Chapter 3: The Reactor Job
When we arrived right outside of Midgar, we parked our motorbikes and stayed put gazing at the large city before us. Kadaj started “This is it… our first real mission.” Loz replied “Yeah, about time we got some real work. I hate that stupid stuff that doesn’t get us anywhere!” I sighed and got off my motorbike first “Don’t get too excited, Loz. And don’t even think about saying this is fun.” Loz complained “Aww come on… werent you bored before too?” I shook my head and replied “This isnt a game. This is a job we cannot fail. I don’t care if you think that or not. Stay focused. We’re about to go right into Shinra territory. Don’t you remember how scared of them you were when we were kids?” Loz groaned and yelled “Gaah, shut up! You were frozen scared too, you know!” Kadaj got off her motorbike and so did Loz. She went in front of him to keep him from running at me “Loz, please. This isnt the time for you and Brother to be arguing. Save it for when we go home!” I continued “Either way, we’re going in.” Kadaj asked “So where do we go first?” I paused to think and took out my phone, then examined the data Hojo sent to it about the coordinates of each reactor in Midgar. I suggested “Well, the nearest one from here is the number 4 reactor. There doesn’t seem to be any other way in except what’s in front of us.” Loz laughed “Or we could do tricks on our motorbikes and go in from the top, right? That’s another way in…” Kadaj sighed and shook her head “Loz, come on… you know that’s too dangerous. If we tried to do that, we’d get caught for sure!” Loz grumbled and turned the other way “Man, don’t you guys know how to have fun? No fair…” I got really angry and tightened my fist. This mission was serious business and I wasn’t in the mood for his stupid ideas that would only get us killed. I silently signalled for Kadaj and Loz to follow and lead the way to the locked entrance. Loz armed his dual hound and got ready to break the door but I managed to push him back before he had a full blown swing “What are you doing, idiot?! We cant just bust in!” Kadaj complained “Not again… What am I gonna do with them…?” Loz groaned and crossed his arms, and I went to the electronic keypad to hack in so we could enter. I finished quickly and the door slid open for us “Lets go. The Number 4 reactor is just ahead, hurry. And stay quiet at all costs—we’re moving out on top.” Kadaj nodded and she followed me in with Loz. We managed to arrive at the reactor without running into trouble, and I hacked through the security at the entrance so we could enter. Kadaj asked “Yazoo, are you sure they arent going to log suspicious activity on their servers with you hacking like this…?” I answered “We wont be able to evade trouble forever. However, even im uncertain of how much time we have before the enemy knows something is up. All it will take is one explosion before they know something is going on. After this one blows, we’ll need to make haste and head for reactor 5 before enemy forces can show up… if we’re lucky, we’ll make it there without running into trouble. But stay alert—this is only my suspicion. We could be caught sooner than what im expecting.” Kadaj and Loz nodded, and went further in. We took the elevator further down, and took the stairs to go even deeper inside, ending up in a small room with a narrow walkway, along with an empty stasis tank at the end. Loz went ahead when we stopped and approached it curiously “Hey, Yazoo… its that thing. We came here as kids when we tried to find Mother…” I remembered and nodded “Yes…. Its true. It’s a shame she wasn’t here, though… but there were signs of a struggle which might have meant that she was present before we arrived.” Kadaj seemed worried and nervous all of a sudden, and I asked “Whats wrong, Sister?” Kadaj shook her head and answered “Its just…. Its Hojo. He tricked us when we were little and tried to get the Black Materia back. Instead, we walked right into a trap. What if he’s not gonna help us? what if this is just another convenient setup on his part?” I agreed “You’re right… it feels impossible to trust him after he betrayed us when Zeta Weapon threw us back in time. He took advantage of us since we were too small and inexperienced to read right through him…” Loz asked “ so what do we do? Set this toy and blow the place or do we go back home and forget about this game?” I didn’t know how to answer that. Kadaj had a valid point; there was no way we could trust Hojo completely after the stunt he pulled during the Zeta incident. I answered “I guess… we keep going. I realize that you have a valid point, Kadaj, but Mother gave us direct orders to do this. We cant go back unless we finish or the situation grows too critical and forces us to retreat and regroup.” Kadaj sighed “Yeah, youre right… even if he is setting us up, Mother told us to do something and we’re expected to do it.” Loz happily cried “Alright, I’ll set the bomb! Then we’ll run for it!” I nodded and Loz planted the time bomb, and then we began running back up together. Kadaj asked “how much time do we have?” Loz said “Oh, let’s see, uh… 3 minutes! I think…” I sighed “You forgot already? Geeze you’re hopeless…” Kadaj replied “Doesn’t matter. What matters now is we keep going and avoid playing with shinra!” I agreed “Right.” We managed to reach the surface and escape the reactor on time without encountering shinra troops, and shortly after we just got out, Loz pushed me and Kadaj and landed on top of us as the explosion took place just inches behind. Kadaj coughed and Loz got off of us “Talk about minimum time… Geeze, Brother.” I stood up and helped Kadaj to her feet as well. Loz was the last to stand up “Well, there’s one of em. Next?” I took my phone back out and examined the coordinates of the nearest reactor “Looks like its number 5 now. Let’s finish this. We don’t have long before the enemy knows someone’s infiltrated the city.” They both nodded at me, and I led the way to the next one. We did the same thing with the fifth reactor, the number 6 reactor, all the way to the number 8, and continued all the way to the final one—the number 3 reactor. Of course, we ran into shinra troops on the way, but they were too weak and we finished them easily. The enemy seemed to lack proper forces to deal with powerful Cetras like us. They were no match. Yet, by the time we made it to final 3rd reactor, something felt amiss to me. I didn’t know what, but I had a bad feeling about the last one for some reason. I hacked through the security, and led us in the way I did since the beginning of this mission. Loz said “This is it. Last one.” Kadaj laughed “Yep! Almost too easy, wasn’t it?” Loz happily agreed “I know, right? They werent even trying!” They both laughed together, and I also wanted to smile. But for some reason I couldn’t. I couldn’t shake away the feeling that something was about to go awry, no matter how hard I tried to. Kadaj realized how silent I was during the elevator ride and asked “Yazoo, is something wrong?” I turned back to her and said “No, im fine. Its just that… I have a bad feeling about this.” Loz was confused “What? After coming all this way? You’re just kidding, right? We’ve already won. You know that…” I shook my head and kept silent, and the elevator stopped. We stepped out and I led us down the stairs. But I stopped halfway down. I said “Guys… do you hear something?” Loz replied “Uhh… it sounds like some whirring and stomping. But where’s it coming from?” I replied “Most likely downstairs. Stay low… there’s something nearby.” Kadaj said “ right…” I drew my revolver and led us downstairs carefully, keeping my eyes peeled for anything unusual. When we got to the bottom of the staircase, I saw a massive red and black machine slowly moving back and forth, and what seemed like somebody piloting it from the very top which was barely visible from this far down. Kadaj quietly said “Ahh, shoot…!” Loz asked “Dang, what do we do? Its so big im not sure we can sneak by…” I answered “Well, if we’re caught we’ll have to fight them. I don’t see any alternate routes to where we need to go to finish the job.” Loz suggested “Then…” I nodded “Right, we have to beat that thing. We cant continue the mission with that roboguard stomping about. Keep your wits about you… this one looks much stronger than the others.” They both nodded, and I decided to fire at it and make the first attack. The minute I fired several shots at it, we were quickly noticed. Kadaj and Loz went out immediately with their weapons and attacked it. I came out of hiding last, and pulled my fist back, then thrusted it forth and used my special attack to summon several shadowy wolves at it. Kadaj charged at it with her souba and slashed at it several times, but the enemy pushed her back with nasty force “Ugh!” she managed to get up and was already gasping for air “Yazoo, Loz… watch out. This thing’s no joke!” Loz attacked it with his dual hound and managed to crack one of the arms, but it hadnt fully broken. The enemy also forced him away with the same brute force it had on Kadaj. Loz quickly recovered and stood up “Ha! Take that, you big dummy!” I fired more shots after it defeated my dark wolves, but its metal body deflected my bullets again. Kadaj asked “Yazoo, do you really think we can beat this thing? My souba wont even scratch it!” Loz added “My gun’s not working either. And I had to hit it a bunch to crack a single arm.” I carefully studied it and replied “I don’t know if we’re strong enough to win, either. But we wont know unless we keep trying.” I paused to think and suggested “Whoever built this thing knew we were coming. Especially since it withstood multiple blows from Loz’s strength…” Loz cried “Ok, fine! Then we’ll just show em they cant win!” Loz went right at the enemy again, as recklessly as usual. I knew he was being stupid and careless, but I had to admit he was awfully brave to storm right at this enemy without thinking twice about it at the same time. Kadaj turned to me and said “Come on! We have to help. Loz cant do this on his own!” I nodded, and we kept at fighting this strong roboguard. The battle seemed to go on forever. And despite multiple attacks from all of us, the enemy was still standing with only a few dents and a crack on the center of its exterior. I was gasping for air “Its no good… we cant beat it! Its too strong.” Loz was even getting worn out and got to his feet again “I don’t care if it beat me! Im Mother’s kid, and Im not falling to some giant piece of scrap like this!” He charged at it again with an electric attack from his dual hound, heavily clashing with its large fist. Kadaj warned “Loz, don’t! if you push yourself any further than this, you’ll…!” Loz groaned, desperately working to hold on and keep his strength up “grrr…! Just die, you stupid machine!” He took his free hand and punched its fist as hard as he could. To my surprise, its entire hand had broken off at that point. Loz fell down, gasping for breath on the ground in front of the roboguard. Kadaj saw him injured and exhausted and went to help “Loz, thank you… I think…” Loz coughed and managed to sit “No problem… hah hah…” I saw something open at the top of it, and gasped in shock at what I saw. Hojo was inside the machine’s control spot, and laughed at us. I cried “No way!” Hojo snickered and said “Nicely done, specimen of JENOVA. But, it seems your efforts were all for nothing…” He pushed a button inside, and where the robot’s hand was now missing, I saw a thick energy beam being charged inside. I yelled to warn Kadaj and Loz “Brother, Sister--! Behind you!!” Kadaj gasped when she saw it and quickly picked up Loz and we both tried to run away, but we got hit by something and everything went completely white. We all screamed, and then I blacked out.
To Be Continued…
When we arrived right outside of Midgar, we parked our motorbikes and stayed put gazing at the large city before us. Kadaj started “This is it… our first real mission.” Loz replied “Yeah, about time we got some real work. I hate that stupid stuff that doesn’t get us anywhere!” I sighed and got off my motorbike first “Don’t get too excited, Loz. And don’t even think about saying this is fun.” Loz complained “Aww come on… werent you bored before too?” I shook my head and replied “This isnt a game. This is a job we cannot fail. I don’t care if you think that or not. Stay focused. We’re about to go right into Shinra territory. Don’t you remember how scared of them you were when we were kids?” Loz groaned and yelled “Gaah, shut up! You were frozen scared too, you know!” Kadaj got off her motorbike and so did Loz. She went in front of him to keep him from running at me “Loz, please. This isnt the time for you and Brother to be arguing. Save it for when we go home!” I continued “Either way, we’re going in.” Kadaj asked “So where do we go first?” I paused to think and took out my phone, then examined the data Hojo sent to it about the coordinates of each reactor in Midgar. I suggested “Well, the nearest one from here is the number 4 reactor. There doesn’t seem to be any other way in except what’s in front of us.” Loz laughed “Or we could do tricks on our motorbikes and go in from the top, right? That’s another way in…” Kadaj sighed and shook her head “Loz, come on… you know that’s too dangerous. If we tried to do that, we’d get caught for sure!” Loz grumbled and turned the other way “Man, don’t you guys know how to have fun? No fair…” I got really angry and tightened my fist. This mission was serious business and I wasn’t in the mood for his stupid ideas that would only get us killed. I silently signalled for Kadaj and Loz to follow and lead the way to the locked entrance. Loz armed his dual hound and got ready to break the door but I managed to push him back before he had a full blown swing “What are you doing, idiot?! We cant just bust in!” Kadaj complained “Not again… What am I gonna do with them…?” Loz groaned and crossed his arms, and I went to the electronic keypad to hack in so we could enter. I finished quickly and the door slid open for us “Lets go. The Number 4 reactor is just ahead, hurry. And stay quiet at all costs—we’re moving out on top.” Kadaj nodded and she followed me in with Loz. We managed to arrive at the reactor without running into trouble, and I hacked through the security at the entrance so we could enter. Kadaj asked “Yazoo, are you sure they arent going to log suspicious activity on their servers with you hacking like this…?” I answered “We wont be able to evade trouble forever. However, even im uncertain of how much time we have before the enemy knows something is up. All it will take is one explosion before they know something is going on. After this one blows, we’ll need to make haste and head for reactor 5 before enemy forces can show up… if we’re lucky, we’ll make it there without running into trouble. But stay alert—this is only my suspicion. We could be caught sooner than what im expecting.” Kadaj and Loz nodded, and went further in. We took the elevator further down, and took the stairs to go even deeper inside, ending up in a small room with a narrow walkway, along with an empty stasis tank at the end. Loz went ahead when we stopped and approached it curiously “Hey, Yazoo… its that thing. We came here as kids when we tried to find Mother…” I remembered and nodded “Yes…. Its true. It’s a shame she wasn’t here, though… but there were signs of a struggle which might have meant that she was present before we arrived.” Kadaj seemed worried and nervous all of a sudden, and I asked “Whats wrong, Sister?” Kadaj shook her head and answered “Its just…. Its Hojo. He tricked us when we were little and tried to get the Black Materia back. Instead, we walked right into a trap. What if he’s not gonna help us? what if this is just another convenient setup on his part?” I agreed “You’re right… it feels impossible to trust him after he betrayed us when Zeta Weapon threw us back in time. He took advantage of us since we were too small and inexperienced to read right through him…” Loz asked “ so what do we do? Set this toy and blow the place or do we go back home and forget about this game?” I didn’t know how to answer that. Kadaj had a valid point; there was no way we could trust Hojo completely after the stunt he pulled during the Zeta incident. I answered “I guess… we keep going. I realize that you have a valid point, Kadaj, but Mother gave us direct orders to do this. We cant go back unless we finish or the situation grows too critical and forces us to retreat and regroup.” Kadaj sighed “Yeah, youre right… even if he is setting us up, Mother told us to do something and we’re expected to do it.” Loz happily cried “Alright, I’ll set the bomb! Then we’ll run for it!” I nodded and Loz planted the time bomb, and then we began running back up together. Kadaj asked “how much time do we have?” Loz said “Oh, let’s see, uh… 3 minutes! I think…” I sighed “You forgot already? Geeze you’re hopeless…” Kadaj replied “Doesn’t matter. What matters now is we keep going and avoid playing with shinra!” I agreed “Right.” We managed to reach the surface and escape the reactor on time without encountering shinra troops, and shortly after we just got out, Loz pushed me and Kadaj and landed on top of us as the explosion took place just inches behind. Kadaj coughed and Loz got off of us “Talk about minimum time… Geeze, Brother.” I stood up and helped Kadaj to her feet as well. Loz was the last to stand up “Well, there’s one of em. Next?” I took my phone back out and examined the coordinates of the nearest reactor “Looks like its number 5 now. Let’s finish this. We don’t have long before the enemy knows someone’s infiltrated the city.” They both nodded at me, and I led the way to the next one. We did the same thing with the fifth reactor, the number 6 reactor, all the way to the number 8, and continued all the way to the final one—the number 3 reactor. Of course, we ran into shinra troops on the way, but they were too weak and we finished them easily. The enemy seemed to lack proper forces to deal with powerful Cetras like us. They were no match. Yet, by the time we made it to final 3rd reactor, something felt amiss to me. I didn’t know what, but I had a bad feeling about the last one for some reason. I hacked through the security, and led us in the way I did since the beginning of this mission. Loz said “This is it. Last one.” Kadaj laughed “Yep! Almost too easy, wasn’t it?” Loz happily agreed “I know, right? They werent even trying!” They both laughed together, and I also wanted to smile. But for some reason I couldn’t. I couldn’t shake away the feeling that something was about to go awry, no matter how hard I tried to. Kadaj realized how silent I was during the elevator ride and asked “Yazoo, is something wrong?” I turned back to her and said “No, im fine. Its just that… I have a bad feeling about this.” Loz was confused “What? After coming all this way? You’re just kidding, right? We’ve already won. You know that…” I shook my head and kept silent, and the elevator stopped. We stepped out and I led us down the stairs. But I stopped halfway down. I said “Guys… do you hear something?” Loz replied “Uhh… it sounds like some whirring and stomping. But where’s it coming from?” I replied “Most likely downstairs. Stay low… there’s something nearby.” Kadaj said “ right…” I drew my revolver and led us downstairs carefully, keeping my eyes peeled for anything unusual. When we got to the bottom of the staircase, I saw a massive red and black machine slowly moving back and forth, and what seemed like somebody piloting it from the very top which was barely visible from this far down. Kadaj quietly said “Ahh, shoot…!” Loz asked “Dang, what do we do? Its so big im not sure we can sneak by…” I answered “Well, if we’re caught we’ll have to fight them. I don’t see any alternate routes to where we need to go to finish the job.” Loz suggested “Then…” I nodded “Right, we have to beat that thing. We cant continue the mission with that roboguard stomping about. Keep your wits about you… this one looks much stronger than the others.” They both nodded, and I decided to fire at it and make the first attack. The minute I fired several shots at it, we were quickly noticed. Kadaj and Loz went out immediately with their weapons and attacked it. I came out of hiding last, and pulled my fist back, then thrusted it forth and used my special attack to summon several shadowy wolves at it. Kadaj charged at it with her souba and slashed at it several times, but the enemy pushed her back with nasty force “Ugh!” she managed to get up and was already gasping for air “Yazoo, Loz… watch out. This thing’s no joke!” Loz attacked it with his dual hound and managed to crack one of the arms, but it hadnt fully broken. The enemy also forced him away with the same brute force it had on Kadaj. Loz quickly recovered and stood up “Ha! Take that, you big dummy!” I fired more shots after it defeated my dark wolves, but its metal body deflected my bullets again. Kadaj asked “Yazoo, do you really think we can beat this thing? My souba wont even scratch it!” Loz added “My gun’s not working either. And I had to hit it a bunch to crack a single arm.” I carefully studied it and replied “I don’t know if we’re strong enough to win, either. But we wont know unless we keep trying.” I paused to think and suggested “Whoever built this thing knew we were coming. Especially since it withstood multiple blows from Loz’s strength…” Loz cried “Ok, fine! Then we’ll just show em they cant win!” Loz went right at the enemy again, as recklessly as usual. I knew he was being stupid and careless, but I had to admit he was awfully brave to storm right at this enemy without thinking twice about it at the same time. Kadaj turned to me and said “Come on! We have to help. Loz cant do this on his own!” I nodded, and we kept at fighting this strong roboguard. The battle seemed to go on forever. And despite multiple attacks from all of us, the enemy was still standing with only a few dents and a crack on the center of its exterior. I was gasping for air “Its no good… we cant beat it! Its too strong.” Loz was even getting worn out and got to his feet again “I don’t care if it beat me! Im Mother’s kid, and Im not falling to some giant piece of scrap like this!” He charged at it again with an electric attack from his dual hound, heavily clashing with its large fist. Kadaj warned “Loz, don’t! if you push yourself any further than this, you’ll…!” Loz groaned, desperately working to hold on and keep his strength up “grrr…! Just die, you stupid machine!” He took his free hand and punched its fist as hard as he could. To my surprise, its entire hand had broken off at that point. Loz fell down, gasping for breath on the ground in front of the roboguard. Kadaj saw him injured and exhausted and went to help “Loz, thank you… I think…” Loz coughed and managed to sit “No problem… hah hah…” I saw something open at the top of it, and gasped in shock at what I saw. Hojo was inside the machine’s control spot, and laughed at us. I cried “No way!” Hojo snickered and said “Nicely done, specimen of JENOVA. But, it seems your efforts were all for nothing…” He pushed a button inside, and where the robot’s hand was now missing, I saw a thick energy beam being charged inside. I yelled to warn Kadaj and Loz “Brother, Sister--! Behind you!!” Kadaj gasped when she saw it and quickly picked up Loz and we both tried to run away, but we got hit by something and everything went completely white. We all screamed, and then I blacked out.
To Be Continued…
