New Beginnings [Zion, Open]

[Leon Walter Deltova]

The end of a cigerette was obscured by a cloud of smoke that rolled from the mouth of it's keeper. The smoke rolled up and to the unseen ceiling, the dimness of the room only adding to the dismal night outside. It had begun raining several hours ago, the owner of the cigarette, a man of early middle years, having been sitting at the bar he was in for quite some time. There was nothing better to do on a Friday as dismal as it was, so why not spend some time at the bar?

The man himself was an unusual one, standing about 6'4", of medium build, silver-blonde hair, and the constant presence of sunglasses over his eyes, no matter the conditions or time. A neatly trimmed beard road on his chin and a well groomed moustache sat promptly above his lips, a smirk of knowing and a hint of jesting crossing his lips. He was dressed in a long trench-coat over a white thermal. The shirt itself was under a combat vest with twin holsters for guns, as well as two different combat knives. On one of the rings of the vest sat an M67 Fragmentation grenade. Nothing out of the ordinary on that man, as far as he was concerned.

The lower portion of the man was obscued due to the fact that he was sitting at a booth in the dimly lit bar, and the table standing above his legs. The man finished his first cigarette, took it, and placed it in the ashtrey. He then took another from the pack that was sitting on the table and lit that as he placed it between his lips. Just as he took a drag from the new stick, the door tinged open, the bells on the time worn door jingling, and a man walked in. His coat was dripping from the weather outside, and his hat was being held close to his head by a black gloved hand. Like the man sitting in the booth, this man also wore sunglasses over his eyes, but soon took them off to see better in the dimly lit bar.

The man who had just come in, shook his coat briefly and then walked over to meet the seated man. They shook hands and gave a brief greeting, the seated man smiling as the other joined him.

" I assume that my collegues talked with you already, Mr. Deltova." The new arrival said, taking off his hat and placing it on the table.

The other man, identified as Mr. Deltova, nodded his head and took another drag from the cigarette. He tilted his head back until the back of it touched the seat behind him.

" Good. Now, you do know that we need to have a second person on this mission to ensure coopera-" The man began before Mr. Deltova cut him off.

" I understand the parameters of the pre-determined mission. I understand that you are hireing a second person to ensure cooperation and a direct following of the set goals and interests of the company. And please, call me Leon. It took me forever to grind that into your compatriot." Mr. Deltova said.

The other man nodded his head and swallowed hard. Leon, from the gathered information on him, was a tough one to work with when it came to his formality. Accepting and talking about a mission was of vital importance to Leon, and he was no holds back about getting every last detail right.

" Now, all we have to do is wait for the other member of your team, and we can get the final paperwork out of the way." The second man said.

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[Zion Heios Nebradia]

The sky was dark and the rain almost fell in sheets, but that did not deter the driver of the black muscle car.This man was the former prince of Nabbudis. Better known as Zion Heios Nebradia. Zion accelerated and the engine roared, car and driver racing toward their destination. Once or twice he would glance into the back seat at the large Claymore-like blade that was resting on the leather seats. It was another half an hour before the driver of the muscle car arrived at his destination. It was a small bar, but it was an ideal site for a meeting such as the one he was about to attend in a few second. He killed the engine and stepped out of his car. He opened the rear door of his car and pulled his sword out placing it into a makeshift scabbard onto the back of his white overcoat.

Walking past his car, he took one last glance at it, and smirked slightly at the silver horse adorning grill. But this was no time to be admiring vehicles, he had a meeting to attend. The owner of the car ran a hand through his sandy blonde hair and opened the door of the bar.

The area was dimly lit, and there were only two people inside from what he could see. These two must be the ones that Zion was supposed to meet up with for his next contract. One man seemed more busyness like, and Zion assumed that would be the one issuing this contract. The other man had almost the same hair color as Zion did, wore dark sunglasses for some reason, he was also smoking, and had dark clothing that was adorned with M67 grenades. That could only mean that this man was going to be his partner.

Partner...

It had been years since Zion had last worked alongside anyone else. The last time he had been in that situation was the last day Zion was in Shinra's SOLDIER army in the war against Wutai. It had also been the day that Zion's closest friend as well as his mentor had been killed by Shinra infantrymen.

But he could not dwell on the past. Not at a time like this. Pulling a chair up from a nearby table, Zion sat down giving the man in dark clothing a small but curt nod. "Lets hear the details." Zion said to the other man.

[Leon Walter Deltova]

The arrival of the man wasn't anything out of the ordinary... well all except for the monsterous size of the claymore on his back, but then again, there was cause to be wery around people now a days. Leon's new partner looked a little spry, but he did carry himself like a warrior. A youngin... interesting. Leon mused as the youth walked over to the booth and sat down in a chair.

The man across from Leon nodded his head at the remark of continueing the meeting as schedualed, as Leon only chuckled to himself.

"Well then, now that Mr. Nabradia is here, we can wrap up the deployment information and get you two on your way." The man said, reaching into his coat.

He pulled out a manilla folder and placed it on the table, easily viewable for the both of them. He opened it and pulled his hand back. Leon reached forward and took out several arieal photographs, all in covert black, white and grey.

"Your mission, if you choose to fully accept it, is to get into this building, inside of the City Midgar. Your objective, formost, is to penetrate this abandoned bunker and to scout the loading dock. Your point of entrance is a ventilation shaft above the main entryway of the loading dock. The problem is, the main entrance was buried in the meteor-fall incident. You'll need to get to the top of the compound and traverse the terrain to get to the shaft. Depending on the condition of the rooftops, you might be needing to do some digging. The recon photos are at the maximum range and in the best detail we could accuire, due to the presence of still operating anti-air systems." The man explained.

Leon had shuffled through the different documents that had been in the folder, placing them for his partner to be able to leaf through and look at the different things there in. The information provided was a general synopsis of the system parameters and probable defences within the building, but nothing about the end goal and the total objective.

"What is it exactly we're going into the building for?" Leon asked, still looking through the information.

"We believe that there is an exparamental powercore in there that has not shut down like most of the other systems in that sector. We believe that it is being run by a remnant of Deepground, or another faction of that type." The client said, reaching into his coat again. "Now, I will leave all the information with the both of you, but I must ask that you sign these forms of non-disclosure. We trust you, but we'd rather have the documentation to back it up."

Leon nodded his head, took out a pen, and signed the paper after reading it over carefully.

"I accept the mission and its parameters, and I will complete them to the best of my ability. " Leon said, warping from his sitting position to a standing one. He saluted and then turned and walked out of the bar, to his own car, and climbed in. All he had to do now was wait for his partner to make up his mind.

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[Zion Heios Nebradia]

Zion listened to the representative explain the details of their mission. He mulled over a few aspects that seemed a little odd ... Anti air, Deepground remnants all this trouble for some little expiramental power core. To top it all off the two of us even have to dig our way through who knows how much debris in order to get to our entry point, and there was no mention of how we are going to get extracted. Something does not add up.

He sighed slightly before looking over the areal photos that the representative provided. "It looks like their location is near the Sector Five church..."

It was a few minutes before Zion signed the transcript. "I'm all in. Lets get in, get this power core and get the hell out." He did have to admit though he was surprised his 'partners' teleportation technique. He had never met anyone who could do that. Sighing to himself, he strode out of the bar towards his car. Although he wasn't expecting his 'partner' to be outside. zZion thought he had teleported to Midgar already.

Zion unlocked his car, placed his Claymore in the back seat, and looked at Leon before getting into the driver's seat. "Sector Five church." It was the last thing he said to Leon before gunning the engine and racing off toward Midgar.

[Leon Walter Deltova]

The young mercenary muttered to Leon the location of the mission objective, and then road off in his own car. That attitude was going to be a bit of a problem, but then again, it brought Leon into a storm of laughter. Shaking his head, Leon started the engine of his own car, a boss Mustang, modified to suit Leon's own measures. Stepping on the gas, Leon began to catch up to the lights of his partner ahead of him, leaning back into the seat and driving with one hand, neglecting the general rules of safty.

It didn't take long for Leon to pass the other car housing his partner. Casting a quick glance back at the slowly fadeing lights, Leon chuckled again to himself, returning his gaze to the road ahead of him. The rain hadn't slackened, in fact, it seemed it was getting worse as he drove. So, Leon kicked the windshield wippers and pressed farther down on the gas.

It was too quiet as Leon continued to drive, so, Leon pressed a button on the dash, beginning a CD that was in the changer. Smooth jazz, Peter White in fact, began to play over the speakers. Leon's thumbs began to drum to the beat of the song, and he rode farther in silence.

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[Zion Heios Nebradia]

His partner's car had easily passed him, but the former prince did not care in the slightest. The man was a show off, and to him show off's would not be tolerated like those who abused and flaunted their power over others. He sighed slightly as the other muscle car's tail lights faded away into the distance. Yes definately a show off.

...

11 Years Ago...

Zion was in a training simulation with Giiz. The simulation showed Wutai soldier's invading Midgar. The two SOLDIER'S were in a Shinra attack helicopter and were fast approaching their drop off point. Both warriors had secured the gear they were planning to use. Zion using a standard issue SOLDIER blade, while Giiz had slung the blade that Zion now uese across her back. The pilot's voice came on over the intercom informing them that they were 30 seconds to destination. Giiz tied her waist length silver blonde hair up in a pony tail and looked at Zion with her piercing green eyes."Remember Zion don't show off. People who show off meet their end sooner than others. Never forget that..."

...

Present time...

Zion came out of his flashback with the wrecked city in sight. Another fifteen minutes and he would be at the Sector Five church. The former SOLDIER and prince steeled himself, and prepared himself for the upcoming mission. "I wont ever forget what you taught me Giiz." He said to himself.

[Leon Walter Deltova]

It didn't take long for Leon to get to the mission sight, but when he got there, things were a little different then what he had though they would be. Slamming on the breaks, Leon pulled up short. He had entered the city through a breached gap in the outer wall, no trouble there. Along the way, there was nothing to be seen. A veritable ghost town.

This however, made Leon question the actual parameters of the mission. He had pulled into a small hollow and was crouching down behind a pile of discarded scrap, pleanty high enough for him to hide behind. He was looking out over the area in front of the Sector Five Reactor with a pair of range finders.

"Not good..." Leon muttered.

From his vantage point, Leon was looking down on a large scale unburial of the local area. Not people, though, machines. Automated machines were moving about, lifting large chunks of rock, steel, and other materials, and moving them over to an open face incinerator.

"Just what I need... unforseen complications." Leon said, stowing the range finders in his coat.

Leon got up from his position and walked over to his car. He popped the trunk and reached into it, pulling out a silver colored case. Time to do a little weed-picking. Leon though, walking back over to the heap.

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[Zion Heios Nebradia]

Zion knew something was up when the built in radar in his car alerted him to the presence of other life signs on the other side of the Midgar city wall. "Right near the Sector Five reactor, that's not good." Deciding to be safe, Zion took his car off the road and stepped out. Taking the sword out of his back seat, he once again strapped it across his back and then opened the trunk.

Another lesson that Giiz had taught him was to always come prepared for any situation. That was the reason being he stocked his trunk with a various assortment of combat and recon equipment. Swords, knives, pistols, sub machine guns all equipped with silencers, explosive equipment, and range finder's with thermal view. Zion also had an assortment of powerful ice based Materia stored within a small safe.

Taking the thermal range finders, a few knives, a ninjato, and inserting ice Materia into his gauntlet, Zion trucked the rest of the way to the ruined city. He climbed to the top of the wall by use of a crumbled part of the wall that he used as a makeshift staircase. Taking out the thermal range finders, the former prince first scanned the wall for any signs of hostiles. He only spotted one other person. He slowly reached for his sword, when he realized that this man was his partner. He set his sights out towards the city looking in the direction of Sector Five.

"What in the blue hell?" The former prince activated the thermal imaging on his range finders and found that the movement that his radar had picked up belonged not to any humans, but to machines. Now this posed a big problem, as the details the benefactor had provided the two mercs had not said anything about what Zion and Leon were looking at.

[Leon Walter Deltova]

"Kid... will you get down from there!" Leon hissed up at his partner. "You're liken to get us both in trouble standin' up there out in the open!"

Leon walked away from where Zion was standing, looking out through range-finders of his own at what lay below them. Bypassing the hollow that held his own car, Leon moved back to the ledge where he had first looked out over. Opening the case, Leon began to take out a series of parts. As soon as all the pieces were out, he began to put the pieces together, the shape quickly taking the form of a gun.

Soon, Leon hefted a camoflaged .50 calibur Barrett sniper rifle. Adding one last piece, a surpresser built for the sole purpose of quieting that weapon down and to reduce the flash of it, Leon lay prone on the ground, adjusting the sight on the massive weapon. Once the sights were tuned in, Leon reached into the case in which housed the sniper and pulled out a pair of range-finders on their own tri-pod. Leon set these up next to his sniper rifle so that he could gather data while he was sniping.

Making several different checks, Leon looked up to the clouds. The timing couldn't have been more perfect, for the storm that was overhead was building more and more, flashes of lighting appearing every so often. Quickly scoping in on a weakened beam that held up a large piece of concrete and steel, Leon readied himself for the shock and awe of the boom of the lightning.

As soon as the crack began to echo, Leon squeesed the trigger on the gun, the thunder covering the sound of the shot. His shot found true as it flew through and then into the weakened pillar. The crack widened and the pillar collapsed down onto the machines below. With no rhyme or reason, the just plunged forward on in their clearing duties, being buried under the tons of steel and metal, being destroied with no thought of it at all.

Leon smiled a wicked little smile as he sighted in on another target. Again waiting for the crack of the thunder, Leon looked another shot on another pillar followed by a quick second one to help the somewhat intact pillar to collapse. The thunder paled in comparison to the booming and crashing created by the collapse of the two pillars, a secton of upper plate coming down into the field. The beauty of it all, however, was that this area wasn't completely near the targeted entrance. That was still another mile or so ahead, hopefully uncovered by the autonomous machines.

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[Zion Heios Nebradia]

Zion quickly got down behind the crack in the wall that he used as a makeshift staircase. He had lost sight of his partner, but he had a feeling that the man knew what he was doing. Then the thunderstorm came, and from Zion's new vantage point he saw a portion of the lower plate come crashing down. "Lets hope that crushed a few of those diggers or whatever the hell they were." Still he wondered what had caused the lower plate collapse, and when he climbed back up to the wall he found the source. Leon had a sniper rifle in hand, Probably assembled when I was ducking down behind cover. Gotta hand it to the guy, for a bit of a show off he knows what he is doing.

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It was time to move, the two men had a ways to go to get to their entrance point. Zion gave a small whistle to Leon, tossing a small ear piece to the man, the prince attached another to his right ear. "Keep me covered with that rifle as best you can. I'm going down there to see what other nasty little surprises we could possibly encounter on our way to the entrance." Zion whispered into his communicator before he dropped to the ground.

He hit the ground and rolled to reduce the impact on his body. He got up and quickly ran for cover behind the rubble that had destroyed the mechanical diggers, as Giiz's voice played back to him in his mind. "If you find yourself in a situation that calls for sniper support, remember that you cant always rely on them. The sniper's world is only the size of the scope they look through." Nodding to himself, the prince waited for Leon to take his first shot.[/size][/center]

[Leon Walter Deltova]

Leon's partner, from Leon's perspective, was too spontainious. From he could tell, his partner saw some kind of opening and decided to act on it, instead of wait and watch. Saying something about sniper support, the youth tossed Leon a small ear-piece communicator. Leon caught it with a sigh and looked at it quickly. Rudimentary at best. Leon noted on the small device.

He, instead of tossing it away, placed it in one of the pockets of his coat and tapped his own in his ear already. A quick image popped up on the small lens mounted computer screens in his sunglasses, quickly finding the frequency that his partner was tapped into. Once that little bit of trouble was out of the way, Leon quickly looked down the sights of his rifle. Though he could see a ways, in the distance was a bit fuzzy.

Quickly swapping the optics out for a night scope, Leon refocused in on the fuzzy area. Leon almost wished that he hadn't, because the sight that he was looking at was something a little bit... troublesome.

"Hey... uh, kid? You might want to get out of there.... NOW." Leon quickly said, beginning to take down his weapon.

He placed the different pieces into the case after placing an electronic signature on the approching problem. Once all the parts were in the case, Leon reached up and pressed a button on the side of his sunglasses, so small that it seemed to be just a seemless side part of the frame. A small screen light up on his lens screen, and a small microphone icon appeared.

"Computer, diognose and scan in detail the enemy ES. Compile information and display on moble screens." Leon said quickly.

A green light shone in the bottem left courner of Leon's right lens screen and information began to roll across the screens. Thouhg there was information scrolling up on the screen, Leon could still see and move about with little trouble. The information, however, was a little more daunting. To add to the problems, just where Leon was, the ledge he had set up upon, vaproized as a particle weapon's discharge hit the lip of the ledge.

"Umm... kid? I suggest you meet me back up here on the double. We're going to need to be moving, and quick." Leon said with some urgancy in his voice.

Leon quickly moved to the trunk of his car, opened it and tossed the case inside. Once the case was in, Leon reached in and took out two small cubes. Leon closed the trunk with his elbow and moved out of the small hollow where his car was. Tossing one of the cubes near his car, Leon began to quickly move to where his partner had parked. The cube glowed a small bluish glow, and emmitted a particle field around his car.

Leon found his partner's car and tossed the other cube near it as well. A similar effect took place near Zion's car and Leon nodded his head. A portible shielding system, completely impennitrable without command execution. Now with the cars protected, Leon moved to a semi-protected area to wait for his partner to get there so they could devise a plan.

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[Zion Heios Nebradia]

Zion herd Leon albeit with slight interference telling him to get back to the other side of the wall. Which was probably a good idea as he had to admit that jumping down here was stupid. He knew better than this, he was a former SOLDIER for god sake. Then he heard the discharge of some sort of particle weapon and that made up Zion's mind that he should get the hell out of there.

As quickly as he could, the former prince made his way back to the crack in the wall, scaled it quickly and made his way back to his car all the while looking for Leon. Then again the man was wearing all black so it was like trying to find a Chocobo in a flock of Chocobo's. He made his way back to his Mustang and was both surprised and relieved to see Leon was there as well.

"Alright I admit what I did was extremely stupid. And I owe you for telling me to fall back. Now lets step back here and figure out our best course of action."Zion said to Leon. Any suggestions?"

[Leon Walter Deltova]

Leon sighed and reached into his coat pocket. He took out a pack of cigarettes and shook one out. He had seated himself on a piece of rubble, facing a decrepit building that had long fallen into ruin. Leon shifted his weight and found a better spot to sit, waiting for his partner to arrive. Lighting the cigarette, Leon took a long drag from it and held it for quite some time. He let the smoke roll from between his teeth, eventually, and looked up after the trail, watching it slowly fade from view.

It wasn't long before his compatriot scrambled up the wall and ruins that comprised the outcrop that he was seated on. The kid made some mention about his thanks about the order to fall back, and made some suggestion of moving farther back to discuss strategy. Leon simply rolled his eyes until his partner was comfortable and turned his head to look towards him.

"Any suggetions?" The kid asked.

That made Leon chuckle slightly. Of course he had suggestions, he had a number of ideas on how to combat the current situation. The only question was, which one was the most practical?

"Course I have suggestions, but I think ideas and strategies would be a more practical solution instead of suggestions and vague notions. You're in luck, however. Right now, I only see three possible ways out of this little... 'mess', if you will, that we're in." Leon said, a small stream of smoke trailing from his mouth as he talked.

"Number one, we turn tail and go back to our informant, beat the information out of him, and come back after these here machines have had time to cool their heels. Number two, we charge in there, kill as many as we can, and move through the crowds to get to the target location. Or... Third, we can do things MY way and we get there without incident and take out the rabble at the front door." Leon said, leaning back and reaching into his coat pocket. He pulled out a small transmitter and flipped a small screen open on it. With a small nod, Leon closed the screen and placed the item back into his coat.

"Your choice there, son, and time's a wastin'." Leon said, slipping into a southern drawl.

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[Zion Heios Nebradia]

Zion mulled over what Leon had said over in his head for a few minutes, before the former prince came to a decision. "In all honesty, Option three would be our best bet. However after this is resolved I urge us to go to option one, because there is more to this mission than our informant let on, and I for one would very much like to know more."

{OOC: Yeah I know it's short but I don't know what else to say.}

[Leon Walter Deltova]

Leon smirked and nodded his head.

"Well, before we go, I suggest you hold your breath." He said, before reaching out and grabbing hold of the front of his partner's shirt.

The process of teleporting, as broken down by physics, is still an imprecise art, according to today's understandings of it. To Leon, however, and his enhanced abilities and ability to tap into the sub-atomic vibrations of the area around him, this act was possible through means known to people as "Magic". Leon, normally, could only teleport himself and the things that were touching him, if he chose so, to points within his viewable range. If Leon were to, say, touch someone else, he could move them and all that they held, with him to a point that was within his sight range. The process was nearly instantaneous, but it felt like, to those unaccustomed to the art, the universe was pressing in on them from all sides, squeezing them with a force nearly to a point of bone breaking. But, as soon as the transmission was completed, the feeling vanished as quickly as it had come, returning the travelers to a normal pressure and state.

If Zion were to look around, he would notice that they were now standing before the crumbling entrance to an old Mako reactor.

"Floor 3, Mako Reactor, rust, moss, and hordes of unknown enemies. All departing." Leon said, with a mock grin. "Welcome to our objective, kid. Get your game face on, things are about to get interesting."

Leon moved forward, pulling one of his swords out and testing its weight in his hand. Looking around, after confirming the weight in his hand, Leon spotted several robots hanging around the ruins of the Mako reactor. Easy. Leon thought.

Using his ability to teleport, Leon dispatched the robots in the area, a short and noiseless skirmish that left the robots in a small heap. Looking about to make doubly sure, Leon moved over towards the mouth of a doorway, looking in carefully. After making sure there were no sensors or other tripwires or traps, Leon waved his partner over and stood back.

“After you, kid. Looks safe enough, so I'll let you lead the charge.” Leon said with another mock grin.

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