Welcome to the Sector Seven Slums! You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. Just kidding. It's not to bad here for slums. No pimps or heroin junkies to speak of, and a nice, solid community centered around the bar 7th Heaven, which doubles as the base of our favorite group of terrorists, AVALANCHE. All in all, Sector Seven is simply a great place be, at least compared to some of the other slums. You'll see what I mean later. Oh, and see that guy with the spikey red hair? That's Johnny. We'll be seeing some more of him in the future.
One more thing: this town has a serious drinking problem.
Totally blitzed. Totally. He's not the only one either. He's not the only shameful drunk stumbling about town either:
Well, I guess there isn't much else to do in slums anyway. But remember, admitting you have a problem is the first step on the road to recovery.
Jeeze, fine. Looks like Barret is losing his patience again, so thats all of these beautiful slums we can see for now. I know, I know, I don't want to go either, but we got some business to take care of back at the base. You guys are all 21 or older, right? Really? Are you sure? Okay, but dont come crying to me when you get thrown out. Let's get on into the most famous bar of Midgar, the 7th Heaven.
SOOO much alcohol. As we enter we're greeted with this fine sight of the members of AVALANCHE getting plastered and stuffing their faces. What an elite Commando strike force these guys are. Let see who else is up in this joint.
Those are some new faces. The little girl (in the pink) is Marlene, who is currently in the care of our dear friend Barret (that guy has a heart of gold, doesnt he?). We'll talk some more about her later. That lady in the white tank top, though? She is another main character: the beautiful and tough-as-nails Tifa Lockhart. This is what she looks like in battle:
Hey, HEY. Eyes up here.
Tifa is the 20 year old bartender of the 7th Heaven (dont need no liquor license in the slums, bitch!) who has a B blood type and stands at a height of 5' 5". Her and Cloud go way back, both being born and raised in the far away town of Nibelheim. Small world, aint it?
Cloud gives her the flower he bought back up on the Sector Eight plate (VERY IMPORTANT) and they talk a little about the mission the group just got back from. Marlene doesnt talk much to Cloud though, she's pretty shy, except around..
..Barret. Like I said, heart of gold. Very endearing. Marlene isnt his REAL daughter though. First time I played I thought she was Barret and Tifa's kid, and things got kind of confusing for a while. Luckily, you have me here to straiten it all out for you. Barret and Marlene's story goes back quite a ways, and will be revealed later on.
Time to get on down to the secret base...but first: a drink
Cloud isnt going to be left out. Alright, enough chit-chat. Base time.
The SeCrEt entrance is cleverly disguised as a pinball machine, but even more mysterious is that neon TEXAS sign over there. Bars equal Texas or something I guess.
THE BASE!
Look at all those plans and stuff. Looks like AVALANCHE's exploits made the news too. It also looks like that news anchor has a very strange face too. Reminds me of a fish. We find out from his news report that the explosion caused nearly a billion gil worth of damage (WHOA!) and that some innocent lives were lost in the blast (bummer). Nobody ever said terrorism was safe.
Barret asks Cloud if they fought anyone from SOLDIER during their reactor infiltration and escape, and Cloud sasses back, saying that if they met anyone from his former elite fighting force, AVALANCHE would be toast. Barret reminds Cloud who he works for:
and we learn that Cloud's ass is skinny as well as slow. Cloud just sasses back again. This pisses off Barret (not very hard to do) and he lets off some steam in a very physical way:
Poor Biggs. The guy wasnt even involved. Tifa rushes down to help settle things but Barret and Cloud just keep yelling at each other. Barret tells Cloud to go back to Shinra if he thinks theyre all so tough and cool, and Cloud retorts, saying he doesnt care about Shinra, AVALANCHE, the planet or anything. All he wants is the money. Then Cloud storms upstairs and sulks around. Tough guy.
Tifa comes up after him and tries to cool things off. She reminds him of a promise he made to her seven years ago (so many sevens) back in their home town of Nibelheim. Flashback sequence!
WHOA, is that the shooting star from the title? I dunno. Maybe. What goes on here is that kid Cloud tells kid Tifa that he's going off to Midgar soon to join SOLDIER and become famous and tough like the great general Sephiroth (who's that?!). Kid Tifa asks him to come save her if she ever gets into a bind later on down the road, and he promises that he will. And scene.
Tifa tries to get Cloud to keep helping AVALANCHE with this story, but he says that he never got famous so it's no deal. Then Barret comes up from below and tosses him a sack of 1500 gil (it was money for Marlene's schoolin', but oh well) and asks Cloud to sign on for another mission. After some haggling Cloud agrees, and everyone gets some much deserved sleep.
ZzZzZzZzZz...The next day the whole posse gets together and prepares to set out on the next mission:
Nothin' is breakin' AVALANCHE's stride. Two reactors in two days? Barret is one ambitious guy. Tifa is coming on this mission too. I know what you're thinking: what's Marlene, a CHILD, going to do all by herself? She's gonna get good and drunk, that's what:
Okay, not really. She's just going to run the bar while Tifa is gone. I dont think that's any better, though. Whatever, blame it on the slums.
But wait, before we head to the station...TUTORIAL TIME!!!
Materia? What's that stuff? Well it's pretty important guys. Basically it's these little crystal orb things that let people use magic, but it's way more important to the story than just a game mechanic. You'll see.
After we explain to Barret what Materia is and how to use it (which he still doesnt understand after we tell him) it's time to check out the Beginner's Hall, a weird place where Cloud lets you in on the finer points of playing Final Fantasy VII. This doesnt really concern you guys because I'm doing all the work here, but this place is pretty classic, so lets have a look 'round.
First there's the finger. In all other parts of the game this finger is totally invisible to everybody, but in the Beginner's Hall, there are NO secrets.
This finger just lets you know where you are on screen, as well as being all classy and gloved.
Also in the Hall are these two kids who just fight and fight and fight and fight. They show us how Limit Breaks work. Basically you get beat on until you just cant take it any more, and dish out some extra-special cool attack that PULVERIZES, yes, PULVERIZES your foes. Here's what this kid's limit looks like:
Most look a lot cooler than that. But now you know what they are. As the game progresses cooler and sweeter and more radical limits are unlocked for each of the characters. I'll let you know how awesome they are as soon as I get 'em.
Next to the fighting kids is a trio of flexin' dudes:
Let's leave.
Looks like everybody was waiting for us. Gotta hurry for that train before it leaves, man. C'mon!
Let's pull on outta here. A reactor has a date with destiny.
Once on the train, Barret freaks out the passengers again and paraphrases a little Kanye for us:
Nuh-uh, they didnt tell him nothin'. After freaking out everybody on the train the AVALANCHE crew hangs tight. The plan is to jump off the train in three minutes because Shinra installed some security checkpoints that our merry band of terrorists just cant get through. Our heroes are still looking for ways to pass the time, WHEN SUDDENLY:
BWEET BWEET BWEET! I'll tell you what's going on, Barret. Shinra put those checkpoints up a little earlier than you knew about and they're locking the train cars down! Gotta MOVE, son.
Go go go!
I know, I wanna stop and ask that guy where he got that sweet jacket and half-sunglasses too, but theyre isnt and TIME!
Hey, is that Johnny over there? Looks like he's leavin' for bigger and better things. Love to find out what those are but YIKES THE TIME!
This train car is filled with naked men. Cool. Lets go.
We've made it all the way up to the front car and there's nowhere left to run. Looks like we're gonna have to JUMP. By the way, those strange men are really Biggs and Jessie in disguise. Biggs is totally stylin'
Dude, Barret, I know. Tifa jumps first. Told you she was tough. Cloud jumps out second, but not before Barret tells him this:
Gotcha. Cloud's ass is slow, skinny, and spikey. Barret jumps off last and bids the other members good luck
Hey, it's Wedge! Guess he's supposed to be a farmer or something. Later, dudes.
Safely out of that ALARMING situation, our heroes recoup and make there way to the reactor entrance.
And Barret tries to save some face.
A little ways down the tunnel we run into a dead end. Well, not really a dead end, but that flashy thing is one of the security checkpoints. If any of our guys steps through that Shinra is gonna bring the hammer down. Luckily there's a hatch right next to it that might take us where we want to go.
Only one choice really. Jes' gotta go. And I jes' gotta go too. On the other end of that hatch there's a save point, and that's where the story ends for today. Next time: more reactor escapades, a few fateful encounters, and a plunge into the abyss. It will be...X-Treme.
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