Spontaneous Emission
Cloud sighed softly, leaning against the wall of the stairwell just outside the 61st floor. This batch of monsters was from one of Hojo's more heavily classified projects so SOLDIER involvement had been limited to evacuating those unfortunate enough to have their offices invaded and posting guards on the 60th floor to catch anything that happened to get that far down. The only reason he wasn't down below with everyone else was that Tseng had requested his assistance. Since Cloud was the unofficial Turk-SOLDIER liason and Tseng was Veld's second in command, the blond couldn't exactly say no. He wasn't cleared for independent missions just yet –wouldn't be for another two and a half months– but Seph had cleared him for team missions where he was not in a leadership position last week, so long as those missions were not overnight. Cloud had adapted amazingly quickly to his increased augmentation in the physical sense but still suffered from vivid, surreal dreams most nights. He had creeped out his various room-mates enough times with sleep-talking and occasional moving around that he had been moved and assigned to share a small flat with Kunsel despite the latter's seniority supposedly granting him private quarters. Kunsel freely admitted that Cloud was extremely disconcerting when he sleep-walked, but the two knew each-other well enough for it not to damage their friendship.
Cloud sighed again. Chaos had been cheerfully evasive when confronted on the subject of Cloud's psychological reaction to Mako and not even Vincent could tease a straight answer out of him. The Herald of OMEGA had however won some forbearance from Cloud by giving the blond a sword.
And what a sword, too. As big as Zack's Buster and considerably heavier, it was an assemblage of six blades that fitted together into a seamless whole. Deconstructed it was made up of a broadsword, a hollow off-hand blade and two pairs of blades that were mirror images of each-other: two like short cleavers and two longer, vaguely katana-like swords. The wierd weapon perfectly suited Cloud's mix-and-match, sword-and-knife fighting style and the blond spent as much time as he could training with his fusion swords. The results were shaping up to be everything he could have hoped for, though he had his suspicions regarding the true nature of the weapon. Normal swords do not hum and resonate with the Mako in your blood. Nor do they feel so inexplicably right that all other swords seem third-rate in comparison afterwards.
Well, maybe that last point was normalish: Sephiroth certainly never used any blade other than Masamune if he could help it and acted as though the impractically long sword was a natural extension of his arm. Cloud had recently discovered that using such a long blade made the wielder vulnerable to people who could fight with a weapon in each hand, provided of course the attacker was strong enough to parry Masamune one-handed and attack with the other sword. Cloud could do it; from the sheer shock on Sephiroth's face when the blond scored a hit, no-one else had ever so much as tried.
Of course, now that Cloud could almost match the Silver General in strength Sephiroth was training harder than ever and having as much fun as the Turk-trained blond in their frequent spars. They pushed each-other to the limit and loved every second of it.
Cloud pushed himself off the wall as Tseng hurried down the stairs and fell into step behind the tilak-marked Turk.
"Hojo has left the building in a helicopter with Fuhito and Shears of AVALANCHE," the half-Wutaian said shortly. "We are to intercept with a truck; Sephiroth will be following."
"I can get us down there faster," Cloud offered, equipping an Exit Materia. While he still disliked trucks, the shots from being promoted to Second-class meant they no longer made him throw up.
"Thank-you," Tseng said as they materialised just outside the garage below the ShinRa building. "I'll drive."
Cloud did not pout, as Zack might have done. SOLDIERs had exceptional reflexes, which meant a near miss to normal people was plenty of room to someone seriously Mako enhanced. As a result, whenever SOLDIERs and normal people had to drive somewhere together the normals generally insisted on driving. Cloud could drive now and far preferred doing so to being a passenger, but at least sitting in the front was less likely to make him queasy than having to perch in the back.
As Tseng screeched around the front of the ShinRa building another Turk dashed out and hopped in the back of the truck. Kirian, Cloud remembered after a moment's thought to place where he'd seen that hairstyle before. The blond SOLDIER had first encountered Kirian back when the man was still one of Don Corneo's bodyguards. Of course, Cloud himself had just been another freelance monster hunter back then, though he doubted Kirian had forgotten the encounter.
"Ravens again," the wild-haired shooter said shortly. "I had to push it into the furnace to kill it."
"Sure you don't want me to drive, Tseng?" Cloud asked, eyes on the helicopter up ahead as they sped along the highway. Tseng's eyes darted from the helicopter to the traffic.
"Very well then."
Not wanting to give the Turk a chance to change his mind, Cloud slipped out of his seatbelt, grabbed the wheel with one hand and shoved a foot over to gun the accelerator. As the truck lurched forwards Tseng scrambled over the blond SOLDIER, who then firmly ensconced himself in the driver's seat and proceeded to push the vehicle to its limits.
Cloud ignored Kirian's fervent recitation of the Ave Maria and Tseng's slightly loud and deliberately even breathing as they gained on the helicopter. Then a shadow detached from it as it turned to circle overhead. The blond swerved violently but the bomb that hit the road exploded powerfully enough to send concrete shrapnel through the side of the truck and deep into the engine, forcing him to crash into the barrier or risk an engine fire.
The SOLDIER groaned softly as the dust settled: Tseng was slumped in the seat next to him, bleeding messily from a scalp would. After quickly checking over the senior Turk for more severe injuries and finding none, Cloud used one of his sword's smaller blades to cut his way out of the destroyed truck and easily carried Tseng out of range of possible explosions.
Looking around, Cloud spotted Kirian crouched amongst the debris, breathing heavily as he tried to stop AVALANCHE leader Shears from escaping. Cloud was about to butt in when a shadow fell over everything and the air was rent by a deafening roar.
Dragon. Massive green dragon. Cloud felt his blood tingling as he reached for Comet, the most dangerous and destructive Materia in his arsenal. I refuse to be killed by an overgrown lizard-
Another roar, this one from ground level and a little behind him, split the air and Sephiroth shot past in a blur, rocketing towards the dragon with lethal intent. The blond switched Materia to cast a high-level Cure on Tseng then ran over to Kirian, who had finally collapsed. Shears was nowhere in sight.
"Are you-"
"The helicopter," Kirian rasped as Cloud cast Cure. The blond glanced upwards to see Sephiroth swing Masamune down through the helicopter's rotating blades. The dragon lay sprawled across the road, eviscerated and cooling.
"It's coming down," Cloud informed the Turk.
"Get Hojo," Kirian muttered, stumbling to his feet again. "You do that," Cloud said absently, making a beeline for the falling helicopter. He was personally more interested in Fuhito, who was definitely in there as well and high on Cloud's personal shit list. The man who'd created the Ravens had a lot to answer for.
Sephiroth and Kirian successfully secured Hojo and Cloud managed to cut up Fuhito and Shears quite severely, but the two AVALANCE members between them managed to get away from him. He would have given chase, except he still wasn't allowed off on his own given his ongoing reaction to increased Mako levels. Sighing in disappointment, the blond slung his sword over his shoulder and retraced his steps to stand by Sephiroth. He really did wonder what all that had been about, but his only disappointment was that no-one had managed to 'accidentally' kill Hojo before the end of the mission.
In canon Cloud is abnormally sensitivve to Mako. Despite Chaos' tinkering, he is still more sensitive than the average SOLDIER, hence the dreams and why he is being monitored. It'll pass.
Remember, reviews are love!
