Out With a Bang

Barret loosed another round into the surrounding people; they were closing in on him, and fast. Barret growled, gripping his arm tightly as he fired freely. His driver was slowly crawling out of the window of the truck; the explosion in the street had rocked the truck onto its side. Barret spared him a quick glance, his mind racing. They had found him; no one knew he was in this city. They had also undoubtedly attacked Reeve at the public meeting he was having today.

Barret roared, pumping bullets into the masked men and women dressed in black. Some of them held guns, but he spotted a few with blades, small and large alike. Barret didn't think on it though, diving behind the wreckage as his gun hissed in protest. He knew he needed to get the gunarm checked out, but he hadn't yet. In his defense he hadn't been expecting to be caught up in a gunfight.

His driver was holding his hands over his head, glancing around wildly as bullets ricocheted off the overturned truck.

"Hey!" Barret shouted towards the man, but he ignored him.

Barret watched with fascination as the man scrambled up, holding his hands above his head in surrender.

"What are you doin', you idiot!" Barret screamed, sticking his head up enough to see his driver.

"I'm the one who got you the info! Don't kill me! Don't kill me!"

Barret's eyes went wide as his driver dropped to his knees in surrender; he had been betrayed.

"I'm your friend!" The driver yelled, watching as the masked gunners paused.

There was silence for a moment before one of the swordsmen headed towards the driver.

The swordsman bent down to stare at the driver.

"You'll help me, right?"

The swordsman shook his head once. "You're a liability...and you're expendable."

"W-what?" The driver's face turned pale. "That isn't–that isn't what the man said on the phone!"

The mask tilted to the side as if the face beneath it was smiling cheerfully. "Plans change."

"W-wait!"

With a swift movement, the swordsman pulled his arm back and plunged his blade into the chest of the driver. The driver choked, and the swordsman put his foot on the man's chest to pull the blade out.

Barret watched as his driver's body hit the ground.

Shit...

He was stranded in the middle of the street with only his overturned truck for cover and surrounded by people that wanted to kill him.

The swordsman's masked face rose, turning to face Barret.

He lifted his blade, pointing it at Barret. "A message from my boss; it's nothing personal...it's just business."

"Business? Business?! Are you shitting me?!"

His answer was another round of bullets.

Barret pounded on his gunarm, muttering beneath his breath. "It never ends, it never freaking ends. It's always some crazy bastards trying to kill me. I am so sick of this shit, and I am getting too old. Where the hell is my backup? Why can't people just like coal? It's a perfectly good power source. Why can't they just leave it at that?"

Bullets ricocheted off the truck again and Barret yelled.

"I'm talking to myself over here! Give me a fuckin minute! Are you bastards that impatient to die?!"

However there was new noises adding to the gunshots. Blades were clashing, and people were grunting.

Barret cautiously poked his head up above his truck again.

"Bout time!" he yelled, catching a quick glance from Tifa.

Cloud was cutting through the crowd with a vicious precision. His mind was focused again; he had a purpose. He was cutting a path to his friend in hopes of saving him, and nothing was going to stop him this time.

His blade connected with a smaller man's.

And anyone that tried to stop him was doomed to a painful death.

Cloud twisted his blade, flipping the man's sword out of his hand. He let a quick slice go through the man before plowing on towards the truck.

Tifa was steadily dodging blades, kicking and punching with a fury. Bullets were useless; she was too fast, and almost seemed to anticipate who was firing and where they were firing. She brought her hand up again, grasping the barrel of a gun and twisting it out of her attacker's grasp. She threw it back at the her attacker's face, where it hit with a sickening crunch.

Tifa launched herself back into battle without a second thought, ducking low, and hitting hard.

Cloud was making progress as well. Something was driving him towards that truck. Barret had spoke with Reeve earlier, and obviously that had affected the words of his speech. Barret knew something Reeve did, and although Cloud didn't want to think of it, Reeve's life may be in danger and so may that information.

Cloud ducked low as a gunfire roared over his head.

Barret was back in the fight.

"Spike! Yo!"

Cloud vaulted himself up on top of the truck, and landed behind it beside Barret.

"You just abandoned my girl!"

"Barret," Cloud said tight lipped. "You've gotten too used to fighting with six other people to fight by yourself. She's fine. She hasn't."

"Watch your mouth, you jackass."

"Yes, I did just save your ass. You're welcome."

Barret growled low, but a thud alerted him to Tifa's presence.

"What are you two doing? A little help would be nice."

"Yo, Spike, go take 'em out with a badass sword move or somethin."

"We need one of them alive, Barret."

Barret raised his gunarm above the truck and fired blindly.

He roared over the noise. "In case you didn't notice we've got a bit of a surplus of these bastards! How bout you get off your lazy ass and fight?!"

"Well you're not doing much–

"Will you two stop it?" Tifa hissed. "You're acting like children! This is hardly the time–

Another explosion rocked the ground. Tifa stumbled, falling against Barret.

Cloud glared at him as Barret helped Tifa get her balance. "Reeve's life is in danger–

"We're all in danger, idiot!"

Cloud continued, unperturbed. "He's been shot."

"Shit..."

"Tifa..." Cloud glanced towards her.

"Right," she nodded, springing out from the cover of the truck to buy them time.

"What is it that you talked to Reeve about?"

"Splitting the company...dividing it into parts and putting him as the head of a democratic government."

"A power check."

"Yeah, basically," Barret grunted. "I'll explain later in detail but we better help my girl."

Cloud nodded, then the two of them ran from the cover of the overturned truck together, gun firing and sword raised.

Tifa had delivered some heavy blows on the fighters since Cloud had last checked. Cloud was tearing through them again, and Barret was firing madly into the crowds.

"Barret! Watch it! Civilians!" Tifa shouted.

Barret brought his arm up to point towards the sky as the flow of bullets slowed. A woman and two children were cornered. The masked enemies weren't hurting them or trying to kill them, but Tifa wouldn't stand for that.

She threw herself back into the battle with a renewed fury. Her fists and feet danced across bodies in a blur. Cloud spared a glance before running another man through.

Tifa had broke the ring around the civilians and was holding them back. The masked men had no problem trying to hurt Tifa, though.

And it was harder to defend people than just to defend yourself.

Tifa brought her knee up, driving it into the gut of a nearby attacker. She was reaching blindly now, not able to tell which limbs belonged to which bodies. That didn't keep her from grabbing wrists and flinging bodies though.

A bullet ricocheted off a metal surface and Tifa glanced up quickly. Cloud was holding his blade up beside of her.

"Keep your head up."

She wanted to kick him in the back of the head for that; she wasn't stupid, but that would hardly help their situation so she took her frustration out on the next man.

Cloud was keeping them at bay with his large blade, and Barret was firing rounds sporadically into the crowds. Cloud brought his blade up again, driving it through a body before glancing up.

They had done it.

Around them littered bodies masked and dressed in black.

"Well," Barret grunted. "That went well."

"Civilian down," Cloud stated soberly, pointing towards a man that wasn't masked.

"Nope." Barret stepped up beside of him. "That's my driver. He betrayed me to this. They were after me."

"And Reeve."

Tifa was checking the children and woman for wounds.

"The camp is down a couple blocks if you want to go there. There are guards positioned all around it. You'll be safe there."

The woman nodded her thanks, grasping her children's hands and moving away.

"We needed a live one, Barret." Cloud glanced around at the bodies.

"Sorry, I was too busy tryin to make sure I stayed alive."

"There's bound to be more in the city somewhere," Tifa said, walking over.

"This doesn't make sense. Who are they?"

"That's not the important question," Cloud said grimly. "Who is leading them?"

"We barely had our hands on one of them for a second... check one of their neck's, for a tattoo."

"Tattoo?" Barret asked as Cloud kneeled beside of a body.

Tifa nodded her head. "One of them had a number tattooed onto his neck. Maybe that's how they keep up with their numbers."

"This one is forty two," Cloud said, straightening back up.

"We need to find Reeve and make sure he's okay."

"We need to get one of these idiots."

"That's what I tried to tell you earlier, Barret."

"Shaddup Spike–

There was a muted cough to the left, and they all tensed.

"Found one," Barret grinned grimly.

Barret shuffled through the bodies in the street, finding the lightly breathing one of a female. Barret kneeled, grasping the woman's shoulder and pulling her cracked mask back. The woman glanced up at him, and she looked like she was more a girl than a woman. There was blood pooling on her forehead and running down across her nose and cheeks and her hair was cut short. She grimly smirked, and Barret narrowed his eyes.

"I think you know why I'm here."

She shook her head. "You'll try to get me to talk. I can't talk."

"You're doing a pretty damn good job right now."

"True."

Barret narrowed his eyes. "What's going on here? What do you got against me? Against Reeve?"

"It's just business," she coolly replied, echoing her companion's words from earlier.

"I'm getting sick of hearin that shit. Who do you work for?"

"I wouldn't exactly call it working for him."

"So it's a him?"

But Cloud's temper was getting the best of him. He was becoming impatient.

"Did you kill him?" he asked, taking a step forward.

The woman shot him a curious glance. "Who?"

"Denzel. Was it you that tried to kill me? To kill Tifa?"

The woman tipped her eyes to the side. "Oh. That was before. I was still me then."

"What?" Barret spat, perplexed.

But Cloud had a faint idea of what she was hinting at.

"What number are you?" Cloud asked. A bitterness entered his voice as he spoke. "What's your specialty?"

Barret hooked his thumb beneath the collar of her shirt, pulling it back to read the numbers as the woman watched him, faintly amused.

"She's eighty three."

The woman grinned sardonically and slipped the mask back over her face with one hand. "And my specialty is guns."

Her other arm rose fast, the gun gripped tight in her fingers and she fired.

A/N: It lives! I'm trying to catch up on some of these stories I haven't updated in a while. Busy busy busy. Ah well, back in clases, so that'll put a strain back on updates again. I hoped you liked this chapter! Thanks for the reviews, loves!