Chapter 1
"Wutai troops have hijacked Shinra express MK932. The train is currently headed to Midgar Sector 8." the briefing for the mission resounded in the confines of the Shinra helicopter. "A SOLDIER operative will be inserted to neutralize the situation." SOLDIER 2nd class Zack Fair stood by the unopened door of the helicopter, waiting for the signal. "Commence mission in 3. 2. 1. Mark. Operative is ready for insertion."
The door burst open and Zack was prepared to jump onto the moving train below when someone grabbed his arm from behind. He turned his head to see Angeal Hewley, SOLDIER 1st class, Zack's friend, and his mentor.
"The train's been overrun by Wutai troops. Eliminate them and regain control of the train." Angeal instructed in his rough, yet friendly voice.
A grin broke out on Zack's face. "Oh yeah!" he said and gave a small salute with two fingers. He leaped out of the helicopter, feeling exhilarated.
"Get serious!" Angeal called down to him, then followed right behind.
Zack landed on one of the train cars as gracefully as he could manage and stood up, ready to go put the mission into action. Angeal landed not too far behind. "Zack!" he shouted and walked up to him, the moving train not even posing as a problem to his balance. "Zack. Focus."
Zack made a face of displeasure. He was annoyed at the fact Angeal was stopping him when he was so eager to begin.
"There are no Shinra troops on this train. Understood?"
This cheered Zack up a bit but he didn't show it. He started running across the train cars that would lead to the engine, until bullets started coming up through the roof of the car he was running on. Apparently the Wutai troops had known Zack was there. He moved his arm right before a bullet could hit him, then lost his balance and fell onto his hands and knees. A bullet whizzed by his face, missing by barely a centimeter. "Hello to you too!" he shouted as he got up. He continued on toward the front, not stopping when a group of soldiers appeared in front of him, wearing Shinra uniforms. Zack was a by thrown off by their attire, but didn't give it much thought. "Come and get it!" he shouted as he grabbed his sword off of the magnets holding it in place on his back. He deflected their bullets with his sword and tore through the troops in an instant. More of them came out of the train onto the top to block his way and attack, but Zack just smiled and kept moving forward. He made it past one group, only for another to appear with more powerful weapons. They shot at him with explosives, something he couldn't block with his sword. He sped up a little and jumped right over the troops, baffling them. Zack was near the front of the train at that point. Still in the air, he pointed his sword downward and shouted, "SOLDIER 2nd class Zack, on the job!" landing with his sword severing the connection between the engine and the rest of the train, then he jumped over to the top of the engine car. He slashed the air with his sword and put it back on his back, grinning. Another victory. Another step towards becoming a 1st.
Zack could hear the announcement on the helicopter above about the success of the mission. "Train MK93 II re-routed to sector 1 Station near Mako Reactor 1. Proceed to mission phase 2 and change surveillance rank..." Then the helicopter went too far out of hearing range.
What was left of the train came to a halt at the train station. Zack jumped off, landing stylishly, and then looked around at the scenery. It wasn't very different from the rest of the Midgar. Well, the upper plate at least. Midgar was composed of a large circular plate suspended 50 meters above the ground. The pillars supporting the plate had several large platforms branching off of them. Those platforms were where the poorer Midgar citizens resided, the slums. The plate above was divided into 8 sectors, evenly spaced and divided by two walls, with a Mako Reactor between each Sector, and the Shinra Electric Power Company headquarters placed in the center of the plate.
Zack wondered what he had to do while he was there, if there was any other part of the mission for him to do before returning to Shinra headquarters. As he began to walk forward, his phone rang. He got the phone out of his pocket, flipped it open and put it to his ear. "Zack speaking."
"Making progress, Zack?" It was Angeal.
"What's going on, Angeal?" Zack asked, remembering the troops in Shinra uniforms. "Why are we fighting Shinra troops?"
"They're Wutai troops in disguise." Angeal answered. "Now, head to the opening above."
"Toward Sector 8?"
"Yes. But first, you'll have to clear a path."
"Clear a path?"
"You'll see what I mean." Soldiers came running onto the platform from the stairs, guns in hand. "Good luck."
The soldiers ran forward and started firing, but still not hitting Zack. "So I can cut loose, right?" he asked and grinned.
"Use some discretion." Angeal answered.
Zack ended the call, put the phone in his pocket, then grabbed his sword off his back. "It's showtime!"
The fight ended with only a few swings of Zack's sword.
Angeal called again and Zack answered the phone. "Not too bad." Angeal said.
"Piece of cake!" Zack exclaimed. "I'll make 1st in no time!"
"Go up the stairs at the end of the platform." Angeal instructed.
Zack walked over to the stairs. "You got it." he said, then hung up.
Zack ran up the stairs, eager to see what awaited him at the top. Frightened people ran past him, going the opposite direction. He maneuvered past them and went to go look for what the commotion was about. He figured it had something to do with his mission.
When he got to the top of the stairs, there was a large monster waiting for him. It bared its fangs at him and roared, charging forward and swinging its spiked tail. Zack charged at it and slashed at it with his sword repeatedly but it wasn't doing much damage. He went for vulnerable parts of the Behemoth, and still no luck. Zack figured the only way to beat it would be with Materia. While dodging the attacks of the Behemoth, he reached into his pocket and grabbed a small, shiny crimson orb that seemed to glow with energy. He held out the red Materia toward the monster and flames appeared from within it, engulfing the Behemoth. It fell to the ground, dead. Zack grinned and put his sword on his back, pleased with his victory.
He turned away from the dead monster, ready to continue on his way, when the tip of a thin sword came up from behind, right beside his face.
"Showing your back to the enemy..." the owner of the long, thin sword said. "Overconfidence will destroy you."
Zack held up his hands, still not facing the person with the sword. He finally turned, hands still raised, and was surprised to see that the person holding the sword was SOLDIER 1st class Sephiroth. "Wh-what is this?" Zack asked, wondering what Sephiroth could be doing pointing his sword at him.
Sephiroth gave a small laugh, then lunged with his sword, which was aimed at Zacks chest at that point. Like lightning, Zack grabbed his own sword off his back and deflected Sephiroth's repeated attacks. Zack wasn't anything compared to him when it came to fighting, though. Sephiroth was a 1st, while Zack was a 2nd, meaning Zack's skill in general was far lower. But Sephiroth was an exceptional fighter, even among the 1sts. The best of the best. Zack wasn't even close to matching Sephiroth's skill, and was at his mercy. Zack held his sword out in front of him and tried with all his might to block Sephiroth. The blades were pressed against each other, and Zack wasn't sure how long he could hold him off. "You're not the only hero!" Zack said through clenched teeth.
"It's over." Sephiroth said smugly.
Zack grunted with the effort of trying to push Sephiroth's sword back, while Sephiroth wasn't even struggling. The pressure on the swords was so great that he cut right through Zacks blade, which had seemed very durable until that.
Somewhere nearby, Angeal was being informed of Sephiroth's presence, and his dispute with Zack, via phone call . "Impossible!" Angeal said, then hung up the phone and started running to find Zack.
Sephiroth gave another small laugh and pointed his sword at Zack, who was lying on the ground. Sephiroth lunged with his sword again."Ahh!" Zack shouted. His muscles tensed, waiting for Sephiroth to impale him.
The clang of steel against steel rang through the air. Zack opened his eyes to see Angeal, blocking Sephiroth's sword with his broken one. Angeal looked at Zack with his sky blue eyes that almost seemed to glow in the dim light of the town. Sephiroth stepped back a little, getting his sword away from Zack. Zack sat up and groaned. "Thanks, Angeal." He said and smiled. Without a word, Angeal stood up from his kneeling position beside Zack and got out his cell phone. He scrolled through the main menu, looking for something. He finally clicked a command that said 'Mission Abort?' Then asked 'yes' or 'no'. He clicked 'yes', then put the phone back in his pocket. The area Angeal and Zack were in started to beep and then disappear a little bit at a time, even Sephiroth.
"Training's over." Angeal told Zack after the room had gotten back to its normal, plain appearance. The scientists at Shinra had made this holographic room for members of SOLDIER to train in.
"What?" Zack got up off of the ground. "Why?"
In answer--if you could call it that--Angeal pointed the sword at Zack.
"You serious?" Zack asked, then took off the training goggles he was wearing off. The goggles were for seeing some of the holographic projections, but had no use since the session was over. "I was just getting warmed up!"
Angeal flipped the sword around and offered the hilt to Zack. He took the broken sword and sighed. Sadly, while the holographic Sephiroth was the one who did the damage, it was still permanent.
"Zack." Angeal said as he walked to the exit. Zack followed not far behind. Angeal stopped. "Embrace your dreams." He continued walking.
"Huh?" Zack asked and tilted his head.
Angeal stopped again. "If you want to be a hero, you need to have dreams." He turned his head to look at Zack. "... And honor." He continued to walk of of the room.
Zack stood there, not really understanding what Angeal meant. Angeal said stuff like that all the time. "Hm." He shrugged his shoulders and scratched at the back of his head, pondering.
Zack was in the SOLDIER break room, a bit angry. He did some squats, as he did often, to exercise and blow off a bit of steam. Kunsel, a 3rd class SOLDIER and one of Zack's best friends, walked in and sat down on the stairs of the sunken in room. "Hey, Zack. You seem a little on edge."
"Can you blame me?" Zack asked, continuing doing squats. "All this training and no assignments. It's like they're hanging me out to dry." He took a few breaths then continued. "You must be busy, with everyone else off base."
Kunsel had a puzzled look on his face behind his mask, which was part of his 3rd Class uniform. "Off-base?" he asked. "Wait, haven't you heard? There's been a mass desertion at SOLDIER," he explained and stood up.
Zack stopped. "Huh?" he said and faced Kunsel. He hadn't heard anything at all about this.
"It appears one of the 1sts deserted," Kunsel explained. "He took a bunch of 2nds and 3rds with him, too. Nobody knows why he left or what he's up to." Zack crossed his arms as he listened, wondering why he hadn't been informed of this. "This mass desertion's the reason your training's on hold." Kunsel looked over at someone approaching down the hallway. "Heads up, a 1st!" he said to Zack.
Angeal walked into the room, carrying his rather large sword on his back, the same way as always. The sword was about as big as Angeal himself. "Zack. New assignment." he stated.
"Woo! Finally!" Zack cheered. "Some real action!" He was glad to be free of the training room, at least for a while.
"This will be your show." Angeal said.
Zack fist-pumped. "Yes!"
"Report to Director Lazard." Angeal said, turning to leave. "We'll give you the details." He walked off, with Zack following eagerly right behind.
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Hope you enjoyed the first chapter :) not much happened, but, y'know. Exposition and stuff. Next chapter will be up next Friday ;)
-Demy
And yes. There is a reason SOLDIER is capitalized. It's not just me trying to emphasize the word.
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