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.
