.............Fate..:
.........(c)Schafft..:
Then some evil genius
He started visiting me secretly.
A.S. Pushkin. "Demon"
I'm just a wanderer passing by
but with a vigilant heart I realized,
The incomprehensible horror of a pilgrim,
frozen over the abyss in the mortal moment.
Ruben Dario
Don't change, be yourself.
You can be yourself as long as you live.
When death destroys your image,
Let there be someone like you.
W. Shakespeare "13th Sonnet"
1997, Parallel Planet - Earth, Large Continent,
Midgar city, Heavy Road, 03:31 am.
...Cloud Strife...
This morning I had this feeling that I...
exceptionally unlucky. I'll probably have to for the rest of my life
carry on with this feeling. Is it rock, fate or something else, I
I don't know. But I think THIS will never end.
What exactly is bothering me? Is it really that I
finally back... Back?! Where did I go back to? This is notmy
hometown. But here in Midgar I met Tifa, an old
childhood friend...
The morning started very early for me. What should I do? Money
you have to earn money. You can get a pretty decent job.
For example, become a teacher at the School of Martial and Magical Arts
or as a security guard in some bar or PUB... But for this you need
at least two thousand jills. OK. Now the main thing is to get
money.
This big black man offered me a part-time job. Ha! He
says they are a group of risk-takers calling themselves "AVALANCHE"
carry out terrorist attacks at reactors.
Now we are traveling by train along the heavy road to the 1st Sector
(1st reactor), to one of the 8 parts of Midgar. Sitting opposite me
Barrett is the same black man. Strange personality. All pumped up
rock, dressed in a dirty burgundy torn vest, dark breeches
and large forged boots. But even his short haircut and
the unbearable foul language during the conversation could not be overshadowed
this.
I noticed this right away - Barrett did not have a right hand, and her
replaced not by a prosthesis, but by a quite decent... light machine gun,
connected to the nervous system through signal receptors.
A very useful thing, but my weapon is no worse. I
put his hand over his shoulder behind his back, felt the warm handle and
pulled out a long sword blade. From a distance it seems very massive,
and up close there is even more of himlength from the beginning of the hilt to the end of the blade
the blades are about a meter and a half, and the width is about twenty
centimeters. The dark gray color of the metal glistens faintly in the rays
carriage lamps. A black leather ribbon, like a snake, wraps around
two-handed handle. I slowly moved my eyes along the blade,
made of refractory magic, and fixed his gaze on a small
translated from an old forgotten language as "Glory or Death."
These words are the motto of the Shinra Corporation soldier squad. But
these are not just words, but the whole meaning of the lives of all those who entered into
SOLDIER. But I have not supported this call for a long time. I don't
I want to die, and I don’t need fame. Always bring excess glory
l to a bad end: glory leads to pride, and pride obscures
eyes during a fight...
At that moment, the screeching of brakes was heard. The car was pushed sharply, and
the train stopped. We arrived at the station of the 1st northern
reactor.
...Barrett Wallace...
Well, that's it! Let's start work. And yet, in vain I took this boy,
red-haired, with a terribly fashionable hairstyle in the style of "Chaos", former
Special Forces soldier. E-e-eh! He doesn't inspire confidence in me. Yes Tifa
persuaded...
Climbing out of the top hatch, I immediately noticed one of the
security guards. And sneaking up unnoticed, he hit him. He passed out.
“Weakling,” I thought, and shouted, “Hey!” Everyone is behind me!
The rest jumped out of the carriagemy team members. First
there were Bigs and Jesse - a good couple - both code talkers and
hackers, real professionals. Vij landed behind them -
cool guy, although sometimes he acts like a child, which is very annoying
it. Cloud was the last to join. If he always stays like this
is slow, then I am not responsible for the consequences.
- Cloud, hurry up. Jesse! Bigs! To the gate - I escorted them
eyes.
Climbing the stairs from the platform, I saw Bigs already sitting
at the gate with the phosphorescent inscription "Norton Gate".
We need to check if there are any other security guards nearby, anyway
I have nothing to do here. I ran along the wall...
...Cloud Strife...
If Barrett thinks I'm so slow, he's very
is wrong. To tell the truth, I can reach that speed
reactions that will practically not be visible from the outside, but for
To do this, you need to overcome the psychophysical barrier of the work of the body muscles.
Near the gate, at the combination lock, a guy was doing magic:
average height, athletic build (which is very strange for
coder), black hair and pale face.
A girl stood nearby: short, but slender. A shock of it
wavy red hair is tied up with a black striped bandana. Apparently
She's this guy's girlfriend. Although maybe he just admires
his professionalism.
Along with them was a fat man who looked more like a ball than a
person.He looked around all the time, watching every shadow.
The girl, noticing me, came up. Examining my figure from below
up, said:
- It's just great that you can use your skills
SOLDIER in the fight with us... - she straightened a fallen curl
on her face. - It’s not every day you can find a warrior in such a group
like "AVALANCHE".
- SOLDIER? - the guy at the combination lock chuckled. And asked with
malice, - Jesse, aren't they our enemies? What does he do with
us in "AVALANCHE"?
- Okay, Bigs. He was a soldier. He left them and
joined us. - She turned to me again, - How do you like it?
call?
- Strife, Cloud Strife.
- Cloud, I...
“Sorry,” I interrupted her, “But I don’t care about your names.” By
the end of this work... I'll get out of here.
At this time Barrett came running - angry as hell (however,
I think this is his normal state).
- Why @#$%^& are you standing here! - He yelled, - Everything is alive
forward. Our goal is the Northern Mako Reactor. Let's meet for
bridge.
Bigs finally made the right contact and the gate opened, with
moving away to the sides like a snake thorn. A tower appeared in the opening
reactor - a stunning sight:
The greenish color of the metal contrasted well with
impenetrable blackness of the sky. The very top of the tower was glazed and
the rays of the spotlights reflected on the windows created bizarre
glare. Underglass there was a giant sign: on red
The field in white color om was the hieroglyph of the Shinra corporation. Below
All this was intertwined with some pipes, bends and something else
incomprehensible to me. But all this diversity paled before
what was happening above the tower itself: straight from the mouth of a giant pipe
diameter, a sheaf of blue-white flames burst out, or
plasma. And it was all fantastically beautiful...
While I was admiring the local beauty, my team had already run away
at the gate. Maybe Barrett is right about my slowness. How
whatever it is, it doesn't matter. I waved my hand and ran to the site
in front of the Mako Reactor...
In the reactor itself I was stunned by the size - it seemed that
It's much bigger inside than outside. But that was the first
surprise, the second thing is that there was a bridge here, and under it, on
about a kilometer deep, the same plasma splashed, felt
lava
I promised myself that I wouldn't be surprised anymore today.
In the middle the bridge forked: one end went to the other
door, on which a familiar fat man was already standing (apparently he was with them
always stands on the nimble), and at the other end there was a passage above
which had the inscription: “Main Boiler House”. Looks like they're going there
I need it. And I ran.
Everyone else was already here. Already worked on the combination lock
a couple, apparently they got a complicated lock. Barrett stood nearby, and oh
somethingThinking, he tapped some kind of rhythm with the toe of his sole. He
looked up at me and asked:
- Well? Is this your first time in a reactor?
- No, but the ones I worked for were much smaller. This
there were old Shinra mines.
- The entire planet is filled with Mako energy, which people
use every day.
I shrugged.
- This is the life blood of the planet! - Wallace shouted,
flushed with anger, so to speak, since he was
blacks. - But Shinra sucks blood with its monstrous
cars.
- I'm not here to lecture. Let's hurry up!
Barrett looked me up and down and turned to the working
a couple. The door opened. The three of us - me, Barrett and Jesse - ran
to the elevator. Bigs remained on guard.
The elevator was in blue twilight, only a few rows of light bulbs
shimmered with different colors of the rainbow. Jessie pressed something
remote control, and the elevator went down.
Barrett was the first to break the silence; he seemed to continue:
- Drop by drop, the reactors will dry up all the blood of the planet. And this
will happen, for sure.
- It's not my problem.
- Cloud, the planet is dying!
- I'm only worried about finishing this work before
the appearance of a security robot guard.
Barrett turned away. But we have already arrived. This is where it started
madness: we ran through some pipes, jumped over
crossbeams, went down stairs, crawled through some shafts
everythingdown, down, down... It seemed to me that it lasted a whole
eternity.
But it was finally over. We were at the very bottom
reactor, in its heart. Down under the lattice bridge, meters
ten, the blood of the planet splashed. There was a buzz of people working all around.
engine, occasionally interrupted by the hiss of exhaust gases.
Jessie stayed here. And we walked along the long bridge. on his
at the opposite end was the main engine of the large
pump The same ubiquitous pipes went up from it,
bends, brackets...
- Once we blow up this place, there will be nothing more from it.
will stay,” Barrett said with a grin, “Cloud, you
set the bomb.
- Shouldn’t you be doing this?
- I have to be sure that you don’t “throw something away.”
“Okay,” I chuckled, “be my guest.”
Suddenly there was a terrible squeak, turning into ultrasound. He
became stronger and stronger that my head began to hurt. And
came a voice that seemed to be born right in my head:
- LOOK OUT! - a booming echo passed throughout the body, - This is not
just a reactor!!
And it all ended just as it began.
- Is something wrong? - asked Barrett. Apparently he's nothing
heard. I shook my head.
- Nothing. I'll install it now.
...
He appeared immediately after the bomb was planted.
Cloudset the timer for twenty minutes to return
ago there was more than necessary. But now that he showed up
robo-guard...
He looked like a giant scorpion, two stories tall,
its red metal sparkled due to the light falling from all
sides The white tip of the scorpion's tail moved slowly from
side to side. The robot stood motionless, selecting a program
combat for this case.
Cloud didn't wait for that tin can to be thrown away.
Taking a running start, he pulled out his sword from behind his shoulders and struck him on the head where
presumably there are eyes.
Barrett was also awake: having inserted the battery pack into his
machine gun, he fired a short burst at the multi-jointed paws.
A small fireworks display of lights flashed on the grated floor - scorpion
jumped. Apparently he selected a suitable attack program.
Cloud took another leap and slashed his blade across the shell.
back, but the sword slipped, leaving small scratches on
surfaces. The robot also decided to act. Waving one of
webbed feet, knocking Cloud off his feet. Then he threw up the curved one,
like a claw, the tip of the tail over the bridge, aiming for the chest. Strife
without thinking, he spun sideways on the floor. And just in time: metal hook
creaked disgustingly across the surface of the bridge.
Barrett, taking aim, gave full fire at the tail joint -
the monster screamed with a metallic roar. From his mouthbroke out
two rays of light that began to probe the space in front of
yourself.
“Apparently this reptile doesn’t see anything,” Cloud thought.
"I'll try to do something."
- Barrett! - Strife shouted, - Try not to get hit by the rays -
these are his vision sensors.
Cloud, standing more firmly on his feet, formed a
psychoprotection from magical interference and began to bind
the Magic Strike formula is the simplest action that
could be performed by all soldiers after the first training course.
Cloud sheathed his sword and concentrated his energy on
fingertips. Soon, between the palms began to form
small lightning - this is how it is reflected in the 3-dimensional world
compressed multidimensional magic.
All this lasted about two seconds. Having made several
passes, he threw the sphere-ball over the security robot. Frozen on
a second above the scorpion, the ball split. From it flow
a cascade of lightning splashed out, covering the robot with a grid of sparkling
glare
He staggered to the side, but regained his balance. Then
turned around sharply and launched two missiles to where he had just stood
Cloud.
Apparently the lightning didn't do much damage. Although in
There was a feeling of uncertainty in the robot's movements. Barrett topic
By the time I inserted a new battery and turned it on full
recharging. On the machine gun indicatora red dot appeared, and behind
her and the other one. The strip must go through before recharging.
Two yellow beams slowly searched the space above the bridge.
Cloud, having put up psi-protection, was preparing to reveal another
the sphere of magic. Sparks of ice flashed in his hands, and above
Cold steam rose from the palms. At this point the indicator
Ghana crawled to the end. Barrett raised his hand and aimed at the red
with the shape of a robo-guard body.
A small ball of fire appeared from the trunk, which quickly
began to increase in size. And soon he became a size three
heads. With such seemingly small dimensions inside the sphere there was
the temperature is so high that it could melt
steel in a few seconds.
Like a child's balloon being let out of air,
the discharge exploded, with strong recoil, from the muzzle of a machine gun at
metal body of the robo-guard. After which the surface
became white hot and began to lose its clear shape.
Cloud didn’t wait - and, making quick passes, threw
sphere in Scorpio. On the fly, the sphere opened and, hitting
the red-hot surface of a scorpion, with a spike filled with thick
a layer of frost on the robot's body.
Unable to withstand such a temperature difference, the robo-guard armor
gave a crack and a second later, with a terrible roar, the scorpion
exploded. More or less intact body parts
flew across the bridge- down to plasma.
Perhaps the echo of the explosion continued for a long time, but Cloud
and Barrett no longer cared. Glancing briefly at the timer
bombs, about ten minutes left, they rushed upstairs,
taking Jessie and Bigs with him.
They got to the top in about eight minutes. Running out to the main
bridge, Cloud felt a slight chill creep up his back -
this meant the approach of something terrible and big. Intuition
I didn’t lie, the explosion was supposed to happen any minute.
At the crossroads they turned towards the door where Vij was standing.
So, since the bridge was narrow, everyone ran after each other. Cloud
covered the column from behind.
Suddenly Jessie fell, tripping over a hole in the bars
semi. Cloud reacted without thinking about anything - he quickly helped
rise, and together they rushed to the exit.
Already behind the closed door, Strife heard the crackling of electrical
charges. The reactor exploded slowly, as if reluctantly.
The molten mass, no longer light green, but yellow-orange,
broke through metal bulkheads and walls, releasing
a gigantic amount of energy.
From the outside this spectacle looked very grandiose: suddenly from
pipes, instead of plasma, fire burst out, which rose to
several hundred floors in size. He turned into a huge ball and,
Exploding with a terrible roar, it burst like a soap bubble....
Having gotten used to the darkness a little, Cloud began to make out the contours of
items. Soon he already saw that he was in a small
a room littered with pipe sections, engine parts,
batteries. All the guys were here: Barrett stood aside and
nervously stretched his neck, and fat Vidge examined the metal
garbage, occasionally shuffling his feet, Bigs sat on the pipe and closed the floor
eyes, whistled the tune of a fashionable tune, Jesse, sitting on one
I was planting explosives on my knee to the blocked exit.
Bigs' voice came from the darkness:
- This should save the planet a little longer... A little longer.
“Yeah,” the silent Vij assented.
Barrett glanced sideways at both of them, but didn't say a word.
They spent several minutes in silence. Cloud took off his shoulder strap
bag and opened it. Small rays of light erupted from it, which
illuminated the room, but rather made it darker. At the bottom of the bag
there were two small spheres of a light greenish hue,
emitting light. These were Matters - the only thing on the planet
a substance that releases Mako energy. They were the ones who served
Today, I did a great job for Stryfe, generating some of the power for him.
Cloud put his hand into the bag and ran his palm over the surface of the spheres,
feeling the pleasant warmth emanating from them. Barrett looked into it
side, but turned away the same way, grunting vaguely.Soon Jessie finished the installation and at her command everyone moved away
deep into the room.
Coming out from under the flaming arch, a group of terrorists stood together
for the next orders of the chief.
“Great,” said Barrett, “let’s get out of here.” Moving to
Sector 8 station! Splyunte. And off to the train!
Vij and the couple ran up the stairs. That left Barrett and
Cloud. Wallace started to leave, but Cloud stopped him.
“If you’re talking about your money,” answered the stopper.
Cloud Barrett's gesture, - Then keep this to yourself until
We won't go back to shelter. - And he ran to catch up with the others
members of your team.
Coming out of the gateway, Cloud saw what happened to Sector,
after they blew up the Reactor. Pile of broken cars
thrown into one heap, they looked like a multi-jointed monster,
bristling with pipe scraps. Small stalls in the square
tattered to shreds, shaking from the light wind. Several
belated pedestrians ran along the alley.
And in the center of it all stood a girl in a pink long dress.
dress. Her brown hair ended in a large braid. She's in her hands
holding a wicker basket with flowers. This girl was the odd one out
this chaos.
The flower girl looked around and, noticing Cloud, approached
him.
“Sorry,” she began, “you don’t know what’s here.”
happened?
- Nothing special. But to meit seems to you it would be better not to be
here,” Cloud said, trying not to look at her big brown
eyes. Noticing her basket, he continued, “Listen, here,
There are not many flowers around. Where did you get them from?
- Oh, these? - The flower girl answered the question with a question, - they
do you like it? They only cost one jill.
Taking two fifty coins from his pocket, Cloud gave them to
to the girl, thinking that the flowers would be useful to him.
“Thank you very much,” the flower girl replied, giving a few
flowers to Strife, and then slowly walked away around the bend.
"Interesting," Cloud thought as he continued his way to the station.
- "Barrett will pay me the money I'm owed or I'll have to take it
force."
Not paying attention to passers-by, the former soldier walked
dark streets. It was calmer in this part of the Sector, and
there seemed to be no explosion.
Having already approached the bridge through which it was necessary to cross to
station, Cloud felt discomfort - as if someone else
placed a cold hand on his back. Strife was being watched.
Trying not to give himself away, Cloud continued on his way, trying to find out
from which side is the surveillance being carried out?
But this was not required - an imperious voice was heard from behind
voice:
- Hey! Boy, wait!
Cloud didn't think about stopping and walked on. Suddenly he
heard the click of the pawl cocking, after which it slid sharply into
side, fromhalf turn towards the enemy.
A shot rang out, and a needle with a charge flew next to the chest
Cloud. He looked at the enemy: it was a soldier of the initial
training - he is wearing a dark blue cadet uniform. In your hands
the soldier was holding a "Shocker" - a low-power weapon that shoots
electronically charged needles, paralyzing, temporarily,
enemy.
Strife, without waiting for further events, made a jump, aiming
with an outstretched leg into the solar plexus - the enemy, groaning,
fell onto the pavement. From the dark entrance of one of the houses came
a couple more soldiers armed with Shockers.
- Quick, pa@#% - One swore, tapping his weapon on
palm.
Quickly assessing the distance to them, Cloud made a tackle, and
ran a small combination over their faces. On the pavement there was
already four bodies.
Looking around, Strife saw six soldiers, but armed,
already, "Pythons" - miniature machine guns. Resist such
toys were not forgiven, but Cloud could have, if time had not
was running out. Strife backed slowly towards the railing of the bridge.
The whistle of an approaching train was heard nearby. In the brain
a thought flashed through and he was already ready. The roar of the wheels became
louder, and now a long chain of carriages was running under the bridge.
Walking close to the railing, Cloud grabbed the handrail with one hand
and...
“Sorry guys, but I have to go,” he grinned.... And crossing his legs, Strife jumped off the bridge. From above only
loud shots and heated curses were heard.
...
The intersectoral train, slowly swaying, moved to the side
slum In the luggage compartment they sat on various bales and
suitcases Barrett and his team. Everyone was in a bad mood
cheerful and the faces of the whole company were turned to the floor - Cloud before
there hasn't been one yet.
“Probably,” Vij said with a questioning intonation, “
Cloud won't pass?
“It’s unlikely,” Barrett said, “as far as I’ve figured it out.”
guy - all he needs is money.
“By the way, Barrett,” Bigs turned to the leader, “what about
our money.
Barrett looked at him and turned away sharply.
“Oh, sorry,” Bigs said, lowering his head.
Silence reigned in the carriage again. The windows creaked quietly
frames The glass shook slightly, preventing the travelers from falling asleep. Lightweight
rustling behind bags and suitcases made by rats, there were them here
completely, scared Jessie, who couldn’t stand these gray
Tva ray. The matte lamp on the ceiling blinked occasionally, reminding
poor insulation. And despite all this hung in the air
silence.
...end...
Share your thoughts about the article