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Final Fantasy 7: The Novel Ch. 01

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.

Cloud spun on his heels and looked to see two more Shinra guards wearing the full uniform blues with helmets coming out of the watch room. Like magic Cloud's huge blade appeared on his back and he had it in his hand before the guards realized he was even there.

The two men glanced at each other as if unsure on how to deal with the possible Shinra employee threatening them. Cloud didn't give them time to choose as he was already on them. He cracked the butt of his sword into the facemask of the closest guard and spun for the second before the first hit the ground with his face bleeding. Guard two tried to bring up his gun but Cloud's blade moved far more quickly and swiftly than it looked and the gun was in half before it got to waist level. The guard put his hands put in surrender and began shaking. Cloud lowered the blade slowly to the man's head.

Barret watched the whole thing from above, he made not a sound and observed the SOLDIER in action. Barret was actually surprised that Cloud had not killed, SOLDIERS were trained only to be ruthless, yet Cloud showed restraint, Barret was impressed.

Cloud lashed out with one hand and cracked through the glass shielding on the guards face and hit him full force. Cloud felt the man's nose crack with the blow. The guard fell crumpled and Cloud put up his sword as he walked away, the blade magically fading away as Cloud moved up the ramp.

Biggs shook his head as Cloud came up to them. "Man, I've heard about SOLDIERS but that was insane. I believe we haven't exactly been introduced, Barret was kinda vague on you. I'm..." Biggs started.

Cloud raised his hand and shook his head. "I don't care. I'm here for this ONE job. After that we're done, so save your formalities." he said, coldly.

Jessie chuckled, "Smooth talker." she said. "Ok got it!" She announced. There was a sharp crack and a long hiss before the doors split down the middle and rumbled aside.

They opened to reveal a walkway to the edge of the plate lined with various monitoring devises that told reads on things like; power, Mako levels, and temperature. The grouped walked down the path slowly, but paused as they read footsteps running toward them. Barret and Cloud spun readying their weapons. Until Wedge came trotting up the group.

Barret sighed and lowered his gun. "Goddamn it Wedge! How many times do I have to tell you to keep up with the Goddamn group?" Barret snarled. Cloud was already walking further down the path.

"I'm sorry boss but I was checking the map again to make sure everything was right." Wedge explained.

"Of course everything is right. I planned everything." Barret bragged.

They all started off as a group again toward the end of the Sector 1 plate. At the end was a short three-way tunnel that either lead to the Shinra building, or outside the plate to a short catwalk that gave workers access to the reactor or the Sector 8 plate across the way.

AVALANCHE stepped onto the reactor catwalk. The catwalk itself was four paces wide and fifty yards across to the Sector 8 plate. Midway across was a T-junction that went right into the giant reactor building that stood a good 150 feet above the city itself.

Wedge ran across to the other side where he would wait for the gang to come out and together they'd run down the tunnel to a cut-off next to the courtyard in Sector 8. The rest of the group turned toward the reactor and headed in for crunch time.

Once inside Cloud was slammed with familiar senses and the ever present stench of processed Mako. The odor sickened him but he held himself blank and looked around casually. He glanced around at all the pipes running along the wall and under the floor, and tried to clear out the sounds of machines running. All his senses wear bringing him back to his involvement with Shrina and the clouded memories that had been haunting him for years.

Barret elbowed him as Jessie stopped at the first of a pair of security doors they had to open. Then the path would be open to the elevator where Jessie had to input yet another code to start the elevator down to the core.

"Hey." Barret said. "This your first time in a reactor? You look like you're seeing ghosts and shit."

Cloud shook his head. "I've been in lots of reactors, I did work for Shinra you know." He said.

"Yeah, and I don't trust you." Barret spat on the floor, "Despite what Tifa may say."

Cloud shrugged. "That isn't my problem."

"Yeah right, you're coming with me to the core, so I can make sure you don't pull any shit." Barret said.

"Whatever." Cloud dismissed.

Jessie clapped her hands and entered the final keys into the keypad next to the door. The green lights beeped and the door slid open. Jessie darted in and repeated the process of entered the code she had figured out from the first door. The door beeped and opened like the first.

Biggs stayed put while the rest moved through the doors and headed across the room to the elevator on the other side. The elevator opened normally and Barret, Cloud and Jessie crowded into the small elevator. Jessie pulled out a plastic key card and began inputting codes into the control panel.

Barret tapped Cloud's shoulder. "Hey, you know these reactors run off of Mako right? Mako is the life source of the planet."

Cloud glanced at him. "So?"

"Don't you get it? Without Mako the planet is done for, Shinra knows this and they keep building these machines that suck up the energy." Barret cried.

"I don't care." Cloud said, coldly.

"The planet is going to die Cloud!" Barret shouted.

Cloud shrugged and shook his head. "The only thing I care about is getting this job done before security and the robo-guards show up."

Barret glared at him and shook his fist. Jessie pressed the down button on the elevator panel and the elevator lurched downward. The elevator rode down to the first sub-level, there the elevator lurched to a stop.

Barret turned to Jessie. "Don't we need to go down another floor?"

Jessie tapped at the panel and shook her head. "I can't access the lower floor. We'll have to go down on foot, if I remember the plans we can run down the service ladder and then you two will have to climb down a set of pipes to the reactor core."

Cloud laughed. "Easy day right Barret?"

"Shut up." Barret snapped.

Jessie opened the door and motioned them out of the elevator. "I'm going to stay here and try to get this thing down another floor so you can get back easier." she explained.

Barret nodded and headed out into the large chamber that was B1. The place was like a factory warehouse, with large loud machines clanking and cracking everywhere. Barret looked around with disgust at all the effort Shinra seemed to be putting into destroying the world.

Cloud started past Barret and headed to the stairs off the right.

"Hey wait up." Barret called.

They headed down the stairs on the bottom Cloud motioned to the door that read "Pipe Valves. Employees Only".

"That's our place I guess." Barret said pushing the door open.

Barret froze as he looked down. Barely visible through the network of pipes was the floor of sub-level 2, 250 feet down. Barret looked around at all the pipes trying to figure out which why to go.

Cloud crossed his arms. "Are you going?" he asked.

Barret snarled at him. "Shut up, I was just trying to get a good look to make sure it was all clear and stuff." He stepped onto the pipes and worked his way into the room. "Not afraid." He murmured to himself.

Cloud followed as Barret slowly worked his way down the vast tangle of snaking pipes. Some of them had step ladders attached that made going down easier a bit, others didn't and they had to jump onto a slick round surface five or so feet below them. Cloud managed to make it from one pipe to another while Barret struggled.

"Hey, quit showing off you bastard." he called.

Finally they spotted at ladder, three quarters of the way down into the room, against the far East wall, the same wall that the elevator was on. The ladder led all the way to the floor and once his feet hit solid ground Barret breathed a sigh of relief.

The room was baron. The only thing in the room was the reactor core against the far wall. Barret took a step toward the core and Cloud stopped him.

"Wait." Cloud said.

Barret looked down at him. "Why? We have to hurry, we're already late."

Cloud shook his head. "Something's not right."

"Yeah, that God damn reactor ain't right. Quit stalling." Barret pushed on past him.

Cloud took a step toward the core and a sharp scream ripped through his mind. The sound pierced his mind like a hot blade and Cloud froze in mid-step.

Watch out! This isn't just a reactor. A voice echoed through Cloud's mind. He looked around for the source of the voice, but it had all been in his head.

"Hey!" Barret shouted.

Cloud shook his head as if clearing the noises and voices from his mind and glared at Barret. "What?" he spat.

Barret growled at him. "Don't be having second thoughts on me SOLDIER boy." Barret dug into his pocket and pulled out the small bomb that Jessie made. He thrust it into Cloud's hand. "You set it."

Cloud looked at the bomb. "Shouldn't you do it?"

"I'm gonna watch to make sure your ass doesn't pull nothing." Barret said.

Cloud shrugged. "Fine, be my guest." He stepped up to the large panel that was the reactor core and looked over all the instruments for a few moments.

He placed the bomb on the center of the panel and activated the display panel on the front of the bomb. He took a step back as the display lit up the twenty minute countdown. No sooner then the first tick of the countdown, all the lights in the room turned bright red and a screaming alarm pierced the silence.
Cloud backed quickly away from the core and looked around quickly. Barret was pointing his gun around blindly.

"I think it's time to go!" Cloud shouted over the screaming siren.

They turned toward the elevator and froze. The wall to the left slid apart and a huge red robot emerged into the wide open room. The robot was like a giant scorpion with a humanoid upper body. It walked on eight legs and had a long stinger-like tail and the upper body was perpendicular to the actual body. Instead of arms, there were two huge assault rifles. The huge machine moved in front of the elevator effectively blocking off the escape.

Cloud darted forward with his sword swing before the machine scorpion could get a lock on him. Cloud reacted instinctively, knowing that underneath the robot would be the safest spot for attack as its upper body could not bend over and the tail would never get to him under the body.

Barret chose another plan of attack and simply stood his ground, firing at the robot as fast as the gun on his arm would allow. The energy bullets exploded on the robot harmlessly. The great machine never even flinched.

The scorpion aimed both guns at Barret since Cloud had become an unattainable target. The scorpion fired at Barret. Barret dove out of the way as the energy bullets tore up the catwalk where he had been sending cement and brick pieces into the air.

Cloud's blade had no effect on the armor of the machine. Try as he might, his blade bounced off the armor leaving hardly a scratch. Cloud looked for some kind of weak spot under the machine but found nothing that could provide any sort of damage. Shinra had been getting better at building robots of death.

Suddenly the robot's tail shot in from behind Cloud and knocked his out from under the scorpion. Cloud rolled to his feet and dove as bullets splattered the ground behind him.

Barret was firing at the robot's guns trying to disrupt its aim. None of Barret standard attacks were doing anything to the giant machine so he decided to switch to his bigger attacks. He braced himself on the floor and took careful aim. He let the gun build up power for a large energy blast against the robot. The air in front of the barrel began to swim like the air around it was getting hot. Soon an orange ball of energy began to grow in front of the barrel. Slowly the ball got bigger and bigger until he was ready to fire it.

Cloud had run around away from Barret, with the machine following his every move. Now the scorpion faced away from Barret and there was nothing Barret could shoot at. Cloud stopped on the opposite end of the room and braced to attack. The scorpion pointed both of its guns at him and prepared to fire. Cloud glanced at Barret and saw he was nearly ready to launch a big blast against the robot.

Then the scorpion paused and its head rotated 180 degrees and looked directly at Barret. Somehow the machine had sensed that build-up of energy and now it changed its focus. Barret pointed and was going to fire the blast even though his shot was still not clear.

The scorpion didn't give Barret the chance, its tail shot out like a whip and slammed into Barret's side. The impact broke Barret's concentration and the shot fired anyway only going way off the mark and hitting the pipes above with a thunderous explosion. Pipes broke and some fell to the ground bouncing with loud crashes and others just hung by a thread.

Barret slammed into the far wall opposite of where the robot emerged, the wind knocked from him. The scorpion stomped forward and Cloud watched as it began to prepare a similar attack to what Barret had planned to do. It stood mere feet from Barret and Barret was still fighting to get to his feet.

Cloud flipped his sword down and opened a small flap on the hilt of the blade. Inside was a small compartment with two orbs of magic, lightning and fire. Lightning was good, he could use lightning and he smiled at his choice of what orbs to bring this time around. He closed the flap of his sword and turned the blade upright. He held it battle-ready in his hands as he began to focus on the magic of the orbs.

Barret's knees trembled beneath him as he finally stood. He look up at the robot ready to blast him away. He had to smile to himself. After all the work he put into this team, he was going to die on their first mission. What a jip.

The robot tensed up as it reached maximum power for the blasts. Barret braced himself as best he could for the coming doom.

There was a loud crack and a flash of lightning slammed into the side of the scorpion. The robot flew across the room and crashed into the wall. There it lay still with only the head turned about in a spasmic motion. The bright red armor of its side was torn open and burnt.

Barret looked at Cloud who held his sword still pointed at the machine. The blade gleamed with electricity and small bits of lightning ran along the blade.

Barret trotted over to Cloud. "You could have told me you had Materia."

"You didn't need to know." Cloud said as he put his sword away.

Barret started to say something but the elevator door opened and Jessie stood in the doorway.

"Three minutes guys!" She screamed.

"Time to go" Barret said.

Together Cloud and Barret ran to the elevator almost in step. Jessie had the elevator moving before the doors finished closing. They rode up to the main floor and Barret didn't wait for the door to open, he blew them open and they were running out of the reactor. Biggs met them at the door he too took off with the group. Wedge was jumping and waving his hands and screaming for them to hurry.

"GO!" Barret shouted.

Wedge ran into the hall then took off down a ways before waiting. Cloud was last out of the reactor with Jessie just in front of him. Jessie tripped and Cloud grabbed her by the waist. AVALANCHE reached Wedge mere seconds before the explosion ripped through the reactor and the shock wave was felt throughout Midgar.
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