The Recruit

It was a hot day in the slums as the five AVALANCHE members moved

towards their next mission. It was nothing new for the first three

warriors and their blonde feminine leader but for the last warrior, a

spiky blue haired man; this was his first mission and quite possibly his
last if he didn’t perform well.

He wore black combat boots, black pants and a dark blue tight fitting
T-Shirt. His two curved swords were sheathed on his back. His whole outfit
was designed to ensure he had maximum mobility and to prevent him from being
slowed down during a fight. Even though he was prepared, Sera felt nervous
as he went through his mission brief in his mind, but in spite of his nerves
the adrenaline began coursing through his veins, as if he was being charged
with an electrical current.

Barret Wallace had assigned him this mission to test his skills, to

see if he had what it took to join AVALANCHE.

He had sent the group warriors, one of which was an extremely attractive
blonde girl who intrigued Sera. She wore black leather boots, black
leggings, black leather shorts, and a sleeveless black corset with two belts
that crossed at her hips, a black jacket that zipped up higher than her
belts and she had

two swords, one sheathed on her left hip and the other sheathed across her
back.

‘Wow, she looks pretty good,’ Sera thought, momentarily forgetting his
first-mission worries, his eyes lingering on the bare skin of her midriff
beneath the corset.

The warrior behind Sera coughed loudly and he realised that he was staring
at her. Kind of hard not to, as her outfit was pretty spectacular, but now
was not the time for such inappropriate and distracting thoughts. He was
here to do a job and she was here to tell them how to do it so he better
quit ogling and pay attention.

She was leading the group to the outskirts of the

slums where a group of off-duty ShinRa infantrymen were causing

trouble. It was a fairly easy mission and Sera could see that the

blonde girl was severely unimpressed by being assigned to this

job. He looked to the head of the group and saw her walking, her eyes
focused on their target. The more Sera looked at her and thought about her
the more curious he

was about her and how she ended up here.

To her this seemed like it was nothing more than a babysitting job. Sera wasn’t happy about
her attitude towards the mission but there was nothing he could do about it.

He was sweating slightly - both from nerves and from the oppressive heat -
and he wiped his hands on his pants, not

wanting them to be slippery when he needed to use his swords.

‘Come on, I’m not a complete amateur. Why am I getting so worked up?’ he
asked himself. “Focus man, you gotta pass this test.”

He looked up and saw the plate that held up the city and cursed it, for it
allowed no wind or anything on the gloomy area that was the slums. Looking
around he realised that they were the only people in sight; the ShinRa men had
scared everyone else off. Junk piles littered the sandy floors and Sera
wondered why the people threw all their rubbish down here instead of getting
rid of it properly. He snapped back to attention when he saw movement in
front of him.

The blonde motioned for the group to move around so that they could

flank their opposition and prepare for attack. She moved with such

authority and she had an aura of power that the other men clearly respected
but that didn’t matter much to Sera.

‘How could a girl, especially one as small and petite as this one,

possibly be the boss of me?’ Sera thought as he trudged on the dry

dusty ground. He realised that he was getting distracted again and mentally
kicked himself before quickening his pace and he was soon at the front of
the group, eager to prove himself to AVALANCHE. He looked behind him and saw
the three other warriors, wearing standard issue pants and shirts with their
swords sheathed on their hips. He vaguely recognised one of them but thought
nothing of it as his gaze passed over them. They all wore expressions that
displayed boredom and Sera couldn’t fathom that. The thought of protecting
people and battling ShinRa lapdogs excited him and he was grinning like an
idiot.

‘What’s with these guys? Why can’t they at least try to act excited?’ Sera
mused as they reached their destination.

The air smelt rusty and stale to the group and Sera wondered if this would
have an impact on his breathing during the fight. The adrenaline in his
blood sent a shiver down his spine as he mentally prepared himself for the
battle. He needed this heat to go away; it was

stifling his concentration.

He walked to the edge of the small cliff they were standing on and looked
down to the scene below him. The blonde had crouched next to him and he
snuck a look out the corner of his eye at her. She had high cheekbones,
slightly slanted eyes which were strikingly blue and intense, her bottom lip
was full while her top lip was thinner and more defined, adding the needed
shape to her mouth. He also noted that she had taut, toned muscle all over
her body.

’Wow, she looks like she could put up a decent fight. I wonder who she’s
trained with?’ Sera wondered before turning his attention back to their
objective.

ShinRa infantrymen were bullying a small family. There was a small boy and
his mother and father. The men were beating the boy and his mother while
restraining the father. They were attempting to remove the mother’s clothes,
most likely to rape her; she was screaming in protest but the men just
simply laughed at her and carried on. The boy was sobbing hysterically as
the men hit him over and over again, smirking at the father who was
struggling desperately against his captors.

Sera felt heat boil his blood as the anger raced through his body. The
warriors all tensed at the horrific sight but waited patiently for their
orders. All of them except Sera.

He started toward the village, his hands already reaching for his swords,
when someone grabbed him and pushed him back against the rock. It was the
blonde girl.

“Hey! Let go of me, Blondie!” Sera shouted, furious at being stopped when he
could be helping the family.

“What do you think you’re doing, Spiky? There could be more men. Do you
really want to go in there by yourself and get killed?” She said baring her
teeth ferociously.

“I could take them out easily,” Sera challenged.

‘Who’s this joker,’ she mused under her breath before replying. “Step out of
line one more time and I’ll kill you,” she said, her eyes gleaming with a
ferocity that humbled him slightly. She moved in front the men again and
proceeded to give them their orders.


“Ok men, crouch down here behind these rocks,” she said, watching Sera seethe
silently.

“Oh great, so now she has us all bowing before her feet. Who the hell is this
woman?” Sera thought, kneeling down and listening to the blonde, punching the
ground before looking at her.

“Alright men, Spiky blue...boy and I will take the front while the rest of
your form a perimeter around us in case we need back up, got it?”

“Yes ma’am,” they all replied, except for Sera, who still had a look of pure
rage in his eyes. The group could feel the animosity pouring from Sera but
he simply looked away from her and closely examined the rock wall next to
him.

She paused to look at Sera, “You got it or are you gonna run off?” She

asked Sera, a slight smirk on her face. Her gaze was intense and Sera could
almost feel it burning a hole through the side of his face.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, hang on a sec there, Blondie. “Spiky blue boy” ain’t my

name. It's Sera and you better get used to it ‘cause I’m gonna be the

next hero around here,” Sera said, turning to her and puffing out his chest.

“Oh really,” she laughed, “we’ll see about that.”

Before Sera could say another word she had turned and set off towards the
enemy, pulling a sword from the sheath on her left hip and another from the
sheath on her back. He glared at her for a few seconds before setting off
after her, pulling his curved swords from the

sheath on his back and sprinting after her. The three other warriors
followed at a slower pace, seeing as they were not needed immediately.

As he jumped down the cliff he wondered if she could fight as well as she
could talk. As soon as he landed he sprinted off, dodging the piles of junk
that were all over the slums. He caught up to her just as she reached the
infantrymen.

“Hey you, Lapdogs! Did your sick and twisted president put you up to this or
are all you lowlifes bred like this?” she asked venomously.

“This doesn’t concern you girly, and aren’t you too young to be out this
late?” the group leader said with a smirk.

“You’re a comic genius,” the blonde replied dryly while rolling her eyes, “I
suggest you leave before things get ugly.” Sera moved slightly closer,
sensing that the confrontation was about to kick off.

“I don’t think we’ll be going anywhere, will we boys?” the leader said, turning to
look at his men.

She took the first guy by surprise and stabbed him through his chest as he
turned back to face her before she leaped over to the next man and slit his
throat. Sera quickly realised she was a demon on the battlefield.

Sera focused his gaze on the opposition and begun his own attack. He
launched himself through the air slashing out at the man on his right. He
landed and rolled to absorb the shock to his limbs and as he rose he thrust
his sword through the next man’s chest. Twisting his body round he threw the
dead man into two advancing enemies, knocking them out instantly.

He looked around and saw that the blonde had taken down

more than twice the enemies he had. He was stunned by the speed she

moved at, it was amazing. Out of the corner of his eye he

saw one of the fallen men get up, take aim and fire. The bullet

thudded into his right shoulder and caused him to drop his sword; he

reacted quickly, diving towards the man who shot him and then smashing him in
the nose with his elbow, killing him instantly.

He retrieved a potion from his pocket and drank it quickly before

running to fetch his discarded sword. He jerked and crouched into a

low fighting stance as he felt someone touch his shoulder but when he

looked around

he saw that it was the girl and that the battle was over. The thought of

her trumping him in battle irritated him immensely and he angrily

ripped off the blood soaked sleeve on his right arm before doing the

same with the left to even out the look, revealing blue makings on his

biceps.

He straightened up and saw that the rest of the men were piling up the

bodies of the dead ShinRa lap dogs. His eyes passed over the blonde and he

noticed she was staring at his markings.

“Where’d you get those?” She said gesturing at his arms. She gave him a
curious look and he was tempted to tell her but then he remembered the way
she had treated him.

“That’s privileged information,” he replied with venom in his voice.

He was furious with himself for letting her best him in combat.

“Someone’s a little sore that they got beaten,” she laughed. She

turned to the other warriors.

“Well done,” she said to the other men.

“I’ll be

giving a review of your ‘performance’ to Barret. Report to him when

you’ve disposed of these bodies,” she said to Sera flashing him a

quick smirk before vaulting back up the cliff and running back the way

they had come.

“‘I’ll be a giving a review of your performance to Barret’ where does

she get off?” Sera muttered, mocking what the blonde had said. He jogged over to

the pile of bodies just as the other recruits were pouring flammable

liquid over them. He told them to step back then cast a fire spell on

the pile and watched it burn for a while. The acrid smell of the

bodies burning added to the heat of the area and nauseated him slightly

and he saw the other men covering their mouths and coughing as the

smoke passed over them.

He turned to the man nearest to him and toyed with the idea of asking about the blonde girl.
“Hey you! Do you know anything about that blonde girl?” he said, jerking his thumb in the direction the blonde had left in.
“ Man, all I know is her name’s Azalea. The other members keep tight lipped about her, only the higher-ups know who she is.”
“Okay, seems I need to do a little digging, thanks man.”

Finally, when there was nothing left but ash

and with his anger dissipated he turned and set off back towards

AVALANCHE headquarters, leaving the stunned family staring the pile of

ash in front of their home. The young boy raced after him and shouted

his thanks to Sera. Sera turned slightly and waved at the boy, smiling

to himself.

‘That blonde better give me a good report’ he thought as passed the

junk piles that the rich people of the upper city just discarded down

here.

‘I’m gonna need to find out about her, I wonder who I can ask?’

He looked back at the family and at their derelict home.

‘I used to live in a place like this; I know how that family felt.

Even, though I never had a proper family. Hopefully that kid’ll stay

out the trouble I got into. I never should’ve joined that gang, what I

saw and did changed me and now I need to redeem myself. I need to

become a hero or I’ll slip back down that dark path’ Sera thought, a

cold chill running down his spine as the memories of his haunted past

flooded through him.

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Please Review, its my first fic. Thanks!!!