior and sharp edges, before he finally sighed. "Fine," he said, grabbing it. At this point, he didn't care who set the bomb. At this point, he'd do almost anything to get out of here, and his footsteps rang hollow against the metal platform as he walked closer to the reactor core. The heat made his forehead prick with sweat, and he paused at the core's base/
It was eerily similar to Nibelheim's reactor, and a part of him almost wondered if there'll be another person floating around inside this core. That it would be called Mother...
Pain slit through his temple.
It was intense enough that Cloud nearly dropped the bomb, which would have been a disaster, but he managed to keep a firm grip on it even as his other hand snaked to his hairline. His fingers pressed into his temple as his head throbbed, a steady ache powerful enough to drown even the roar of the bubbling mako beneath him, and he gasped from its intensity.
But then something caught his eye. Something floating down to the reactor's platform, and Cloud managed to turn his head just far enough to see what it was. And his eyes widened. Widened at the black feather that drifted towards the ground, but the moment it touched the floor, it disintegrated like smoke. Like ash, and the realization had him minutely recoiling.
It's not real, he told himself, and shook his head. It's just… It's just the mako fumes. Calm down. You're good.
"What's the damn hold up, huh?" came an impatient voice behind him. "You ain't freakin' out on me again, are ya?"
Cloud lowered his hand – he didn't even remember lifting it. "I'm fine," he finally replied, and with that, he turned back to the bomb. It was heavy in his hands, and he tried to push his hallucinations out of his head, tried to focus, but it was like trying to squint through fog. Everything was murky. Unclear. Indistinct, and he squinted at the bomb's timer, at the small buttons beside it, and tried to piece together what it all meant. "What about the timer?" he asked after a lengthy pause.
"Your call, merc."
Cloud could hear the smirk in Barret's voice, but he didn't have the energy to comment. Instead, after a brief moment of deliberation, he set the timer for twenty minutes – plenty of time to climb out of the reactor, meet up with the rest of the team, and get the hell out of here.
Barret, who had been looking over his shoulder, snorted. "Pretty cocky, ain't ya?"
Cloud only turned to Barret and blinked. Was it? he wondered, but then heard a harsh clanging from somewhere above him. Like metal slamming against metal, and he tensed as the noise grew close. Close enough that the platform beneath his boots began to tremble.
"Something's coming," he murmured as he reached for the gunblade slung onto his back. Barret made a noise of protest, something about nothing is there and you're just imagining things, and for one awful, gut-wrenching moment, Cloud wondered if Barret was right. That he washallucinating the rattling echoing above them, but then a sound like ripping metal screeched through the air.
"Oh shit!" Barret shouted.
And with that, Cloud knew that it was real – but he had no time to feel relieved about it, no time to calm down. "Heads up!" he called, and Barret loudly cursed as an armored mech slammed down in front of them, rattling the platform. The mech vaguely resembled a scorpion, one with red plating, two clawed arms, and a barbed tail that snaked and coiled at its rear.
Cloud silently cursed. A Scorpion Sentinel, he realized. He remembered when the Science and Technology Department had first developed this particular type of mech, though this one seemed to be considerably newer, more modern, and appeared far more lethal that the prototype ever had. Its tail was particularly concerning, and he didn't recognize the strange barb at its tip. All he knew was that it would undoubtedly hurt if they got hit by it.
Barret had his gun trained on where the machine's face could be, and his eyes were wide behind his glasses. "How the hell do we fight this thing?" he shouted to Cloud. Barely-contained panic rattled his voice. "Huh?!"
Cloud narrowed his eyes – both against the sentinel's flashing green lights, but also at the pain that hissed through his temple. He knew this answer, knew it from infantry training, but delving down into the murky memories was… difficult. Confusing. Hadn't he fought one of these before, at least in a simulation? "It – It's got reinforced armored plating," he finally dredged up.
Barret's sigh was audible as the sentinel began lumbering forward. "Obviously!"
"But it's internals can be overloaded." Cloud threw himself to the side as the sentinel stepped forward, its six pointed limbs slamming into the platform, and slashed out with its arm. He could feel the wind pass against his face as he continued, his voice strangely flat, "Using a... a thunder materia would be best."
Except I don't have any, Cloud suddenly realized. In fact, now that he thought about it, he didn't have any materia. He had wanted to buy some in the slums, but Tifa had said that materia was too expensive to sell there. Maybe there's a shop above the plate?
"I ain't got materia!" Barret replied, snapping Cloud out of his thoughts. "Do you?"
"No." Cloud steadied his blade in front of him, prepared to either throw himself into a defensive position or assume an offensive one. "Guess we just have to... hit it?"
Barret seemed oddly happy by that fact. "No other option, huh?" he said, and immediately began shooting. Bullets pinged off of the sentinel's armor, and the empty cartridges rained to the ground. Cloud – clenching his jaw – threw himself into the fray, and prayed that Barret didn't miss. The sound of gunfire rattled his teeth as he slammed his sword into the sentinel's legs. He aimed for its joints, but the edge of his blade merely bounced against the hardened metal. He swore as the recoil jolted up his arms and sent him stumbling backward.
Definitely a newer model, he realized. The old model was not nearly as sturdy, not to mention that this sentinel's movements were quick, far quicker than they should be for a mech of this side. Did Science and Technology make a more advanced model in secret?
Without warning, the harsh red beam of a laser settled directly on his chest. His thoughts sputtered and died as his attention flicked to the laser, at how it pulsed and focused on the patch of fabric directly over his heart.
The sound of gunfire momentarily paused. "Uh, should I be worried?" Barret asked as the laser pinned on Cloud grew in intensity.
Shit. Cloud, mentally kicking himself for not taking action sooner, madly began to run in the other direction. "Run!" he shouted over his shoulder. But when Barret made a move in his direction, teeth bared, Cloud said louder, "But not towards me, idiot!"
Barret's expression contorted in righteous indignation, but before the larger man could reply, the Scorpion Sentinel spit out a series of missiles.
Cloud's eyes widened, the mako within them flaring...
... and time slowed.
The sentinel had spit out a volley of missiles, seven in total, and Cloud knew that these were no mere bullets. Bullets he could dodge and cut in half, but missiles... missiles were far more deadly, and hacking away at them would only make them explode directly beside him and cause more damage.
So he did the first thing he could think of. He began shooting at them, his aim deadly accurate, hoping to detonate them before they got too close. His weapon was a blur as he shot one down, adjusted his aim, and then another, and another, only to realize that he didn't have enough time. That he couldn't shoot them all down, he was too slow to matter how quick his reflexes were, and he threw himself to the side out of sheer desperation. Heat splashed his legs as he tucked and rolled, only for another explosion to echo on his left. He lifted an arm to protect his face, and red-hot shrapnel peppered his bare arm as another missile exploded beside him, and he coughed a curse as the blast rolled over him.
"Cloud!"
The smoke had already begun to fade, but Cloud had no time to rest, no time to pause and regain his bearings, because only six missiles had detonated and he knew that he counted seven. So he lifted his head, his eyes bright and burning with both mako and smoke, only to come face-to-face with the metal hull of the final missile.
His eyes flew wide, wide enough that the glow of his eyes were reflected on the missile's metal plating.
Shit.
Adrenaline pulsed white-hot beneath his skin, and he twisted his body faster than any human should be capable of. The missile streaked passed his cheek, burning hot, before slamming into the ground behind him. The force was powerful enough to knock Cloud off balance and send him skidding against the platform.
"Oh shit! You good, Spikey!? Er, I mean… Ah, whatever the hell!"
But Cloud hadn't heard Barret. He was already pushing himself back to his feet, wide-eyed and frantic. The world momentarily swayed around him before snapping sickeningly back into place, and his grip tightened on his gunblade; by some miracle, he had not dropped it in the various explosions. He could hear Barret shooting the Scorpion Sentinel, as well as his shouting when a bullet slammed against his bullet-proof vest. Could hear the harsh whir of grinding gears as the sentinel jumped forward and backward. Could hear the mako bubbling beneath him...
"You good?!" Barret called to him.
Cloud sucked in breath, still reeling by his survival. "I'm, uh, I'm fine," he managed to stammer, which only compounded on his surprise because it was true. He only had a few burns at the worst, most congregated on his bare arms, while the rest of the damage had been absorbed by the SOLDIER uniform Tifa had bought for him. He made a mental note to thank her, only to snap his head up when he heard Barret suddenly shout out. It wasn't the usual curse, or a shout of indignation, but one of surprise. Of fear, fear that had Cloud turning his way, his grip like iron on his sword, and his injuries faded into the back of his mind.
His eyes widened in horror. The sentinel had managed to grab Barret in a vice-like hold, and it was currently holding the large man suspended in the air. Barret was kicking his legs, but as his arms were pinned at his side, and there wasn't much else he could do.
"Yo, merc!" Barret glanced his way, his eyes wide behind his sunglasses. "A little help!?"
Cloud responded by lifting his gunsword and shooting at its joints, even as he ran towards it. He popped off one shot, then another, before he was close enough to slam the blade into that same joint – the same joint he had been trying to snap off earlier.
This time, it broke off entirely. Barret whooped as he fell to the ground, free at last, while Cloud lightly landed beside him. His arms tingled. His fingers twitched against the hilt, and he lifted his gaze. He wasn't done yet, and he swung his back leg behind him and, leveling his sword until it was at eye-level, thrust forward with all the energy he had spare. The thrust was so heavy, so fast, that light spilled from the blade and burst upon impact, showering him with red and momentarily dying his pale hair a bloody scarlet.
"Hell yeah!" Barret cheered as the metal plating cracked and fragmented. "Good shot!"
The sentinel shook itself as Cloud danced backward, his expression crossed between wild and dazed, when the sentinel suddenly stood upright and launched itself against the far walls of the reactor. Cloud could hear the walls rattle as it began scrambling along the wall, only for it to land on the opposite end of the same platform. With that it shuddered; there was a flicker of light, and suddenly a strange, pulsing blue glow shimmered against its metal frame.
Barret glanced at him. "What the hell is that light, merc?"
Cloud almost said that he didn't know, but held his tongue. If he didn't know better, he would say that it was some sort of shielding technique… but as far as he knew, Shinra was still developing that technology for mech use. It hadn't even made it in their prototypes yet because they hadn't figured out a way to sustain long periods of hyper energy activity... or something.
This doesn't make sense, Cloud finally decided, his lips pressed into a fine, white line, before he said, "A... barrier?" It had to be – there was just no other explanation.
Barret shot him a baffled look, only to throw himself to the side as the sentinel lurched forward. "You don't sound so sure!" he accused. "And I thought that you were the expert!"
Cloud parried the sentinel's sweeping claw, his teeth grit from exertion. "I never -" he grunted as the machine pushed him backward, and his boots skidded against the platform, "- promised that."
"Well, Tifa did." Barret paused shooting to pin him with a look. "You sayin' she's a liar?!"
Cloud frowned. "No." He slammed his blade into the Scorpion Sentinel's tail, and sparks burst from the impact like fireworks; white-hot, brilliant fireworks that faded seconds later. He squinted against them, his lips bared back in a grimace. He wasn't doing any damage. They had to take out the barrier-shield thing, but... how? What was the source? Where -
He could see the source of the barrier – a small, rounded disc at the base of the sentinel's sweeping tale - and his eyes widened a fraction. There. The disc pulsed with dull red light, and the barrier pulsed with it, mirroring it like a pulse or a heartbeat.
Cloud aimed his gunsword at the small disc. "Aim for the rear!" he shouted, then fired once. Twice. Three times, and the bullets pierced the dead center of the disc, but didn't do much damage. Didn't even crack the disc, and Cloud grit his teeth in frustration. He had wanted to avoid close combat with the tail, but now he was wondering if he didn't have any choice – that if he wanted to take out the Scorpion Sentinel's barrier, he would have to break its source with the sword aspect of his blade instead of the far weaker gun component.
"Move aside, SOLDIER-boy!" Barret suddenly shouted, and then his hand was on Cloud's shoulder, pushing him to the side. Cloud only stared, too shocked at the touch to be upset. "Lemme show you how it's done."
With that, Barret leveled his gunarm and fired. While his gun far more powerful than the pistol embedded in Cloud's sword, its aim was far less accurate. Nevertheless, a few of the bullets managed to strike true, and a series of cracks began to spiderweb on the disc's surface.
It was enough for Cloud to almost smile.
"Hell yeah!" Barret shouted. The gunshots lit up his grin in brief flashes of light. "You see that?"
Cloud gripped his sword a bit tighter as the barrier pulsed, flickered, and weakened. "Good work."
"Good work?" Barret parroted, then laughed. The sound of gunshots echoed against the metal walls. "You mean great work! I'm the best, and don't you forget it!"
But with every hit, the sentinel only stood further and further upright. Cloud didn't like the look of it, and warned, "Don't celebrate just yet," as blue light began to gather around the fading remnants of its shield.
Barret paused his firing. "What's it doing now?" he demanded, before swiveling his gaze to Cloud. "Do you know?!"
But Cloud had no answers. He only continued to watch the sentinel, brow furrowed and sword held defensively in front of him. The blue light grew brighter and brighter…
… and then it clicked.
"Move!" Cloud shouted. "EM field!"
Barret glanced at him, stunned. "A what now?"
But Cloud had no time to reply. He only had just enough time to grab Barret's wrist and half-drag, half-throw the much larger man further away from the sentinel, when the blue light suddenly exploded outward.
Cloud immediately spun and lowered his center of gravity, his chest tucked against his knees, and squeezed his eyes shut as the shockwave rippled passed. He felt the heat of the shockwave beneath his shoes, the tingle of his skin as the electricity hissed through the air. And then nothing. Quiet.
He shakily exhaled as he uncurled himself to stand fully upright, Barret at his side. The larger man was wide-eyed and, for once, silent.
But not for long. "The hell?" Barret finally said as he scrambled back onto his feet. "What was that?"
Cloud bounced on the balls of his feet, trying to get some feeling back in his toes. "EM field, or electro-magnetic field. Stuns you so you can't move. Leaves... It leaves you defenseless."
"This this is just full of surprises," Barret grumbled as he slowly got to his feet. He clenched and unclenched his fist, almost as if his hand had fallen asleep. "I owe you one."
Cloud only shrugged. "Just part of the job."
And speaking of the job, he thought, frowning, how much longer do we have on that timer?
He had completely forgotten about it, but now that he had remembered, it was all his mind could focus on. He wasn't sure how much time they had spent fighting the Scorpion Sentinel, and at this point, he was afraid to ask. All he knew was that they had been fighting for far too long, and that it was about time they finished it off.
Cloud's grip on his gunsword tightened. "Let's end this," he said.
Barret smirked. "Couldn't have said it better myself, merc."
Soon, only the sounds of gunshots and metal slamming against metal rang throughout the reactor.
Shinra HQ was quiet at night. Quiet and dark, with only the flickering nightlights and the faint flashing of sleeping computer monitors to accompany the silence. The hallways were empty, the elevators were dimmed, and the various lobbies were silent - for once. Only the most dedicated of Shinra's employees remained this late.
And Heidegger considered himself one of the best. He leaned back in his leather chair, the familiar walls of his cluttered office settling around him. As the head of the Public Safety division, his office was a mangled hybrid of a server room and a typical paper-pushing office. A wall made entirely of monitors glowed with pale light, the only light in the dimmed room, and various images flickered across their screens. Most were boring, such as various train stations or busy Midgar streets, but some - like the one Heidegger was focussing on - were very, very interesting.
"Sir," the infantryman began – one that Heidegger had long since forgotten the name to. "The – The Scorpion Sentinel has been deployed, sir."
"Good." Heidegger sat back on his chair, the leather groaning beneath him, and folded his hands beneath his chin. His dark gaze flicked across the series of screens dedicated to Sector One and within their pale interiors, he could see the small team that had infiltrated Mako Reactor One squirm. Though, admittedly, not as much as he'd prefer.
He frowned. In fact, they were doing surprisingly well. In particular, the two which had branched off from the group – the dark-skinned, large man with the gun grafted to his arm, and the much paler, thinner, blond-haired man who wielded an old gunblade model – were holding their own against the Scorpion Sentinel. The Scorpion Sentinel, of all things. Even SOLDIERs had trouble with those mechs. Granted, they were mostly 3rd Class SOLDIERS, but still. SOLDIERs just the same. And these two men were... were winning against it?
Heidegger hummed, a low, dark sound. It irritated him that these men – no, these sewer rats – believed that they could crawl out of whatever hole they had been sweltering in and infiltrate Shinra property? And not just infiltrate, either. Not at all. They had expected to waltz right into one of the largest mako reactors in Midgar, and… what? Blow it up?
The nerve. The ignorance. The absolute stupidity.
Heidegger would show them what would happen what would happen when they involved themselves with Shinra.
That said, he had to admit that this was the most exciting thing that had happened to him all week, and he was the head of Shinra's Public Security department. Exciting things happened on the daily. In fact, it was only last week that he had been tasked to gun down two of Hojo's escaped projects just outside of Midgar, and he had thought that that had been the highlight of his month.
And yet, here he was, watching some brats from Avalanche try to blow up a reactor.
Heidegger leaned forward, his lips twitching into a sharp, brittle smile. "Leave them," he finally said to the infantryman. "Let's see how they do."
The infantryman looked up from his report. "S – Sir?"
"Leave them," Heidegger said again. God, he hated infantrymen sometimes. He swore that they all shared the same braincell, and not a very good one at that. Leaning forward, he continued, "I want to see what these sewer rats are capable of." After all, there was something clinically satisfying in seeing just how far the sewer rats would be able to get, and he suddenly realized that this feeling is what Hojo probably got off on during his experiments.
But the thought of relating to Hojo on anything made Heidegger visibly recoil, and he quickly pushed the thought of his mind. He and Hojo had nothing in common. Absolutely nothing.
"B – But sir, if they… if they really are Avalanche, then shouldn't we..." The infantryman thickly swallowed. "Then, well, shouldn't we alert the Turks?" He appeared to be trembling at the door, and he was holding his report so tightly that his gloved hands crumpled the paper. "Avalanche is, after all, their mission, ordered from President, and -"
"No, we can handle this on our own," Heidegger said quickly. "No need to get the Turks involved. They're Rufus' pets, anyway - they'd just get in the way." He leaned back on his chair, his eyes pinned to the screens. Particularly the monitor that streamed footage of the two men fighting the Scorpion Sentinel. The larger man was doing his best to gun down the mech, but he admittedly wasn't doing a very good job. He was very obviously not military trained, which of course, begged the question of where he came from – especially with a weapon surgically grafted onto his arm. Men like that don't just appear out of thin air. Not without good reason.
And then there was the other one, the blond-haired man with the sword, which seemed to raise even more questions. The sword itself was large; not large enough to be considered for SOLDIER, but large enough that it needed the SOLDIER-style magnetic holster. Then there was his SOLDIER-esc uniform as well, and if he spun and the light hit his face just right, Heidegger could make out his glowing eyes… the tell-tale signs of mako enhancement.
Or mako poisoning, Heidegger recalled. Runaway SOLDIER, perhaps? If that were the case, then it would be the first runaway SOLDIERs since Genesis, Angeal, and Sephiroth - and he knew that the President wouldn't want that particular mess recreated. In fact, if Heidegger was the first one to alert the President, then perhaps there would be a promotion in store for him. Or more, he thought, grinning.
"Infantryman," Heidegger said, and his loud voice echoed in the room.
The infantryman jolted. "Y – Yes sir?"
"I want to know who that blond-haired man is," he continued. "Name, place of origin, history. Everything."
The infantryman's eyes widened. "Ev - Everything, sir?" Heidegger didn't bother replying. He only pinned the man with a long, dry stare, and the infantryman began to tremble once again. "Should I, um, should I ask the Turks?"
A vein pulsed in Heidegger's temple, and he slowly – oh so slowly – said, "Did I not just give you an order, infantryman?"
The infantryman violently shook his head. "N – No sir. I mean, yes sir! I understand, sir! I'll just -"
"You'll do your job," Heidegger finished for him, and then turned back to the monitors. "Now leave."
The infantryman practically tripped over himself on his way out the door.
Lemme just say it now: poor Cloud. I'm sure that being exposed to even MORE mako after literally just recovering from mako poisoning is like, an absolute worst-case scenario for him. Poor guy can't just catch a break. Also, writing boss battles is surprisingly hard? I was watching the Scorpion Sentinel fight while writing this scene, and there's just so much going on... I definitely had to cut out large chunks of the fight.
But anyway! Next chapter will come out on Friday, July 10th (well, ideally... things are still kinda weird because of moving). But until then, stay well, stay safe, and I wish you all nothing but the best :)
~ By the way, visit my profile if you'd like to know more about my original book series :) Genres are LitRPG and Fantasy / Action & Adventure. If the links don't work (this website seems to hate links?), you can visit my Ao3 account under the same profile name or DM me directly.
