Blue Soldier
Chapter 1: Chance Encounters
Training! Ah good old training, he remembered it well. It was all those join Shinra posters that got him started in it in the first place. "Fight the good fight and help unite the world and protect the innocent", and all the other duties of a world class peacekeeper. Young Erikson always had a strong sense of justice, growing up in the slums had shown him what a lawless society is like, he yearned to make a difference, to be recognised. He signed up to join Shinra as soon as he turned 16, and he had never regretted his decision, he began to question the motives of his superiors, but weren’t all politician’s dreams based on their greed, it was natural. As long as their greed also helped the public, Erikson had no quarrels with it. But he was soon starting to realise the hazards of his ideal. Being based at security in the sector 1 mako reactor was meant to be the most relaxed, low threat shift you could get, but not today.
Supporting the wounded Collins as he ran in a state of panic down the corridor. Sirens were blazing, reaching the end of the corridor, he placed his comatose friend gently on the floor as he tried to enter the door code. Time was running out, you weren’t gonna get out of this Erikson old boy, the thoughts said as they raced through his skull. Bloody terrorists had gone on a surprise rampage to the very core of the reactor, and planted a bomb. It had crossed his mind to run to the bomb and attempt to disarm it, but then realising that he had no bomb disposal experience, he decided against it. Apparently a 1st class Ex-soldier was helping the terrorists, Erikson hoped he would bump into the crazy SOB, after what the guy had done to Collins, the guy deserved every bullet he had pumped into him. On the fifth code attempt the door sprung open, picking up Collins once again he ran with all his worth. Thoughts of training came back to him, the cadets marathon, second place was not to be sniffed at, Erikson was very proud of his reward, and all that exercise was certainly coming in helpful now. Erikson came across another bunch of bodies and smashed up security robots. Who ever this Ex-soldier was, he certainly was tough. Collins got promoted last week, and now look at him, one encounter with the traitor and his roommate leaving a disheartening trail of blood was dragging him out.
"Come on Collins, hang in there, almost out" Erikson tried to sound optimistic, he failed. Coming to a crossroad in the corridor, Erikson had no clue where to go, picking the right door lead out on to a balcony. Running outside showed the border of Sector 8, all those people with no clue as to what’s going on. Oh how he envied them. Not many choices were available as the very building he stood in began to quake; the bomb had gone off! Erikson took a deep breath, held tight onto his friend and leapt off the balcony. The massive explosion engulfed the balcony they stood on seconds later. Luckily the building was on a slope, so Erikson gritted his teeth as he slid roughly down the wall he let out a muffed scream as he and his knocked out comrade ploughed into a busy market stall in the centre of Sector 8. Fruit and veg and other rare goods splattered around the two blue soldiers and any people unlucky enough to be walking past at the time. Standing up, Erikson dragged Collins out of the rubble and watched the full glory of the explosion. He didn’t know if he was lucky to have survived or unlucky enough to be in the damn reactor in the first place.
His spirits raised when he saw a small group of Shinra soldiers. They seemed to be all privates, not an officer among them.
"God am I glad to see you, where’s your CO?"
"Still in the reactor sir," the short recruit replied grimly. "We got out the same way as you."
Erikson thought for a second, "Ok its not over yet, that bastard has still got to be here somewhere. I grew up here in Sector 8 and there’s only one way that I know of that lead's out of the reactor into Sector 8. Unless they got out in Sector 1, which I think, is unlikely because they would have had to run back past the bomb to find an exit. Ok you!" He pointed at the short recruit. "Get HQ on the phone, and tell them what happened, and get my friend here to the nearest hospital."
"Sir yes sir!" the small cadet saluted smartly.
Erikson was only a corporal, he wasn’t used to being saluted, but he took command well. "Right, the rest of you, follow me. My bet is this terrorist scum is heading for the train station." He ran off towards the tracks, the rest of the small platoon followed. They ran past the Theatre, which featured a play called LOVELESS, he gave it a passing glance. People were blocking their way at every turn, there was even a girl selling flowers! Erikson couldn’t believe it, didn’t they realise something big just happened.
Finally they got in the clear. Two soldiers in the front of the group ran down the street
"You there! Stop!"
Erikson couldn’t believe their luck, it was him, the traitor! The soldiers opened fire but the man skilfully evaded their shots and nearly sliced one of the soldiers in two with a huge sword. The spiky blond haired stranger then blocked the other soldier’s dagger-stabbing attempt and swung his sword at the unlucky soldier’s body, the poor guy was dead before he hit the ground.
The soldiers ran out in front of Erikson, fighting their way through the crowd to get the blond warrior. Erikson began to charge when his radio buzzed urgently.
"Corporal Erikson, let us know when you have sighted the terrorist, we will send reinforcements."
"I see him now sir, gonna take him down."
"He’s there now? Easy corporal, we need him alive, just detain him, a pickup is on the way. I repeat you must…"
Erikson grumbled. Great now they had to use non-lethal violence, he would wipe the floor with them. Not that he isn’t already; knocking soldier’s aside the man leapt around and repeatedly sent troops flying. But finally the remaining standing soldiers managed to back him against the rail. He was trapped! Erikson dropped his still mumbling radio on the floor and joined his men. The soldiers formed a ring around the man, with Erikson at the centre. Erikson stared at the man’s eyes; they had strange blue glue, almost hypnotising.
"This is far as you go" the weary corporal ordered. Erikson could tell his men were itching to open fire.
The man stood expressionlessly at them; "I don’t have time to mess around with you guys!"
Erikson heard the train rumble underneath them, realising what the man planned to do, he moved forward swiftly. The man turned on the spot and jumped off the railing, landing on his feet on the train.
"Noo!" Erikson yelled. He ran to the rail. He got there in time to see the blond spiky hair disappear under the tunnel. His heart was racing; disappointed he turned to his men, who stood around confused, maybe they were considering giving chase. But it was hopeless, he had escaped. Cursing his luck, he walked back over to his radio, whoever was on the other end was still talking to himself.
" … Standard detainment procedures as in the Shinra troopers handbook. A pickup is now inbound. Erikson? Are you there?"
"He’s gone sir."
"What?"
"He’s escaped, jumped on a train."
The man cut off at the other end, obviously not pleased. Erikson didn’t really care, he glanced around him, and most of the soldiers attacked were still alive, thankfully. He picked up the nearest one and walked to the hospital, he ordered the other troops to do the same.
Chapter 2: Hurt Feelings
Still in his uniform, even though he was officially off duty 20 minutes ago, Erikson and the small ragged group of soldiers supported their wounded colleagues into the nearest shinra medical centre. Men and women in whites coats quickly ran towards them pushing stretchers. Erikson helped them pick up the groaning soldiers and watched them being carted away to surgery. When the last soldier had gone, Erikson sighed a sigh of relief. At least they were in the clear.
"Erm, sir?"
Erikson released the men were still following him. "Stop calling me sir, I’m only one rank higher than you guys."
"Well you seemed to be a natural commander anyways, better than Burnies, well looked what happened to him."
"Somehow I don’t think I’ll get promoted after today’s incident, the criminals got away. Go on, go home or to the barracks, theres no more for you to do here."
The men look hesitant as they left the hospital. Erikson stood at reception, one thing he had a do before he left. Sure was busy, must’ve had a lot of customers after that explosion. He finally spotted a middle-aged woman who was taking a break in the corner. She snapped as soon as he approached.
"Look soldier boy! I’ve been working my socks off for the last seven hours! If you’re wounded or have hurt feelings, see another doctor not me."
"Hey easy lady, all I’ve got is a question, and I’d appreciate it if you show a little more respect."
The woman fell quiet for the moment, searching for the right words. "I’m sorry sir, I understand you must have been through a lot today as well. What’s you’re question?"
"I had a friend carted in here. Corporal Collins, you know if he’s ok?"
"Oh him, yeah he’ll be fine, I patched him together myself. He’ll be off duty for a few weeks though. He was lucky."
Erikson grinned, "That’s great. Thank you, can I see him?"
"Well he is sleeping after his operation, I could wake him if you like?"
"No that’s not necessary, I’ll come back when he’s feeling more lively. Thank you nurse."
"Sure, I’ll tell him you were here. And by the way, its Doctor actually."
Erikson coughed and shuffled slightly embarrassed away from the Doctor. He left the building, he’d have to be in HQ early tomorrow, and no doubt they wanted to discuss what happened today. The motives of these little-known individuals puzzled. Why would they want to blow up the Mako reactor? What’s the point in cutting off everybody from cheap reliable power, including themselves? Well maybe they got caught on the train anyway; those ID checkers are pretty accurate. Well he’d worry about it tomorrow. Walking alone down the street, he noticed a bunch of graffiti on the wall.
DON’T TRUST SHINRA! THE MAKO REACTORS ARE KILLING THE PLANET! FROM THE SAVOIRS OF THE PLANET, AVALANCHE!
Avalanche huh? Odds are they were behind this. Erikson always figured them to be a peaceful group of protestors, not bomb toting terrorists. For some reason this badly scrawled message had more effect on Erikson than he liked, he had noticed very little animals and plants these days, sure had a lot of monsters though. Well not so much inside the city walls, but outside was like an uncontrolled zoo.
No matter, it was time to go home. It would be busy tomorrow. As he was trotting home still in full uniform, he heard a muffled whimper. It was coming from a dark alleyway. As a protector of the people it was his job to investigate. Even though he was off duty and very tired, he switched off the safety on his gun and went down the alley.
It was not a pretty sight. Several men in black cloaks were standing around chanting. A big heavily tattooed man in a black hood was stood on a large box and was holding a young woman against him, she was struggling against his strength in vain, and a look of terror was in her eyes. While in the mans eyes were signs of pure madness.
"It has BEGUN! The Number 1 has been DESTROYED! More will follow! And THEN! The WORLD will end! And he! Will lead us into the PROMISED land! My brothers! It. Has. BEGUN!" The huge man chanted with his arms outstretched and all the men followed his example. Erikson counted them, seven in total, didn’t look too tough, he smiled.
The large man continued, "And to praise the awakening of the spawn of Jenova! We will sacrifice this innocent to celebrate the beginning of the end!" The men in black began cheering and yelling. Clearly mad thought Erikson, he had to do something quick. Picking up a large rock, a plan came into his head.
The black hooded man held the girl up with one hand and held a dagger in the air with the other. He turned to face the girl and grinned a toothless smile. Then out of the darkness a rather large rock hit him hard in the forehead, he groaned and fell off the box into the dustbins behind, the lids clattered everywhere. The girl fell off the other side of the box and the seven dark men spun around as the soldier in blue stepped into the light.
"Catch you fellow’s at a bad time?" Erikson grinned, "On the floor, all of you! Now!"
The men all acted like seven reflections, each pulling out an identical crossbow and grinned back just as Erikson’s faded. They took aim; Erikson jumped into a pile of nearby boxes just as seven arrows thudded into the wall behind him. These guys mean business. The men reloaded all at once again. Seizing his chance Erikson ran and hit the first one in the nose with the butt of his dagger, the man went limp and dropped his crossbow, and Erikson caught him before he fell and the other men took aim and fired again. Using the human pincushion as a shield, he stumbled in his pockets for a stun grenade, flicked off the pin and threw it into the men. Three of the men were stunned and fell on the floor rubbing their eyes and moaning, the other three were unaffected. Dropping the first man, Erikson ran and stabbed the nearest one in the chest with his dagger, picking him up, he was surprisingly light, he threw him at the remaining two standing men who were reloading their crossbows, they scattered like bowling pins under the weight of their comrade. By now the stunned three were back on their feet, how come the stun grenades had so little effect? He’d never seen such a fast recovery. Sighing Erikson pulled out his machine gun, no chance of taking them back alive. He shot at them, firing a burst of rounds at a time. Each man dropped to the floor, they made no attempt to dodge the shots, and all they seemed concerned about was reloading their weapons. Just as Erikson turned round an arrow whizzed by his head, another struck his gun, knocking it out of his hand. Looking, Erikson saw that the two remaining black cloaks were back on their feet. Completely unarmed, he charged at them and they charged at him. The first black cloak took a swipe at Erikson’s head; Erikson ducked the blow and kicked out his opponent’s legs, knocking him to the floor. Silently the other man approached aiming the crossbow, grabbing the crossbow Erikson struggled with the man, who had surprising strength for a man of his size. Seeing he wasn’t gonna be able to force the bow out of the cloaked man’s hands, Erikson turned it round to face the man’s stomach and pulled the trigger. Erikson grimaced as he heard the arrow go in, but the man didn’t even flinch, he just looked surprised for a few seconds and then fell to the floor, holding his stomach in shock. Erikson sighed, this was the strangest fight he had had yet, and he usually had back up too. Quickly turning round the remaining man was just standing looking emotionless. He was looking for his fallen crossbow; Erikson ran up to him and grabbed him by the neck.
"Who are you guys? What’s going on? You better talk, it’ll be a lot easier for you in the courts."
The man looked just like he was going to say something when a huge fist hit Erikson on the side of the head. The huge man covered in tattoos was back on his feet, with a big lump in the middle of his forehead. He picked up Erikson and threw him into the wall. He looked and nodded at the remaining black cloak who turned and ran out of the alley. Turning his attention on Erikson he yelled.
"Ungrateful SINNER! Soon you will be JUDGED! Along with everyone with everyone else on this FORSAKEN planet." He kicked Erikson across the alley; he went clattering into the few bins remaining standing. " It has BEGUN and not even that Avalanche group can stop it! As it is WRITTEN! And because of you, the innocent has escaped. But I have plans for you too." The man smiled at Erikson who tried to get back on his feet. The man pulled out a piece of shiny green materia; Erikson had rarely seen any materia in his career, only those in SOLDIER were allowed it. The man began to yell his arms outstretched. Thoughts were racing through Erikson's mind, looks like he is casting a spell; god knows what it is. Quickly grabbing his last grenade he ran up to the man and shoved it in his yelling open mouth, the man look surprised as Erikson then kicked him in the stomach and he went flying back into the alley wall. The man looked angry and tried to stand up, just as his head exploded. The mess splattered everywhere, including over Erikson. The headless body toppled over. Erikson sighed, what a day. He found his surprisingly clean gun and his dagger and picked it up. He also found the green materia. He cleaned it off and left the alleyway. The girl had escaped, no need to say thanks thought Erikson. What a day, he’d file a report in the morning, for now he just wanted to go to sleep. He stumbled all the way back to his apartment in the barracks, the place was chaotic with all the soldiers panicking. He got some funny looks off the other soldiers, by the state of his stained uniform they probably thought he was in desperate need of a doctor. But all he had was in fact a few bruises. He got lucky today he thought. Fumbling for his keys, he unlocked the door and entered the dorm, he fell asleep instantly on the couch.
Chapter 3: Under Orders
Erikson’s head hurt as much as it did if he had been drinking heavily the day before, and it some ways, he wished he had. Waking up was never easy, but that knock on the head was only now beginning to have effect. Groaning, Erikson realized he had fell asleep in full uniform, including his helmet, no wonder he was uncomfortable. He took off his helmet and began to change into a clean set of uniform; it was lucky he had a spare. Looking at the clock, he realized he was in real danger of being late, he would have to eat breakfast on the way to HQ. His answer machine was bleeping for attention, in between getting dressed the man pressed the button.
"Honey, this is your mother, why haven’t you called sooner? It’s your auntie’s party soon I expect you to be there. Come on, pick up the phone." Erikson groaned and pressed the next message button; he’ll deal with mom later.
"This is mom again, pick up the phone, we have lots of things to discuss. Come on I know you’re there. I want you to…"
Erikson paused the message and read the counter next to it. 7 messages! Probably all from the same person. Sighing he grabbed his helmet and his weapons and left for HQ. He’d forgotten to lock the door aswell as it was swinging ajar. Come on Erikson, get a grip of yourself, his mind was on overtime as usual. Being careful to lock the door behind him he ran down the corridor towards HQ.
Late, just too late. The other soldiers looked sympathetic towards him as Erikson entered the main Shinra hall, Erikson realized they were the same group he teamed up with yesterday as the spiky warrior escaped. Heidregger was there, the fat man in a green suit was red with fury and being the last soldier to arrive, he seemed to take out his frustration on Erikson.
"You worthless maggot! The biggest screw-up in the history of Shinra and you have the nerve to keep the president waiting!" He beat his fists against Erikson's chest rather pathetically as he continued to shout abuse, "Spineless imprudent scum! Your lucky the president wants to question you all, or I’d have you all busted down to toilet cleaner duty!"
Erikson didn’t bother to reply, just stood there and took the abuse, wasn’t the first time afterall. Once Heidregger had finished his rant, he stormed off; the soldiers including Erikson followed suit. Leading to the president’s main chamber.
They all entered the chamber, few soldiers with ranks as low as theirs had ever been guests here, but if they should feel honoured or threatened was still to be decided.
The president stood tall at the head of the table, ready to start a speech. Heidregger sat down with all the suited members of Shinra while Erikson and the troops stood humbly near the giant doors.
"Welcome all," the rather plump president announced, "As you may have guessed, I did not call you all here to discuss the annual Shinra marathon. No. A rather more pressing matter has taken my attention. That you are all so slack that a group of five people could single handedly blow up 1/8 of my entire Midgar mako supply!" He slammed his fist on the table, and everyone jumped in response. "But no matter, we have a man in place and while this attack was a surprise to us, the next will not! We know which one we are going to attack next and I want to know what you plan on doing about it!"
One of the suits humbly raised a hand, "Sir, if I may, I believe I have the perfect trap, and it is the perfect opputuntately to test one of our latest robotic combat developments. I suggest that Airbuster will be used to detain such individuals." Heidregger grinned at the mention of his invention.
"Airbuster? Hmm ok, are you certain it will not fail?"
"Positive sir."
"Very well, but I shall personally be there to make sure these rather expensive vandals are crushed, one way or another." A wicked glare flashed through his eyes. " You soldiers are here today because you are the only ones who saw the main terrorist and survived, tell me, what was he like?"
The short recruit promptly replied. "Blond and spiky sir, quick as lighting and carried a sword as big as he was. A glow was in his eyes sir, is it true he was in SOLDIER?"
The president replied grimly, "Yes in a matter of speaking, though I suppose he is no more than a mistake from the past, and a delusional mistake at that. He is no longer needed, feel free to kill him on sight, and spread the word to your fellow soldiers."
The troops saluted smartly and turned and left the room, Erikson followed, but halted when the richest man in the world called his name.
"Corporal Erikson, please stay a moment longer. I heard from a trustworthy source that you had another struggle against some terrorists in league with Avalanche. Killed 8 men by yourself, quite an achievement."
Erikson was sure that they certainly weren’t friends of Avalanche, but now wasn’t the time to disagree, " I dispatched of eight unknown rogues yesterday certainly sir."
"I respect that in a man, I have another assignment for you, and promotion if you pull it off."
Erikson smiled eagerly, "Of course sir, how may I be of assistance?" Long had Erikson been looking forward to raising through the ranks, and maybe even joining SOLDIER, and become a legend like Sepiroth.
"I believe you know Mr. Reno of the Turks." As the president spoke, Reno stood up and bowed stylishly, Erikson's heart sank, he never liked the Turks, they always divulged in the darker arts, doing dangerous jobs that were too controversial to be seen in the public eye. The pres. continued, "As Reno here is without his teammates as they are busy, he requires some skilled troops to assist him in a … particular task. I believe you could pull it off."
Erikson was wary, he didn’t join a peacekeeping force to do underhand missions, "May I ask what the task is?"
"Well Reno will fill you in on the details. But there’s a certain person, who is useful to us, and she seems to … evade our assistance. Escort Mr Reno and help retrieve the girl. I know you will be an asset to the cause. From now on you’re in Reno’s command, now move out. I have other matters to discuss with my fellow associates." He seemed to glare at Erikson, until the corporal reluctantly followed Reno out of the room.
Shutting the door behind them. Erikson sighed, he was hoping to be able to help bring the terrorists to justice, but they seemed to believe they have it all figured out. The Turks obviously had a more pressing matter to solve.
"He’s a crusty old sod, ain’t he?" Reno joked. "We’ll just pop off to the barracks and pick up three more of you soldier boys and then we’ll be on our way."
"Where are we headed … sir?"
"The church in the Sector 6 slums, I always get the lousy destinations. Tseng gets Costa la Sol and I get a overhyped junkheap." Reno grumbled.
"Who is this woman that’s so important?"
"A good looking chica who answers to the name of Aeris Gainsborough. I’ll spare ya the finer details, but we need her alive, she’s very important to Shinra, and to our cause. I don’t want her harmed, understood? Just follow my lead."
"Understood", Erikson nodded, been awhile since he’d been over to Sector 6. He had a feeling it was going to be a long day.
Chapter 4 - Fall from Grace
Erikson followed Reno closely. After collecting three other troops, they jumped on the train to sector 7, disembarked and then walked through the gate to Sector 6.
Sector 6 appeared to be in no better shape than Sector 7. Towers of discarded rubbish were piled up as high as the majority of the buildings. Aside from the sectors wall market, which proved to be a haven to all sorts of people who chose to purchase questionable items that were frowned upon in other sectors. It was also the known lair of the Don, while Erikson was certain there is more than enough evidence to convict the Don in his underworld activities; there were uneasy rumours of an alliance between Shinra and the Don. This bothered Erikson, that a ‘peace-keeping’ force would join forces with a Mafia seemed to make no sense. Perhaps when he progressed through the ranks, Erikson may be able to make the system just and morally correct, as it should be. Though Erikson’s opinions of Shinra’s current methods were drastically being reduced as he witnessed all these latest events.
After a fairly inactive walk through the streets, then was a sudden loud explosion from high in the sky. Just leaving town, Erikson took out his binocours and looked to the sky and shortly after the noise what appeared to be a blond man fell from the sky at a rapid rate. No it couldn’t be… or could it?
"Mr Reno, Mr Reno, I saw a…."
"Shaddup!" Reno appeared to be listening to a radio that was shouting in his ear, there seemed to be chaos going on up above and Reno was getting the latest on what happened. Finally he nodded his head in agreement, forgetting that the radio operator couldn’t see him and switched off the radio. "Damn this is big. Avalanche just blew up Reactor Number 6! But the good news is that they seem to be in trouble"
"Sir, looks like the ringleader fell from right above us, he landed near the church." Erikson added.
"The church!? Damn, he better not mess up our abduction. Ok men, stay alert, chances are that the fall killed him, but be ready to finish him off."
Gritting his teeth at the word ‘abduction’. Erikson flicked off the safety on his rifle and followed the others; he had a score to settle with this guy.
The five men ran down the alleyway of junk, and finally came across the church, there was a huge hole in the roof, looks like Midgar’s-Mr-Most-Wanted had not landed near the church, but actually on the church, or through it rather. Reno mentioned to the men to wait near the door, while he went in the church.
Waiting anxiously outside Erikson peered round the door, and there they were, Reno seemed to be speaking to the girl, and sure enough there was the Ex-SOLDIER, seemingly uninjured from the fall. The church seemed to be as bad a state as the rest of Sector 6. At the back there was a large patch of flowers, they seemed to thrive, giving a sense of peace and beauty to the junk piles around.
"I should have known, you Shinra spy!" The blond fighter snapped at Reno, his eyes scanned all the soldiers as they entered the building, when Reno mentioned them to come in. His gaze caught Erikson’s for a few seconds but he didn’t seem to remember him, oh but Erikson so remembered him. Erikson’s finger itched on the trigger of his rifle. The woman was almost stunningly beautiful and there seemed to be a look of pure kindness and wisdom in her eyes, almost beyond her years. While the blond terrorists eyes glowed fiercely in all their SOLDIER glory. Erikson found it shocking that such a kind looking woman would be helping terrorists, still, he was glad he didn’t have to kill her.
After a few more pleasantries, the fugitive man and woman ran out the backdoor of the church. Reno slowly advanced towards the door they left by, he didn’t seem concerned that they could be escaping.
"Go after them, kill him and get the girl. I have more pressing matters. Oh and don’t step on the flowers." Saying this while actually strolling across the flowers, crushing them under his feet made some of the other soldiers laughs.
"Hey Reno! You just walked on them!"
"Your gonna catch holy hell!" another one laughed. They seemed to be in good spirits, of course they have never seen this guy in action before, and Erikson had. He wished he had their optimism.
Reno went back out the front and Erikson took command of the three troops. "Come on men, lets get em!"
Charging out the back door, Erikson looked up and there they were. They appeared to be climbing up the rafters searching for an escape point, probably the hole he made in the fall. The man jumped across quite a big hole on the ledge up high and the girl seemed to be hesitating, This could be their chance to separate them and grab the girl.
"There they are, open fire!" Erikson yelled. The four men fired at the ledge the girl was walking on and sure enough, the shock caused her to lose balance and slide off the edge, tumbling towards the floor. The fugitive looked distressed at the fall of the girl, she obviously seemed important to him.
"Did we kill her?" One of the soldiers seemed worried.
"Shouldn’t have run away I say." One was less concerned. This made Erikson almost panic, if they did kill her they would all be in serious trouble and he was hugely relieved to see her suddenly stand up and try to run away.
"Easy men, try and corner her." Erikson ordered.
The four men approached from different directions, trying to lure her into a space so they could lung at her and grab her. The woman backed away from them uneasily and ran behind a barrel.
"What should I do Cloud?" she yelled pleadingly at the roof.
Up above the man was running around frantically, he seemed to thinking of a plan. "Hold on a sec!"
"Ah ok." She replied meekly.
The soldier nearest to her made his move and approached her calmly. As he was walking, everyone on the floor jumped when a barrel fell down harmlessly, narrowlingly missing the soldier, he looked pleasantly surprised and somewhat confused.
"Cloud what are you doing!" The woman yelled angrily at the man, Erikson now realised his name must be Cloud. The soldier lunged at her and she took up the attack posture, welding a staff of some sort. The other soldiers looked at Erikson, wanting permission to jump in and help their comrade, but Erikson refused it, too many men could kill her easily and he was pretty sure the plucky private could take her himself.
Realising he was getting no help, the soldier charged and took a swipe at her with his dagger. The woman skilfully dodged to the side and as the man continued running, she brought the side of her staff on the back of his head. Stunned and surprised from this attack, he didn’t even make an attempt to dodge her second swipe, which uppercuted him from under the chin knocking him out cold. Erikson was slightly stunned by her resistance and decided to charge at her himself, if you want something doing properly, do it yourself.
The woman spotted his advance and quickly ran round the other troops and up the stairs. Erikson smiled uneasily under his helmet, at least the ledge was broken and if she ran all the way up the stairs she probably would lack the courage to jump just like she did in the first place, and they could try and hold her still, she certainly was a quick strong willed girl, he didn’t really want to hurt her.
"Come on Miss, don’t make me do something I regret." Erikson asked.
She didn’t seem to hear him, "What should I do Cloud!?"
He repeated, "Hold on a sec!"
Erikson had the horrible feeling of what was going to happen just as it did. The barrel fell from above and landed on the stairs a few feet in front of him, and rolled toward him at an incredible speed. Erikson froze from fear and was rooted to the spot, he knew he had no hope of getting out the way, it was as wide as the stairway almost and it was more than a short distance to the bottom of the stairs. He just had time to close his eyes as it hit him, sending him tumbling down the stairs with it. Everywhere went dark suddenly as the force knocked him out and he lay in a crumpled pile at the bottom of the stairs.
Chapter 5 - Memories
While Erikson’s body was for the moment out of use, his mind was far from inactive. His mind racing through all the main points in his life, the highs and the lows.
Growing up Sector 7, playing with the other kids, he remembered them all Rusky, Wedge, Jessie and Collins too, and look how he ended up. Unlike the other kids Collins and Erikson used to have a great interest in Shinra, sneaking into the barracks and repeatedly being thrown out when the soldiers caught them. As they grew up, they learned to admire the soldiers, living in the slums they were often burgled and it was Shinra who they turned to in their hour of need. While most of the other kids made up pretend rebel groups, Erikson signed up as soon as he could. Saying goodbye to his shack and his family. Luckily Collins had been stationed to the same platoon, so he was never amongst true strangers.
Recent memories plagued him the most, the strange message scrawled on the wall by Avalanche, not to mention the huge explosions. What seemed to worry him the most was the president’s evil grin, and Erikson was beginning to see more and more of the president’s underhand methods. But surely Shinra doesn’t want to harm the planet just to line their own pockets with gold; they have to live here too afteral. No the terrorists are cold-blooded murderers, he had witnessed that yesterday, they had to be.
Suddenly the darkness shifted, and the memories that came with it shifted too. Groaning heavily as the pain of reality and his bruised body returned to him, he opened his left eye first, followed by his right and then sat up quickly taking in his surroundings. He was back home, lying in his bed, back in his shack in sector 7, was he dreaming? He lied down again slowly, how the hell did he get here? The place had been redecorated recently by the look of it, but it unmistakably his room. As if sensing the young soldiers waking up, a middle aged balding man slowly opened the door and peeped around. A grin appeared on his face as he opened the door fully, pulled up a chair and sat on it the wrong way, his arms resting on the backrest.
"Welcome back to the land of the living, lad."
"Uncle?" Erikson rasped, his voice hadn’t apparently caught up with him yet.
"Aye I see your memory is still working, even if your mind clearly isn’t. I knew joining up with Shinra would be the death of ya."
" But I’m not dead, which is puzzling the say the least, how the hell did I get here?"
" Good old Clark, the church caretaker found you. After taking of your helmet to check if you were alive he recognized you. Good job he used to be postman around he or he would have never have guessed as where to take you."
"I’ll thank him later, and my wounds? And my broken bones?"
"Well you can thank your mother for that. Good old-fashioned care and a chunk of cure materia soon sorted you out. I noticed you had some materia on you, ‘fire’ if I remember rightly, you should use that, it gives you the advantage over an average combatant."
"Materia?"
"Yeah you know, the stuff you Shinra boys don’t like us having, along with any other useful stuff which you feel free to take from us." The man's voice was filled with concern and anger.
"Don’t worry, I’m not going to take it from you, and don’t give me any more of your false anti-Shinra bullshit Uncle, I get enough of that when I come here to visit you guys."
"You’re a damn fool boy. It breaks your mothers heart to see you join up with those evil oppressors."
"Evil oppressors?! The vast majority of shinra’s troops are solid gold honest soldiers."
"What good is a honest soldier if he can be ordered to behave like a terrorist!" The man stood up; this was clearly something he was very passionate about.
Erikson cared a lot about his family, but they were so stubborn sometimes, nevertheless he wasn’t going to back down on this. "Terrorists! How you can compare Shinra with the scum like Avalanche is beyond me!"
"Avalanche are our saviors boy! We’ve been waiting a long time for someone to make a stand against Shinra. And as for your ‘honest soldiers’, it is a fact that now 70% of Shinras soldiers are recruited from prisons and the Mafia."
"What! That’s stupid"
"It’s the truth! At first, Shinra only recruited soldiers from the law-abiding public, but as the greed and underhand methods began to become more obvious, more and more people left. Shinra was forced to employ murderers and thieves to work. In fact they found it even more profitable, as convict labour can be practically run for slave labour. As long as they ‘behaved’ themselves, they were given another chance at life, but this time in a position of power, the cons didn’t get paid but they didn’t care about that, all their needs were taken care of. Think of the reports of Shinra beating up innocent civilians and robbing the public blind, think they were all just made-up, I know they are not. Open your eyes Erikson!"
"But…" Erikson became silent. He too had heard reports of Shinra troops doing more crimes than the actual people they were arresting had had. But he had dismissed them as false, he refused to believe that Shinra could be corrupt.
"See? You’re becoming to realize the truth aren’t you?"
"What! No! It can’t be true, it could just be all made up, how can you claim that you know any of this is a fact?"
"Because I worked for them myself." The man suddenly looked much older than he was, and there was an expression of great pain in his eyes.
Erikson was shocked, "I … I didn’t know."
"Nobody but your mother knew. I was one of the highest-ranking officers in the force, and I left when I saw what it was becoming. But not before I was ordered to do some hideous acts of cruelty on small villages across the globe. A thriving town called Corel for example. We heard reports of rebel activity was there and had orders to destroy the town. I told my men to burn down the town myself … the guilt of what I did still haunts me today."
"This is a lot to take in Uncle."
"I know Erikson, but just think about it. Go into your precious HQ, look on the archives on the 58th floor, you will find the truth there, the password is MAKO, that’s all I ask."
Erikson considered what the man had said, and decided to check it out when he reported back to HQ. A sudden not pleasant thought entered his head, he looked at his watch, he had been knocked out for more than a whole day! HQ would fire him for not reporting back to base, or worse!
"I have to go Uncle." He leapt out of bed and searched for his uniform. He was surprised his family hadn’t burnt it.
The man turned around to give Erikson some privacy. "What? Can’t you stay for another day? Spend some time with your family. Your mother has been waiting by your side for the past day, waiting for you to wake up. You can at least talk to her"
"Where is she?" Erikson said while still changing into his uniform
"She’s at the town centre, shopping for more food. She won’t be that long I imagine."
"I’ll be back before you both know it. There’s something I have to do first. Thank you both for looking after me, and thank Clark too when you see him next."
Turning round to face his nephew, "Ok … you’re not going to talk to avalanche are you? I won’t imagine they’d be very hospitable towards you dressed in full uniform like that." The man chuckled, a sigh of the old him returning after all the dark memories.
"Avalanche? Why would I? I have no idea where they are, why? Do you?"
"I thought you knew, well most of Shinra does by now. Their hideout is right here in the slums; god knows what tactics Shinra is going to use to round them up. But it won’t be long before I find out, I imagine."
"They are right here! And you didn’t report them earlier?"
The man gritted his teeth, "I told you, I’m an Avalanche supporter, they are pretty much the only hope we have these days."
"… Ok, well I better go. I’ll be back before the day is over, thanks again for everything."
"Your welcome. Take care, don’t go getting yourself killed."
"I’ll try" Erikson smiled. The men shook hands and Erikson darted out the door. He took a few moments to look at his old home, it hadn’t changed much. Then he ran on the path to HQ. He had some serious thinking to do on the way.
Chapter 6 - Pain and Suffering
Finally reaching the doors of Shinra HQ. Erikson ran past reception and took a quick breather while leaning against the wall. What to do first? He should report to Reno or whoever was in the Turks department. But he decided that could wait. Walking calmly up to the lift, with his gun resting on his back. He punched in the number 58. Erikson wasn’t really supposed to be up here, but his respect for Shinras had degraded considerably since that barrel had whacked into him. Luckily the door was unlocked; he was worried he may have to obtain the right key card from someone. The door whirled open and Erikson strolled around the floor, there wasn’t many people up here. Wondering where everyone was, must be some kind of emergency on. Oh well, made his job sneaking onto the archives a bit easier.
The door to the archives lab was also unlocked. And sure enough, there was a computer in the middle of the lab. The place was also empty so he grabbed a chair and pulled it into the computer. Switching on the computer, a password screen popped up. Erikson typed MAKO, not very original he thought could have guessed that himself.
There were far too many files to read, some of the most important Shinra missions were located here, and some very questionable ones at that, mostly Turk missions he realized. Spending the next 20 minutes scrolling through the mission logs. Erikson found the file marked ‘Corel rebellion’. Uncle Herbert had been right, seemed there was an accident at the new reactor there, Shinra assumed it was rebels and destroyed the whole town itself. The file was even signed by his Uncle himself. Erikson looked through the other files and discovered other disturbing documents. Mass producing Mako monsters at Nibelheim, many assassinations on behalf of the Turks, the list of pain and suffering went on. There was even a file on solutions to the employment crisis thanks to deserting soldiers over the last several years, and the convict labour which solved that problem. Taking a big sigh, Erikson was at a crossroads, should he desert too, following the example of his Uncle. But then what could he do? Join Avalanche? Its unlikely they would let him in, and could he bring himself to fight against his old comrades? Even though when he thought about it, most were petty, cruel and greedy, fitting well with their convict lifestyle. But there were good soldiers working here too, could he bring himself to fight against them? Or should he stay at Shinra? Maybe the only way for an organization to stay good is for the good people to stay in it. Erikson didn’t know what to do; he slumped down in a depressed pile in his chair. A few moments passed and Erikson finally stood up, he switched off his computer and went back down the lift to the Turks department.
As soon as he got on the floor and made a few steps down the corridor when two people ran past him. Tseng of the Turks and Scarlet, a beautiful but ruthless politician who worked side by side with the president. They stopped when they almost ran into Erikson.
"You!" Tseng pointed at Erikson while he talked. "I heard about you, you were in Reno’s platoon but you screwed up and went walkabouts, right?"
"Well I didn’t really go walkabouts… sir." Erikson replied grimly
"Well Reno was looking for you this morning with a very important mission, but you were nowhere to be found, so I ordered him to take a few replacements. I would send you to help out, but you’re almost certainly too late to change the outcome. As for me, I have a helicopter to catch." Grinning wickedly he ran on the lift and went up to the chopper bay, leaving Erikson with the woman in red.
"Begging your pardon, ma’am. But what mission was he going on about?"
"Oh … I suppose I can tell you since you are in the Turks platoon. They are going to crush Avalanche, literally."
"Crush?"
"Oh yes" she laughed, "Rather than fight them, we’re simply going to destroy the support holding the plate above Sector 7, should be fun to watch, they are going to be squished like bugs."
"But… but what about all the townspeople?"
"Bah and what fine members of the community they are too. Rebel hoarding scum, they’ll be crushed too and we’ll simply be able to blame the terrorists, ah bliss!"
Erikson snapped, "No damnnit! I can’t let you do this!"
"Huh?" She was surprised at his rage.
Pushing her out of the way, she tumbled over a desk into a mountain of paperwork and he ran down the corridor to the ground elevator.
How could they do this madness! Kill everyone in Sector 7, including his family, just to get to a terrorist group with only a few members. He had to stop it, or at least warn the people, but he could already be too late, he had to hurry.
Running out of HQ, he quickly got down to Sector 8, dodging through the busy streets he approached the sector 8 gate to sector 7. Impatiently waiting for it to open, his heart sank when the full view of the horror of was going on in the plate was available for him to watch. He got through the doorway just as the pillar exploded in all its glory; he heard the screams from the onlookers and as people desperately tried to outrun the falling plate. The screams awoke Erikson to reality and he quickly ran back through the gate to Sector 8, just as the falling plate and mountains on rubble landed where he had stood mere moments ago. A massive explosion rocked the ground and the entranceway caved in under the pressure of the crumbling landscape. It took a good few moments for the dust to clear, and Erikson kicked of the junk that rested on top of him and observed the carnage. They were dead, all dead.
"Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!" Erikson screamed in pure rage and beat his fists against the rocks that used to be an entrance to sector 7.
Two soldiers walked up behind Erikson and started cheering.
"Hah that’ll show em! Rebel loving bastards!" said one.
"Yeah and I hope it was a slow painful death for the lot of em." The other one spat on the ground as he spoke. He spotted Erikson, "Hey what’s the matter with you, don’t tell me your upset over a few inbred stupid slummers."
Erikson whirled round on the spot and glared at them with all the fury in his eyes and his hand instinctively went to the materia in his pocket. He pointed it at the soldiers and focused all his energies on them, and in response they instantly set on fire, running around screaming and rolling on the floor trying to put the fire out. Erikson felt no remorse for them, the fury was in his blood, he looked at the materia and realized that it did indeed give him the power of fire. Clutching it hard in his fist he glanced up at the Shinra HQ towering high in the sky. He stormed past the smoldering soldiers and marched back to HQ. Revenge clouding his mind.
Chapter 7: Impossible Odds
Erikson planned to go straight to the HQ, but what would that prove? Fighting alone against impossible odds He had little idea of what his revenge included in the first place, but he knew one thing, that it involved his gun, 1000 bullets and the fat presidents corrupt melon head.
Time was on his side, there was no rush, he hadn’t been properly debriefed and had been missing most of the day, they would be wondering where he was, but that didn’t matter anymore. None of it did, the power, the uniform, the duty, it all meant nothing. As he wandered around Sector 8 and beyond he lowered deeper into depression. Stopping only at a donut shop on the way to the train station, they were fuel for the raging inferno inside his head.
He sat on the train to Sector 6, maybe by some miracle his family had escaped out the other exit and were waiting for him in the sushi bar in wall market. This slim hope was all that kept him from snapping and instantly clubbing the punk sitting next to him on the head. He was glad noone tried to talk to him, or god-forbid ask for a ticket. He would only have yelled at them or worse.
Finally the train arrived at Sector 6. People all around the town were understandably pretty shook up; always glancing up at the plate high in the sky, fearing it might fall on them too. Some people asked Erikson if it was safe to stay in this Sector, or Midgar at all for that matter. Erikson ignored them, his mood was far too dark to consider their feelings at the moment. He had things on his mind, lots of them.
He searched all of Sector 6, there was no sign of them. He knew it was a false hope but his heart still sank. He took off his helmet and tossed it aside, he slumped down in the dirt, head in his hands. The pain of all the emotions running through him. But there was no time to mourn, not with the rage pumping through his blood. Picking up his helmet and ruffling his short brown hair before he shoved it back on his head. He stormed across to the nearest weapon shop.
"Give me ammo for a standard issue Shinra rifle, and a box of grenades."
"Hey I know it’s the slums buddy, but I thought at least some of you guards had manners." The bald shopkeeper replied.
"Not today I haven’t," Erikson's face was grim, "Give me those clips of ammo."
Finally equipped to the teeth with ammo. Erikson bought a backpack at a nearby shop, he’d spent four months wages in a matter of moments but this never occurred to him, as far as Erikson was concerned, it was blood money. Shoving his arsenal into the backpack, Erikson began the trek to Shinra HQ, he had a lot of planning to do on the way. As he was about to board the train he bumped into a familiar face. It was Collins.
"Long time no see Buddy." Collins was smiling, almost insanely.
"Collins! My god, you okay?" Erikson was shocked.
"Better than ever actually." He seemed distant. Looking at Erikson, almost peering into his soul. He seemed slightly taller than Erikson remembered and he didn’t seem to be wearing his glasses.
"Why are you out of hospital so quick? Where are your glasses? Ah nevermind of all that! Have you heard what has happened to home? Its beyond belief." Erikson was glad to see his old friend, perhaps he could convince him of the truth and together they could possibly work out what to do about it.
"Give me a chance to answer. What can I say? I have a fast recovery system." He grinned, "I’m wearing contacts, and yes I know what’s happened."
"If you knew what happened, why the hell are you grinning? That was our family down there! Those bastards murdered everyone in the whole town! What the hell is wrong with you!"
"They deserved to die a traitors death, I made sure of that." Collins replied coldly.
"What? ……" Erikson couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Collins eyes seemed to glow fiercely at Erikson’s shock.
"Can we go somewhere a little more private? I have a very interesting offer to make you, on behalf of the president." People in the queue and on the train were starting to look impatient. A train instructor started walking up to the two soldiers.
"Collins, tell me what the hell is going on. Now and here dammit."
"Fine, if you won’t move of your own accord." Collins hand snapped around Erikson's neck and lifted him off the ground. Grunting as he picked up Erikson completely and threw him at a nearby shack. Erikson groaned as he made contact with the wall and slumped to the floor. The train instructor put his hand on Collins shoulder to try and stop him, Collins replied by grabbing his hand and twisting it behind the instructors back, then using his other hand to grab the instructors hair and with surprising force smashed the mans head through the nearest train window. Dropping the man’s limp body as the people in the queue ran away screaming. Collins walked over the body and muttered to himself,
"Insects. Nothing but insects."
By now Erikson was back on his feet, "What's happened to you!" This couldn’t be happening, not after all he’d already been through. The train darted off, leaving the platform empty.
"I am enhanced!" Collins yelled. "I lied before, I only recovered so fast because I made a deal with Shinra. They injected my body with Jenova cells, you’ll love em, the latest thing. Makes me stronger, makes my eyesight better, makes me endure more. Shinra made me the man I am today!"
"Why would you do such a thing?"
"You don’t know how bad I was hurt, my friend. I was all messed up inside, I probably wasn’t going to make it, despite what the doctors said, I knew it and they knew it. So I made a deal with Shinra’s high ups. "
"A deal?"
"They made me one of their Jenova prototypes in my hospitalised state and in return I became their spy."
"Spy?"
"I discovered Avalanche’s location long ago and felt it my duty to inform my employers and even suggested the method of extermination."
"You killed your own family! And mine!"
"I killed rebels who didn’t deserve to live, they knew the rebel’s hideout long before I found it and did nothing. I could never understand that. I kept the hideout’s location secret for a while, unsure what to do as my family were all in favour of the terrorists. But after the Reactor No.1 incident, I changed my mind. And decided they should be punished."
"You bastard, you don’t know what you’ve done!"
"I’m aware of what I’ve done. But how come you’re defending Avalanche? You saw first hand the terror they caused, and now your all dressed up like you’re going to war."
"I realised the truth, Shinra does more harm than good."
Collins sighed. "Look you were my friend, my best friend. Its not too late for you. I have an offer."
"Don’t waste your …"
Collins interrupted. "You’re one of the best soldiers in Shinra history, Shinra knows this. They also realise your family was in league with the rebels so they doubt your loyalty. Come back to us, swear loyalty to the president, and they will promote you and give you the same Jenova cells I have. Together we can sort out this bloody mess."
"You take those Jenova cells, and you shove them up your ass!" Erikson spat at Collins.
"And if you refused I have orders to kill you."
"Try it." Erikson stood firm, his friend was dead to him.
Collins frowned. "Out of everybody in the world, I never thought I would have to fight you. Don’t make me do this."
"Oh its way to late for that now, after you butchered a whole town of innocent people. There’s no way I would join you." Erikson stood in a fighting stance.
"So be it." Collins charged at Erikson.
Nimbly Erikson leapt to the side and Collins missed in his charge and hit the shack behind them. Erikson drew his dagger and whacked the butt of it on the arched back of Collins. Collins groaned and Erikson brought up a knee in Collins face, breaking his nose. Blood spattered as Collins fell backwards. Pulling his gun out, Erikson aimed at Collins face, Collins looked up at him from off the ground. He couldn’t force himself to pull the trigger, then he remembered his family and fired the gun, the bullet thudded into the floor just as Collins rolled out the way and grabbing a nearby plank of wood and thrust it into Erikson’s stomach. The rifle flew out of Erikson’s hands and he held his stomach, winded by the blow. Collins drew his dagger and sliced at Erikson, tearing the flesh on his arm then with the other hand, uppercutted Erikson under the chin and his body actually flew into the shack. Collins followed through the now smashed up doorway. Erikson fuelled by rage stood and punched Collins in the face, he stumbled back out the door cursing as he fell back.
"That’s it! Now I’m not giving you any chances!" Collins yelled as he picked up Erikson’s gun lying outside the shack. Erikson sensed what was coming and quickly flipped over a table and sat behind it, scanning the small hut for anything that could be a weapon. Outside, Collins flipped the gun on full-auto, pointed it at the shack and held down the trigger. The thin walls of the hut couldn’t take the force and the bullets torn through the metal. The room was peppered with bullets and Erikson lay behind the table, praying that he wouldn’t get hit. Then he remembered his materia, it was his only chance. He couldn’t actually see the insane Corporal Collins, but tried to visualise his target. Outside Collins stopped to reload another magazine, just as the gun set on fire, setting his hands on fire. Screaming in pain as the flames toasted his flesh. He dropped the gun and rapidly tried to put out his flaming digits.
"You sick bastard! Where the hell did you get materia!" Collins gritted his teeth as he painfully pulled a grenade out of his pocket and winced as his burnt fingers pulled out the pin, he then threw it in the shack. Erikson saw the grenade as it rolled toward, by some miracle he spotted a small hole in the wall where the shack was improperly built. Thank you shoddy cheap labour! He thought as he crawled through the hole. Just as the shack exploded and the blast forced him out of the hole at a rapid speed. He lay in a crumpled heap under a pile of rubble.
Collins approached around the ruin and kicked off the plate of metal on top of his former friend. Erikson looked dead, but then his eyes opened, staring with the same fury at Collins. Erikson tried to move his legs, but they seemed pretty cut up and were still trapped under the rubble. Erikson’s fire materia lay on the floor. Collins grinned as he picked it up, before Erikson tried to grab it.
Collins pulled out his pistol and aimed it at the now defenceless Erikson’s head. "So it ends here, huh?" Silence followed. "You saved my life, didn’t you? Back at the reactor. And in return I’ll spare yours."
"Should have left you to burn." Erikson spat blood.
"Maybe so. But I’ll give you one chance, leave this town and never return, in fact, leave the goddamned island. Go live in the jungle for all I care. Start fresh. Hope that I never see you again, because if I do I will kill you. Me sparing your life evens the score, they’ll be no more life sparing, understood?"
"I’ll bear it in mind."
The standing man looked thoughtful. "Here." He threw his pistol on the ground, a few metres out of Erikson’s reach. "When someone helps you out of the rubble, that’s if you don’t die of your wounds first of course. Do yourself a favour and shoot yourself in the head, it’ll be the best thing for you in the long run. Kill yourself while you still have some honour and dignity, I owe you that. There’s still one bullet in the chamber, it should be enough my friend."
Erikson looked at the gun to his side as Collins jumped when his radio sprung into life, only few words were audible through the heavy static. Collins put the crackling device to his ear and listened. A big smile came across his face.
"Looks like your rebel friends didn’t get the hint when the plate fell. They only went and attacked Shinra HQ and got themselves captured by the Turks. Ah the joy! See you around Erikson."
Collins turned and walked away, a few citizens nearby quickly moved out of his way, pretending they haven’t been watching all that’s been going on. Erikson tried to move his limbs, he was trapped and far too weak to move the rubble, then an idea came into his head. His cure materia should still be in his pocket. His right hand grasped it tightly and he tried to focus on its energy. Suddenly he could feel his wounds heal as the green mist did its magic. His mind felt drained and tried, he knew he couldn’t cast another spell for a while, but all his physical strength had returned. He kicked off the rubble and stood up, lunging for the gun.
Collins stopped at the tracks, looking down the rail he could see a train approaching. Should be a quick ride to HQ he thought. The adrenaline of the fight was still pumping through his veins, he never knew a career at Shinra would be so exciting. A pleasant song came into his head, and he hummed while the train approached, just as he heard a loud crack. Feeling a sharp pain in his back and chest and then he felt nothing. Just numb. Looking down at his chest he could see blood, and a hole where his heart should be. He gingerly touched the hole and slowly turned round. Erikson was smiling, the gun smoking in his hand.
"You … did it. I…" Collins started to black out.
"Goodbye Collins" muttered Erikson. He watched as his former friend tumbled backwards onto the track, just as the train ploughed into him. The train driver screamed and hit the emergency brakes and the train skidded to a halt, leaving the passengers inside looking very uncomfortable. Erikson dusted himself down, and walked away. Stopping only to buy a crossbow and a box of tranquilliser darts, he had a feeling he might need them. Then he boarded the next train to Shinra HQ.
Chapter 8 : It’s a living
Walking in the huge main doors of the Shinra HQ, Erikson looked around, it seemed so alien to him now. He stood out a bit; his uniform was ripped, covered with dust and old bloodstains. There was no way an officer wouldn’t immediately charge up to him looking like that. And meeting an officer was dangerous, if Collins knew of Erikson’s deflection, chances are they would too. He had to find a new uniform and fast.
Few people talked to him as he walked around the lower levels, some gave him a few weird stares, and some even recognised him and asked if he needed medical help. Erikson politely refused and moved on quickly, approaching the gym’s locker room, hopefully someone would have left a uniform there. Just as he went to open the door, an officer in his proud red uniform turned the corner and spotted Erikson, looking disgusted he ran towards him.
"You there! Whoever you are, halt!"
Erikson opened the door and ran into the locker room.
"Hey! Are you deaf? Come out of there this second!" The officer yelled and followed him in. Erikson looked around, there were two soldiers relaxing around the place, but he had no choice. Hiding behind a bench, he loaded his crossbow and shot the officer as he charged in the room. The red man flumped down asleep instantly and the off duty soldiers looked shocked and stood up. Erikson quickly reloaded, swung round and shot them as they ran for cover. He sighed as he checked the three snoozing men, they were all-ok, but would wake up before the hour was over. He had to be quick.
A few minutes later, Erikson emerged in his brand new red officers’ uniform. Instant promotion, he always wanted to be an officer. When noone was looking, he snapped the handle off the door; he didn’t want anybody finding the sleepers too soon. Having found a convincing disguise, Erikson pondered what to do next. He still like the idea of helping Avalanche, Cloud had given him headaches on numerous occasions, but he knew it was the best thing to do, the right thing to do.
He walked longingly around the halls of his old base, knowing this is the last time he would ever see it, without being shot at of course. Finally, the prisoner quarters approached. The guard on duty looked puzzled to see him there, but saluted anyway. Erikson saluted back.
"What’s your name soldier?"
"Harris, sir!"
"Well Harris, fetch me the prisoner report over there, I wanna know what to do with these scum."
"Sir yes sir!"
Erikson sighed as the young soldier turned his back and marched to the paper report on a nearby desk, pulling out his crossbow he aimed and shot him in the back. Best thing for him in the long run. The soldier fell down, comfortably asleep. Erikson took the key off his snoozing body and looked in the cells, what a rag tag bunch of rebel wannabes. How did they expect to beat Shinra? But he had to give them a chance. There was Cloud, asleep in the same cell as some woman who looked familiar, but Erikson couldn’t quite put a name to the face. A girl in pink, must be Aeris, a man with a gun on his arm, and a strange lion creature. All asleep, using the key Erikson unlocked the first cell, just an alarm sounded and his officers’ radio buzzed into life. Worried that unlocking the doors could have set the alarm off, Erikson cursed his stupidity, but was relieved to hear that the alarms were caused by a massive attack on the base, this relief then turned back to worry as he realised that a full scale invasion was always bad news, and bloody terrible timing too!
"ALERT, ALERT. All soldiers arm themselves immediately and report to your nearest officer. This is not a drill!" The Radio chirped, and the sirens flashed red in the hallway. Taking a last look in the unlocked cell, Erikson saw all the rebels were still asleep, must have been a rough day for them. Erikson couldn’t remember the last time he slept. He walked out of the cellblock, and saw various soldiers marching down the corridor, in various panicky states. All of a sudden, misty portals appeared in front of the marching troops and strange creatures leapt out, fangs bared. They reminded Erikson of the Jenova monsters he had read about, but he had always dismissed them as rumours. Three creatures emerged from the portal and the nearest two soldiers were quickly mauled to the floor. The remaining two soldiers ran back round the corner to Erikson.
"What do we do, sir?"
"Umm" Erikson remembered he was in an officer’s uniform. "Shoot em!"
Two of the beasts feasted on the now dead soldiers, while the third charged for Erikson and his soldiers. The men opened fire and the monster halted in its tracks, screaming as the bullets ripped it apart. The two remaining beasts looked up and charged. The men returned fire and only had enough bullets in their guns to kill one of the creatures before they needed to reload. Erikson cursed as the creature knocked him and the soldiers to the floor. The creature leapt on one of the soldiers and growled, it opened its mouth, showed its teeth and stuck them into the man's neck. Erikson stood up quickly, kicked the creature of the man and stuck his dagger in the creature’s chest repeatedly till it stopped moving. Panicked by the death of his comrade, the remaining blue soldier ran away. He ran down the corridor and was about to enter one of the offices, probably to hide under one of the desks. When the doors opened for him, out stepped a tall man in a black cloak with long white flowing hair. The trooper couldn’t believe his eyes, and neither could Erikson when he looked up.
"Sepiroth? I thought you were dead?" The private asked.
Without replying, the black cloaked man drew back his sword and thrust it into the mans chest, lifting him off the ground, before lowering his sword and watching as the man slid off and landed with a thump on the ground.
"What the hell? Has the world gone insane?" Erikson muttered.
Sepiroth barely looked at him, before silently walking down the corridor away from Erikson. Erikson stood up, only to be knocked down from behind by yet another creature. This time he lost his grip on his dagger and it slid across the floor. Erikson flipped over and the creature crawled on top and bared its teeth, raising his feet he pushed with all his might and sent the creature flying into a nearby office. Standing up, he found his dagger, reloading his machine gun. Walked in the office, the creature stood up and looked like it was going to pounce again. Erik wasn’t going to give it chance. He held down the trigger and the creature was forced back from the bullets, before being blown out of the window, screeching as it fell. Sixty floors up, that had to hurt. Erikson reloaded god it almost took a whole magazine just to stop one of these beasts from moving. He was glad he brought a lot. He turned round again, and there was another creature at the doorway, just watching. He fired the gun, but it wasn’t enough, the slimy creature had him pinned to the floor in a matter of seconds. Erikson punched it, but the monster merely clawed him in return, this beast seemed much bigger than the rest and Erikson could barely move under its weight, he couldn’t move his arm to get his dagger. The superior strength of this new creature, made Erikson sure this was the end, he closed his eyes and gritted his teeth. Then a boot kicked off the creature, and on the end of the boot was a familiar face. The man drew his sword and lashed out at the creature who stood up very angry. The creature was as fast as it was strong, and nimbly dodged out the way. The man almost buried his sword in the nearby wall. The creature leapt at him and the man swiftly brought his foot round in a roundhouse kick and sent the creature sprawling. Erikson now opened his eyes, and recognised him. It was Project Ace! Though Erikson had never met him he had seen many articles in newspapers on him as Shinra’s next big thing, he was intended to be Shinra’s next version of Sepiroth. Hmmph and look how Sepiroth had turned out. Ace pulled his sword back out of the wall and swung it at the creature, just as it leapt at him. The sword connected with the beast in the air and chopped it clean in half. The two halves landed in different sides of the small room. Ace helped Erikson back to his feet.
"You know, I would have thought at least some of you regular troops could handle yourselves, I’m fighting every one of these beasts myself." Ace muttered.
"Not every one of them … sir" Erikson felt slightly jealous, here was a guy, slightly younger than he was, and he was in 1st class SOLDIER. And with a much bigger pay check to boot. Though Erikson was just a grunt, at least he now knew the truth about Shinra. This Ace guy would probably be working with them for life.
"Well get back to the barracks, we’ve suffered massive losses, we probably need officers like you to help out a plan, these beasts outnumbered us 2 to 1. I’ll try and finish off a few more. Any word from the pres.?"
"Umm no. I’ll check on him myself. Watch out for Sepiroth, he’s here and he seems crazy. I bet he’s been cutting down our troops a lot too."
"Sepiroth? Wow, I always wanted to meet that guy; I’ll try and find him. What’s your name captain?"
Erikson realised he had no idea whose name this uniform belonged too. He quickly looked at the tag; there was no tag! He better make one up, one that didn’t already exist. "… Higging …Smith...ton … erm Higgington sir."
"Captain Higgington?" Ace looked at him strangely. "Ok… well keep up the good work."
"It’s a living sir." Erikson chuckled.
Ace chuckled in return briefly and left the room. Running off in the distance after probably another monster. Erikson sighed, time was short, he better check on the president, before he evacuated that is.
Chapter 9 : Just another body
Erikson approached the presidents quarters. It seemed eerily empty. He had encountered only two monsters, there seem to be fewer of them now. But even fewer soldiers, alive ones that is. He wondered if the president had survived the carnage.
Apparently he had. He was sat at his desk and he looked in and yelled at Erikson when he came in. He was sweating heavily and was far from the calm in control guy Erikson remembered.
"Where the hell have you been!? There’s monsters outside my very door and I have no bloody guards to protect me. Hang on, where’s the rest of you? I asked for a platoon to escort me out, or even a helicopter! Not one poky officer!"
"The platoons dead sir." Erikson was grim.
"So you mean, all I have for company is you … and that fat idiot Palmer over there?"
Palmer poked his head from behind a pillar, "Don’t mind me, I’m perfectly happy here."
The president gritted his teeth, " So Captain, how do you plan on getting just me out of here, since Palmer is perfectly content where he is."
" You see sir," Erikson took off his helmet. "There’s a problem."
"Dammnit! Erikson! What the hell are you doing here? Where’s Collins?"
"Collins had to catch a train, he didn’t make it."
"So I take it you refused the offer."
"Could say that, and now I’ve come to make sure that your diseased corrupt scum infected genes don’t make it to another generation." He drew his dagger, shooting was too good for this evil swine.
"I see… well I have a son you know" The president took it pretty well, he smiled, he could see something Erikson couldn’t. "And you have to deal with him behind you first."
Erikson felt a tap on his shoulder and turned his head, while keeping his gun pointing at the president. Sepiroth used the butt of his blade and whacked it into Eriksons side, the surprise of the blow sent Erikson into the wall, Erikson’s prized dagger cluttered to Sepiroths feet. He groaned as he made contact with the concrete. But not once did Sepiroth’s eyes move off the president.
"Sepiroth, my old friend! I knew you would come back to us, good timing too, just as all these monsters show up." The president grinned.
"I sent all the monsters here you cretin, you’re so pathetic. You can’t even control the loyalty of your own men." Sepiroth snarled.
The fat presidents grin faded. "You sent them? Now…now… why would you do that?"
"You seek the Promised Land?"
"…Yes"
"Well I cannot let you get too it. I’m afraid I must kill you, but don’t worry, you’ll soon be joined by the rest of this miserable planet."
"Well I have a secret too, I knew you sent those monsters, I just wanted a little time to prepare something." The presidents grin returned. Sepiroth looked slightly surprised as the little fat man jumped onto his desk, pointed his hands at Sepiroth and muttered some arcane ritual. Then a ball of green energy shot out his hands and blasted the blacked cloaked man in the chest. Sepiroths sword flew off into the distance, but Sepiroth himself was frozen to the spot, looking suitably angry.
The pres. gave out a short cheer. "I can’t believe it worked! Hah, you see my old 1st class SOLDIER buddy, I don’t just sit around telling people what to do all day, I decided to study some of my dark arts. And that, my friend, is a 1st class stasis spell. And it’s the first spell I actually got to work, I’m so thrilled it’s on you." He returned to his seat, glaring at Palmer who was still hiding behind the pillar. "Its ok, you coward, that stasis spell works for up to 24 hours. Though on a guy with that power, it’ll probably only last an hour. But that’s still enough time to get out of here, my son says he’s on his way in a chopper, shouldn’t be long now."
Palmer muttered, "Erm sir? Where did Erikson go?"
"Erikson! Dammit!" He looked around, his eyes darted the room, scanning for the traitorous corporal. No sign of him. The president charged up another stasis spell, he started rubbing his hands together, might aswell make Erikson into a matching statue alongside Sepiroth. "Come on you coward! Show your face! I’ll kill ya like I killed your whole family! Just imagine the pain on their faces as they were crushed to death! That’s nothing compared to what I’m going to do you!! Show your friggin face!" The richest man in the worlds eyes darted around the room again, he noticed something, Sepiroth’s sword was missing.
Erikson had raised the sword from behind the president, gave out a yell, focused all his rage into a single thrust and drove it into the presidents back. The power of the blow was so intense that the sword drove straight through the evil mans heart, and right through the desk, almost burying itself in the floor. The president gasped in shock and then just slumped down on the desk, clearly dead. Erikson took a big sigh of relief, he almost felt if the spirits of all the innocents on his mind had stop haunting him, they had been avenged. He walked away from the man pinned to the desk slowly, Palmer was still shivering behind the pillar. The blue soldier, who was now in red smiled. It felt so long since he last smiled. Thoughts of what to do now crossed his mind, but then he looked at Sepiroth, the green mist was gone. Before he could react, Sepiroth had picked up Eriksons prized dagger and threw it at him. It buried itself in the young mans chest. Stunned by the shock, he slowly brought his hands to the dagger, but lacked the strength to pull it out. The world felt numb and muted. Sepiroth muttered something that looked like "Thanks for the help" and smiled evilly at the mortally wounded soldier. Erikson fell down to his knees. And focused the last of his strength into a final saying.
"One day, someone not unlike me, is going to kill you. And I’ll be watching."
Sepiroth shrugged and turned around, his cloak twirling in the light behind him, as he walked off. Erikson fell off his knees and onto this side, his hands still clutching the dagger. His eyes seemed to be the only thing he could move, then it all went light, and he passed out.
A few hours later, the group known as Avalanche went into the room, and crowded round the presidents corpse. They didn’t even notice Erikson lying there, he was just another body to them. They talked a little and moved on. No thoughts of what he had done for them crossed their minds, he was just another blue soldier.