Surprise Meetings
Soon after, they were above the battle zone, and Genesis threw open the door to the hold as he held the grip above the door, eyes scanning the scene below him. The city walls and the edge of the Sector Slum 'towns' had a zone of Wastes which were effectively no-man's-land between them, about fifty meters, and Sector 5 was no different, except for the wall still being incomplete there. Mostly, that area was guarded by Infantry units who kept the usual monsters out of the city area, and they were generally enough to handle things.
The biggest problem he could see—which he hadn't realized last time because Sephiroth had gotten there too late—was that the 'monsters' were Behemoths! Those should only have been found in the Northern Crater and the cliffs past Icicle Inn leading up to the Crater. It was one of the most inhospitable terrains on the Planet, ice, cold, snow, blizzards, and more monsters than anyone could shake a sword at, and to make matters worse, anything which flourished in an environment like that was both insanely strong and often went insane in the heat in the lands to the south. Behemoths were no exception, and were very powerful, some of the strongest out at the Crater. At that moment, Genesis figured he should actually be grateful they weren't Dragon Zombies...
A quick count of the Behemoths told him there were eleven, which was highly unusual—they were often seen in pairs or groups of three—but he thought it was possible the coloring of one of them had something to do with that. Normal Behemoths were twice his height (with him being a little over six feet, that made them an average of twelve) at the shoulder, a midnight blue color with very short fur over hard muscle, and had a furry, burgundy 'crown' and spinal mane with a back ridge like a fin in dark yellow. Their arsenal included many black, not-quite-bone-not-quite-metal weapons—long, forward-pointing horns, claws, fangs, and spikes on its tail-tip—and a number of spells like Flare. For a general body shape, they were probably most closely related to the large cats, with a face very much like a large cat's.
However, as Behemoths aged to what would have been late adulthood in other species (assuming they lived that long), their bodies suddenly began behaving as though they were newly out of their juvenile phase again, causing them to be renamed King Behemoths. Their coloring changed, they grew larger, their strength increased, and they gained new abilities to use, including something resembling Comet 2 and a reliable counter to magic attacks. A King Behemoth was about four feet larger than a Behemoth and almost dark golden in color with a dark blue-gray, furry crown-mane and a mostly cream or white fin. Horns, claws, fangs, and tail spikes turned pale gray into white, and even their eyes changed color from glowing yellow to glowing blue.
In the group of Behemoths attacking the Infantry and the gangsters, there was one Behemoth with the coloring of a King Behemoth, and Genesis suddenly wondered if this had been the origin of the infestation of Behemoths in Sector 8 thereafter.
The Infantry had formed as much of a perimeter between the Sector 5 Slum town and the Behemoths as they could, but there were too few of them after the gang war which had found its way out of the Sector 6 Slums and into the area between the town and the patrols. They'd had no choice but to react to it after it began endangering civilians and the Infantry themselves, but gangs and their wars weren't uncommon—it was uncommon for so many to end up involved in it. What puzzled Genesis was how several children seemed to have gotten caught in the middle of the fighting.
"Essai, Luxiere, see if you can get the children and other civilians out of the middle of the battlefield, and cut down as many of the known gangsters as you feel like cutting down as you go. Our priority is to get ordinary civilians out of that and stop the Behemoths from advancing, so don't waste too much time fighting until the children and any housewives you find are safe." He heard several sharp intakes of breath, then the required 'Yes, Sir!' which told him they had heard and understood. The two jumped down as he scanned the battlefield again, looking for weak points where the Behemoths were advancing too quickly.
Moments later, he found what he was looking for and asked, "Sebastian, can you see where those three Behemoths are trying to advance past the Infantry line?"
"I can, Sir," the Second agreed soon after joining him at the open door.
"Take the two Thirds and go reinforce the Infantry line there. Once it's secure, look for other trouble spots like it. If there are none, advance into the battlefield to challenge the Behemoths. But whatever you do, don't let the Thirds fight the Behemoths alone, and don't go after the King Behemoth—that one I'll have to take down."
There was a pause, then Sebastian clarified, "If the Thirds fight together against one Behemoth, will that be acceptable?"
"It will," Genesis agreed. He then shouted, "Reno, head towards the Infantry line where it's about to break, then towards the King Behemoth!"
"Will do!" Reno yelled back, and the chopper turned in the necessary direction.
Turning his head to look at Sebastian, the Second gave a nod and said, "Understood, Sir." He then faced the Thirds and said, "Don't think real Behemoths that are half-crazed with the heat will be like the ones in the VR rooms—they won't. It'll take both of you to take one down until you build up your real combat experience, so stay focused and keep close to me. We'll also make the assumption that we're going to rescue civilians if any are in our area, but we won't actively seek them out. Understood?"
"Yes, Sir!" both agreed.
"Let's get down there, then!" Sebastian ordered, and jumped down—deliberately so he landed on one Behemoth's back and crushed its spine with his weight. Genesis laughed at that as the two Thirds followed him down.
Quickly, the chopper turned in the direction of the golden Behemoth, where Genesis noted curiously how a man from Don Corneo's bodyguards and two girls in the Shinra Academy student uniform were fighting it, holding it in place. With a sudden snort, he recognized the man as a future Turk who would come to be named Ruluf and the two Academy girls as ones registered in the Military branch—both of whom would become future Turks Emma and Elena. What amazed him the most was how a fifteen or sixteen-year-old Emma and a twelve or thirteen-year-old Elena were so incredibly capable as fighters at their ages—especially when he saw Emma shoot out one of the King Behemoth's eyes.
As they were flying over the King Behemoth, Genesis jumped from the chopper, aiming to land on his target as Sebastian had landed on his—only he intended for his sword to hit the back of the monster's neck. He hit it, but its whole spine arched upward as the head and tail lowered, absorbing enough of the blow that when it tossed its head back after dropping it, the action sent Genesis flying. At the same time, it cast Flare at him, which made him smirk as he flew through the air—and held his hand forward to create a gravity sink between him and the cast with Demi 3. Flare hit the gravity sink and shot back down at the King Behemoth, causing it to howl in pain and fury and spin to look at him, following his fall with its one good eye.
As he neared the ground, the King Behemoth rushed at him, horns forward with the intent to spear him on them, and because he was expecting it, Genesis cast the Contain spell Break to shatter the land under the Behemoth. By making the ground the target of the spell, he could easily prevent the King Behemoth's spell counter-attack from activating. It stumbled, and the red haired SOLDIER was able to land safely while bracing himself for the impact of the King Behemoth's horns against Rapier. It hurt when it hit, making him grunt and shoving him back several feet, but with his enhanced SOLDIER strength, he was able to hold against it. What the position allowed him was direct access to the very few parts of a Behemoth's body which were susceptible to real damage—eyes, nose, and mouth.
Reaching a hand forward to shove it into the King Behemoth's open mouth while it roared, Genesis used the moment to cast the Enemy Skill Beta straight into the inside of the monster's head and body.
A moment later, the King Behemoth's head and neck exploded and were completely incinerated by the mushroom-cloud-producing flame attack cast by the Midgar Zolom snake. Of course, the cloud wasn't very big, but the destruction it caused was most definitely worth it, and casting it behind the enemy's defenses was always singularly effective. The thing's body collapsed, so he jumped onto what was left of the monster to look at the ones who had been holding it off, first wondering if he should let them keep helping—but they were clearly not in great shape, so dismissed the idea.
"Stay put or move to the Infantry line and rest," he ordered them. He didn't actually get any responses from the three, so he turned to scan the battlefield for more targets.
It looked like there was a clear space not too far from where he was which was calm, and Essai and Luxiere had been moving civilians to it, as he'd wanted them to do. At the Infantry line where it had been in the most danger, Sebastian, Arcon, and Kenston had managed to secure it, but were now taking on two more Behemoths. Far overhead, another helicopter flew by, heading into Midgar—by the mark for Shin-Ra and the sign for the Turks on the side of it, that was probably the one Tseng and Donnel were on. He hoped they were, anyway. With a startled blink, Genesis also realized one of the remaining Behemoths was being held still by Pyramid, the pyramid-shaped caging ability Reno's EMR (electromagnetic rod) had while he actively fought another.
The last two Behemoths were chasing some...one? Thing? Well, each was chasing a different one in a different direction, and one looked like it was heading in the same direction as Essai and Luxiere, but the other was heading for a gap in the Infantry line. Jumping from his perch and going into a sprint, Genesis headed in a bee-line for the hole in the defensive line, only to realize as he was nearing the Behemoth that it was chasing a brown haired girl of about twelve or thirteen.
Aeris Gainsborough, Tseng's and Cloud's 'flower girl'.
Had she been part of this incident the first time and somehow survived?
He had no further time to ponder the question as he saw her trip and fall—he used all his strength and momentum to land over her and swing his blade with so much force it literally knocked the Behemoth's head back and snapped its spine. The monster's forward momentum wasn't going to stop just because he snapped its neck, though, so he fluidly moved into his next motion, making it an extension of the force of the blow he'd used on the Behemoth. In an instant, he'd knelt, wrapped an arm around the girl's waist, and dove to the side and rolled. He landed flat on his back while the girl in his grip landed on his chest with a startled gasp even as the Behemoth collapsed with a thud several feet to the side of and past them.
As he was about to push himself up, he suddenly found he had no desire to move.
Apparently, neither did Aeris, as she instead began sobbing into his shoulder, arms wrapping tightly around his neck.
With a small sigh, he wrapped his arms around her and just let her cry herself out, even as the other SOLDIERs, the civilians who had helped fight the Behemoths, the Infantry, and Reno gathered in a circle around the pair. All of them looked amused at the sight of the girl crying on him—and him letting her—so he just gave a huff and a glare to the SOLDIERs and Reno. Regardless, he still didn't feel like moving, and he wasn't sure why—it just felt like too much trouble currently.
Reno got bored of watching after a bit and walked over to the civilians, stopping in front of the future Ruluf to say, "You got some good skills, yo. Come work for us." He then turned away from the shocked man to face the two Academy girls and added, "If the two o' you keep up your trainin', you'll be good enough for us in a couple years, too—both o' ya."
The words made Genesis want to laugh, since all three would have found their ways to the Turks eventually, anyway, but his current position didn't really let him see what was going on.
After a moment, Ruluf said quietly, "The only problem is that Corneo's possessive."
"Wha—oh, that," Reno smirked. "Shinra owns Corneo. You take up with us and he can't touch ya, yo. It ain't his choice—it's ours, and yours, Mr. 'Fastest Guns in the Slums'."
"...I see," the other man, who currently looked about nineteen and had his black hair in a very odd style, murmured, tone thoughtful. "Do I have to answer now?"
"Nope. Take this, give that number a call if ya decide it's a go and tell 'em I sent ya to 'em. Someone'll tell you where and when ta meet 'em," the sixteen-year-old Turk answered as something flicked.
Silence except for the girl's crying fell after that—and the Infantry and civilian combatants had wandered away by then. Well, all of them except for Ruluf, who had moved out of the way and found a place to sit as he held the card for the Turks he'd been given in one hand and stared down at it. Otherwise, Reno and the other SOLDIERs were the only ones left as they all waited for the girl to calm down. Finally, the girl was reduced to little sniffles, rubbing her eyes with her hands to both wipe away the tears and ward off the sleepiness she'd gained from the whole experience.
"All right now, little lady?" Genesis asked both impishly and curiously.
She gave a small chuckle and answered timidly, "Yes, thanks. Sorry for crying on you, though. I'm sure you have important work to do..."
With a snort, Sebastian said, "Actually, he apparently got that all done yesterday, so he doesn't have anything else to do yet."
Aeris pushed herself into a sitting position on Genesis' belly with her hands on his chest as she looked down at him in something like amazement. "You don't have anything else to do?" Her bright green eyes reminded him of the Lifestream.
"I don't," he agreed. "Not that I'm inclined to keep up on paperwork in the first place. But do you think I can get up now? I'm not fond of laying in the dirt, even though I don't mind having a pretty girl in my arms."
She flushed red as the other men howled with laughter, then laughed as well and moved off him while carefully standing. He pushed himself up and shook out his limbs as he got his own feet back under him, then turned to face her and offered, "Do you need someone to walk you home?"
At first, the girl didn't answer, turning around in circles to look at the battlefield where the pyreflies were floating around gently. Even the Behemoth beside them was being reduced to pyreflies, and most of the human bodies had already vanished back into the Lifestream energy in those little, green-white lights. She looked sad, but after a minute, her gaze focused on something in the distance before she looked back at him and said, "Thank you, but no. I don't have far to get home. But, I guess those monsters really don't like Starflowers (1), because they destroyed my garden and I have to fix it now. And thank you for saving me, um..."
"Commander Genesis Rhapsodos, SOLDIER First Class. If you're ever in trouble, come find me," he told her with a grin, giving the tip of her nose a little flick. She blushed again as the men laughed—less enthusiastically than the time before—so he said, "You're welcome. If you're sure you're fine on your own from here, off you go."
The girl nodded and began not-quite-trudging in the direction of the Sector 5 Slums.
Reno sidled up beside Genesis as the others all watched her go, whispering, "She's one of Hojo's—"
"No, Reno. Tseng will kill you if you take her to Hojo," Genesis whispered to the Turk. Reno blinked, then blinked again and gave a small nod.
At that moment, Essai turned to Genesis in amusement and asked, "You really can't help but flirt with any cute girl, can you, Commander?"
"She needed some teasing to laugh at," Genesis shrugged. "And I kept it mild because she's too young for my tastes. Now Reno, here..."
"What? Hey! I ain't got nothin' to do with her, yo!" Reno almost hollered in horror, then glared as all the SOLDIERs burst out laughing again.
"We should head back to Headquarters now, though," Genesis commented, even as he gave a leisurely, full-body stretch. "Where'd you leave the chopper, Reno?"
Reno pointed back towards where the wall-in-progress was, where they could all now see the chopper, so they all headed for it. Thankfully, it didn't take long to get back, but when they arrived, Donnel was waiting for them looking the worse for wear but seemed to be in reasonably good spirits. Giving the pale red haired twenty-one-year-old a nod, Genesis led the way back inside the building, not expecting Reno to follow because of the other Turk. Sure enough, while Reno was still shutting down the helicopter, Donnel joined him in it—probably to help with the process as well as talk about whatever they needed to discuss.
Soon after, they were back at the secretary's desk—and Sephiroth was standing beside it with a paper in his hands—as she looked up at them nervously. "Has Lazard gotten in yet, or will we have to write out our reports?" Genesis asked with a raised brow, making Sephiroth look at him curiously.
"He just got here, Commander," the woman answered, voice a bit faint.
Genesis reached over and plucked the paper from Sephiroth's hand so he could read it, then raised his eyes to the woman again. "Very funny. It's complete—we're back to report. You must hate your job." Her eyes widened and she went pale.
"But everyone knows the General is the strongest and most able—" the woman began, only to be cut off by Sephiroth.
"I am one man, not an army of thousands," the silver haired eighteen-year-old said in a very quiet voice. "And both Genesis and Angeal are every bit as strong and able as I. If I understand this situation correctly, not only did you hand me an urgent mission I had no chance of doing anything about so long after, but you handed me one which had already been taken by a capable First. I will recommend that the Director find another secretary, as you most definitely should not have handed this to me under these circumstances. At all." The woman had gone ashen at the words. Sephiroth, on the other hand, turned to Genesis and asked, "What was it?"
"Behemoths and a King Behemoth—eleven all together," Genesis answered. "It looks like the Turks are going to be keeping an eye on a couple Academy girls and will probably have a new recruit soon, too."
"What did they do?" the other man blinked, gaze intent.
"They held off the King long enough for me to get there and take care of it—one of the girls even shot one of its eyes out. Sebastian, Arcon, and Kenston took down the majority of the Behemoths, and even Reno took two out—or held one until the SOLDIERs got to it and took one out—while Essai and Luxiere took care of most of the gangsters and got the civilians caught in the mess out of harm's way. It wasn't more complicated than that—but if you'd only left now, you really would have been too late."
Inclining his head in recognition, Sephiroth said, "That is very true." He then paused and eyed Genesis for a moment before asking, "What woke you in time to deal with this issue?"
"Like I told them earlier—it's just not my week for peaceful nights," the red haired man answered in wry amusement. "Anyway, I should go give Lazard my report so I won't have to write one." He faced the Seconds and Thirds and said, "If you want to wait around, you'll be able to give a verbal report, but if you prefer to write it out, feel free to go. I'm sure you're all more reliable with handing in reports than I am."
The group chuckled as he stepped over to Lazard's office door and Sephiroth turned to head for his own office.
MB
It was almost noon when Genesis left the office again, largely because Lazard took his verbal report, then went over the other reports he'd handed in with him. If there had been only a few, it would have gone quickly, but there had been over twenty of them spanning more than a month's time, and the sheer number of them was what had taken time. When Genesis took a moment to tell the SOLDIER Director about the others who may be waiting to give their reports as well, Lazard checked for them—two had stayed—and told them they could give him their verbal reports after lunch due to circumstance. Genesis had a headache and was officially starving after missing breakfast, so headed to the cafeteria to devour almost three times what he would usually eat after a mission.
Finally, when he was sated, he decided it was time to look for Kunzel and headed for the trainee lesson floor. There was no one in the area who could direct him further, so he just began searching the rooms until he found the lesson they were in—a Materia class held in one of the fortified training rooms. Cadets all wore a dark red variant of the SOLDIER uniform, and there were also potential Turk trainees in the class, who wore a gray suit instead of a black one. Some of them were doing decently, but none looked like they truly met the minimum requirements for the Turks in other ways—their movements were too jerky and uncertain, just to start with. In SOLDIER Cadets, those signs didn't mean much, but for Turks, they relied on the things their trainees didn't have.
Of all the Cadets, who were practicing with Fire Materia, the only one creating more than puffs of smoke was Kunzel—but his attempts kept spiraling back on him instead of moving forward to the targets they practiced on. Moving up quietly behind the black haired Cadet with short hair and long bangs flipped to one side of his face, he watched intently as Kunzel started his cast again—and Genesis knew immediately what was wrong, so reached forward to knock his hand aside and negate the attempt to cast.
Kunzel spun on him with a glare which quickly morphed to open-mouthed shock as Genesis asked, "You really don't know what's wrong, do you?"
With a small frown, the sixteen-year-old asked tentatively, "What's wrong with what, Commander?"
"Your ability to cast on the target," the red haired man answered, even as Cadets next to them stopped what they were doing to watch and listen.
The Cadet blinked in surprise and said, "If I knew what was wrong, I'd have fixed it by now, Sir."
Crossing his arms and shifting his weight to a relaxed stance, Genesis nodded. "Magic has a way of—flowing. Materia operate on very detailed and strict sets of 'rules', most of which we don't actually understand—and most don't care, as long as they can cast with them. For some—those classed as Mages—we can't cast unless we start to learn some of those rules. First, turn back to your target." Kunzel frowned, but nodded and did as instructed, so Genesis went on, "Target on it as you usually would—but only by 'acknowledging' you have a target. Before you try to cast, close your eyes and focus on the Materia itself."
After a pause, the black haired teen sighed and lifted his hand in preparation for the cast from the single-slot bracer on his wrist where the Fire Materia was slotted, then closed his eyes—and a moment later, he swayed and dropped his hand. Genesis quickly reached out to catch his shoulder, steadying him, even as a fireball of a good size engulfed the target.
A moment later, he'd regained his footing and spun to face the older man, gaze searching as he asked in a nervous tone, "What did I just see, Sir?"
The question made Genesis smile and say, "The same thing every Mage sees, and the only way you'll be able to cast." He paused, then offered his hand to the teen as he said, "You're the first strong Mage besides me to try for SOLDIER. I'd like to Mentor you so you can learn to use your full range of skills to the best advantage. Are you agreeable?"
Shock spread through the room and the red haired man could see that Kunzel was very tempted. However, his practical—Turk—side showed as he asked, "Can you—are you able to become a Mentor to a Cadet who isn't in the SOLDIER program yet, Sir?"
"This is your last week of courses," Genesis replied dryly. "Do you really think you'll be going home now?"
Kunzel flushed for a moment, then took a deep breath and reached up to grasp Genesis' hand as he said, "You have a point, and in that case, I accept your offer, Commander." Genesis nodded—and the sixteen-year-old still holding his hand asked in curiosity, "I didn't think you took on protegees, though, Commander. What changed your mind—besides my apparently being a Mage?"
With a snort, the red haired man released his new charge's hand and said, "I decided it would be fun to throw Shinra into chaos for awhile and do some completely unpredictable things. Don't worry, though—I did actually think about this before offering."
After a shocked look, Kunzel began laughing merrily. "Thank you, Sir."
Notes:
(1) Starflowers are obviously a made-up plant, but from my perspective, those are what Aeris is growing around her home and at the Church, amongst other kinds at her home. The reason for the name is the way they're generally shown to 'glow' slightly, and none of them have a bold, solid color, either white or yellow. My theory is that they're leftovers from the space ships which landed there two thousand years ago—they originally came from Spira. Since they're 'energy imbued' from Spira's native environment, they adapted to Gaia's energy and became imbued with Lifestream easily enough, hence why they're the first and best growers for Aeris, who by nature is trying to draw the Lifestream back into Midgar. And yes, that means Jenova's monsters would not like them.