After the death of H0512, absolutely everyone came to the common decision that they simply vitally needed to take at least a few minutes to catch their breath and rest a little. For each of them had put in no small effort in this fight — and especially Aerith, who had had to continuously hold the enormous monster with her powerful magic, not allowing it to rampage or even land a single retaliatory blow. And while the others were recovering their strength during this short break, Alex and Dean quietly stepped aside into a far corner of the laboratory in order to discuss in private what had happened literally a couple of minutes ago.
Having moved farther away so that their conversation would guaranteed not be overheard by anyone, Dean immediately started with the main point: it looked far too suspicious that a creature so clearly resembling a mix of a Hotian and Frankenstein's monster had been serenely grown within the walls of this very laboratory.
Looking at Dean, Alex at first wanted to say that in the enormous multiverse there was already an excess of all sorts of monsters that could indeed look similar to each other outwardly yet have not the slightest kinship relation. But he did not even manage to open his mouth when Dean, in his habitual sceptical manner, rather sharply reminded him that in their shitty life there a priori existed no such crap as a simple "coincidence."
And without stopping at that, Dean also directly reminded Alex exactly who had tossed them into this world under the guise of a harmless joke — with words as if he damned well wanted to see with his own eyes how this world would be saved with style and brilliance. Hearing all these irrefutable arguments, Alex only wearily rolled his eyes, absolutely not denying a single word of what Dean had just voiced.
Turning toward the side where the chopped body parts of H0512 had recently lain, Alex irritably clicked his tongue — for absolutely all the remains of the monster by this moment had already irreversibly dissolved into sparkling particles of Mako, not allowing a detailed re-check.
"Listen, I damned well don't want to say this… But could this Jenova creature even be from the same place your tentacle girlfriend came from? Or maybe this world-devouring beast came from an entirely different universe?" Dean said in a thoughtful tone, lightly elbowing Alex in the side to finally attract his attention.
"In our cosmos there aren't all that many parasites capable of unhindered latching onto something like the Lifestream that flows straight through several timelines and alternate universes. And the overwhelming majority of such creatures usually dwell strictly within the bounds of their specific universe," Alex calmly answered, lighting a thin cigar, raising a thoughtful gaze to the laboratory ceiling and slowly exhaling thick smoke through his nose.
"So either it's a creature that somehow miraculously peeked into this universe to feed heartily and in the end latched onto this strange living planet… Or it's yet another man-made piece of crap like Chuck that your tentacle girlfriend slapped together. Because all that bullshit about a banal 'space parasite' that you were feeding me at the very beginning somehow doesn't quite add up with the shit we just saw together. Don't you think so yourself?" Dean spoke with distinct irony, looking at Alex as if the latter had been naively mistaken the whole time, believing everything would be extremely simple.
"If the second option is confirmed… Then first I'll with great pleasure thrash Lucifer for hiding important details of his request from us. And then with special pleasure I'll kick Amenadiel's ass — for allowing this shit to happen at all," Alex responded, tightly clamping the tip of the thin cigar between his teeth, slightly cracking the joints of his fingers from growing irritation.
"All right, your sweet family squabbles can wait for now. You better tell me this: what's the real chance that this is exactly the same shit as Chuck?" Dean asked with a slight snort, slightly frowning his brows and thoughtfully raising his gaze to the ceiling.
"The chances are definitely not equal to zero, that I can guarantee you. Exactly 50 % that this is that same familiar Jenova I know from the canon… And the remaining 50 % — that it's one of your two assumptions," Alex answered, stroking his chin, and in his own voice a clear doubt slipped through regarding what Jenova actually was.
"Well now that's just fucking wonderful… All right, to hell with it! Whatever beast it turns out to be in the end, we'll deal with it anyway. As always," Dean spoke with a heavily torn-out tired groan, distinctly feeling how his eyelid was starting to twitch nervously from this whole situation.
Lowering his gaze to Dean, Alex slowly and understandingly nodded, fully agreeing with his conclusions. For if before them was indeed the ordinary canonical Jenova — in its habitual guise of a space parasite devouring worlds — then they would still one way or another have to sooner or later reach the Forgotten Capital, where the most powerful central stream of the Lifestream flowed, and without unnecessary ceremonies tear the parasite from this world. However Alex perfectly understood: if Jenova turned out to be one of the avatars created by Nyarlathotep, he would have to apply a bit more strength and magic in order to finally uproot this parasite from the Lifestream.
And all because in such a scenario Jenova had launched its repulsive tentacles into the stream of the Lifestream flowing literally through absolutely every alternate timeline of Gaia — which literally meant that it had dug in with a death grip right into the World Tree of this universe.
And unlike that same Chuck, who had once driven and woven the roots of other World Trees for the sake of creating his own "greatest masterpiece," Jenova did not play such refined games and merely desired to devour the entire World Tree dry. Reflecting on this, Alex again brought the thin cigar to his lips, coming to the thought that the main part of the plan in any case remained unchanged: smash Jenova to hell and save absolutely everyone.
But now to this list of tasks officially was added yet another extremely important little point — with special zeal to thrash Amenadiel using a heavy wooden stick. And this additional point could easily be carried out in absolutely any sequence — depending on which of them first caught his eye. Standing nearby, Dean again lightly elbowed Alex in the side, sincerely inquiring what their final layout was in case Jenova in the end really turned out to be that very beast they had just thought about.
Slightly smiling, Alex calmly answered that the plan remained the same to the point of ugliness: thrash the gluttonous space beast up to its ears and pull this world out of the shit. Hearing this laconic plan, Dean slightly smiled and understandingly snorted, approvingly nodding his head and adding that the simplest plan was absolutely always the most reliable plan in their life.
Quietly chuckling, Alex and Dean in any case were not going to leave this world anywhere until the entire situation with Gaia was finally and irreversibly resolved. After all, they had decided that on the very first day when they had come to in the old slum church with a wild hellish hangover. While Alex and Dean were quietly talking in the corner, the other members of the group had already fully finished recovering their strength and intended to move further.
"Hey, guys! If you've already finished your important chatter there, maybe we can finally go and properly thrash this mad bastard?!" Barrett shouted at the top of his voice, attracting the attention of Alex and Dean standing aside.
"Have you really decided to go further?" Alex asked, approaching the rest of the group with a calm step together with Dean.
"Yes. We must finally deal with Hojo right now so that such an ugly nightmare never repeats here again," Claudia answered, confidently nodding her head and expressively pointing with her chin at the only technical elevator on this isolated level of the laboratory.
"And besides… It's quite likely that a tier higher there will be far more useful and expensive things that I can completely selflessly steal!" Yuffie added with a bright predatory smile, skipping toward the blocked elevator cabin.
Slightly raising an eyebrow, Alex was sincerely surprised that the entire group had simultaneously expressed the desire to move further to the upper tiers — and this despite the fact that the main business for the sake of which they had broken into the complex at all had been fulfilled in full volume. For unlike the original canon, where in the upper laboratory there was the captive Aerith whom the squad had to rescue in battle, in this alternate timeline none of them had formal reasons to arrange a mad chase after the departing Hojo.
Thoughtfully scratching his cheek with a finger, Alex looked at Aerith — and she in response only bestowed upon him an inexpressibly sly smile and slightly raised her chin, with her entire demeanour making it clear that it was precisely she who had put her hands to helping the others come to a unanimous decision to move further.
Quietly laughing, Alex playfully pinched Aerith's neat little nose with his fingers, not forgetting to quietly add that she was a big hero. For he himself perfectly understood that the group in any case had to go further — at least for the sake of finally meeting Red and seeing with their own eyes the main secret of Shinra.
Lightly batting Alex's hand away, Aerith gracefully rose onto her tiptoes, softly resting her palm on his shoulder, and began barely audibly whispering right into his ear: she hadn't even had to excessively convince anyone — it was only necessary to drop a couple of right words, and Barrett had instantly caught fire with the idea of going and demanding all the due percentages from Shinra, and after him absolutely all the others had willingly agreed to rise higher.
Looking Aerith straight in the eyes, Alex simply could not help calling her with a smile a real little witch. At these words Aerith quietly and sincerely laughed, quickly and tenderly kissed Alex on the lips, after which she began playfully pushing him toward the blocked elevator cabin.
After all, only he alone in this entire company could right now make the dead-blocked technical elevator work so that they could unhindered rise to the main level of Hojo's laboratory. Approaching the control panel of the technical elevator, Alex with a crack tore off the protective cover and deftly began digging into the exposed tangle of wires.
In parallel poking at the contacts in order to emergency-start the lift and at the same time forever shut off the howling and irritating alarm, Alex mentally spoke to Dean via direct mental link, secretly telling him that upstairs a real talking dog awaited them. At these unexpected words Dean instantly turned his head to Alex and expressively raised an eyebrow, mentally asking back: what the hell is this talking dog yet?
While Alex briefly explained to Dean via mental link who this Red actually was and where he had come from, he had already fully finished fussing with the wiring and successfully shorted the needed contacts. After a very short wait the heavy cabin of the technical elevator smoothly descended to their level. Sliding aside the sliding grate-partition, Alex entered the elevator first and did not even manage to say absolutely anything when the agitated Barrett already with full force slammed his heavy fist on the panel with buttons, and the cabin with a scrape rushed upward.
"This sick bastard Hojo doesn't even suspect that we're right now riding straight after him! I'll with enormous pleasure smash his surprised mug with full force!" Barrett spoke with a predatory smirk, anticipatorily leaning his back against the metal wall of the elevator cabin.
"Just don't celebrate too much ahead of time — a tier higher a well-planned ambush might well be waiting for us… Or there might already have been no one there for a long time," Claudia spoke restrainedly, casting a short evaluating glance at him.
"What the hell ambush! No one is waiting for us there and definitely won't be able to catch us by surprise!" Barrett answered with a confident smirk, with his entire demeanour graphically demonstrating that he was one hundred percent right.
"And still we'd all better show maximum caution and be fully ready for any layout," Tifa added with a soft smile, still preferring to show reasonable prudence in the situation that had developed.
"Ready for what? To thrash this bastard with special diligence? So my fists are already fully ready for that right now!" Barrett answered with a satisfied smirk and began fully demonstrating to those around his gigantic pumped biceps.
Looking at the inspired Barrett, Alex with a light smile shook his head — and at that very same moment accidentally noticed how from under the loose collar of Dean's T-shirt peeked the painfully familiar green little face of the Tonberry named Steve.
Having noticed Steve again, Alex was sincerely surprised, for the whole time he had been racking his brains over where this little sneak had managed to disappear to, and it turned out he had the whole time been calmly hiding in the warmth under Dean's clothes. Looking at the peaceful Steve, Alex simply could not help posing a rhetorical question: could this little one have finished off the unfortunate H0512 with just one blow of his tiny knife?
When this tricky question sounded, Dean in surprise lowered his gaze to Steve, who with an incredibly blissful face was peeking from under his T-shirt, after which with a loud thud slapped himself on the forehead with his palm. Dean immediately began dejectedly complaining that they had, it turned out, just missed such a magnificent and unique chance to check whether Steve's tiny chef's knife could alone finish off such a beast with one blow — instead of arranging this whole circus with the team fight. The moment these words sounded, Alex and Dean simultaneously heavily sighed, sharing the bitterness of the lost opportunity.
Hearing the synchronous collective sigh behind themselves, all the other members of the group instantly turned their heads and in surprise looked at Alex and Dean. Seeing the puzzled gazes directed at them, Alex already wanted to explain in detail why they had just sighed so synchronously. But barely opening his mouth, he immediately shut it back, and instead of justifications a sly cheerful smile appeared on his lips.
Slightly nodding his chin toward the exit, Alex proposed that everyone present immediately turn around. And the moment all the members of the squad synchronously turned their heads, they locked their gazes on the cold barrels of the weapons that the fighters of the elite Deepground unit were holding point-blank.
"Well yes… No ambush was planned, right?" Claudia said with undisguised caustic sarcasm in her voice, looking with absolute icy calm at the barrel of the automatic aimed right at her face.
"Just shut up! If you keep quiet for at least a couple of minutes now, no one in their right mind will think you're mute!" Barrett irritably muttered, frantically assessing their chances of survival in this sudden scrape.
"Enough baring your teeth, both of you. Let's just better go outside and see exactly what this mad bastard Hojo has prepared for us this time," Alex calmly tossed, with a habitual motion lighting a thin cigar and confidently squeezing forward past the tense Barrett.
Having squeezed past Barrett, Alex absolutely carelessly pushed aside the protective barrier of the elevator and carefully put his hand behind his back, with an unnoticed gesture making Claudia understand that it would be necessary to act strictly on his signal. Seeing this familiar sign, Claudia with a light touch of her index finger brushed Alex's palm, confirming that she was fully ready for the attack.
Confidently nodding his head, Alex stepped forward and unceremoniously seized by the hand right the metal helmet of the nearest Deepground stormtrooper, forcefully shoving him aside — so powerfully that the fighter with a crash collapsed onto the metal floor. The remaining Deepground stormtroopers reacted absolutely not at all to the fact that one of their formation had just shamefully toppled to the ground.
Sarcastically smirking at this picture, Alex simply could not again restrain himself from a cutting comment addressed to these brainless dummies. Noticing that still no one was opening fire on them to kill, all the members of the group immediately understood: they were simply being tried to be taken hostage and driven into a corner.
Finally realising the situation in which they had found themselves, everyone without hesitation followed Alex, who continued carelessly shoving the Deepground stormtroopers in different directions. Having shoved all the oncoming fighters on his path, Alex led the group into the very centre of the laboratory and shifted his intent gaze to the high observation balcony where in all his grandeur stood Hojo with the invariable mad smirk on his thin lips.
The remaining members of the team quickly caught up with Alex and froze near him, simultaneously raising their gazes to the scientist. Aerith deliberately stood strictly behind Alex's back, desperately not wishing to meet gazes with this horrific professor. And at that very same instant the remaining Deepground stormtroopers closed in a dense ring around the squad, again aiming heavy automatics at them.
"You know, all this looks quite and quite impressive. On the one hand, I even want to admit that I slightly underestimated your potential… However even such an outcome entered the basic parameters of my mathematical calculations," Hojo spoke in a cynical tone, habitually folding his arms on his chest and measuredly tapping his index finger on his chin.
"Calculate your own shitty ass, you dickheaded bastard!" Barrett shouted rollingly, demonstratively extending an expressive middle finger toward Hojo.
"Hmm… Extremely interesting. The preliminary results of my program predicted that after a direct clash with subject H0512 you would look far more… How shall I put it more mildly, tired. This is quite and quite an entertaining observation," Hojo continued reasoning, slightly narrowing his eyes, absolutely not paying attention to Barrett's crude insults.
"So your vaunted program is complete shit. Or maybe all your sick brain is capable of is creating useless and ugly monsters?" Dean spoke with absolute carelessness, looking at Hojo from below upward as at a complete idiot.
"Considering your frankly meagre mental potential, you just managed to produce something remotely intelligent… Though even an ordinary monkey planted at a typewriter is sometimes capable of accidentally creating a masterpiece. Definitely worth researching this phenomenon in detail in order to at least a little improve my forecasting system," Hojo muttered with a thoughtful look, stroking his chin and immersing himself headfirst in his own scientific calculations.
"And is that exactly why you set these pitiful brainless dummies on us? Doesn't it seem to you yourself that ten pieces will somehow be a bit few?" Alex asked with irony, unhurriedly extinguishing the thin cigar right against the armoured helmet of the Deepground stormtrooper standing nearby and never taking his aimed gaze off Hojo.
"Few? Oh, I fear you are deeply mistaken, Anomaly. Believe me, this quantity is quite enough for all of you," Hojo answered with a venomous smile, swaggeringly leaning on the terminal panel and bestowing a cheerful gaze upon the squad.
"No, buddy, it's precisely you who are making the fatal mistake. I personally have already destroyed exactly 164 of your sweet dummies… Plus, if we add Rosso and Azul, it comes out neatly 166. And if I say that ten pieces are few — that means they're fucking few," Alex spoke in a cheerful anticipatory tone, unhurriedly taking a stylish fountain pen from his breast pocket.
When these bold words sounded, Hojo for a short moment experienced light surprise, but in the next instant inside him with new frightening force flared up an unhealthy maniacal desire to obtain Alex for his refined experiments.
Inside his mad brain a wild anticipation ignited: using Alex's unique cells, he would be able to create something grandiose, surpassing even his past greatest masterpiece in the person of Sephira's daughter, who until now had been considered his crowning creation. But now Hojo clearly saw before himself completely new, boundless horizons of scientific discoveries that he could not wait to touch.
At that very same second in the mad professor's head not only thoughts of ordinary experiments raced, but also long-standing horrific fantasies about selective crossbreeding of alien genomes. Casting a glance at Aerith standing behind Alex, Hojo could no longer restrain his repulsive cawing laughter.
In his sick consciousness dozens of mad theories were born about exactly what absolute hybrid could appear if one crossed Alex's genome, the pureblood ancient blood of Aerith and even the cells of Sephira. Hojo's thoughts flew so far that he was already openly dreaming of creating a real living God who would rule the entire cosmos — and this would become his absolute, unsurpassed masterpiece.
Observing from below this madly laughing psychopath, Alex with clear disgust pursed his lips, with a sharp motion seized the Deepground stormtrooper standing nearby by the helmet and without unnecessary ceremonies drove his fountain pen right into the unprotected neck.
Noticing this rapid movement, Claudia instantly pulled the Buster Sword from behind her back and with a single broad swing threw aside two Deepground stormtroopers at once. Barrett at that same moment fired a deafening shotgun blast right into the face of the fighter standing closest to him. Yuffie and Tifa synchronously delivered crushing spinning kicks, sending the stormtroopers into deep knockout.
One of the Deepground elites, aiming at Dean, was already ready to fully press the trigger when right before his eyes the barrel of his own automatic unexpectedly softly bent as if made of plasticine. With an absolutely carefree facial expression bending the automatic barrel, Dean immediately seized the stormtrooper by the helmet and with a sharp precise motion with a crunch broke his neck.
Tonberry Steve and Aerith in the end did not even have to do absolutely anything — the fight ended faster than they managed to react, and all ten Deepground stormtroopers were finished in mere seconds. Claudia alone effectively dealt with the greater part of the elite squad. Hojo himself continued to observe this rapid rout with an intrigued idle smile — as if everything happening below was not a deadly fight but merely yet another interesting experiment in his test tube.
"And is this absolutely all you managed to prepare? Honestly speaking, I expected far more pep from Shinra's secret special unit," Claudia said in a dry impassive tone, with a habitual motion returning the Buster Sword behind her back and raising a cold gaze to the balcony.
"Hmmm… Quite unexpected. I confess, I didn't even notice you right away. So you turn out to be an elite SOLDIER?" Hojo spoke with undisguised scientific interest in his voice, leaning his entire body forward and bending closer to the protective glass when he noticed the characteristic glow in Claudia's eyes.
"I am an ex-SOLDIER," Claudia corrected him in a lazy tone, never taking her heavy gaze off the professor.
"No… perhaps not quite so. Oh, wait a moment… Now I remember you perfectly! How could I have forgotten such a unique specimen at all? My dear girl, you were never actually a real SOLDIER. You…" Hojo began speaking with a triumphant mad smile on his lips, examining Claudia as if before him stood the most valuable and horrific exhibit of his entire career.
The moment Hojo began speaking these fateful words, before Claudia's eyes everything unexpectedly began to blur and darken, and a wild unbearable headache shot through her head with a crushing impulse.
Her consciousness began rapidly confusing itself, as if right from under the deep layers of the subconscious some horrific buried memories that she categorically should not be remembering right now were trying with a fight to break outward. Convulsively seizing both hands to her temples, Claudia with enormous difficulty stayed on her feet, through a veil of torment looking at Hojo's horrific triumphant face on the other side of the protective glass.
Noticing that Claudia had had yet another most severe attack, Alex quickly jumped closer and managed to catch her with one arm, and from the other side Tifa instantly supported her, on whose face deep anxiety and sincere concern immediately read.
Not allowing Claudia to finally slip and fall onto the cold floor, Alex with his free hand rapidly pulled his heavy "Jackal" pistol from the holster and aimed the barrel right at Hojo's head — in order once and for all to force this mad bastard to shut up and not allow him to reveal the entire terrible truth ahead of time.
And at that very same instant right from the sturdy metal floor the gloomy Gray Whisperers soared up. The ghostly entities instantly rushed to the observation balcony, seized the frozen Hojo and began hastily dragging him into the depths of the far corridors.
All that the squad standing below managed to hear in farewell was the amazed shrill voice of Hojo who even at such a moment was trying on the fly in scientific language to figure out the strange anomalous phenomenon he had just encountered. Putting the "Jackal" back into the holster, Alex softly laid a palm on Claudia's hot forehead, carefully sending a soft impulse of force and helping her finally come to herself.
Dean and Barrett escorted with gloomy heavy gazes the side where the Whisperers had just dragged Hojo. Dean for his part immediately grimly realised that the Guardians of Fate had appeared exactly at the moment when Alex had intended to shoot this mad bastard contrary to the canonical scenario. And Barrett only irritably spat on the floor and at the top of his voice asked what the hell these strange flying creatures were even protecting such a psycho complete bastard for.
Again thanks to Alex's timely intervention Claudia quickly came to normal after the sharp attack of headache. She heavily and deeply sighed when she discovered the worried gazes of the entire team directed exclusively at her. Slightly distancing herself from the carefully supporting hands of Alex and Tifa, Claudia habitually waved away some dubious potion that Yuffie had already managed to shove at her, and slightly shook her head, finally driving away the remains of the obsessive dull pain.
"How are you feeling?" Aerith asked affectionately, slightly leaning closer to Claudia who was still slightly narrowing her eyes after the attack had finally subsided.
"Normal…" Claudia began speaking in her habitual dry tone when she suddenly fell silent mid-word, sharply turning her head back.
The moment Claudia's voice unexpectedly broke off, from behind their group from below rang out a loud threatening growl mixed with the ringing scrape of claws furiously scratching the metal panels. And before anyone from the squad managed even to react, from below like a hurricane Red XIII burst out, who at frenzied speed ran straight up the vertical wall, deeply digging his razor-sharp claws into the steel.
Having run up to the very height of the wall, Red XIII powerfully pushed off with his paws and gracefully leaped right over the heads of Alex and all the others. Seeing Nanaki with his own eyes, Alex only slightly raised an eyebrow, and Dean finally managed with his own eyes to behold that very talking dog about which he had just been told via mental link.
The remaining members of the group — with the exception of Aerith — with distinct wariness and caution stared at the unknown fiery creature that continuously emitted low growling sounds. Continuing to bare his predatory teeth, Red XIII sensitively sniffed the acrid smell floating in the air and sharply jerked his muzzle toward the observation balcony — to where Hojo had stood a moment ago.
Emitting a deep vibrating roar, Red XIII tore from his place and, having gained colossal acceleration, jumped high upward, with a deafening crack smashing the thick armoured glass with his sturdy body. Staring in the direction where Red XIII had just with a crash run off, all those present froze for a couple of seconds, trying to digest what had happened.
"What the hell was that damn thing just now?! Another local rampaging monster?" Barrett spoke puzzledly, emotionally pointing a finger at the broken balcony window through which Red XIII had jumped.
"Well… It's quite possible that it was simply another unfortunate creature that categorically didn't luck out to end up in Hojo's dirty paws?" Alex spoke with a restrained-thoughtful look, artificially pretending as if he had no idea who Red XIII actually was.
"We must help him! Faster!" Aerith spoke quickly and agitatedly, without delay rushing after the Red XIII who had disappeared into the opening.
Perfectly understanding that Aerith was so eager to help Nanaki come to himself not only because his noble race were the primordial eternal protectors of the Lifestream from distant Cosmo Canyon, but also because his further fate was tightly and inseparably intertwined with their group.
Knowing all this in advance, Alex scooped Aerith into his arms and with one light rapid jump soared right into the breached window of the observation balcony that Red XIII had smashed to smithereens a moment ago. Seeing how Alex and Aerith at full speed ran after the unknown wild creature, the members of the group in surprise exchanged glances among themselves and without unnecessary words rushed after them.
Comfortably sitting in Alex's arms, Aerith impatiently patted him on the shoulder with her palm, calling on him to hurry — considering the wound-up and uncontrolled state Nanaki was in right now. Running out into the long technological corridor where the ghostly Whisperers had just dragged Hojo, they saw Red XIII who with a rolling loud roar was racing straight toward the panels of the cargo elevator.
At that very same time Hojo himself, still slightly shaking his head from strong motion sickness, in a hurry climbed into the cabin and through the opening noticed Red XIII rushing at him. Mockingly smiling, Hojo unhurriedly took from under his white laboratory coat a seemingly absolutely unremarkable pistol and aimed its barrel right at Red XIII.
Emitting a low hoarse guttural growl, Red XIII powerfully crouched and made a desperate jump forward with one single simple goal — to dig to the death into the hated throat of Hojo. But at that same second from the barrel of the pistol in the professor's hands a dense shockwave burst out that with force threw Nanaki back onto the metal floor.
Instructively waving his index finger from side to side, Hojo with a smirk pressed the call button, and the heavy elevator doors smoothly and tightly closed right in front of the beast's nose. Having failed to kill his main target, Red XIII disappointedly emitted a low growl and sharply turned his muzzle back, sensitively hearing the approaching steps behind his back.
Alex carefully lowered Aerith onto the floor, and she immediately began cautiously approaching Nanaki, softly and trustingly extending an open palm toward him. Seeing her approach, Nanaki at first began emitting a threatening low growl, however Aerith did not even think of pulling her hand away.
On the contrary, taking yet another step, she practically touched him. Ready to bare his teeth even stronger, Nanaki suddenly froze, emitted a pitiful whimpering sound and with his entire body guiltily pressed closer to the ground, tightly pressing to himself the fluffy tail with a blazing flame and guiltily lowering his ears.
"What a good boy…" Alex spoke with a sarcastic smirk, with sincere pleasure observing Nanaki who right now was quietly whimpering and behaving exactly like a guilty naughty household pet.
Hearing Alex's ironic words and noticing the sharp change in Nanaki's behaviour, Aerith turned her head and met his gaze, demonstratively rolling her eyes — literally with her entire demeanour showing that he definitely should not have embarrassed the beast like that. In response Alex only playfully formed his fingers into a heart, with an innocent expression pretending as if he absolutely did not understand what it was even about.
Quietly and heavily sighing, Aerith again turned to Nanaki and tenderly touched her palm to his head. The moment her soft palm came into contact with his forehead, Aerith's hand began brightly shining with a soft calming emerald-green light. Red slowly closed his eyes as if right now he was experiencing colossal long-forgotten relief.
Feeling how deep inside him the forgotten feeling of absolute peace and complete serenity was rapidly sprouting, Red slowly and finally relaxed while in his consciousness deep ancestral memories flared up. He distinctly felt the ancient mental link with Aerith and instantly realised who she actually was — and that she was precisely the one he had sworn to protect at the cost of his own life.
Seeing how instantly the expression of Red's muzzle changed, Alex exaggeratedly rolled his eyes, giving due to how masterfully this cunning one had just played the role of a wild enraged animal in order to finally deceive Hojo.
At that very same time behind them in the corridor the sound of approaching rapid steps was heard, and Alex slightly turned his head. Slightly waving his hand to the comrades who had caught up and graphically showing that everything was perfectly fine, Alex approached closer to Aerith and deliberately with a light click poked a finger right into Red's nose, forcing him to open his eyes. Feeling the unexpected poke right in the nose, Red sharply opened his eyes and stared at Alex with an expectant strict gaze.
"You perfectly understand that such actions on your part look quite and quite improper?" Red spoke in an absolutely serene deep and calm voice, with impeccable intonation imitating the voice of a wise experienced adult man.
"Holy shit! It's a real talking dog!" Yuffie shouted at the top of her voice, widely opening her eyes from wild amazement, emotionally pointing a finger at Red's imperturbable muzzle.
To be continued...
"Is it time for the Swallow to appear?"
"Alright, folks, a quick question for you. I recall that back when I was writing the Cyberpunk arc, someone asked me to include Ciri in the story. Now that my brother has gifted me a new edition of The Witcher 3, I've been wondering... should I add Ciri to the plot? For context, she wouldn't be meeting up with Alex, but rather with the group consisting of Valerie, Angel, and Heather as they travel across Gaia. I've actually wanted to include her for a while, but I just couldn't find the right moment. So, what do you think—should I do it or not? You can also vote on Patreon, if you'd like."
1. Well, why not? After all, you're always pulling something out of your magic hat anyway.
2. Stop pulling girls out of your magic hat already.
(Hmm... I actually managed to cram everything I planned into this chapter. I did leave out one small bit, though—unfortunately, it'll have to wait for the next chapter. But we'll get through that quickly and move on to the thing that's going to make Alex want to bang his head against the wall in frustration. As for the other details—honestly, for the longest time, I couldn't remember what Red's voice sounded like. I had to check the wiki to refresh my memory. See, Red is around 70 or 80 years old, but by his race's standards, he's still just a teenager—maybe 16 or 18. Luckily, there are good people out there who write game wikis; it makes certain tasks a lot easier. That's all for now—time to eat. Peace, love, and who let the dogs out.)
Early access to chapters on my patreon: p*treon.com/GreedHunter