Aiko nodded, carefully hearing what her contractor had to say. Fortunately for her, it seemed she wouldn't have much problems regarding the package she would be transporting. Her rules for such services were simple. As long as it wasn't something that would explode or harm her in some way, she would be fine transporting it. The part about having a preference for the package to be delivered without it being damaged was a given but it was still nice having a confirmation that it wouldn't explode or anything like that.

According to what she heard, it seemed to be a simple job. Transporting a few packages back and forth a few times, fast and without being caught.

"Seems to be a simple job." Aiko said, thinking as she looked at her contractor, analyzing his expression and reaction. Many times, a lot about the job could be said only watching their expressions and reactions to Aiko's words.

"Half now, half later." Aiko said with a firm expression.

"Doesn't hurt to be careful." Aiko said, still looking at her contractor.

"I assume you know the 'rules' for such jobs, don't you? Silence and discretion for both sides." she said, waiting for his reply. Most people who came to her often knew how to proceed but sometimes there was still some who were new on that sort of business and didn't know them by heart.

Despite her petite build and rather cute appearance, the way she spoke to him made it clear that she knew what she was talking about and that she had already done that before. As long as her contractor provided her with the necessary information, guaranteed that the package was safe and followed the rules, she wouldn't make any other questions nor she would try to pry her nose into stuff she shouldn't. She was good at what she does and professional. If they still had any doubts about her, the reputation she had around those parts would provide the additional confirmation they might need.

In the course of her brief twenty-two years of life, Maddie had come to recognize a fundamental law of the universe: No matter how truly insignificant they may be, men of power - without exception - suffer grandiose delusions. And those delusions, more often than not, ultimately lead to downfall and devastation.

"That's been a question floating around the group for a while, but inevitably the answer had to be that we need to knock out Shinra power, period. Not inconvenience them with a repair job, but ruin it, destroy it.”

The man she had the misfortune of drinking with was the perfect example of this: he truly believed that his “grand plan” would bring about the change he so desperately desired. But it wouldn’t. Maddie had no precognitive ability, nor did she harbor any belief in such matters of the supernatural, but it didn’t take a psychic to see the obvious consequences of the man’s plans. Destroying a reactor wouldn’t harm Shinra in the slightest. Their resources might as well be infinite at this point. For every reactor Avalanche could destroy, Shinra would simply build two more. Getting into a war of attrition with Shinra was a fool’s gambit.

If anything, all this bombing mission could hope to accomplish would be the collapse of the community built around the reactor. Sure, plenty would die in the initial explosion and the resulting chaos that would ensue, but countless more would be affected in the aftermath. The number of lives that would be lost should even a single vital hospital lose power would be staggering. And for what? Avalanche would either (idiotically) take credit or be (rightfully) blamed by Shinra for the heinous act. Public opinion for the group would plummet. How could anyone play at being “Freedom Fighters” then take aim at the innocent?

In a grandiose display of irony, Avalanche - by following through with this plan - would fend off potential destruction and suffering in the future by...causing destruction and suffering now. Shinra’s sworn enemy would become the company’s greatest asset - offering a loud, obnoxious diversion to the, quite frankly, morally repulsive actions the company was performing across the globe. Granted, Maddie wasn’t privy to EVERYTHING the company was involved in, but she knew enough to know that she wasn’t exactly working for the good guys.

But hey, when the “good guys” deem countless innocent lives being snuffed out as an “inconvenience”, maybe that was just a sign that morality is bullshit. In that case, was it really wrong to side with the people offering a bigger paycheck? And besides, Shinra offered dental. Hard to pass that up.

“Their power must be broken so they have nothing to lord over others with."

Yes, the tyranny of Shinra could not be suffered even a moment longer. We should all strive to do everything within our power towards the ultimate goal of suffering under the tyranny of Avalanche instead. Deep down, in her heart of hearts, Maddie loathed this man. The disgust was surface level as well - make no mistake about it - but it was comforting to know that on a fundamental level she also hated him. It was one of the few things about herself that she could confidently claim as truth.

Maddie let the man have his monologue and, when he had finished, took a nice, slow drink. The alcohol was cheap - even if she hadn’t paid for it herself, the way it violently clawed at her throat in a desperate attempt to save itself from taking a plunge like a terrified housecat above a bathtub of water was unmistakable - and the mix was stale. But to be fair, a disappointing drink was the perfect companion to a disappointing drinking companion.

“Hon’, I’m not gonna lie - you’re kinda letting me down here.” she admitted, leaning forward. She held the mug with both hands, her elbows propped upon the table. She gazed at her contact over the top of it, but offered a sly smile through the semi-opaque liquid and glass. “Any amateur with a cookbook could cobble together something quick and dirty that could work for your little job here. But you came to me... So I would hope that you would want something a little more than just... ‘quick and dirty.’”

She shot her man a mischievous grin before taking another swig of the burning piss that the barman had the audacity to sell her. But she wouldn’t show her disappointment just yet. Not in the drink nor the pig in pants pretending to be a man across from her. She had a plan. She didn’t particularly like the plan, but she had a hunch that it just might work. She also had a hunch that she would most likely need to make a number of appointments with a therapist in the very near future. But let’s be real, no amount of therapy would ever make what she was about to do any less horrific. And she would most likely need to eliminate the therapist after their session, have to protect those company secrets after all, but that was a whole ‘nother can o’ worms.

“There’s a golden opportunity here, y’know? Why settle for just breaking Shinra’s toy when we could use it to send a message? Babe, when it comes to booms, I’m the best in the business. Are you following me? No? Well then...let me break it down for you...”

Maddie lowered her drink onto the table and gave a glance about to confirm that no one was actively listening to her conversation. Then, once satisfied, she rose to her feet and walked around to his side of the table. Standing over him, the woman began to lean in close. She tucked her hair behind her right ear before resting her hand against his chest. She brought her face to his ear, close enough to feel the warmth radiating off his skin. When she was close enough to be sure that he would feel her breath brush against his neck when she spoke, Maddie set the bait. She dropped her voice to little more than a whisper and purred. “If you were to get me to the reactor core, well then honey, forget a bomb - we could set off a lightshow that they’d see all the way over in Wutai. Then there wouldn’t be a soul on the planet who didn’t know about Avalanche.”

She let her words float for a moment before she pushed off of him and stood up straight again. Grinning like a fox, ‘Naomi’ let out a chuckle. “And you, sir, would be squarely at the top of Shinra’s Most Wanted list. Mr. Public Enemy Number One.” she teased, her grin spreading into a bright, toothy smile. Before he could reply, however, she held a finger up in front of her lips and pivoted on her feet before making her way to the bar. Once there, she flagged down a barman and ordered a shot of whiskey and a glass of water. The nausea was threatening to strangle her and she had half a mind to just let it. She desperately needed something to drown it and that watered down paint thinner in a mug back at her table wasn’t cutting it. She needed a shower and a lobotomy, but failing those, a gratuitous amount of cheap alcohol might just do the job. For now.

After treating her trauma and starting what would likely end up as a beautiful yet troubling relationship with alcoholism, Maddie returned to her table, sliding into her chair opposite the contact. She grinned at him before leaning back in her chair and performing an overly exaggerated rolling of the eyes complete with deep sigh.

“Buuuuuuut...I guess if you’re so dead set on being booooring, I SUPPOSE I could build your basic bitch bomb. You’re the boss after all. Just lemme know where and when to pick up my 'package.'”

And scene.

She brought her glass of water to her lips, but didn’t drink just yet. Instead, she observed the man. If she were lucky, he would take the bait and she would have secured her spot on the mission. From there, she would have a much better chance at ensuring that the mission either failed or went poorly. It was her best bet at sparing both precious innocent lives and company property - regrettably not in that order of priority. Otherwise, there was little she could actually do to sabotage the bomb without dumping a dangerous amount of suspicion on herself. And, to be frank, if she had gone through something as truly vile as making physical contact with this creep, she wanted it to at least have been for something.

If she wasn’t so lucky, well…

A shudder ran down Maddie’s spine. It was best not to think about it.

Either way, if she got through this job, she was definitely renegotiating her contract with HR. If this was to be any indication for how the job was going to be going forward, she would be demanding both dental AND vision.

"What the fuck is happening?" Tace thought to himself as the situation escalated and was now completely off the rails. Who the hell were these clowns? Two just suddenly appeared and offered more money. It was almost tempting to take them and the girl along. But he was about to raise that price. Something was brewing and he knew it was going to get him in trouble if caught. So he was thinking maybe a cool 15k would be enough to give him the courage to wheel them over to the Fort.

"Shinra Ranger Special Forces, don't move!"

Fuck! His instincts were really on point for this time. Great now some high level goon was sticking them up. As much as he hated Shinra, it was much too soon to get involved with whatever dissidents these people were. Still it's not like he'd be cooperating with this goon. The girl would react first and unleash some sort of magical ability creating some shockwave and threw something. It was time to act before the goon did something and or more of them swarmed them. He wasn't in the mood to get in a fight and also get in trouble with the law after getting off the boat.

"Keep your money. I don't have time for getting in trouble just yet." He'd say speaking non-specifically to them. His hand would peer out from the window holding a strip of cloth held by a levitating ball. "But let's say I'm not an uncharitable man either." With the other hand on the clutch, he'd cast a haste spell on the girl and the two men. Then he'd enter reverse and do burnout as he spun in a circle dispersing thick smelly smoke from the burning tires. The motor roared with a vigor unfitting the shabby frame and then man would speed out of the docks. He nod destination in mind, outside of just getting the hell out of here.

At the present moment, Scarlet of Shinra's Weapon Division was lounging in her office, taking a self-imposed breaktime as she let the day go by when...ugh, a call from the technicians in her area interrupted her. These people... They were good at what they do, but they didn't know when to leave her alone...which was any time she wasn't heading them up for a status report. She let the phone ring for a few times, her index finger moving along with the melody for a moment, until finally hitting the button to answer.

"I'm busy right now. What do you want?"

"My apologies, ma'am! I just wanted to tell you the good news."

"Oh? Well, I suppose I'll forgive you that...for now. Tell me."

"We figured out the problem in the original programming used on the X-Series. Apparently, the adaptive strategic and terrain learning protocols was causing the effect. You teach 'em too much and they start to take action on their own in anticipation of a need, rather than waiting for orders, effectively working completely autonomously."

"So, what you're saying, then, my dear egghead, is that more than adapting, they were thinking, and by having thoughts of their own, they could choose to ignore certain orders, even up to the Executive level."

"That's about the size of it. If we limit the process in the mainline Custom Sweepers and have them memory-dump automatically, none of this will ever happen again. We can even service the prototypes themselves-"

"Not interested. Let them run free. It's more fun that way. Either someone'll destroy them or they won't. You just focus on the ones coming off of the assembly line, clear?"

"Yes, ma'am."

She hung up on him and resumed her relaxation. Who said being in charge was difficult? Not this lady. The only machine she really cared about was the one under their feet, potentially damaging their assets, and she had taken the precaution of sending that SOLDIER out to go kill it for her. Even if he failed, the fault would be on Heidegger...

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

But onto another Shinra representative...Maddie! For the past few minutes, the Turk had been taking in the ravings of a potentially madman and was now attempting to basically coerce him into a different line of action by acting unimpressed by their plan and proposing an alternative of sorts. She had seen him - during this pitch - getting annoyed by her cajoling, narrowing his eyes at her in some sort of scrutiny, and then taking on an...ultimately more thoughtful expression as he considered her words. He broke the silence with "Interesting." before taking a swig of his drink, thinking things over and...definitely reconsidering this spot for secret meetings. This bar was a load of piss. Finally...

"So, you propose making use of your more technical expertise in there, rather than the cobbling together of explosives for the job. I'll run you a counter-proposal, a compromise if you will. The explosives would remain useful against the Reactor's automated security. If nothing else, they're a useful asset and not to be wasted, almost certainly guaranteeing that we make it to the core. Continue to help us with that and I'll entertain your idea. Maybe 'any amateur' can put together an explosive, but quality won't blow up in anyone's faces and still get the job done. We'll make sure they can stick to the hides of Sweepers and such. Those toys, we can do without."

He got up now, essentially calling the meeting over, and put down his Gil for the 'drinks'. He was going to have quite alot to share with the others...

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

And speaking of one of the others, the man currently looking to hire Aiko was keeping his poker face. He'd heard that this one would take on jobs like this as long as they weren't a direct threat to her own livelyhood, and the general layout of it was certainly easy enough for one of her skills. He could've taken up anybody who looked fast enough on the offer, but this one was special, so he wanted to make sure she remained hooked. The best way to do that, though, was NOT to make it look like he wanted to hook her, but to take it easy and handle this professionally. As long as it got the job done... Ah, and here were the terms. Yes, this was workable. People like her had their pride. Once accepted, she wouldn't just cut-and-run...or skate off. The contractor nodded.

"Silence and discretion. Very well. I'll accept your terms on half-pay now, half-pay later. Of course, as I said, this will be an on-call job for when we're ready, so naturally I'll need your contact information to do so, not to mention upload the path you'll be taking."

That way, even if she was the sort who could just abandon them, they'd have her by phone, and it was altogether possible that one in their group could track her, or find someone who could. The point is that now they could talk details...once she supplied her phone number.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Meanwhile, as it turns out at Fort Condor, the 'rout' was essentially a case of a good number of mercenaries getting killed...not all. Some of them had withdrawn from the battlefield and back into the armored reactor-fortress to regroup or re-assess their situation. Akira arrived in time to hear a fair few arguments about what to do. Among them all, he picked up that the remaining Sweepers were focusing primarily on the battleground defenses, which is why anybody retreating was not engaged. That said, if they went out there again, they were gonna be attacked unless there really WAS going to be a Grand Horn Commander incoming to try and take possession of the base and reactor. Jessie weighed in, saying she still had a few bombs, but they weren't going to be enough to handle the Sweepers alone, now, which is why she'd need some support to finish the job. Several of the mercs didn't wanna go out there again.

And it was about this time that someone came down from the lookout point to say that they spotted the Commander...

Anyone who decided to take a look would see that, yes, one was indeed on starting his way from the end of the battlefield, on approach to the fort now. The Grand Horns they sent here were NOT the monster of the same name, but a custom-built Shinra Armored Shock Trooper made to fit the monster's overall design. He trudged forwards, preparing to either demand surrender or battle them into submission. For a moment, it seemed like perhaps the status quo would indeed be maintained. Aaand then, everything went to hell. They watched, all silent, as this armored fighter approached...and then they saw the Sweepers. Jessie was heard to mutter "Oh shit..." right before they opened fire on the man, guns and missles, until the armored suit exploded and he was dead. They jumped down to inspect the site, and then turned as one towards the armored doors of the facility.

"And more shit! Everyone, GET READY!"



The X-Series began their attack run on the main doors! It wouldn't be long before they were through!

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Naisha didn't have to wait long for confirmation of what she thought she was dealing with. Damn right it was some kind of rogue robot. Whether this could be considered luck or misfortune, what she had here was some kind of self-operating autonomous mech unit. It looked like a Sweeper, but it had gone through several changes, and quite possibly it was the one that was doing the job! Extra armor welded to parts of its body, tank treads build out from its foot-wheels, stress reinforcement in the legs, and - most importantly - weapon refittings. There was a Cutter's saw on its right arm where the gun should be, as well as heavy Steel Pincer installed below that. The left arm seemed to have a total of THREE Sweeper auto-cannons now working in tandem. Neisha would be looking this over and...sorry, was that a helicopter coming?

Well, yes, and more to the point it was a Shinra chopper, which had now gotten the scavenging robot's attention. It opened fire as the air vehicle came into view, forcing it to fly out of reach again...more over her own location. Wait a minute... If it decided to give chase...oh hell. Fortunately, it looked like said chopper wasn't going to come in for a landing, but instead there was this SOLDIER in uniform coming down on rope. Sounded maybe like he went "Shitshitshitshit!" on the way down, oddly enough. He looked around, saw her immediately, and raised his hand.

"Uhh, hi. Listen, you might not wanna be here right now. I think I just made it mad..."

Oh, god dammit, Joe...

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Things got a bit strange and hectic in Junon. Let's see here... Biggs and Wedge made a bigger offer that was actually all their money, so Tace's counter-proposal wouldn't have gotten very far if he HAD gone through with it, and the reason he didn't was because of this Shinra lackey and his dog going on the offensive. Lex was reporting in to get some reinforcements into position when Kanade acted to create a thundering distraction that DID make Biggs and Wedge jump. Wasteland would've probably not liked them to move, but he was more than likely thrown off-balance himself, followed by Kanade attempting to dart-throw Lex's radio to death. Following that, Tace decided that ummm...he was gonna leave. He cast Haste on them all, basically said, good luck, made a bit of a smokescreen with his car and...was gone. Naturally, he got a "Hey!" from someone as he did. There were speed limits in Junon, dammit, a the motorcycle patrol got ready to pursue... Biggs and Wedge were now totally confused.

"Did he just leave us?"

"Yeah, 'fraid so. At least we're speedy."

"But I hate running!"

"Well, maybe we don't have to."

He pointed to the cycle guards, tapping Kanade on the shoulder to say "Come on!" while the smoke was still up. The guards who were about to follow Tace were suddenly under submachine gun fire as Biggs and Wedge took their bikes. Kanade could ride with Biggs, since...well...Wedge was kinda' big. Unfortunately, regardless of whether or not Lex got his message through, there WAS a helicopter coming in overhead...

Akira Ayumu

Akira’s eyes opened wide with fear as the Sweepers directly attacked the Reactor itself, killing their own commander in order to pursue a more efficient course of action. Dammit all! Was this the fall of the Reactor? If only they had… Then it came to him like a flash of lightning - Ironic because that was what he was going to suggest next.

“Anyone with Lightning Materia, rain down electricity on the Sweepers!” Akira shouted desperately at the top of his voice. “Keep shocking them until they fall! It’s our last chance!”

He looked at Jessie, hoping she'd second his strongly-worded suggestion and also that the Sweepers didn't turn out to have insulation against electricity. Whether she did or not, Akira continued, “The rest of you without Lightning Materia, hurl what you have left - Bullets, Explosives, Molotovs or even Rocks! I'll cure and use Aero, too!”

Once the door exploded into bits, hopefully his suggestion would be followed. Hopefully some mercenaries actually had Lightning Materia, or failing that, Swift Bolts, Bolt Plumes, or other items which generated lightning. If they didn't, then he hoped they still had firepower. But whatever happened, it was clear that circumstances were out of his control due to his powerset being sub-optimal to fighting large and powerful enemies. This meant that all he can do was cure, cure more, and send the occassional gust of wind or tornado at the enemy. Or... or... Dammit, this was going to be a hard decision, but the alternative was for everyone, including him, to die.

Trying to commune with Kanade once more, Akira tried to see if his friend was already on her way. <Kanade, you here ->

A glimpse of swift winds, of the 'thrumming' of motorbikes and smoke and the sounds of gunfire. And was that the sound of helicopter rotors? <Oh, no.>

Realizing that Kanade cannot help right now, Akira said, <The Fort is falling - Shinra Robots have gotten inside - And while there's a last-ditch counterattack, it might fail. Kanade, I know you have your own problems right now and you can't help, so I'll make this simple - I'm handing myself over if we lose. Rescue me when you can.>

Akira then snapped back to the living world, and looked around to see if Jessie and the Mercs were still alive and if they had been doing as he suggested. If the former - And he hoped it was the former, the boy would say two words, "Healing Wind."

A gust of shimmering, blue-green air would fill the courtyard/chamber beyond the reactor doors, closing the injuries and replenishing the blood of anyone still left alive but injured. This would not affect enemies, obviously, and robots even less so. If enough allies were left or by some miracle, they won and/or had enough Lightning Materia/Bolt Plumes left to forge a fighting chance, Akira will fight on and not hand himself over. But if not, he'd announce his name and that he was the son of Kirin Ayumu, whom they'd hopefully recognize from Shinra's prisoner files, and... Okay, that plan was flawed.

Best to hope that the defenders had eked out a victory or had a chance, to, then...

…

…

…

Wait...

What?

As Maddie watched her contact, the way he sat, the way he looked at her...she came to a rather distressing conclusion: her attempt at seduction had not only completely failed, the man seemed to be almost disgusted by it. Which was a real blow to the old confidence, she had to admit. Was...was he gay? She hadn’t picked up that vibe from him, but she could hardly figure out what else it could have been. She had looked nice enough for the other drunks in the bar, right? And she checked all the seduction criteria, had she not? Prolonged eye contact, intimate physical contact, feigned interest in his passions, fed his ego…

Books and film made it seem so easy. Perhaps she simply required more research on the subj-

Wait. That hardly mattered here. The man broke the silence, and with each word, Maddie became more and more disheartened.

"So, you propose making use of your more technical expertise in there, rather than the cobbling together of explosives for the job. I'll run you a counter-proposal, a compromise if you will. The explosives would remain useful against the Reactor's automated security. If nothing else, they're a useful asset and not to be wasted, almost certainly guaranteeing that we make it to the core. Continue to help us with that and I'll entertain your idea. Maybe 'any amateur' can put together an explosive, but quality won't blow up in anyone's faces and still get the job done. We'll make sure they can stick to the hides of Sweepers and such. Those toys, we can do without."

Part of her was almost relieved that he hadn’t taken up her proposal. Even with her having planned to sabotage the mission, there would have been a chance - however small it may be - of success. And that success would have likely ended in an unimaginable amount of death. Would she then be any better than the butcher she had condemned not so long ago?

But matters of the woman’s struggle with morality aside, there was a bigger problem here: she had failed to earn a spot on the mission. Her options were now limited in a big way. The man wanted his bombs, and she had just made a big point of being an expert. Sabotaging them would now be out of the question. If anything went wrong on that end, the blame would fall squarely on her. And then what? Was it not her who admitted that ‘any amateur’ could put together his bombs? If her quality was the only thing that sat her apart, that drove the group to use her, then any doubt placed on that quality would effectively mean her end.

Best case scenario, she got replaced, cut out of the loop.

Worst case? An unmarked grave, if she were lucky?

Sabotage was truly out. And setting an ambush at the targeted reactor seemed foolish as well. Her lack of actionable knowledge of the mission specifics aside, she figured there was a rather small list of people who were even aware of the planned bombing. If the team caught wind that perhaps Shinra was alerted beforehand, then scrutiny on herself would definitely increase. No, she would need to cooperate fully.

Or at least, that was her opinion. In truth, the decision wouldn’t be up to her. Maddie was little more than a cog in the grand machine called Shinra. Even if she did enjoy some autonomy in her operations, at the end of the day she was a tool. It was her responsibility to report on her findings and then operate according to how her supervisors saw fit. She could only hope that she remained useful in their eyes. Useless tools often got discarded.

Maddie only had a chance to murmur a brief word of agreeance before her contact beat a hasty exit. It would seem that things would, more or less, go according to his original plan. She would make his bombs and -

Wait.

…

He never told her when or where she’d be getting the supplies. Maddie rose to her feet and scanned the entrance of the bar, hoping to see if she could catch the man before he was gone. No such luck. As quickly and as silently as he had appeared, he was gone.

…

For fuck’s sake.

Maddie slumped down in her chair and rested her chin upon the sticky table in defeat. The meeting could have gone worse she supposed, but she was having difficulty imagining how. She checked her distorted reflection in the semi-clean mug. At least her hair still looked fine. Make-up was still holding up too. She sat upright and continued examining herself. Clothes stain-free and neat. She held a hand up to her mouth and checked her breath.

Oh fuck. Oh sweet merciful fuck. It took all Maddie had not to gag on the smell of her own breath. It was like a mixture of goblin piss and soy sauce. Forget a gun - armed with that breath she could single-handedly take down the entirety of the Avalanche operation. Well, she certainly couldn't blame the Butcher for resisting her then. If he hadn’t been gay before, then he most likely was now, what with Ms. Skunkbreath wafting her poisonous fumes that close to his poor nose while clumsily groping him. If he wasn’t a murderous terrorist hellbent on sacrificing innocent lives for his foolish goals, she might actually have felt bad for having traumatized.

Maybe she wasn’t cut out for the whole femme fatale schtick.

Horror took root in the woman’s heart and her eyes went wide. A sudden realization struck her - she was going to have to report this. ALL of it. She would be embarrassed if Tseng read it of course, but at least that man could remain professional…

…

Reno could NEVER know.

---

Maddie eventually gathered herself from the pit of despair she had fallen into and, after settling up her tab, promptly left the bar. She made a quick stop at a convenience store on her way out of the Wall Market. Breath mints were desperately needed. She also picked up a magazine featuring an exaggerated cover photo of a woman standing in front of a swooning man with the caption “10 Easy Steps to Make Him Fall for You.”

On her way out of the pleasure capital of Midgar, Maddie checked her phone. She had gotten a notification earlier but hadn’t had a chance to check it before her meeting. It was a hit on her ad. A bite. Somebody was interested and wanted to chat. She had to admit, she was a little taken aback. That was quick. Real quick. Somebody was hungry. Still, she couldn’t dismiss the possibility that it was a false alarm. There were a number of people who had little better to do than waste other people’s time.

Maddie accessed the address. It wasn’t exactly the time the potential buyer had mentioned, but it wasn’t as if these things were black tie auctions. She thought for a moment, considering how best to open. These types were often paranoid, which made luring them out in the open rather difficult. She also needed to be careful with the price. Too low and it reeked of a trap. Too high and the buyer would lose interest. For something like this…

The potential buyer would receive a message from a “Mogsworth”, using a picture of a character from an old children’s show Maddie used to watch way back when. It was a cute, old moogle wearing a monocle, top hat, and a tailed coat, but no pants. Cartoons were weird. In her defense, she only rarely binge watched the series nowadays.

@rivaan
Package too hot for digital - sniffers will pick it up
Can do anonymous drop in Midgar area. Thumb drive
20k total
1st 10k gets u the location
2nd 10k gets u the passcode
Wouldn’t suggest trying to brute force it.
You fuck me, I fuck you.
Deal goes well, can offer exclusives in the future

With that taken care of, all she needed now was a good drop location. She had one in mind. It was just out of the way enough that it might not spook her mark, although Maddie wouldn’t have a great vantage point. Still, she didn’t need to cuff the mark immediately - just figure out if this bozo was the same one she was looking for.

---

After leaving the Wall Market, Maddie made her way towards the Sector 5 slums. She rented a small apartment in the little shantytown there. It wasn’t exactly Maddie’s dream apartment - she wasn’t the biggest fan of being on the wrong side of the plate - but for her assignment, it served its purpose. Couldn’t very well smuggle bomb supplies topside without an extreme amount of hassle. Besides, the last thing she needed was for her Mother to accidentally detonate a delicate explosive downtown. At least in the shantytown, the losses would be…

Maddie stopped herself. That was a cruel thought. She didn’t like those, even if she found herself having them more and more often as of late.

In any case, that was the place she received her last shipment of supplies and, considering her contact didn’t deem it necessary to update her on drop spots, she assumed that he would just use the same one. It was...sloppy. If she hadn’t been who she was, if she had just been another radical, she’d have likely been busted by now.

Perhaps that was something the group noticed as well? Or maybe she was overthinking as she often did. Bah.

Maddie made a stop along the way at an old playground. It used to be pretty popular, or so she heard, but nowadays it was more or less abandoned. Too dangerous. She certainly had never seen anyone use it before. Which was good. She could use this as her drop.

The woman crossed over to a slide in the shape of a fun, cartoon cat. Confirming that she hadn’t been followed - and as best as she could tell, her tail still hadn’t found her - she snapped a quick picture of the slide and continued on her way. That would be where she hid the thumb drive if the buyer took the bait.

And with that, Maddie continued on her way.

For a while. But she couldn’t shake the feeling that something seemed...off. She thought she heard something but...couldn’t place it.

But then the sound got louder. And louder. And more distinct. And unmistakable.

A helicopter. One of THEIR helicopters. Odd, but not cause for alarm. Midgar was Shinra’s city, after all. It made sense for their choppers to be in the air, even if the timing seemed a little odd.

But that’s when Maddie heard the gunshots.

Heavy gunshots.

A lot of gunshots. Off in the same direction that the helicopter seemed to be.

There was trouble. It wasn’t Maddie’s concern though. It wasn’t her job. So she would keep on her way. Go straight to her apartment. Ignore the curiosity. It wasn’t her responsibility.

…

Maddie rushed off in the direction of the firefight. Whatever was happening there, she needed to know. It COULD be useful. Maybe? Shaky logic or not, the woman couldn’t help herself. The curiosity was too strong.

And she was just a cat with a deathwish.

Just as she had expected, the man knew how that kind of contract usually worked out. It was good that she wouldn't need to explain the rules to the man. Accepting the half-pay term was also a positive point in Aiko's books. Those who didn't have many issues in accepting those basic terms were more likely to be trustworthy and keep their side of the bargain. Since that was an on-call job, just as he had explained earlier, it was expected that they would have a way to contact her and that mean her cellphone number. Even though it wasn't really that common for her to give out her contact information, there were some other jobs when it was necessary. She only hoped they wouldn't prove to be a headache for her later.

"Here it is." Aiko said as she grabbed her phone and showed the screen to the man, where her contact was.

"Just remember... Discretion, silence and privacy. Contact me whenever needed for the job but that's it." Aiko said, reminding the man after she was finished passing her number to him.

"Since this is supposed to be an on-call job, I should simply wait for your contact, right?" Aiko asked, looking to him.

"Regarding the path that I should take, I assume I am allowed to take some liberties about it depending on what happens... I can guarantee the delivery in a short time and my speed, but I may have to make some detours to avoid... unnecessary trouble." Aiko completed.

Truth be told, Aiko knew very, very well on how to navigate through the city and she could definitely guarantee her speed and the delivery of the package but she didn't like to be 'controlled' that much, regarding which path she should take. Especially since there were a few detours that only locals knew and might make things safer and faster... If you were known around the city enough for people to allow your passage without troubles, that is.

Naisha's reaction when she first saw what the machine looks like would be quite hard to describe between the feeling of horror, opportunity and danger." Damn... what's this abomination doing in the middle of the slums!?" She mumbled to herself, making the drone stay low over the junk as to not trigger any attacks from the... sweeper? Was it a sweeper at this point? It looked very heavily and crudely modified... like it was done by huge crude not too dextrous limbs... couple with the damage across the different junk machinery around and it's additions, it wasn't hard to reach the conclusion it might have done it itself?! How?! Was this thing made to self modify? A prototype madness!? Were Shinra out of their fucking minds to allow that thing to roam here? It it got out of the Junkyards and attacked the populated areas, the damage would be astromonic before it could be brought down! Look at those guns and armor! If it was indeed from Shinra why did they leave it here? Was it rogue? Or was it someone else who made it? Doubtful, nobody around here could build a real sweeper, they could modify one sure, but not to this extend. Not without significant specialized knowledge and skills.

Then the sound of a heli was heard and then one of Shinra's appared, followed by a counter attack by the rogue sweeper. This proved the thing was attacking anyone even Shinra, the possibility of it being dropped here by them was gone. Given they send somebody to it, it attacked, it was probable it was rogue and they were sending someone to attempt to disable it before they could find themselves in a real uncomfortable public opinion PR nightmare... Her drone was making sure to capture the footage though. At least until the Shinra flier was repelled, the chopper started moving in her direction." FUUUUUCK!" She cursed as she could see via the drone's footage the sweeper chasing in her direction! STUPID IDIOTS!!! Naisha was about to hit the speed on her motorized wheelchair to attempt to get away, but it wasn't as fast as a chopper so soon somebody dropped in front of her, warning her to get away.

Naisha's mind was a very unstable state right now as she stared at the SOLDIER armor. Her eyes were narrowed, chaotic thoughts rushing to her mind, her next action impossible to tell even to herself. Still whatever she was about to do stopped when she heard the loud rumbles from the sweeper crushing a path through the junk to them." DAMN MORON!" She shouted as she moved further away to put him between her and the rampaging machine. Without losing a moment hse used her drone controls to start firing on the Mech from behind, but the drone didn't carry military grade weapons on it. It was equiped with a simple gun... not even armor piercing bullets! Everything on it was avaible on the market, she hadn't gotten any black market weapons or anything, she was staying low after all for crying out loud." This path is a direct line to the populated areas! Look behind us you Shinra Idiot! If you wanted to fight it why didn't you fight it in the heart of the junk yard! If this thing fires a salvo from those autocannons in our direction, it will reach all the way to the people who are out in the slums!" She ahd been on this path for that specific reason originally. It was a straight line and you could see people walking out there, now people seemed to even be gathering at the entrance of hte junkyard, putting themselves even more in danger because they were curious what was happening." The armor's too thick, it doesn't even react to the drone attacks!" Naisha shouted as she reaclled the drone, it was slightly faster than the sweeper cause it was flying after all it quickly made it's way to her.

In Naisha's mind as much as she hated Shinra, hated Soldier and wanted to do very gory things to everybody involved, more than that seh didn't want people to die because of it. In that way she was the oppositve of Avalanche who seemed to want to cause damage to Shinra no matter the casualties. Currently a thought snuck in her mind to hinder the soldier guy just enough for him to get gored by the machine, but her desire to not let it rampage in the slums was stronger... very slightly, but it was stronger. She will get the chance to attempt to kill him later... when he's tired and hurt form the fight too. She pulled her shield drone in front." DAMN IT ALL! I will block smome shots for you, just keep it occupied for a little while! Can't let it go on a rampage into the slums!" Naisha screemed at the man, pulling some more further back as she controlled her drones from distance to provide him with some support... ADmittedly her left eye was twitching and her expression was kinda stiff and not really nice, as every part of her being was scremaing to kill the man right away no matter what, but the better side of her sanity called for tempered reaction.' Mech first, Civilians save, SOLDIER DEAD later...' A somewhat scattered string of thoughts followed.

Naisha's drones could provide very basic support to the SOLDIER. She could use the wall one to block some of the autoshots, though again that drone wasn't military grade either, it wouldn't withstand many of those autocannons shots. However she could use the drone to hinder the Mech's visual sensors by keeping it in front of it's sensor array. It would likely render it very difficult ofr the mech to aim properly for a bit... until it compensates or something. She didn't know how adaptive it would be, Sweepers were known for being generaly dumb, but that was for the ones that weren't able to... MODIFY by themselves. The main support she could give him really was cyber warfare with the thing's firewalls and then start disabling it piece by piece... but for that she'd need to first hack into it and that would take time, thus she asked him to just keep it occupied. Alternatively, they could try to bury it in the junk... maybe draw it into one of hte many junk processing units and crush it there... THe sound of the mech brought her back to attention as she used junk pile for some cover, using her attack drone to start shooting at the sweeper's sensors right away too, but it wasn't easy to hit something moving in such an erratic fashion.

Best plan for the time being was just attempt to hack it, using the attack drone as relay to catch onto the mech's system. 'It is likely it was supposed to transmit data back to it's servers at some point. Otherwise Shinra wouldn't be able to track them, right? To trasmit data it means it could recieve data also... it must have a network...' She thought to herself, scanning the area for any networks that weren't supposed to be in the area. She only had her phone with herself, maybe she should have gotten her laptop... With the phone at most she could attempt to introduce a virus and hope it takes. Of course she also took on occasion the chance to take a shot with the drone gun at the thing's sensors here and there hoping at least one of those shots lands, maybe crack the camera lense. Then suddenly a thought... it would be great if she could make the chopper just crash into the thing and let it explode... But for now more hiding behind cover to avoid shots, using one hand to attempt to find the mech's communications channel and try to send it a virus and using hte other hand to be as much of a hindrance to it as possible with two small drones that would likely by the end of this be just about as junk as the rest of the things in this place... RIP drones.

"Ranger Krait to Dispatch, send extr..." That's about as far as he got. Before an earth quake? No Wasteland who is getting to her feet doesn't seem affected. But that sure as hell doesn't stop the shakes, shivers and rolls from hitting him. The cracks and fissures in the ground throwing off his balance. So much so he has to lower his gun and his center of mass to regain some kind of balance. Then he sees something whizzing through the air. He ducks to the side, then feels and hears a ping! His walkie talkie spinning free of his hand. Training kicked in. Though it takes him a little bit to choose the best option. You can always de-escalate. But well magic was used and he was technically attacked. He chooses the best for the moment...

The words out of his mouth are, "Shinra Forces under attack!" And up comes the Winchester. That impromptu smoke screen kicked up by the fellow in the car sure made things harder, but he quickly unleashed two rounds into the smoke. No report back of something getting hit. Wasteland calmly striding through the smoke. With a bark she turns Lex's attention, "What...oh sonuva!" He races towards the trio heading for the bike cops.

"Freeze!" He shouts and snaps a third round off towards the trio and the bikes as they are suppressing the bike cops. "Stop where you are! This is only going to get worse!" He snaps off another shot, then motions to Wasteland, making a sort of cupping gesture with his free hand. the big gnarly looking canine beast gets a mean look on it's muzzle. Then with a push it's barreling after them. Snarls and blasting barks as it races after the rebel trio. Closing with them and the bikes. At the same time that Lex sends shots their way from his tooled down carbine, "Last warning! Stop in the name of Shinra!" Distantly Lex can ear the steady beat of chopper blades, did command get his half call for help?

Tace kept the car racing away from the town. Junon and its docks were rapidly becoming a distant blur. Only once he was gone from Junon did he slow down, and slow was a relative word here. Tace still continued to speed along semi-aimlessly. He found within himself a slight tinge of regret for what he did. He had no love for Shinra and what they have done and are doing. Yet, he felt compelled to flee the scene once it got too damn hot.

Long ago he had played "hero" and payed for it with a crushing defeat. All of that was an ancient past he wished leave behind. Now all he wanted was to continue to toil in obscurity. The bitter memories were coming back to him like dust being kicked up. Combined with his empty stomach it made him feel vaguely ill. "Wasn't I supposed to get something to eat? Yeah, I was gonna do that before I got wrapped in that mess." Tace would find himself cruising towards Fort Condor.

The bastard opened fire! Oh, what was he thinking? Of course it opened fire! Whenever a Shinra robot malfunctioned to ANY degree, it treated literally everything around it as the enemy, including people from Shinra and conspicuous blades of grass, but that's only due to the whole Mandragora thing. The pilot maneuvered out of the way, but there was a certain vibration and then a red light flashed on his console as they were veering away.

"Steering's going! Gotta put down outside of the junkyard or we spin-out and crash!"

"I gotta get down there! It'll go after people if it leaves here!"

"She won't hold long!"

"God, two seconds!"



Uhhh, so, he'd come down here to keep the heavily-modified Sweeper occupied and was warning someone nearby to get the hell out and...she called him a moron. Naisha couldn't see the confusion on Joe's face, thanks to his helmet, but the tone of his "Ex...cuse me?" couldn't be missed. This was a 'What The Fuck, Mate?' if ever there was one. Unfortunately, the wheelchair-bound woman had an explanation for her telling off as something robotic on the junkpile hill nearby fired on their large friend that was trying to make its way around. X-1 was barely distracted by the drone, basically giving it a look before deciding it was beneath its level of care for the time being. Meanwhile, Naisha was telling off the SOLDIER, who was trying to figure this one out in his head.

Wait, bullet muzzle velocity divided by range plus penetration equals...shit.

She was right. He hated it when people were right about this sort of thing! The tank treads of the X-1 unit were getting closer, and with a snarl, the woman brought up this flying drone that looked like it was made to provide armor, saying she'd block shots for him. How many depended on the stability of the thing and - very probably - her deteriorating mood. Joe went "Right.", sword pointed down and off to ths side. The thing made its appearance as Naisha considered her options. Sadly, the chopper wasn't going to be a part of them, as it hadn't stayed and was indeed landed somewhere, no doubt to make some quick repairs. That left her with her drones providing distraction while she got to some hacking.

X-1 rounded the corner and found - mainly - a SOLDIER. Normally, the presence of any sort of Shinra employee, especially a military one, should prompt it to stand down and await further orders. That part of its program was hopelessly scrambled as its adaptation system had led it to ill-define it's entire friend-or-foe and command structure when its security protocols tested whether these programs were changeable or not. Because they were, it launched into an endless conundrum over what to consider enemy or ally. The simplist solution was to consider all targets to be its enemy and merely adopt a passive or active response based upon their threat level. It was for this reason that Joe was its primary target throughout all of this now. He ran towards the robot, it pointed its guns, something obstructed its sensors, an impact was registered, and now it was firing a full 88-degrees off target?!

What had happened was that Joe approached, Naisha's drone had run interference, and when the autocannons were about to fire, he slid nearby that arm and executed a Driving Slash to knock the arm upward. Joe was focusing on the gun-arm right now. If he damaged it enough and the weapons fell apart, that was one problem solved. This was, however, when the robot executed a Cutter swipe, a 360-turn using the giant sawblade. Naisha's drone was swept aside, right along with-

ZZNNK!!

Now, she might see a helmet flying, but before any assumption to the state of the SOLDIER can be made, there would be an "Agh, my head!" as Joe basically got whiplash from the saw hitting the tip of said helmet and knocking it right off of him as he ducked. He openly slashed at its body right then, which one of those managed to knock the guns up and to the his own left, shooting up a junkpile closer to the entrance...which Maddie Lovell was coming through now. She would've seen the helicopter set down outside the junkyard and continued to hear the sounds of combat going on. As soon as she was inside, though, a now-helmetless and familiar SOLDIER happened to be looking over his shoulder, and he shouted "Agent?! Look out!" right before she heard the rumble of falling junk parts VERY close by! Nevermind the robot he was fighting for now! Maddie could be buried in short order!

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

There was panic both in and outside of Fort Condor, right now. Those inside had to deal with the X-Series Sweepers, and those outside...had to do the same thing. This involved two technicians shoutin at each other over a computer that wasn't getting the response intended while a third was currently trying to get word to the main office back in Midgar.

"Why won't it accept the input?!"

"It's on executive lock-out! There's nothing I can do!"

"Yes, I need a direct line to Director Scarlet's phone! It's an emergency!"

"Did the home office do this?! What the hell?!"

"Dammit, I don't know!"

"Hello? Yes, it's us down at the Fort Condor offensive. Listen, it's chaos down here. Our remaining Sweepers have gone nuts and they've killed the Commander! Even if they complete the mission themselves, I dunno how we're gonna shut them down. They're only accepting executive orders right now, and at the rate they're going, it may not be long before they ignore that. Will you give the order for an emergency shutdown? We can take Fort Condor later. We can still salvage the plant, and after today, I doubt they'll get much hired help too! What? Hello? HELLO?!"

He put the phone down and looked at his collagues with a shocked expression.

"She said no..."

Back at the Sweepers, the door had blown in and the machines were closing in on it as one, walking instead of using their foot wheels. They stopped some feet from the entrance as the mercenaries opened fire, threw grenades, launched explosive crossbow bolts, and yes some of them even had lightning...but it wasn't very much. In fact, it wasn't gonna be enough, because the three robots were at a distance and getting less of it than they normally would. After exhausting her good explosives and getting in some damage done (and making a small crater out there), Jessie looked around...and then got an idea. She turned to Akira while reloading her submachine gun...while he might've been having a fit from Kanade shouting in his brain.

"Hey, kid! Would ya find some heavy-duty cable and connect it to something live? We've got a whole reactor here, so why not use it to fry those dead weights?"

Fry 'em with the reactor's output? That'll do it, right? There was, of course, only one problem: They'd have to come in...

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Once Aiko had handed over her information, she would've gotten half of her payment sent to her account, as per the terms of their agreement. That made it official. They had a contract. The man nodded and expected that she would go her merry way. They both knew that with matters having been settled, all they really needed to was wait for the appointed time. However, the skate expert had paused then and decided to ask some things right when her contractor was dialing a number. He held up a hand.

"Yeah, hold on. I'm phoning my 'supervisor' right now. He'll have the answers you're looking for."

There was a pause there, and then presumably a man on the other end picked up.

"Yo. I got us our runner. Everything's good on my end. What about yours? ...really? Hmmm."

His expression had changed to indicate some level of bad news passing between them.

"Well, that's not great, but at least we were prepared for that. Does it move up the schedule? Alright, cool. So, you'll tell me, and I tell her. Gotcha. Now then, runner's kind of a hotshot. Says she might have better routes than what we got. Might just. Any problems with that? Okay then. Later!"

He hung up and turned to her.

"Guy says he doesn't care if you walk on walls or fly by the seat of your pants, as long as you do the job in a timely manner, and by that he means quick as lightning. You obviously know Midgar, right? No worries, then. We'll call you when it's time. you just don't let us down."

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Lex's final warnings were met with {A} gunshots from Biggs and Wedge, plus {B} a rock from Kanade! Between these two things happening, it would be safe to say that Ranger Krait and Wasteland were at least distracted for a moment, long enough for them all to be on the bikes and making tracks. The only thing about that was that the smoke was soon cleared away because a helicopter WAS overhead and in pursuit. This meant that Lex could see his targets making their escape and get after them with his own vehicle. He did not know yet that it was Rufus Shinra and Tseng up there...but he would soon enough.

But back with the motorcycles for a moment... They were heading down the Junon street now at a fair clip, following the layer of tire track that the car driver had laid into the road. He was rude and crude, but he was also pretty easy to trail right now. Wedge was the one who spoke up to their charge, Kanade Toragami, as they were speeding along

"So, the plan was originally, Miss Kanade, to meet you once you were off the boat and find a nice chopper to steal and get us over to Midgar! I don't know what the change in plan was for, but it may not have been the best idea!"

"Maybe not, but it looks to me like they were preparing to intercept her and she probably threw them for a loop."

"Threw us for a loop too, though."

"Well, these things happen. Welcome to Avalanche, though. I'm Biggs, he's Wedge, and apparently we're going to Fort Condor? Not a bad idea, considering we got friends there, but how come?"

Aaand up in the chopper, the white suit and the black suit were both considering their options.

"What do you think? Shoot the tires...or just pop the balloon next to our target?"

"I'd advise against any sort of killing shot at this time. If she's really what we think she is, then we need to put on the kid gloves, for now."

"Tires it is, then. Keep 'er steady and we'll have them all in the next couple minutes."

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

As for Tace...he was moving at top speed in a car that had alot going for it under the hood. He was making the exit to Junon in record fricking time, so much so that his approach to the border had the tollbooth worker there in a bit of a panic.

"Wait, stop, HOLDONAMINUTE!!"

CRASH!!!

"God...dammit! You're suppose to STOP, asshole!!"

But he didn't, and he would continue not stopping as he decided to head for Fort Condor on...a whim? Because the girl had wanted to go there? Who knows? Maybe there was something there looking into. Hard to tell. As he was moving along, he had decided to slow down...ish. It was all relative, really. His car was still plenty fast, by normal measurements. However, because he HAD slowed down and due to the fact that he'd made a HELLUVA NOISE getting here...

Well...his first warning wouldn't be until it was practically on top of him. Or rather...on top of his car.

The monster, like all monsters in the wild, had learned long ago that strange noises meant these strange creatures that sealed themselves up in metal cans that needed to be torn open in order to get to the contents. With that in mind, a Zemelezett had taken to the air about a mile back, swept high over the car so it would not be easily seen...and dropped. The first warning that Tace had that he was under attack was the heavy THUD against his roof and a screech as a large owl-like creature tried to tear into his vehicle!

Akira Ayumu

Akira said to Jessie, “Let me look for some - Thanks for the idea, Jessie!”

I have an idea on how to lure them in as well, were his next thoughts, concealed. Either way. He’d find the heavy-duty cable - A glorified extension cord which nevertheless fit the required length and thickness - And plug it into one of the reactor’s sockets before presenting it to the AVALANCHE member, saying, “Is this enough? I can also lure the Sweepers inside through regular means - Pop myself right in front of the entrance and rely on my natural agility to duck in time and force them to pursue.”

His real idea verged on the Sweepers’ artificial brains having access to Shinra’s prisoner files and recognizing his father from their records there and thus deciding that he was a high-priority target there as well. But common sense eventually won out as he frowned, then said to Jessie, “Wait, bad idea - I’m sure that you have your own plan to lure the robots inside. That and my best friend would kill me if I risked myself for uncertain returns.”

Kanade was clearly not in a good mood than when she had messaged Akira last, and the latter knew enough not to further enrage her, even from a distance away. So the young man waited for Jessie to offer a better idea, before coming up with a second notion of his own. “Wait, water conducts electricity, right? If we get a fire hose and spray the Sweepers and the ground beneath them with it, then touch that with the live wire, we can probably shock them to nonfunctioning. Or just spray them directly with the fire hose and touch the spray with the live wire, although the person who does that will need to be in special hazard gear, so let’s do the former.”

If Jessie gave even so much as a nod of approval, Akira would go off to find a fire hose, hopefully connected to the water supply, while the others presumably bought them time. Hopefully, this tipped the scales, and this upset would not just set back Shinra’s plans, but also gain more recruits for Fort Condor’s cause due to the spectacularness of the victory… If there was a victory.

Naisha was cursing inwardly as with one hand was controling the wall drone to hinder any attacks as much as the situation allowed and the other running the cyber warfare which was very limited because she lacked a proper tools for hte job. A phone just didn't cut it to hack into military mechs and firewalls for hte most part... Still she did whatever she could, shot at any opportunity at the sweeper's visual sensors... aka the cameras it had, and generally kept the other drone nearby the soldier to try to protect him. So far... it wasn't going great. The guy was hitting it, but it was returning in kind and it showed the sweeper wasn't just your everyday thing after all... her mind briefly wandered over to the brief ad she had seen just earlier today... it couldn't be. She hadn't bought it still though, so she had no way to confirm or make concrete theories, but this thing certainly was going rogue, was acting way more... aware than a regular sweeper and was a pain in the ass.

Finally after what almost seemed like a great exchange, by the sheer fact the shinra moron almost got his head swept off his body by the cutter arm of the mech, Naisha was just about to proclaim the battle impossible to win given the situation. Her mind was about to indeed move off fighting hte mech to luring it back into the junkyard and to a press or other processing unit where they could finish it off, when she noticed someone arriving! A woman it seemed, Naisha was about to shout her off to run away, but before she could do so, she heard Soldier guy call the woman an Agent. ALL of Naisha's good will and desire to tell the woman to go to safety evaporated about as fast as the explosive reaction the Mako Reactor had to IEDs." Fuck..." Naisha let out a curse just as she was deciding to just attempt to escape while the mech was dealing with the soldier. If she was lucky, mech would kill soldier guy and agent woman... and she'd be a happy Naisha. However almost as if on demand her phone gave off a ring.

Eyes switching from the agent woman to the phone, she noted she had picked and actually accessed a sweeper's network frame of some kind." The heck, now, really?!" She couldn't help, but exclaim. What she had found was named 'Unregistered Shinra Unit CSP/X-1'. That was about as the most obviously obvious thing ever, she almost was ready to believe Shinra made it so it malfunctioned given the way it was named... Well the thing must really be malfunctioning... or it was shodily coded to begin with. Whatever caused it to start modifying itself, maybe had caused it to shift firewall priorities also, who knew. It'd need detailed examination, but she wasn't going to bother with that rigth now. She restabilized the wall drone after it was swept off, it was a bit shacky, clearly having been damaged, but it would take a bit more beating. Meanwhile Naisha focused on what she had gained access of. Running a quick assesment of it, she was rather stumped by the overall design of the system framework... what were they doing? Anyways, everything was acting up... Well, it was rejecting all commands hse was attempting to send it, or viruses to unpload... Suddenly a birght stroke of inspiration enlightened her mind. If she couldn't send it a code alteration...

"Hey, don't this thing have a emergency shut down command or something?" Naisha shouted at the Soldier, just out of curiosity as she instead fiddled with another side of hte sweeper framework. She couldn't really hack it with a phone... nor could she deal with masquerading a virus as compatible message... Given the serious modifications of the machine and the seeming alteration of it's code to match the new setup... This was her genious idea. While she hoped it would be destroyed, one way or anotehr it was better for it to stop before it kills civilians. Thus she started to deal with it's communications. She only needed to trigger one single thing! She found it, now it was a question of activating it... the ultimate weapon! She was attempting to trigger the Factory Reset function. As long as she makes it trigger, all the modified code would be purged, rendering all the modified weapons impossible to use properly... probably also half of it's other systems as well. Granted it might just put it back under proper Shinra control, but... given it malfuncitoned once, Naisha was giving it a 7/10 chance for it to do so again at a later date if this crazy plan worked.

"I swear, this better work... I'm not in the mood of dying here... or now." She stated as she pressed the button send the reset trigger she set up. This was... going to be fun... She now looked at it from behind cover via her drone that had a camera." Be warned, I attempted to trigger a reset, I'm not certain how it would react!" Naisha called to the Soldier Man, but secretly she really hoped the machien self destructs and takes him out with itself. Probbly not going to happen, but a girl can dream... of better days and dead Shinra bastards. Of course she hadn't forgotten the woman that the man called 'Agent'. She kept an eye on her just in case.

Wasteland growled and was getting closer right up until she saw that shard of rock lancing towards her, she dug claws into earth slowed abit then hurled herself to the side. At the same time Lex had fired a few more shots into the smoke when he heard a sound he hated. He dropped to one knee as the return fire came at him. He ducked his head to weather the return fire. By the time he lifted it most of the smoke had cleared, he swore rather loudly, something about fornication. Then teared towards the jeep they had left, he whistled as he raced over, shoving people aside as he ran, not stopping to see if they were hurt. He couldn't just leave it be right now not after this got started. As he vaulted the hood of the jeep Wasteland is right behind him, he jumps into his side of the jeep, kicks open the door for his dog, who then closes the door behind her. Yep, using those big jaws of hers.

All the adrenaline in his system allows him to get the jeep started in record time, and they tear out of the little shadowy spot they had found, in pursuit of the bikes and chopper. He dug for his cellphone and rang up the first person he could think of, after abit he said, "Mr. Tseng? Sir? I'm following the target and two others on bikes right now with a chopper above us too, who's in that? Sir?" He swerves around a slower car in the road, "Who ever is in there sir, I hope they got some skills, the target has magic abilities, tore up the ground at my feet to throw off my aim." He swerves around a large truck in the road, still in pursuit, "Anyway I'm in pursuit sir. I'm not losing this target."

Aiko simply waited as her contractor held up his hand telling her to wait while he called his 'supervisor' in order for him to check for what she had proposed. Despite her silence, Aiko paid close attention to the conversation he was having and noticed when his expression changed, a clear indication that he had just received some bad news. Thankfully, from what she was able to understand from his words, whatever is that happened wouldn't change much about the job other than maybe she would be contacted sooner than what they would have otherwise... Or at least she hoped so. In another hand, the supervisor seemed to have no troubles with Aiko using her own routes, which gave her a lot more freedom and possible routes. Sure, she did pride herself in her speed but she knew the importance of being prepared. In case something happened or someone, she would be able to make some detours in order to avoid any potential problem.

"Perfect." Aiko said with a nod as she heard her contractor's words, agreeing with her previous proposal.

"I know every corner of these streets. Don't worry." Aiko replied. Her tone wasn't one of gloating or boasting, it was almost as if she was telling something that was such an obvious fact that she wouldn't even have a reason to lie.

"I also guarantee my speed. If something happens, making me choose a detour over the fastest route, It will take maybe a few seconds more for me to arrive. I will wait for your contact then." Aiko said with a discreet half-smile before she waved at him as they parted ways.

With a new and potentially profitable job in her hands, Aiko had only to make some final preparations and just wait for her contractor to call her. Nothing out of the ordinary though, just some routine maintenance on her equipment just to leave everything ready for her to leave in a moment.

Why is it that we’re so uneasy around long abandoned places? Decrepit buildings, forgotten ruins, junkyards...there’s an uncertainty that lurks within preying upon those who trespass. It was, at least in Maddie’s opinion, that people simply didn’t like to see how they truly affect the world. Not without the constant maintenance that comes with dolling something up and keeping it pretty anyway. It made people uncomfortable because it was ugly. An ugly truth.

Maddie didn’t mind though. In her world of lies, she valued the few precious truths she could find. They kept her grounded.

As she made her way through the twisting path that cut through the mountains of metal and plastic and other bits deemed unworthy or useless, she found herself wondering what the place would look like one day - once people had figured out the best way of offing one another and the virus called Humanity had finally run its course on the planet. Would nature reclaim this junkyard? Even Midgar itself? Or would the husk of the sprawling metropolis remain, forever scarring the planet’s surface and serving as a monument to the hubris of a few clever primates?

Those weren’t exactly just the one-off musings of a particularly nihilistic young woman however. In order to better familiarize herself with the thinking behind Avalanche, Maddie had thrown herself wholly into the ethos of the movement. She had read their literature, listened to their speakers, and spent time considering what these thoughts meant to her. While she couldn’t speak on the spirituality of the movement - concepts such as the “Lifestream” were just a little too nonsensical and fantastical for her to accept - there were some ugly nuggets of truth in there. The process of extracting and processing Mako energy had clear effects on the environment. One need not look any further than the wastelands that surrounded Shinra’s ‘shining jewel of civilization’ to see that. And while the methods the organization utilized were horrid and deplorable, Maddie could understand and almost sympathize with the cause.

Heavy gunfire cut through Maddie’s thoughts, leaving them dead or dying in a pool of rusted ground on the junkyard. The young Turk took cover instinctively, despite not yet being on the battlefield up ahead. Her heart beat against her chest, desperately trying to escape its bony cage. She had been following the whirling of the helicopter to this rough area, but shortly after some of those heavy shots, it switched directions and faded. She had thought that it may have fled the scene, but she caught a glimpse of it touching down outside of the junkyard. There wasn’t time to check in, however. The shots she heard now were close.

Very close.

Uncomfortably close.

A shaky hand shot back towards the small of her back, pulling a pistol from her waistband. She ejected and checked the magazine before sliding it back into position and chambering a round. She took a deep breath.

In.

Out.

Her nerves were still firing on all fronts, but Maddie managed to calm herself. She had seen combat before - training exercises with bots, field exercises with live monsters. She was capable of doing what she needed to do. She had proved that to some very difficult people.

But…

She was scared. Of death? Maybe. Anybody could die at any time. That was inevitable, really. She knew that - the logic was sound - but that didn’t make it any easier to face when push came to shove. Then there was the other side of the coin. She had never taken a life before. Not of a person anyway. But judging by the smaller gunfire she could hear beating into what sounded like one of Shinra’s combat mechs, there was a chance that she may have no other choice. And that terrified her. No amount of training, preparation, or theoretical discussions would make this any easier.

Maddie’s tensed body relaxed slightly as she continued to breathe. She was ready.

The woman, her pistol extended in front of her but angled downward, pressed past her cover in the direction of the gunfight. She slowly passed under a crude arch formed by a pair of junk towers haphazardly leaning against one another that led to a clearing of sorts within the junkyard.

In the clearing, she saw a rather baffling scene Standing menacingly at the opposite side of the field was one of the X-Series Sweeper units. Or...was it? Heavy, crude modifications had been done to it. It looked less like the sleek weapons platform she had seen in the labs and more like something ripped straight out of a shitty post-apocalyptic movie. It was currently being assaulted by a SOLDIER and a pair of unfamiliar drones that all seemed to be protecting a wheelchair bound woman.

Why? None of this made sense. The X-Series hadn’t even entered full production yet. Only a few had actually been manufactured and to the best of Maddie’s knowledge, they were due to be deployed in the Fort Condor raid. So why then was one not only in the MIDGAR SLUMS of all places, but this close to a residential area? And with those modifications…?

Had it gone rogue? Or was it hijacked? In any case, it was a threat.

Maddie blinked. In a moment she had witnessed the drones and SOLDIER pull off a devastating combination attack on the machine, which had been met with a swift strike to the head with a nasty looking sawblade. Luckily for the SOLDIER, however, the combination of top-tier Shinra engineering, good interference by the drones, and a gratuitous helping of dumb fucking luck, he managed to get by with only losing the helmet. Somehow. The silhouette looked strikingly familiar for some reason.

"Agent?! Look out!"

The voice was also eerily familiar.

The dust and debris falling around her shook her out of her head. She was in danger. The gunfire struck the towers above Maddie and they began to crumble. Directly over top of her. Panic shot through her system. Every nerve fired simultaneously.

In that moment, she had two options:

Flee.

Or die.

There was no time to choose. Her body acted of its own will. She darted towards the clearing, but the sheer size of the towers meant that even if she had moved earlier, there was no escaping. Not by just running anyway.

As Maddie sprinted towards safety, she took a running leap. At the moment she left the ground, the young Turk twisted her torso, extending her arm both behind and below her. Her open hand flexed as one of the small green orbs set inside her silver bracelet began to glow.

Seemingly drawing from the orb, thin wisps of fire poured over the woman’s arm and hand before collecting in an orb of its own by her palm. It quickly swelled in size before colliding with the ground and exploding, flinging Maddie and various pieces of metal through the air as if they were weightless. She only JUST managed to clear the falling debris before the towers collapsed entirely, kicking up a cloud of dust and rust and ash.

Maddie hit the ground with all the grace of a sack of Gysahl Greens, a human bowling ball rolling down an uneven alley of earth and metal. The first impact knocked the breath out of her, but once the momentum was gone, she scrambled to her feet and dove into cover behind what seemed to be a busted washing machine.

Panting heavily and gasping to regain her breath while she leaned on the dirty cleaning box, Maddie took quick stock of herself. Plenty of bumps, bruises, and cuts, but it didn’t feel like anything was broken. Minor bleeding and minimal burns thanks to the Silver Bracelet. She’d live, but fuck it was going to suck when the adrenaline wore off.

She also thankfully managed to hold on to the gun without accidentally discharging it. Which, in itself was a small miracle. Gathering her wits, the young woman rose to peer over the washing machine back towards the fight.

There was no mistaking it. That SOLDIER was Joseph Hockner. Outside of the other Turks, there were only a select few non-executive level Shinra personnel who would be privy to her real identity. Joe Hockner would be one of those. Before her current assignment, Maddie had to shadow senior Turk operatives in the field. On one of those operations, Joe had been the SOLDIER contact they had worked with.

Maddie knew him to have a cute face cool head. He could hold his own in a fight, of that she had little doubt, but the X-Series was a different breed of opponent. They were being developed in part of a long-term strategy to effectively make SOLDIER obsolete. Why waste time and effort in recruiting and training potential duds when you could simply mass produce the perfect fighting machine?

She could see the merit in that line of thinking but...having witnessed Joe fight first hand?

She had faith.

But...there was another problem. Joe had called her agent. It was the spur of the moment thing and it wasn’t like he was privy to her assignment but...

She glanced over to the woman in the wheelchair. Maddie had seen her before. She wasn’t Shinra, or at least, Maddie didn’t think so. She lived in the slums nearby - the same place as Naomi's apartment. Frequented a local hot dog stand. They had never spoken - never had a reason to - but it was Maddie’s job to watch people, and there weren’t too many folks in the slums who had access to motorized wheelchairs, even if they needed them. So she stood out. Not in a bad way but…

She was a potential liability. It wasn’t her fault, she didn’t do anything wrong, but she had been in the wrong place at the wrong time and heard the wrong words. Maybe. Maddie had hoped against hope that maybe she hadn’t overheard him in the chaos. But she couldn’t take the risk, either.

She had to be silenced.

…

Later.

For now, stopping the X-Series was the most pressing issue.

Maddie heard the woman shout a warning to Joe, but she didn’t pay her much mind. She was focused, tuning out the world. The weapon’s armored plating was much too thick for her bullets to make much of an impact. If she had thought to bring some Thunder materia, she might be able to do some real damage, but no such luck. Taking down rogue Shinra murder mechs wasn’t exactly on her to-do list for the day. Fire might work but...there was a chance that Joe might get caught up in the explosion. Not the best idea.

Well...that left only one option.

Maddie gathered herself, steadying her breathing and stretching her arm towards the malfunctioning machine. The other green orb in her bracelet began to glow dully. A faint icy wind poured across her hand, chilling her. The misty tendrils gathered at her palm, whipping at the air and at her. She held it for as long as she could, letting it pool until the frozen lashings became too much to handle. Then she released.

A silver bolt tore across the field between her and the machine. A light trail followed it as the air quickly turned to frost and fell to the ground, marking a path all the way to where the X-Series had been standing the moment Maddie fired.

Without waiting for an impact, Maddie ducked once more behind her cover, shaking the frost from her trembling hand.

Hopefully between the three of them, they could manage to stop the damn thing before anyone got too hurt.

Tace was driving along until he heard a strange thud on the roof of the car. It caught him off-guard as he was still thinking about evading Shinra goons. The noise only got progressively more faster and louder. The metal of his rust bucket was creaking and moaning more so than it did when he was driving the car really fast. However, it was avian screech that clued him onto what was up. Tace peeped his head out from the windows and then frantically rolled them up again. "If only I had another set of materia. Then I could simply fry it." He thought to himself.

It was no good, even though he would have just tried to shake it off, that thing had a good grip. It also was fucking big and seemed hungry or pissed enough to keep chasing him. Tace would briefly speed up and try and to abruptly stop in an attempt to shake it off. Regardless of the outcome, he'd then proceed to exit the car. Hand on his sword and with his hovering talisman, Tace was ready to face down the monster.

"C'mere you overgrown pigeon!" Tace would shout as he sent the talisman to the Zemelezett and attempted to cast slow.