(AN: Once more, I own absolutely nothing created by Square Soft/Enix, Sony, Final Fantasy VII, or Crisis Core. The only thing that I own is my own character, which this story be mainly about, which the storyline itself I do not own except for any twists I plan to put in. Please R&R, and if you don't like it, just explain and I'll do my best to try and improve.)

Spirits of the Lifestream

Chapter 5: Highway Chase/Shinra War Tank

AVALANCE Log: #2

Time: 04/12/2313 2:09 A.M

As I remained on the bike, with it still puttering and all, I heard the doors opened up, and watched as Tifa, Barret, Red XIII and Aerith come in, and I signaled towards the vehicle. I then remembered that I hadn't tested it to see if it ran, but thankfully I didn't have to, since when Tifa got in the driver seat and turned it on, it puttered a bit, to show as if it was alive. But then I heard another roar come from outside, so I stepped on the pedal and drove through the door, but not before I took a grenade, pulled the pin and threw it at the door furthest away from us. It was a fairly decent blast, and the door had been replaced with a hole in the wall, which I was satisfied with. I drove through the hole, with Tifa and co. driving close behind, right out to the main hall.

That was when I heard another motorcycle roar came to ears, and when I looked, I saw Cloud was on the black motorcycle, which was to be called Fenrir. It had a faster acceleration, and reached a slightly higher top speed than the bike I rode. My bike was above standard issue like his, but mine wasn't as great as Cloud's so I envied him for finding it.

"So we're out of here, tonight, right?" I spoke, making sure I had the story correct, and when he nodded, it was then my answer was confirmed. "Alright then… Cloud, lead the way…" He spoke, and with a nod, he steered his bike up the stairs he came down, and I revved my own to get up behind him, with Tifa following close in the car. We made it up a few floors, but we stopped when we saw the highway a fair distance away. I was estimating the jump distance, but Cloud didn't want to wait, so he revved his bike to the max, smashing through the window, flying through the air for a moment, before making contact with the concrete.

I then knew I had to do this as well, so I moved the bike back enough, and revved the bike to its max, but it didn't reach it before I made contact with the small 19 degree ramp. When the wind hit my face, I closed my eyes, but the feeling itself was absolutely amazing, up until I hit the road. Moments after I opened my eyes, I heard a thump of a large vehicle behind me, and saw Tifa and the rest of the group in the car. But it was then I heard sirens come from down the highway, and knew that Shinra must've had road patrol out in case we were to get out via highway. I grabbed my rifle in my right hand, and revved the engine again to get going, holding onto the handlebar with my left hand. I wasn't too talented on a bike, but I was able to fire a rifle and drive at the same time, and I could see I wasn't the only multi-talented person here. Cloud took his sword off his back, and began to get down the highway, with everyone else, myself included, following behind him.

I watched as Barret had his arm out in its gun mode, ready to take fire at any Shinra troops that got in range. I remained back a little, so I myself could take some single shots at their tires, to prevent them from following. Cloud had no intention of keeping any alive, so he and I are different in many ways, but we still had the same goal here. Once the Shinra bikers came in range, they had their melee batons out, and knew they wouldn't last against Cloud's sword; after all, it could swipe anything in half with only one cut, if he made a well-aimed strike that is. I would miss a few times, for certain, but at least they would be delayed at least if they had a flat tire, which is a good thing, sort of.

Once the bikes soon came into range, and right off the bat, Cloud swung for the first time, but the driver managed to only be grazed by the sword, but he came back anyways, trying to ram Cloud off the bike. With his back tire exposed, I took a shot, and right away, I knew I made contact since I saw his bike began to swerve uncontrollably, before veering into a wall, the bike becoming partially flat from the blow. But even with one guy gone, they seemed to believe I was with them, and that I just actually misfired. That was the target I intended, and I watched as a few bike rode past me, and soon were about to ram the car. Barret managed to take out two riders, maybe a third but I wasn't paying attention since I was taking care of another, before I thought I heard Aerith squeal out. I turned to look at her, and saw the man trying to pull her out.

"Idiot…!" I muttered, but it was unheard since the bikes volume had a much higher authority than my voice currently. I aimed at his tire, and I fired, missing the first two shots, but third time was the charm, before he released Aerith. But he didn't have time to stop before Aerith hit him with full metal rod, which caused him to steer into a divider, the bike flipping forward while crushing his body. Unfortunately, Cloud took the other highway, yet most of the riders were after him. A few bikers were following after the car and myself, well the car more than me, but still. When they got close enough, Barret was still letting out fire, a few of his bullets whizzing by my head, while missing them a little bit of the time. I knew now wasn't the time for it, so I sped up, which seemed to have the riders who weren't hit impressed, before Barret hit them.

I managed to swerve onto the left side, but another rider had managed to get beside me, and had a club ready to hit Tifa. If that happened, she would be knocked out, the car would crash and everyone would die, theoretically. Before he could finish his swing, I pointed the gun at him, and before he could saw anything, I fired, the round piercing through his helmet, killing him. That was the last biker chasing us for a while, anyways, and once the divided highway returned to one, Cloud had pulled in to the right side, checking to make sure everyone was alright. However, when the concrete began to quake, I had a bad feeling about what was to come.

Cloud seemed to hear it too, but before we could swerve out of the way, the three vehicles were hit by a fast-moving war tank, and I heard my back tires began to let out air. Cloud had just lost his balance, and he would have to stop. Tifa's vehicle had a large indentation at the back, meaning that they were in no better condition since their rear tires were releasing air as well. When we saw the road block sign, Cloud and I tilted our bikes while hitting the brakes, while Tifa pressed her foot down on the brake, and activating the E-brake as well.. I was breathing quite deeply, before getting off the currently useless bike, Coud doing the same as Barret got out the back with Red XIII. However, we had barely any time to react when the tank moved in and knocked us over again.

Cloud had gotten to his feet rather quickly, with Red XIII close behind, and then myself and finally Barret. Almost right away he was letting out armor piercing rounds at the same rate as a machine gun. I set my gun to armor piercing, and since it was slow at firing, I was to keep moving. Round after round I was firing at it, trying to keep my aim averted away from Cloud as he struck them with his sword and lightening magic. But the tank, which was developed by the Weapons Department of Shinra, seemed to have other ideas, and began to swipe the claws it had at Barret and I. I managed to move out of the way, only to have it graze me slightly, but Barret wasn't as lucky as me, since he took the blow. Deciding he could use the help, I released the power of my healing materia, and had it seal his wounds for the moment.

But it was because I did this that the tank let out the flamethrower on me. I raised my rifle to shield my face from the flames, while the temperatures began to rise for a while, until it thought I was gone. I was burned, my face was covered in small layer of soot and ash from other fried victims. But it seemed like it was about to be finished, and something inside me began to rise in fury, as if it was a stronger adrenaline rush. My weapon seemed to flare up when the fire materia in my arm began to react, and with that I decided to try this. I took aim, setting the rifle on full auto, and began to fire instead of regular bullets, but rather, small fireballs. It seemed like it wasn't liking the heat it was receiving where I was hitting it. Returning the fire to armor piercing, I took aim at the red place where I was cooking it, and fired, letting out a fairly sized fireball.

When the fireball hit the machine, it exploded on contact, and once its circuits were revealed, Barret began to fire at it, which was destroying it much faster. Once the circuit breaker was hit, the machine let out a dying whine, before all went silent aside from our heavy breathing. I was sweating a bit since I was letting out most of the heat, at least from the fire materia when it seemed to have an effect on my gun. Nobody seemed to ask me about it though, since they thought it was natural that I seemed to know it. Truth was , I didn't and I was merely straining my luck more than anything, and thankfully it was enough to finish things off. I was glad, sort off, but now I knew that it was time to say good-bye to Midgar, since the battle was now over. Anyways, I hope that, short as this entry was, I promise the next one will be longer…