[b][i]Akira Ayumu[/i][/b]

As all [i]three[/i] Sweepers came into view, Akira froze up in fear for a split-second before turning to Jessie to ask for help. But before he could speak, an entire squad of mercenaries were shredded by one of the Sweepers, torn apart by bullets and rendered beyond help by healing magic. This caused the remaining friendly troops to begin running up the mountain, their morale broken. 

Obviously, this rendered them sitting ducks before the Shinra assault, which resumed with new vigor especially as the mercenaries were [i]also[/i] in a position to be picked off by the Sweepers’ guns. Akira had to do something to turn the tide, to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, but how? Even as stress and fear built up within him, he knew that his Healing Wind was not going to be useful when his allies were just going to be shot one second later -

“Run, boy!” one of the last mercenaries to flee shouted at him (and maybe Jessie), and Akira was snapped out of his thoughts. Zig-zagging to throw off the enemy’s aim, the boy ran upwards, hoping that Jessie was safe. As the carnage escalated into new heights, such that there was a dead body every few meters,  Akira focused on surviving, knowing he could not let himself die or fall into Shinra hands. Even if they kept him alive for vile experiments, they can use him to get at [i]Kanade[/i]... No! He’d survive this! He’d call upon every reserve of strength he had left, everything given to him by his mother’s Ninja training! 

And so the boy continued running, hopefully glimpsing Jessie from time to time to see if she was still safe.

The sound of the shooting seemed to fade as they got closer to Fort Condor and its reactor - The last fallback position was the Fort and Reactor itself, where the Condor Egg was being incubated. On the way to the reactor door, ruined Catapults and Stoners were strewn all throughout the ground, more signs of a near-total rout. But from what Akira remembered, there was cause for hope. For the Fort Condor Leader had said to him and the other mercs before...

[i]The enemy won’t want the Reactor damaged, so they’d send their Commander - Grand Horn, if I recall correctly - To take it personally. On the rare occasions where we got beaten all the way back to the Reactor, they’d send the Commander to duel our best mercs, and if the Commander was killed, Shinra retreats to fight another day.[/i]

So Akira was betting that the Sweepers won’t be sent against the Reactor itself, or if they were, they’d be on unfavorable ground. For two things had changed: One, he was now stressed and pissed, and that meant his Limit Break can be used. And two, he was planning to stand with the best of the best of Fort Condor’s remaining mercs, as well as Jessie of AVALANCHE, against Grand Horn or the Sweepers. 

Assuming that Shinra was going for a duel. Assuming that he was right. Assuming that Shinra wasn’t prepared to let its honor dip further into the negatives.

A sense of foreboding swept through the boy - Something important was going to happen here, and not just because Kanade, his fellow Half-Cetra, was coming. A new narrative was going to be woven soon, a new narrative for the Planet...