It was around this time that Mako power was discovered. In fact, when Hart, Palmer, and I got back to Midgar after the Shinra-26 launch was aborted, the first Makoro plant was already under construction at Fort Condor as part of the top-secret "Weehawken Project".
As Shinra turned into a electric power company (combined with the sales of their web browser, Shinra Internet Explorer, which came pre-installed on every Mako power plant for no apparent reason), their profits soared. The rest of the city shared in their prosperity -- at first. Then on one day, known as Rather Dim Friday, the stock market crashed, due primarily to Alan Greenspan sneezing. The Midgar 400 index dropped over 850 points.
Shinra, however, was not affected by this crash. There were now eight Makoro plants in Midgar, two in Junon, and ones in Nibelheim, North Corel, and Gongaga (plus the old experimental reactor in Fort Condor), and they were making big gil, so they acquired the federal government in a hostile takeover. City Hall was bulldozed to make room for a new, 70-story, Shinra Building. My spacious office with nice carpeting, swivel chairs, and a big cardboard stand-up of my idol, Alhazad from Wild Arms, was replaced with a dingy rectangular "office" that bordered on a cubicle. Ah, how I miss those swivel chairs. Hart and I used to spend our lunch break racing back and forth across the room in our swivel chairs.
Not only had Shinra virtually imprisoned me in the Shinra Building, they were sucking the Mako energy out of the Planet. Remember, I wrote the Study of Planet Life, so I knew what they were up to. To try to show the dangers of Mako power, I hired two engineers named Wedge and Vicks to build a tiny scale model of Midgar, complete with actual working Makoro plants. We set the model afloat at sea, and, sure enough, as soon as it hit wave, the Mako plants blew up. Wedge and Vicks were both tragically killed in the explosion, which later came to be known as the Three Inch Island incident.
Shinra was completely unperturbed by my little demonstration, and in fact they so far as to put the remains of the model Midgar on display in the lobby of the 65th floor of the Shinra Building. I knew more drastic steps had to be taken, but I had to wait for the right opportunity.
Eventually, it came. There was an accident at the North Corel reactor, and Shinra torched the town. The next week, I stuffed a dead ferret in the ventilation system and headed for North Corel. The situation there was just like I expected. The town was in ruins; the citizenry angry and confused. I met up with one guy named Barret Wallace. To put it bluntly, his life was in shambles. His wife was dead, his best friend missing, he'd lost his right arm, and he couldn't get off the first level of PaRappa.
So this Wallace guy agreed to form an underground anti-Shinra resistance movement. Little did I know that he would soon betray me and take over the yet-to-be-named rebellion. Anyway, Barret and I agreed to meet in a draw (a draw is a ravine with water running through it) up in the Corel Mountains the next day. Barret said he'd bring some of his friends, too.
The next day, I went up to the Corel Draw. When I got there, Barret was already there. As promised, he'd brought some others -- Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie.
"Well, I guess we're all here," Barret said. "Let's begin."
"Hey, I thought I was the leader," I protested.
"Let's take a vote," Barret suggested. "All in favor of having me as the leader, say 'aye!'"
"Aye!" Barret and his flunkies shouted.
"Ssh!" I cautioned. "Somebody will hear us!"
"That's a majority," Barret declared. "I'm now the leader."
"I have to go the bathroom," Wedge complained.
"Now we need a name," Barret said, looking around. "What should we call ourselves?"
"How about The Resistance?" Biggs suggested.
"Nah," I said. "That's overused. We need something... different."
"The Rebellion Formerly Known As The Resistance?" Biggs suggested again.
I wasn't paying any attention. "Sssh!" I cautioned. "I hear something!"
"What?" Wedge asked nervously.
I looked up the side of the draw. Apparently dislodged by our shouting, several large boulders were rolling towards at alarming speed. "AVALANCHE!" I cried.
"That's it!" Barret exclaimed. "That's a perfect name!"
"No!" I shouted. "That's not what I meant!" As the boulders tumbled into the draw, I shoved Barret towards the path leading down the mountain. "RUN!!"
The five of us dived out of the draw as the boulders smashed into the draw walls. "Hey, we actually made it out of there alive for once," Wedge said.
"The media's probably going to be swarming up here in a moment," I thought. "We'll meet again tomorrow."
The next day, we met again, but this time in a slightly less hazardous locale -- the North Corel Flat Earth Society headquarters.
"All right, this meeting of AVALANCHE is called to order," Barret announced.
"I didn't that mean to be a name!" I protested. "I was just warning you about the avalanche!"
"It's too late now," Barret said. "I already trademarked it."
"Well.... okay, but why does it have to be in all capital letters?"
"You said it in all caps," Barret said simply. He turned away from me to address Wedge, Biggs, and Jessie. "All right, then -"
"Hey!" I shouted. Barret was beginning to annoy me. "How can I say something 'in all caps?' You can't talk in caps! And why are you running everything?"
Barret turned back to me. "Of course you can talk in caps," he said condescendingly. "You can talk in fonts, too. See, look, I'm talking in Arial."
"Oh yeah?" I said. "Well, I can talk in Courier!"
"That's nothing," Barret said. "I can talk in Wingdings!" ("I can talk in Wingdings!")
"That's it!" I shouted. "This has gone too far! I'm quitting!" I stormed outside, slamming the door behind me.
AVALANCHE -- capital letters or no capital letters -- had failed, thanks to Barret's big ego. Even now he shafts me of all the credit and relegates me to my office in the Shinra Building, handing out keycards, in his "modified" version of the story; just like "those damn Shinra" that he claims to hate. I think I read a book about something like this once, but I don't remember what it was.
| Next chapter: In Which The Rebellion Begins |