Disclaimer : I don’t own the X-Men or Final Fantasy VII related elements or characters.
Chapter 1 : Landslide.
The sky is dark with bright stars. Many stars with different shapes and sizes. The dark sky is over a city. This city is known as Kenrad. A woman with brown hair along with a grey streak in the front, with blue jean shorts, green shirt, and green gloves to match, stands in front of a building. There’s a hole inside the building, and green energy comes from it. As she turns away from the hole, picks up her flower basket, and walks into the streets, she sees people walking and vehicles pass by. A train is traveling around the city and eventually reaches its destination. Two guards dressed in yellow watch as the trains slows to a stop.
Suddenly a man jumps from the train and takes out one of the guards. As the other guard runs toward him, a woman jumps off and takes that guard out. Another man jumps off the train and runs along with the two previous jumpers. Another man jumps from the train with black messed up hair, a white muscle shirt, blue jeans, and black gloves on his hands, signals for another man to jump off. “C’mon, rookie! Follow me!” he yells. As he yells, the last passenger jumps off. He has brown medium length hair, wears a black short sleeve shirt, blue jeans, with a brown belt that has places to carry card decks. There’s six carriers, three on the left side, and three on the right. A bo-staff attached to his back by a holder, and black fingerless gloves on his hands. He begins to follow the white shirted man, the white shirted man makes it past two green guards, while the black shirted man is blocked.
The two guards lunge at him. He pulls out his bo-staff, sticks it into the ground and jumps over their heads. He quickly turns around and smacks one guard across the neck with force, knocking him out. The last guard turns around and runs toward him. He removes a card from one of the carriers. The card turns pink like it has energy stored in it. He throws it at the guards feet. An explosion erupts from the card, knocking the guard off balance. As the guard lies on his back, he runs toward him and sticks his bo-staff into the guards chest. Making him lose his breath, then quickly smacking him across the face to knock him out as well.
He runs to catch up with the others. He sees them all run into the reactor except for one who stays behind. As he runs into the reactor, the woman is toying with the door to unlock it, while one of the men watches her back. The man sees the black shirted man come up to him. “WOW! You used to be in Falcon X all right!…Not everyday ya find one in a group like Landslide,” he exclaims. The woman looks up from her wires at the man.
“Falcon X? Aren’t they the enemy? What’s he doing with us in Landslide?” she asks. The man looks at her.
“Hold it, Lessie. He WAS in Falcon X. He quit them and now is one of us. Didn’t catch your name…” the man says to the black shirted man.
“…Remy,” he replies.
“Remy, eh? I’m…” he’s cutoff by Remy.
“I don’ care what your names are, once dis job’s over…I’m outta here,” he says. Out of the blue runs up the white shirted man.
“The heck you’re doin’?! I thought I told you never to move in a group! Our target’s the North Dako Reactor. We’ll meet on the bridge in front of it,” he says. Lessie opens the door. She rushes in along with the two other men. The white shirted man looks at Remy. “Ex-Falcon X, huh? Don’t trust ya!” he exclaims. He turns and runs through the door. Remy looks at the reactor building then runs inside. He runs past a bunch of old parts then through the door. As he runs through the door, he sees stairs going downwards. He runs down the stairs and sees another door and runs through it. He sees the white shirted man and the others and walks up to them. “Yo! This your first time in a reactor?” the white shirted man asks.
“No. After all, I did work for Zenria, y’know,” Remy replies.
“The planet's full of Dako energy. People here use it everyday. It's the life blood of this planet. But Zenria keeps suckin' the blood out with these weird machines,” the white shirted man says.
“I’m not ‘ere for a lecture. Let’s just hurry,” Remy cuts in.
“That’s it! You’re comin’ with me from now on. The names Logan,” Logan says. Remy shrugs and walks up to Lessie as she deciphers a code for the locked door and pushes a button. It opens, they run through only to come to another locked door. One of the men deciphers its code and pushes a button, the door opens and they run through. They come upon an open elevator and they enter. Lessie points.
“Just push that button there,” she says. Remy walks over and pushes the button and the elevator begins to move downwards. As the elevator moves, Logan says something.
“Little by little the reactor’ll drain out all the life. And that’ll be that,” he says.
“It’s not my problem,” Remy says with a shrug.
“The planet’s dyin’, Remy!” Logan yells.
“The only thing I care about is finishin’ this job before security and Drago-guards come,” he replies while shaking his head. Logan turns around and shakes his fist. Finally the elevator reaches it’s floor and they run out. Lessie leads the way by running down a staircase then eventually through a door. There is a ladder in front of them and they climb down it. They run across a beam, while Lessie stays behind, Remy and Logan climb down another ladder. They jump to an area below and land on a pipe. They run across it only to climb down another ladder. As they climb down it, they run across the bridge and make it to the core of reactor.
“When we blow this place, this ain’t gonna be nothin’ more than a hunka junk. Remy, you set the bomb,” Logan commands.
“Shouldn’t you do it?” Remy questions.
“Jus’ do it! I gotta watch to make sure you don’t pull nothin’,” Logan replies. Remy sighs.
“Fine, mon ami. Be my guest,” he replies. As he tries to walk up to the reactor, he falls to the ground holding his head and hears a mysterious voice from his body reaction.
“Watch out! This just isn’t a reactor!!” the voice yells. Remy begins to regain his sense.
“……What’s wrong?” Logan asks.
“Huh?” Remy questions.
“What’s wrong, Remy? Hurry it up!” Logan demands.
“…Yeah, sorry,” Remy says. He tries again to walk to the reactor. He succeeds and sets the bomb, they hear an alarm go off. Remy looks around.
“Head’s up! Here they come!” Logan yells. Suddenly a large robotic scorpion walks up to them. It does nothing at first, then it scans both of them with a green ray of light.
“Objects scanned,” the robots voice says. They run to a different side of the scorpion and begin to attack. Remy takes out a few cards and throws them. It creates a hole and electricity starts to shoot out. Logan makes his claws come out from his knuckles. He slashes at the robot only leaving scratches. He gathers all his strength and hits the robot only leaving a hole on his side. Electricity shoots out of that hole as well. They jump back in front of the scorpion and it begins to rear back it’s tail. “Look out, Logan! I’ve seen dis before, it’ll shoot a tail laser at us if we attack while it’s tail is up!” Remy exclaims. They stare at the scorpion and make no movements, eventually the scorpion lowers it tail. Seeing this a perfect opportunity, Remy takes out his bo-staff and lunges into the air with it. He removes four cards from one his carriers and charges all of them. He throws two cards into the hole he created and two into the hole Logan created. He lands behind the scorpion a distance back. The scorpion explodes and the battle is victorious. As the alarm continues to roar, a voice comes from no where.
“10 minutes till detonation,” the voice says loudly.
“Come on, let’s get outta here, mon brave!” Remy yells to Logan. They begin to run back where they had started. Climbing all the ladders, going up a floor with a elevator, climbing more ladders, then eventually find Lessie stuck. Remy runs over and notices her leg is stuck. He frees her and she jumps over him. They climb up another ladder then through a door. Lessie runs over and deciphers the code again and pushes the button, it opens. They run through and a man deciphers the last doors code and pushes a button. They run through and finally make it out of the reactor. As soon as it’s about to explode, Lessie falls down. Remy turns around, helps her up, and both of them run. The reactor blows up and goes up in a big cloud of smoke.
They find a locked gate and Lessie programs one of her bombs while everyone waits around.
“That should keep the planet going…at least a little longer,” one man says.
“Yeah,” the other man replies.
“………” Logan says nothing.
“OK! Now everyone get back!” Lessie yells as they run back. The gate blows open and everyone jumps through the flames. Everyone makes it through safely, except for one of the men. He runs around trying to put the fire out on his rear. He finally gets it out.
“All right, now let’s get out of here. Rendezvous at Section 8 station! Split up and get on the train!” Logan commands.
“H, Hey!” Remy yells.
“If it’s about your money, save it ‘til we’re back at the hideout,” Logan replies. Logan runs off and Remy goes his own way, he runs into the flower girl.
“Excuse me. What happened?” the flower girl asks.
“Nothing…hey listen, don’t see many flowers around here,” Remy replies.
“Oh these? Do you like them? They’re only a dollar…?” she offers.
“I’ll buy one, chere,” he accepts.
“Oh, thank you!” she pulls out a flower from her basket. “Here you are, sugah!” He nods his head as a thanks. He hears a train whistle and runs off. As he runs, he’s cut off by eight green guards.
“I don’ have time for dis, mes amies. Maybe some other time?” he asks as he sees the train pass under the bridge. As they begin to shoot at him, he jumps onto the top of the train. Meanwhile inside the train.
“Remy never came,” one of the men say.
“Remy……wonder if he was killed?” another man questions.
“No way!!” Logan exclaims.
“Remy……” Lessie says to herself.
“Say, do you think Remy’s……going to fight to the end for Landslide?!” a man questions.
“The heck would I know?! Do I look like a mind reader? Hmph!! If y’all weren’t such screw ups…” Logan replies as he hits a crate next to him.
“Hey, Logan! What about our money…?” a man asks. Logan hits the crate again.
“Uh, nothin’…sorry,” he replies.
“Ahhh!” a voice screams for outside the train. Suddenly there’s a knock on the train door, then another knock. Eventually Remy opens the door and does a front flip inside landing on his feet in front of Logan. Everyone jumps.
“Remy!!” one man exclaims.
“Remy…” Lessie says.
“Remy!!” the other man exclaims as well.
“Looks like I’m a little late,” Remy says.
“You dang right, you’re late!! Come waltzin’ in here and makin’ a big scene!” Logan snaps.
“It’s no big deal. Just what I always do,” Remy says.
“Crap! Havin’ everyone worried like that you don’t give a dang ‘bout no one but yourself!” Logan replies.
“Hmm? You were worried about me!” Remy exclaims.
“Wha?! I’m takin’ it outta your money, hot stuff!” Logan looks at everyone. “Wake up! We’re movin’ out! Follow me!” he demands and takes off to the front of the train.
“Hey, Remy!! You did great back there. Names Hedge, by the way,” he says following Logan.
“Heh heh……Remy! We’ll do even better next time! The name is Jiggs,” he says following the other two men. Lessie walks up next to Remy.
“Be careful, I’ll shut this.” She shuts the train door. “Oh, Remy!! Your face is pitch black……” she wipes his face. “There you go!! Say, thanks for helping me back there at the reactor!” she nods as she catches up to the others. Remy follows them into the next train car. Logan’s anger scared some the passengers away.
“Last train out of Section 8 Station. Last stop is Section 7, Train Graveyard. Expected time of arrival is 12:23AM, Kenrad Standard Time,” the conductor says over the intercom. Remy walks over and talks to Lessie.
“Hey, Remy. You want to look at this with me? It's a map of the Kenrad Railing System. Let's look at it together. I'll explain it to you. I like this kinda stuff. Bombs and monitors…you know, flashy stuff. Okay, it's about to start. This is a complete model of city of Kenrad. It's about 1/10000 scale. The top plate is about 50 meters above ground. A main support structure holds the plate up in the center, and there are other support structures built in each section……psst…whisper…whisper…(The No. 1 Reactor we blew up was in the northern section.) Then there's No. 2, No. 3 all the way up to the No. 8 Reactor. The eight Reactors provide Kenrad with electricity. Each town used to have a name, but no one in Kenrad remembers them. Instead of names, we refer to them by numbered sectors. That's the kind of place this is. Phew…this is next! Look. This is the route this train is on. The route spirals around the main support structure. We should be coming around the center area, right now. At each checkpoint, an ID sensor device is set up. It can check the identities and background on each and every passenger on the train by linking it up to the central data bank at Zenria Headquarters. …whisper… whisper…(Anyone could tell
that we look suspicious so we're using fake ID's,” inside of the train turns red as it’s being scanned. “Speak of the devil… That light means that we're in the ID Security Check area.)…whisper…whisper…(When
the lights go off, you never know what kind of creeps'll come out.)…anyhow, we're almost back now. That's a relief,” she says.
Remy walks over to where Logan is sitting. “Look…you can see the surface now. This city don’t have no day or night. If that plate weren’t there…we could see the sky,” Logan explains.
“A floating city…pretty unsettling scenery,” Remy says.
“Huh? Never expect ta hear that outta someone like you. …you jes' full of surprise. The upper world…a city on a plate… It's 'cuz of that freakin’ pizza, that people underneath are sufferin'! And the city below is full of polluted air. On topa that, the Reactor keeps drainin' up all the energy,” Logan replies.
“Then why doesn’t people just move onto the plate?” Remy asks.
“Dunno. Probably 'cuz they ain't got no money. Or, maybe…'Cuz they love their land, no matter how polluted it gets,” Logan answers.
“I know…no one lives in the slums because they want to. It's like this train. It can't run anywhere except where its rails take it,” Remy states. The train travels around the city and eventually comes to a stop. All of Landslide gets out with Remy coming out last.
“Yo!! Get over here, all'ya!! This mission was a success. But don't get lazy now. The hard part's still to come! Don't y'all be scared of that explosion! 'Cause the next one's gonna be bigger than that! Meet back at the hideout!! Move out!” Logan commands. Everyone scatters abroad and Remy makes it to their base. Logan runs inside and scares everyone out with his claws.
“Ok, Remy. Go on ahead in!” Logan orders. Remy goes in and a little girl runs up to him.
“Papa!!” she says excitedly. After a few seconds, she runs away, realizing it’s not her papa. A black skinned woman with white hair runs to comfort her.
“Marle! Aren't you going to say anything to Remy?” Marle shakes her head and says nothing. The woman walks up to Remy. “Long time no see, Remy,” she says.
To be continued. |
