Martial Arts (Male)

Martial Arts (Male) is a playable male Turk from Before Crisis -Final Fantasy VII-. As his name implies, his chosen weapon is martial arts in which he dons gloves that can be augmented by Materia.
Recruited part-way through the game, he first appears in Episode 9 when Verdot decides to expand the Turks' ranks to deal with the Avalanche threat.
On the production sketches for Last Order -Final Fantasy VII- by Studio Madhouse, Martial Arts (Male) is given the name Maur .
==Profile==
===Appearance===
Physically imposing, Martial Arts (Male) wears the standard Turk uniform of black suit with black tie, white undershirt and brown boots.
===Personality===
Originally an ex-detective hailing from Costa del Sol, he is a passionate man, who puts everything into his work, making him hot-blooded. He does have a romantic side, which shows up in his overly-courteous manner towards his female teammates, much to Martial Arts (Female)'s annoyance.
==Story==
As a detective in Costa del Sol, Martial Art (Male) worked several complicated cases, successfully solving each one. During one case he let his emotions get the best of him and got into serious trouble that forced him to quit the police. Without many other options, he accepts recruitment with the Turks when offered.
===Combating Avalanche===
President Shinra, having become irate over his inability to uncover how Avalanche is receiving information from within the company, removes Verdot from his post and replaces him with Heidegger. Hearing that Avalanche is targeting Junon, Heidegger sends the Turks as scouts who are to call him on anything suspicious so he can send in his military. His insistence on using the military rather than Turks' specialized skills leaves the members, when Avalanche does attack Junon, reluctant to inform Heidegger.
Tseng discovers Avalanche are after the airships docked in the city. Heidegger wants to let the situation escalate until it is viable to send his military, using the Turks as expandable distractions and ignoring their requests for coordinated information. Verdot approaches the President in Midgar, and threatens to reveal all classified information he was privy to the media unless he is reinstated back as head of the Turks. His request granted, Verdot co-ordinates the Turks into retaking the Junon airport, sending in additional troops and Martial Arts (Male) to assist. While the operation is a success, the Turks are no closer to discovering the leak within the Shinra executive offices.
Monsters from Professor Hojo's laboratories run rampant in the 65th to 68th floors of the Shinra Building. While Tseng evacuates the building's employees, the Player Turk is sent to contain the outbreak. Upon reaching Hojo's lab, it is discovered the outbreak was a ruse by Avalanche leaders Fuhito and Shears to capture Hojo. Escaping via a B1-Alpha Helicopter, the Turks give chase along the Midgar Expressway only to have Shears blow it apart and acquire the time Avalanche needed to bring in one of Hojo's experiments; a green dragon. Sephiroth arrives and eviscerates the dragon and downs the helicopter, but while Hojo is retrieved, Shears and Fuhito escape.
Informed by their Shinra contact of the existence of a Cetra descendant named Aerith Gainsborough, Avalanche attempts to capture her to protect the location of the "Promised Land". The Player Turk, having gotten lost in the Midgar Slums, has found their way to Elmyra Gainsborough's house where they come across Aerith who flees. Avalanche causes Aerith to return and is protected by the Turk much to her surprise.
Hiding in the Sector 5 Slums Aerith loses her White Materia. As the Player Turk goes to retrieve it Shears locates them and disposes of the Player Turk, taking Aerith to the Sector 5 slums church where Fuhito and Elfe await. As they attempt to convince Aerith to tell them the location of the Promised Land, Aerith notes an ancient voice coming from inside Elfe is in pain. Fuhito becomes flustered and attempts to divert the subject.
When Shears notices the Player Turk eavesdropping, a fight in the church results in Aerith preventing Shears and Fuhito from killing the Turk, claiming that she is defending her flower bed. Elfe is forced to withdraw along with the rest of Avalanche. As the Player Turk and Aerith also leave the church, Tseng, who has been assigned for some time to capture Aerith, arrives in another attempt to convince her to work with Shinra. Misunderstanding, the Player Turk prevents Tseng from seeing Aerith as she runs back home.
===Nibelheim Incident===
Called in due to reports of the staff manning the Nibel Reactor disappearing, Tseng pilots the Player Turk to the Mt. Nibel where they were supposed to parachute to the reactor. A rogue wind causes them to parachute off course and, forced to traverse the mountainside to reach the mako reactor, the Player Turk comes across Tifa Lockhart, who was chasing after her cat. Following the discovery of dragons massing around the reactor, the Player Turk is ordered to fall back to Nibelheim to await further instructions.
Taking Tifa with them, the ropeway back to town is destroyed by a dragon, and the pair traverses the rest of the way on foot. When Sephiroth and his company are sent in to deal with the monsters, the Player Turk recruits Tifa to guide them up the mountain.
Following the investigation party's return, Sephiroth locks himself away for several days until finally coming out and massacring the town. Leaving to return to the reactor, the Player Turk follows after him, clearing the path along the way for the incoming Shinra forces. After confronting Sephiroth, the Player Turk is knocked unconscious, coming to when Cloud Strife arrives. As Cloud goes after Sephiroth deeper in the reactor, the Player Turk looks over Tifa until Zangan arrives to take her away. She witnesses Cloud's stand and Sephiroth jumping into the Mako pit and informs Tseng of the events.
When the Shinra clean-up crew arrives at Nibelheim and the reactor, the Player Turk is instructed to help look for survivors in the town. Upon reaching the town they are given new orders by Tseng to enter and check on the laboratory equipment in the basement of the Nibelheim Mansion for Professor Hojo. Entering the mansion, the Player Turk is ordered to liquidate certain documents. the Player Turk discovers the documents and attempts to read them only to become confused.
Verdot arrives and leads the way into the laboratory where they are both trapped in an illusion of the Player Turk's first encounter with Avalanche in Sector 8 during their first day on the job, caused by Lost Number. Lost Number changes the illusion to that of when Kalm was destroyed. Verdot's wife and daughter were thought to have been killed and Verdot was responsible for the incident's cover-up.
Lost Number paralyzes Verdot with guilt, but is defeated by the Player Turk and his illusion vanishes; freeing Verdot. As the survivors of Nibelheim are gathered up they are to be shipped into Hojo's laboratory, but the Turks are indecisive over the immorality of it and are allowed to leave while Verdot handles the operation.
===Destroying Avalanche===
Discovering Avalanche's base is in Wutai Village, the Player Turk is sent to bomb the pagoda. Meeting Yuffie Kisaragi, the Turk inadvertently informs her of the powers of Materia. Infiltrating the pagoda's top floor from the Fire Cave, the Player Turk fights their way down each floor, placing bombs as they go and meeting Yuffie again as she seeks out Avalanche's Materia supply. Due to her sickness, Elfe is forced to withdraw as the Avalanche troops are marshaled to face Shinra. Yuffie has stolen the detonation switch and leads the Player Turk on a chase through the Avalanche base before pressing the switch.
Now attempting to escape the underground base before the timers go off, Yuffie and the Player Turk are chased through the underground tunnels, encountering and seemingly defeating all three of the Avalanche commanders (Elfe, Shears and Fuhito). After escaping, Yuffie deduces the Player Turk is working for Shinra and runs away in a fit of betrayal due to the realization that her new friend is affiliated with the enemy responsible for damaging Wutai.
With the public's confidence in Shinra shaken due to the attacks by Avalanche, the launch of the Shinra No. 26 rocket is used as a publicity stunt to buy back public support. The Player Turk is charged with escorting Vice President Rufus Shinra to a rehearsal for the event in Rocket Town. During the rehearsal the point vehicle for the air show, the Tiny Bronco, is hijacked by Shears's underlings, but with Cid Highwind's help the Player Turk retrieves and lands the aircraft.
Cid takes the Player Turk and Rufus on a tour of the rocket, coming across one of Shears's underlings attempting to steal an oxygen bottle, essential for the launch rockets, to sabotage the launch. In spite apprehending the underling, the ship's oxygen bottles are stolen and have to be replaced. On the President and Cid's insistence, the launch continues as scheduled.
Even after Cid becomes embroiled in fighting the underlings responsible for sabotaging the rocket, and the Player Turk almost becomes caught in the rocket's launch blast, the launch is aborted mid-air as Cid opts to preserve the life of a mechanic who had been caught inside the rocket engines.
Reno and Tseng discover Avalanche has infiltrated and taken over the construction site of the Corel Reactor. Infiltrating the construction site through the Corel Mines thanks to Barret Wallace, the Player Turk enters the reactor to find Rufus Shinra there. Verdot informs the Turks Rufus is the informant and supplier for Avalanche in a bid to remove his father from presidency. As Verdot instructs his subordinates to place Rufus under arrest, Fuhito appears to kill not just the Turks but Rufus too, reasoning that Avalanche no longer needs him. Elfe appears and her voice is recognized by Verdot as that of his deceased daughter, Felicia.
Her memories revived as Verdot explains who she is, Elfe is taken by her mysterious illness. She is carried out of the reactor by a jovial Fuhito as Shears looks on in shock. Torn between his duty and his desire to chase after his rediscovered daughter, the Turks encourage Verdot to go after her. Verdot resigns his position to Tseng, who leads Rufus out of the reactor before Fuhito destroys it. While covering their escape, the Player Turk is thought to have been caught in the facility's explosion.
Trapped in the lower facility of the destroyed reactor, the Player Turk fights alongside Shears, who had been betrayed by Fuhito and left to die in the explosion. Shears explains about Elfe's Materia and how Fuhito hopes to use it to wipe out life on the planet and return it to the Lifestream.
Explaining his reasons for joining Avalanche, the injury that Shears had sustained during Fuhito's betrayal begins to wear on him. As the facility collapses around them, Shears, instructing them to save Elfe, throws the Player Turk out of the facility as the exit collapses with him inside. For his crimes, Rufus is put in house arrest within the Turks' hidden headquarters.
With the Player Turk rendered comatose due to injuries and Mako poisoning and Verdot having deserted to pursue his daughter, Tseng is instructed to link with the Turks' secondary division to bolster numbers. Three years after the Corel Reactor's destruction the Player Turk awakens, and three months afterwards, the Player Turk and Reno are tasked with the capture of an endangered species known as "Guardians of the Planet" in Cosmo Canyon for Professor Hojo.
While searching the canyon the pair visits Geisel Bugenhagen on Tseng's instruction and discovers more about the monster Fuhito hopes to summon through Elfe's Materia. The Materia is sapping Elfe's life force to exist and as a result Verdot, having not been sighted since Corel, is searching for a way to remove it without harming his daughter.
Resuming their pursuit of the "Guardian", the Turks come across new Raven operatives, people turned monsters who work for Avalanche, far stronger than previously encountered. The Raven operatives are also pursuing the animals to disrupt a sacred ceremony held in the canyon. While the groups initially pursued Deneh, Nanaki interferes and attacks the Turks to give Deneh time to flee. While capturing him, the Player Turk allows Nanaki to perform the ritual before taking him away.
===Conflict with Shinra===
Pursuing two research samples that had escaped from the Nibelheim Mansion, the Player Turk competes with the Shinra army to locate them. The Player Turk questions why they are hunting the subjects whom they were partially responsible for imprisoning in the mansion four years previously.
Coming across the escapees on the beach, the Player Turk discovers they are hunting Zack Fair, a former SOLDIER First Class. The Player Turk attempts to do their duty and capture him, but after seeing the extent of damage the experiments have done to Cloud Strife, they report Zack is no longer around and lets Zack escape while they return to Nibelheim to investigate the mansion. They discover Verdot poring through the mansion's archives.
Learning he needs a certain Materia to remove the Materia from Elfe's body and stop it draining her life, Verdot has been searching for these support Materia, learning the Turks already possess one given to them by Shears during the Corel Reactor incident. The pair searches through the mansion and comes across clues to another of Hojo's "research subjects", Vincent Valentine, Verdot's old Turk partner, who informs them of the location of such a Materia elsewhere in the mansion. As Avalanche appears to also find the support Materia, the Player Turk and Verdot lose the orb to Fuhito while Scarlet informs the President in Midgar the Turks are assisting Verdot in spite of their orders to "shoot on sight".
Hidden within their headquarters within the Shinra Building as Scarlet embarks on a hunt for them, the Turks meet with another Shinra Executive, Reeve Tuesti, to locate the next Materia. Learning it is in the remains of the Gongaga Reactor they, along with Cait Sith, steal a submarine from Junon to evade the Shinra military. Entering the reactor they find Avalanche troops already combing the facility, but thanks to the arrival of Verdot and Shears—who was rescued by Verdot in Corel and has been working with him since—the next support Materia is obtained.
When the fugitives Zack and Cloud are relocated, the Turks attempt a Priority-S retrieval attempt, but are unable to acquire them before the Shinra military ambushes them. Learning the Avalanche is attempting to break into Corel Prison, the Turks presume a Materia piece must be there and embark across the desert to obtain it. Discovering Shalua Rui, the Player Turk brings her to shelter in the caverns under the desert.
The Player Turk finds the final support Materia within the caverns while being pursued by Avalanche Ravens. Escaping with Shalua, they brave a sandstorm before being cornered. Shalua announces her hatred of the Turks, but the Ravens still attack. Shears and Verdot arrive to support them, and Shears takes Shalua to a safe location. Scarlet catches up to and surrounds the Player Turk and Verdot and, attacking them into submission, Scarlet captures Verdot and takes him back to Midgar to be executed.
While Tseng, Rude and Reno attempt to discern the location Verdot is being held, the other Turks and Shears meet in Wall Market and split the Materia orbs among themselves before dispatching to look for Elfe. Meanwhile Elena, Gun (Female)'s sister, witnesses a trio of insurgent Ravens and attempts to follow them before getting bored and going home.
Assisted by Rufus, Tseng locates Verdot and attempts to liberate him while ordering the Player Turk, who is being pursued by Shinra troops through Wall Market, to secure an escape out of Midgar. While abducting a truck to get through checkpoints set up by the military, the Player Turk discovers that not only was the truck being driven by a Raven dressed as a Shinra troop, but that Elena had been kidnapped and was in the truck with them.
After leaving the truck and having it leave while Elena is still on board, the Player Turk follows it to a train where, onboard, they exchange the support Materia with the Ravens for Elena. Elsewhere in the Sector 5 Slums, Shears is confronted by Fuhito. He opts to go with Fuhito, giving him possession of the support Materia, to find Elfe. He is instead beaten down and the support Materia stolen from him.
While Reno, Rude and Tseng free Verdot, the Player Turk commandeers a helicopter to chase after Avalanche before they use the support Materia to summon Zirconiade, an ultimate summon monster, and kill Elfe to make it whole. Crashing the helicopter into the truck the Ravens were using, the Player Turk witnesses Fuhito gathering the support Materia around a limp and weak Elfe on the highway and summons Zirconiade above Midgar. While saving Elfe, the Materia inside her fuses with the support Materia on its own and Fuhito ascends to give the newly formed Materia orb to Zirconiade.
As the Player Turks all chase after Fuhito along the construct created by Zirconiade's summoning, Tseng, Reno, Rude, Verdot and an awakened Elfe are captured by the Shinra military. Splitting into teams of two when the pathways branch into a maze, the Turks come across Behemoths. As the others battle the Behemoths, the Player Turk catches up to Fuhito and is saved from his attack by Shears. Teaming up against the Avalanche commander, the Player Turk and Shears defeat Fuhito, however, to continue Zirconiade's awakening he places the Materia inside himself and transforms, mortally wounding Shears in his new form.
As the Player Turk bests Fuhito even in his transformed state, Fuhito attempts to take them with him in his defeat. A dying Shears holds him back and the pair erupt in a blast of light. Meanwhile, confronted with the offer that the Turks would be spared from capture and execution if Verdot and Elfe are killed, Tseng turns his gun on the pair and fires.
As Tseng leaves with the bodies of Verdot and Elfe that he only pretended to shoot, Reno and Rude wait for their remaining comrades still fighting Zirconiade. Reaching the end of the airborne construct, the Player Turk attacks Zirconiade only to be unable to affect it by themselves. With the arrival of other Turks they damage the monster, but the other Turks are taken down by the summon and the Player Turk is also worn down.
With the memories of the people they met as a Turk, the Player Turk gathers their strength of will to continue the battle and destroys Zirconiade. The shockwave emitted from its destruction destroys the construct on which the attacking Turks are standing. Reno and Rude watch in horror as the construction vanishes in an explosion of light.
===Exile===
Following Zirconiade's defeat, the Player Turks go into hiding across the planet, retiring to Midgar, Junon, Costa del Sol, Cosmo Canyon, Icicle Inn, and Wutai. Unbeknown to them, as Zirconiade had been summoned the Planet had awakened one of its Weapons to deal with the threat. Because the Turks were successful in defeating Zirconiade before the Weapon's arrival the Weapon no longer had a purpose.
Instead of returning to sleep, the Weapon starts to consider the Turks a threat due to their defeat of Zirconiade and how, technically, they had destroyed what was a part of the Planet's ecology. A number of weeks afterwards Verdot calls the Player Turks to inform them the Weapon has now hunting them.
Given an advanced radar system on their PHS to track and hunt the Jade Weapon and learning the dark mist the Weapon generates and surrounds itself with can only be penetrated by the light given from various Materia Pillars across the Planet, the Turks locate the pillars to enable themselves to battle the Weapon.
Coming to a location covered in mist, the Weapon is supported by various oval-like constructs which the Turks battle while the Weapon attempts to bombard them from above. After numerous hunts and battles across the Planet, the Turks destroy the Weapon and return to their lives in exile.
===Return===
During Meteorfall, Reno oversees the evacuation of Sector 4 while Rude clears Sector 2 and Elena clears Sector 3. Moving to clear Sector 5 together with Tseng, the four are met and assisted by the previous Turks and Verdot returning to assist in the evacuation of the city's citizens.
==Gameplay==
Weapon upgrades can be purchased using RP (Rank Points) gained from completing missions. Martial Arts' weapons, a collection of fighting gloves/knuckles, come from Tifa's weapon collection from Final Fantasy VII. It is possible to have the weapon attacks take on elemental attributes by slotting the appropriate Materia into the weapon.
===Stats===
Stat 	Initial	Level up	Level 99
RP 	1,000 	1,000 	1,000
HP 	240 	+90 	9060
MP 	80 	+5 	570
Attack 	42 	+2 	238
Defense	24 	+2 	220
Magic 	4.0 	4.0 	4.0
==Other appearances==
===Last Order -Final Fantasy VII-===
The Last Order -Final Fantasy VII- OVA illustrates the events surrounding Zack Fair and Cloud Strife's escape from Nibelheim's mansion, overlapping with incidents depicted in Final Fantasy VII and Before Crisis -Final Fantasy VII-.
The OVA covers the Turks' role during both the Nibelheim Incident and events leading up to Zack's Final Stand against the Shinra military; addressing the Turks' pursuit of Zack and Cloud through the Mythril Mine and their ill-fated search for the pair in the Midgar Wasteland.
===On the Way to a Smile===
While not specified by name, many of the Turks who had gone into hiding following the battle against Zirconiade reappear during the events of Final Fantasy VII as specified in the chapter Case of Shinra. Following Tseng being attacked by Sephiroth in the Temple of the Ancients, Cait Sith appears to stable his condition before contacting three of the Turks to bring him to Junon for treatment.
Later on, while observing the ruins of the Shinra Building following the attack by the Diamond Weapon, Reno and Rude recollect the times themselves and the other Turks had spent in the now ruined headquarters.
During Meteorfall, the Turks and Verdot return to assist in the evacuation of Midgar and, following the Meteor's destruction, the Turks leave, returning to the lives they had obtained in their exile, but also work to gather intelligence on the current state of the Planet from their respective locations; sending the information to Verdot who would offer it to Tseng when required.
===Final Fantasy Artniks===
==Gallery==
Bc-characters.jpg|The Turks.
BeforeCrisisMMartialArts.jpg|Martial Arts in Before Crisis opening.
LastOrder-Turks.jpg|Martial Arts in Last Order.
Turks_in_Last_Order.jpg|Martial Arts in Last Order.
==Etymology==
==Trivia==
*While any of the Player Turks can be chosen for Episode 19 and pursue Zack and Cloud as they escape the Nibelheim Mansion, the Turk whose encounter with them is considered canon is Shuriken (Female) (aka "Cissnei") due to events in Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-.
*Martial Arts (Male) shares the same Japanese voice actor with Xigbar and Braig from the Kingdom Hearts series.
Category:Characters in Last Order -Final Fantasy VII-
Category:Characters in Before Crisis -Final Fantasy VII-