Author's Note: Counting down the days until the new Crisis Core game comes out …
Hopefully no one minds me using OCs as expositional NPCs.
Settling In
Old Man Mooney had once run Sector Five's inn. Due to more and more visitors being directed to head straight to the train and up to the plate (helped by the smog and horrible water) his inn quickly became apartments, mostly for the Leaf House orphans that grew up and moved out.
The two soldiers turned mercenaries were good sorts, Old man Mooney could tell, the younger one had clearly forgotten how to live outside of the barracks, and little kindnesses threw him, things like a little girl giving him a handmade necklace for luck made him stop like he was being threatened with a knife.
The older one bounced, cheerfully willing to help, but the moment he thought no one was looking sorrow practically flooded him and he slumped until he forced himself to move again. That one was probably due a breakdown or two, but he was stubbornly moving as long as he thought his friend needed him.
The two needed a good turn. So he set them up in a room that had two beds and a couch, the small kitchenette was really just a sink and countertop with an old hot plate, but it was better than most slum apartments.
Not much he could do about the smell of the water, though. Sector 5 had slightly better water than Sector 6, which preferred alcohol and sodas, and Sector 7.
The two boys paid him six months rent in advance and headed up to hopefully sleep without battle dreams.
As he settled back into his rocking chair, he noticed a kid from Wutai wandering around.
Old man Mooney was old enough to remember life before the war. Wutai had been a trade partner and once upon a time, Wall Market had been a trade town, with an entire section called Little Wutai, which was why they had that elaborate mansion Don Corneo had taken over.
He had watched as public opinion had turned against them, helped by propaganda videos, and all he'd been able to do was offer reduced rates and protection for a few nights as he yelled sense into young idiots who fell for it hook line and sinker.
Thankfully, most of the idiots had gone up to the plate, though the Wutaians were made to have a strict curfew up there and couldn't move onto the plate even if they had a restaurant up there. A good chunk of them had moved into Sector Seven as Don Corneo took advantage to consolidate his power.
The slums didn't care much for curfews the plate made up, but Wall Market was locked up at curfew time, unless you had the favor of one of the Trio.
"Son, are you lost?"
"Just exploring."
The old siren sang out, alerting everyone that Wall Market had closed for the night. The boy tensed up.
"Relax, that was the Wall Market signal. Wall's closed for the night."
"Oh."
"Need a room for the night? Only a hundred gil. Or perform two chores, either one, I'm getting old." He always kept one room open for anyone who needed to spend the night.
"Thank you." The kid accepted the key and went into the room. It wasn't anything fancy, just a single twin bed with a half bath.
That done, Old Man Mooney settled back in his chair and watched everyone close up for the night.
Cloud is going to hit Zack. It's a new feeling for him, but the fact remains, Zack is absolutely terrible about running a business or paying attention to money.
At least they didn't have to worry about rent for six months, but now they don't have money for food.
And thankfully Chadley used the information to give them an Auto-Cure, Wind, and First Strike Materia so they could work on harder monsters.
"You can make materia?" A stranger with a staff asked.
"Yes. I'm Chadley. Would you also like to assist with my research?"
"I'm Sonon. How would I do that?" He hesitantly stepped forward.
Chadley repeated his explanation and gave him an assess materia.
"Monster hunting, huh?"
"That and fighting in the coliseum." Cloud offered.
"There's a coliseum here?"
"Wall Market. We can point it out to you, we're heading to Sector Seven." Zack smiled. "It's kinda fun."
"I'll take you up on that." Sonon followed them. "So what are two soldiers doing here in the slums, not your normal place to patrol?"
"Ex-Soldiers." Cloud corrected.
"And the slums are more like our homes than the plate. We're both from backwater towns. You?"
"Originally from Wutai."
"Ah, sorry." Zack apologized.
"I'd be lying if I said it was fine." Sonon replied and looked at Cloud.
"Don't look at me, by the time I joined, ShinRa didn't need anymore heroes, just pawns to sacrifice. I've never been to Wutai." Cloud informed him. "Coliseum is over there, by the way."
"What?"
"There's nothing we can say or do to change your feelings, so no point in talking. Coliseum is over there. With any luck, you'll end up fighting each other in a match sometime." Cloud pointed the coliseum out and kept walking.
"He's got a point. See you around."
"Zack! Cloud! We've got trouble!" One of the patrolling kids raced up to them. "One of the machines we thought was scrap wasn't!"
"Hold on." Zack scooped the kid up and took off running. Cloud chased after him.
Aerith was healing a child near the cemetery when they arrived.
"There may be more children missing, hurry!" Aerith instructed.
"Alright, stay with Aerith!" Zack put the child down. "Cloud-"
"Right behind you!" Cloud followed Zack into the maze of scrap and junk. They found two children before they found a rampaging Smogger cornering a third.
"The big one chased Oates that way!" The boy informed them.
The big one turned out to be a Cutter. Oates had gotten himself high enough in that it couldn't reach, but his perch wasn't stable.
Halfway through the fight, the supports holding him up broke.
Cloud caught him, and had to plant the Hardedge to use as a shield to keep the Cutter from cutting him and the kid.
"Here!" A staff struck the cutter, followed by a thunder strike.
Sonon had joined the battle.
The cutter never had a chance.
As it fell apart, Cloud glanced at Oates, who looked up at him wide-eyed.
"You okay?"
The boy nodded, but stayed pretty close.
"Anyone else missing?"
"No." Oates shook his head. "Thanks, Cloud."
"What was this doing still active? Disposal means you take out the fuel or power source, Sonon, help me with this." Zack tore it open and removed the power source.
Along with mako, a materia rolled out.
"Double Cut. Huh." Zack tossed it to Oates. "Your call, kid."
"Thanks for saving me." Oates gave it to Cloud. "I'm gonna head back to the leaf house." Even though he said that, he stayed close to Cloud.
"We'll escort you." Cloud glanced at the machine. "Just in case."
"Okay."
"Oates, meet Sonon, a ninja, Sonon, meet Oates, leader of the Leaf House Patrol."
"Hello." Oates waved.
"Hello. What's the Leaf House Patrol?" Sonon asked.
"The Leaf House is the slum orphanage. We get kids from all over the slums. The patrol is to help people, clean the streets and gather scrap, only this time the scrap attacked us." Oates noted. "Our parents are in there." He pointed out the cemetery. Aerith and one of the teachers were there.
"Oh good, that's all of the kids."
"Sorry for scaring you Ms. Folia!" Oates was swallowed in a hug.
"We'll do another sweep for monsters." Zack assured her.
"Thank you, you three come by the leaf house when you're done." Ms. Folia requested.
"Uh-" Sonon was most likely going to correct her when Aerith popped up into his personal space.
"Don't be shy now. We'll need the help to make sure it's safe for the kids!" Cloud had no sympathy for the Wutaian as Aerith got him to agree to help before walking off.
"What just happened?" Sonon sounded dazed.
"Aerith. She sells flowers. You get used to her, I hope." Cloud shrugged.
"There's no flowers in Midgar?"
"You'll see." Cloud followed before he lost track of Zack and Aerith.
They found a couple more smoggers running about and dealt with them, before Aerith led them back to the Leaf House, where the kids gave them handmade charms and several homemade fliers advertising Fair & Strife Services.
Sonon looked confused even as he accepted the bracelet from a little girl.
"Aerith, I hate to ask after your help today, but I was wondering if you could bring some flowers, the children want to arrange flowers again."
"Of course! Zack and Cloud have work, but Sonon can help me!"
Sonon was pretty baffled by his reception and the girl who just handed him a flower basket and lead him to an entire field of flowers, in Midgar, where he knew absolutely nothing grew. He was pretty sure that the water he could see was a freshwater spring.
"How?"
"This is my home. I grow flowers. I sell them above and below the plate. I also donate them to people around here." Aerith shrugged. "Zack called you a ninja, are you?"
"Maybe." Sonon grimaced. "Don't tell anyone?"
"This is the slums, we're all pretty good at keeping secrets. And besides, the only ninjas most people know, are the sneaky cat ones that Stamp the dog fights. Most people would just think we're calling you sneaky." Aerith finished picking flowers. "If you can stomach it, you should talk to Zack about today. He'll have information you want."
"He's a soldier, he wouldn't help me."
"Have you tried asking nicely?" Aerith grinned, "And it's Ex-Soldier." She added, taking the baskets and disappearing into the Leaf House with the children.
Sonon shook his head and headed back to Wall Market. The owner of the Happy Turtle was a loyal Wutaian who might be able to help him figure things out.
"Apologies for the delay, but we had a couple monsters go after some kids." Zack said to the guy they were supposed to meet. "Fair & Strife Services, I'm Zack, this is Cloud."
"That's perfectly understandable. I'm Wymer. We got a rat infestation that has gotten worse, now we've got doomrats on top of the wererats. We cordoned off the area, but because it's getting worse we think there's a nest." The man sighed. "The two members of the watch who went in to check never came back out."
"We got it. Just give us directions." Zack assured him.
"I'll do you one better and guide you there. We got two local boys guarding the place now." Wymer led them to where two men in homemade armor were standing. "Biggs, Wedge, these are the mercs."
"Soldiers?" The one identified as Biggs asked.
"Ex-Soldiers." Cloud corrected.
"Well, good hunting."
"Thanks." Zack waved and they entered the area.
It didn't take long to find the remains of the two watchmen. The wererats had been thorough in eating everything but the bones and even those had been gnawed on. The wererat nest was in a dilapidated former tool shed and they got through half the rats before the wererat mother lunged out in rage.
Well, that could have been less because they were killing her offspring and more due to the fact Cloud's Fira had hit the shed catching it on fire.
Even with that hiccup, they exterminated the wererats and found a barrier materia in the nest.
The doomrat nest was much smaller but was a little tougher. In that nest was several tufts of Phoenix Down and a chest containing a star pendant.
Still, two nests down, the fire didn't spread, and Wymer was grateful that they had a location for the remains of the fallen watchmen.
A good first foray into expanding into Sector Seven!
"Hey, Cloud. Last time I was here there was a guy building a bar called Seventh Heaven, want to check it out before we head back?"
"Sure." Cloud finished rearranging materia between the swords. "Wymer said there were a couple more hunts near the boundary near sector 8, we can check them out after."
"You don't have to be all work all the time you know!" Zack took back the Buster sword.
"I do when you forget that we need money for food." Cloud gave him a small smile.
"You're never gonna let me live that down are you? C'mon." Zack grinned. "Seventh Heaven, here we come!"
End Note: Zack and Sonon are going to have multiple conversations with varying levels of discomfort about being on opposite sides of a war and now working together.
Cloud and Sonon are going to have conversations on 'maybe don't take your justified anger at ShinRa out on someone who is recovering from five years of torture at ShinRa's hands'. The winner will be Aerith with a steel chair and a get along shirt.
