@calamitysshatteredson liked for a starter:
Rumors and hearsay in the past few months. Cloud hasn’t been around to look into it very deeply. With the world still in environmental turmoil after swearing off the convenience of mako energy and surviving the fallout of Meteor Fall, business has been booming. Dark roads make for dangerous traveling, especially with monsters openly roaming the routes between towns.
He’s several hundred miles out on his current delivery when his phone buzzes in his pocket. A quick glance at the understated and dimly glowing display next to his right hand tells him the caller is Tifa. Not unusual, though the timing is odd considering he had only left town no more than a few hours ago. Engaging handsfree mode on his cellphone, Cloud eases off on Fenrir’s throttle so that the roar of the engine isn’t so obvious over the phone.
“Cloud! I think you need to come back… That rumor we kept hearing around town? It might actually be him…” He hears her, clear as the cloudless sky in his wake. The undertones in her voice are portents of the calamitous adversary they thought dead. As the blood in his veins runs deadly cold with settling thoughts, Cloud knows he has to go back. He has to make sure.
Fenrir’s engine whines loudly as he shifts down to first gear. A quick twitch of the handlebars throws the bike into a pendulum-like movement that slingshots into a sharp u-turn in the middle of the road that kicks up a wild cloud of dust and gravel.
It couldn’t be. After all, he watched him die…
Too close to 7th Heaven. An apartment on the second floor of a building not far off the north side of the city center. One of the first habitable structures that were completed after they evacuated Midgar and survivors began picking up the pieces of their lives. Priority housing had been granted to the elederly, children, and other vulnerable groups. But that’s where witnesses claim they saw him…The fear and worry knot his stomach as Cloud sits parked underneath the stairs that zigzag up the side of the building. His Fusion Sword stays dormant under the panels at either side of Fenrir’s front wheel.
Taking a sharp breath to steel himself, he grits his teeth and dismounts to climb the stairs to the second floor. The door. It looks like every other door on this floor, though somehow he expected that it shouldn’t. He stares at the number bolted at eye-level in front of him and then the peephole from which the inhabitants could be watching him right now. Eventually, the reel of various excuses and possible scenarios playing out in his head run out of film. He curls his hand into a loose fist and plays out a distinct staccato with the back of his knuckles against the plated metal door. His head comes up quickly when he hears the hinges swing back.
“Hi, my name is...”
