BOOK 1
MIDGAR
CHAPTER 1
Aeris Gainsbrough walked down the street in Sector 8. Her boots clapping against the stone sidewalk. She wore a pink dress that came to just above her ankles and her matching short coat kept her warm on the late Midgar night. Her flower basket was a lovely woven brown, the same color as her hair, and it flapped against her side as she walked.
Two Shinra guards pasted her on the other side of the street. She gave them a soft smile and kept moving. Shinra was the law around the world. They were a supposed business that built cities and ran them. But they were a tyranny. Shinra ran the world, forcing people into poverty that couldn't pay their taxes, and rent and whatever else Shinra decided to charge for.
Aeris and her Mother themselves have been driven to live in the slums that resided under Midgar. Not being able to afford living on the top plates of Midgar they lived in a little house under the city.
Midgar itself was the greatest marvel of Shinra. A huge city divided into eight sections called Sectors and then set on a series of pillars two hundred feet above the ground. Built around the highest tech equipment Shinra could develop only people who were very well off could afford to live on Midgar's plates. The rest lived below in the smog infested slums. Living in the toxic waste and crap that Midgar released from above.
Despite their terrible living conditions, the people in the slums were for the most part pleasant. Some were grumpy but only when the mention of Shinra came about. Nearly everyone in the slums lost their livelihood to Shinra's greedy hand. However Shinra had trains that ran regularly from the slums to the top, due to the business the people brought. Sometimes they came up to work, other times they had minor goods to sell or buy.
Aeris herself only came up to the plates when she had flowers to sell. She used that as an excuse to come see the city lights, though. Whether or not she sold any flowers didn't bother her. She enjoyed looking at all the shops and signs, basking in their neon glow.
She was reading an advertisement for a radio station when the bomb exploded seemingly in her ear. Aeris was blown into the street where a car swerved to avoid her and then rocks began raining from the sky. Aeris scrambled to find an overhang or something to cover herself with. Then the area was blanketed in dust and everything was dark.
An hour prior to the explosion Barret Wallace leaned against a box in the cargo car of a train. The train sped toward the Sector 1 Mako Reactor as its last stop. With him, were the other members of AVALANCHE, Wedge Jackson, Biggs Conally and Jessie Blight. Each member had their so called "trait" in the group and together they were folks on a mission. A mission to end the rein of Shinra.
AVALANCHE knew the dark secret behind Shinra so-called "Innovative Science". Shinra ran near everything off of an energy source called Mako. It wouldn't be such a problem if the very planet itself used Mako to simply exist. Shinra used Mako for everything, from making weapons to running the city itself for a power supply. Which is what the seven reactors around Midgar were for. They were like big generators that gave the people their electricity.
The rate in which Shinra was using up the Mako energy was too much for the planet to handle. In a few short years the planet would begin to wither and shortly thereafter it would explode. AVALANCHE was dedicated to making sure that that doesn't happen. So their plan was to blow up the Mako reactors that were sucking the energy from the planet. In so doing they hoped to cost Shinra so much money that they would go out of business and everything would be ok. Easy day.
Barret glanced at the others. They all looked nervous but they were all determined to do what they could. A small but brave army and Barret the General. Barret himself was a big man with dark skin and the ever famous crew cut. He lifted weights and trained his body as best he could with only one arm. A number of years ago Barret had lost his right arm trying to save a friend. He in turn transformed his arm into a Mako gun that could fire high speed pellets of energy at his enemy. The metal began about an inch from his elbow and he kept in shiny and new when he wasn't training. He wore a white tank top with a beat up camouflage jacket and matching pants, as well as the shiniest boots in Midgar.
Biggs was the explosives expert of the group. He had managed to craft a device that would level a ten story building and it was barely larger than an envelope. He was a short man with short black hair that he kept spiked. He wore a variation of what they all wore, camouflage and boots.
Jessie was the tech pro. She could hack into the most secret of Shinra's files without so much as breaking a sweat. Her job was simply to break through any electronic locks they came by, and to plot the course they would take into the reactor via blueprints she had stolen. Her long brown hair was in a ponytail and she looked ready for battle.
Wedge was a fat waste of space--to the untrained eye. Barret however saw the determination in his eyes when he tried joined AVALANCHE and eagerly allowed him entry. Wedge's job was the watch the exits simply because he couldn't do anything else. But it was more than once that they were saved because Wedge got the last bit of guards off of their tail or grabbed an injured man. Wedge wore bright yellow to stand out of purpose, because if they came rushing out in a hurry they couldn't be struggling to find Wedge, so bright colors were needed. Wedge may have been big but no one knew how to hide better.
Barret smiled at his group. Together they would save the world and it would bind them together tighter than blood. Barret glanced out the window and saw the train speed by the Shinra headquarters. Shinra headquarters was a seventy story tower that stood evilly looming in the dead center of the pie that was Midgar. Casually Barret flipped off the tower as the train shot by, they were ten minutes away from the reactor and it was time to get the team ready.
Barret turned to the crowd and raised his arm. "Alright. It's go time. Everyone knows what to do so let's get in and get out, and leave Shinra wondering for a week, what the fuck just happened; alright?" he cried.
He only got slight nods and whoops from the small group. The new guy in the back choked back laughter and turned his head to watch the scenery go by.
His name was Cloud Strife and he was an ex-SOLDIER. SOLDIER was Shinra's elite personal army, they were trained in everything from stealth to combat and weapons to magic. They were the perfect warriors. Something happened to Cloud though and Tifa had found him lying almost dead in the slum train station. It ever so continently turned out that Tifa and Cloud grew up together and they happened to end up meeting each other in Midgar some years later. Barret didn't believe it, but Tifa insisted that Cloud could be trusted and Cloud himself had to be convinced to go on this little mission with AVALANCHE. Barret didn't trust anyone who worked for Shinra, even if it was formerly, but the help could be needed so he finally agreed to pay Cloud to join them.
Cloud still wore the dark blue spandex-like suit SOLDIERS wore. Along with it he had a large belt that looked more like a wrestling belt than anything useful. He also wore a strap around his back for his sword. Barret had only seen the sword once, and he admired the huge weapon. The blade was three feet by one foot and the blade was one sided. The strap had a magic-infused box on the middle of Cloud's back that hid the huge sword until Cloud needed it. This way the large bulky blade wouldn't get in the way when it wasn't needed.
Barret made fun of Cloud's hair only once, if anything, to get a reaction of some kind out of him but he got nothing. Cloud had bright yellow hair that stood out in every direction with spikes. His hair never moved in the wind and it drove Barret crazy. Why wouldn't the hair move?
The breaks on the train screamed loudly and the cars shifted heavily. The heavy train slowed steadily as the train approached the reactor's service entrance. The service entrance would provide AVALANCHE with access to the reactor with minimal resistance. The goal was to get down to the reactor's second sublevel where the core was and plant the bomb that Jessie had managed to compact enough to fit in an envelope. Barret carried the envelope in his jacket's inner pocket because he would go with down and plant the bomb himself.
Barret would go into the reactor alone, the rest would go in only as far as their checkpoints then wait for Barret to return. Together they would escape the explosion and Shinra's eye. Everything had been planned out to a tee and everything would work according to plan. Barret would make it so.
The train finally came to rest and Biggs and Jessie moved to into place; one at each door. Cloud stood up casually as if he weren't the least bit nervous and stood just behind and to the left of Jessie.
A pair of guards opened the doors and with a swift kick and a chop Jessie and Biggs knocked them out. They worked quickly to drag and hide the bodies inside the cargo hold, by the time they woke up everything will have been long over. Jessie stuck her head out of the car quickly and glanced around to check for more guards but found none. She reached behind her and without looking gave the all clear signal.
On cue Biggs and Jessie both took off, they darted up the loading ramp and around to the upper bridge that crossed over the train as it sat waiting for the signal to take off again. There they paused and Jessie began working on the large security door that blocked off the reactor from the loading dock.
Barret casually stepped off the train and turned back to Cloud with a grin. "You coming or what newcomer?" he spat.
Cloud glared at him with a blank nonchalant look and stepped off the train. Barret waved a dismissal hand at him and went up to meet up with the rest of the team. Cloud stood still and watched Barret converse slightly with Biggs. Then the door opened.
