Observing the gigantic scaly arm that had punched through the metal flooring of the floor, Alex slightly tilted his head to the side. He seriously began pondering the reason why all the mutants created in this underground laboratory so strongly resembled fish-people. Had the entire squad not been next to him at that moment, he would have with great pleasure right here cut open one of these creatures for detailed study.
However, even having tasted the blood of one of the monsters, Alex still had not obtained truly useful information—only very blurred, fragmentary memories that had no clear meaning at all. Continuing to remain immersed in his thoughts, Alex suddenly heard next to himself Barret's loud cry, which was immediately followed by a hollow series of machine-gun shots. Coming to from his reflections, Alex first looked at Barret, and then shifted his gaze to the Alpha-Mutant.
Absolutely all the bullets that Barret had fired from his cyber-arm densely struck right into the enormous limb of the Alpha-Mutant, literally tearing entire chunks of flesh out of it. Seeing how quickly the monster's paw turned into one continuous bloody mess, Barret contentedly snorted and with an important air blew on the red-hot barrels of his machine gun.
Johnny, who was hiding behind him, immediately joyfully cried out, sincerely considering that Barret had single-handedly dealt with such a dangerous creature. And even Tifa exhaled with relief, deciding that she had worried so strongly in vain, since Barret with such deceptive ease had destroyed the limb of the Alpha-Mutant. Alex, for his part, was rather surprised by such an outcome, but his eyes quickly narrowed when he examined the torn-off pieces.
The flesh of the Alpha-Mutant somehow resembled the specific tissues of a jellyfish: the torn mass melted before their eyes, turned into a thick liquid, and with lightning speed crawled back toward the mutilated stump. Turning his head in order to warn the others, Alex met Claudia's gaze, who briefly nodded to him, showing that she had also noticed this strange regenerative process.
"Ha-ha-ha! The bigger the creature—the easier it is to hit it!" Barret loudly laughed, victoriously tapping his free palm against the body of the machine gun.
"Excellent work, bro! You're simply on fire!" Johnny exclaimed with a smirk, raising two index fingers toward Barret.
"I don't want to spoil all your fun, but nothing has ended here yet," Alex calmly interjected into the conversation, cutting off Barret's joyful laughter.
"In what other sense, kid? Look yourself at what I just turned the arm of this creature into! It doesn't even dare to climb out further now, afraid of dying…" Barret began speaking with a smirk, but, turning his head toward the cracked floor, cut himself short mid-sentence, and his confident smile instantly froze on his face.
Looking at the lightning-fast regenerating arm of the Alpha-Mutant, Barret simply did not know what one should even say in such a situation. Tifa and Johnny just as stunned turned their heads and with their own eyes saw how the enormous limb of the creature was regenerating at an incredible speed the moment the pieces of torn flesh touched the stump.
Irritably exhaling and swearing through his teeth, Barret instantly switched the firing mode on his cyber-arm and engaged the built-in flamethrower. Loudly cursing, Barret released a dense, roaring stream of concentrated flame from the muzzle.
Barely had the stream of flame touched the flesh of the Alpha-Mutant when from under the floor such a wild, ultrasonic squeal rang out that all those present had to frantically cover their ears with their hands. This squeal was so powerful and piercing that the metal flooring under their feet trembled from the fine vibration.
The acoustic shock soon ceased, but in the ears of the entire group there still stood a distinct, persistent ringing, and for a second everything swam before their eyes from the resonant cry. Carefully removing his palms from Aerith's ears, Alex slightly raised an eyebrow, carefully observing how the metal floor around the hole was beginning to bend even more strongly. Slightly shaking her head, Aerith clearly had not expected that the howl of this creature would turn out so deafening.
Exhaling with deep relief, Aerith gratefully patted Alex on the arm, expressing gratitude for the fact that he had in time shielded her from the deafening wave. Before the others managed to fully come to themselves, a second enormous webbed paw burst out from under the floor and with a crash dug its claws into the metal surface. Quickly pulling themselves together and seeing that the Alpha-Mutant was about to fully climb out onto the surface, Tifa, Claudia, and Barret instantly concentrated. Ignoring the ringing in their ears, they prepared to finally kill this creature.
The only one who still could not come to his senses turned out to be Johnny—the squeal of the Alpha-Mutant had deafened him so strongly that the guy simply collapsed onto the floor with foam at the mouth. Casting a short glance at the unconscious "Lucky," Alex slightly moved a finger, and the body of the chatterbox was immediately thrown by an air wave to the farthest wall of the hangar so that he would not get underfoot during the battle.
While the group was taking positions, the Alpha-Mutant had practically fully climbed out of the hole and began slowly straightening up to its full colossal height. Outwardly it practically did not differ from its smaller kin, with the exception of the gigantic dimensions and the long dorsal appendages between which bright-blue electric arcs crackled.
"Be extremely careful with its dorsal appendages. And if you have Fire Materia—use it without delay," Claudia said, on the go deftly changing the materia in the slots of her Buster Sword.
"Hah! I don't need to be told twice, SOLDIER girl! Right now I'll make a juicy kebab out of this overgrown creature!" Barret cried out with a smirk, aiming the humming muzzle of the flamethrower right at the rising Alpha-Mutant.
"What's our plan?" Tifa briefly asked, clenching her fists and turning her head toward Alex.
"I, you, and Claudia will tear off and sever pieces of flesh from it, and Barret with Aerith will immediately burn them to ashes. If we gradually destroy the separated flesh, it physically will not be able to regenerate," Alex clearly laid out, taking the large-caliber pistol "Jackal" from the holster.
"I'm fully ready! Right now I'll fry it to a crispy appetizing crust!" Aerith said in a cheerful, excited tone, joyfully waving her combat staff above her head.
"We work on your command," Claudia said, turning her head toward Alex and weightily nodding.
Alex briefly nodded his head and raised a hand, showing the others that for starters it was necessary to check something in practice. Aiming the muzzle of the "Jackal" at the Alpha-Mutant, he instantly pulled the trigger. The fired large-caliber bullet barely grazed one of the giant's arms, but that was enough to tear off a small piece of flesh. And as soon as the knocked-off fragment touched the ground, Aerith with a precise swing of her magical staff threw a brightly flaring fireball at it.
The flame instantly engulfed the torn-off flesh, and the Alpha-Mutant again wildly cried out from the flaring pain, convulsively grabbing with its paw at the place from which the piece had been torn. While the roar-blinded monster was smashing everything around itself, Alex deftly grabbed Aerith by the waist and jumped back, continuing to carefully observe how the burning piece of flesh turned into smoke and evaporated. Barret, Tifa, and Claudia also timely retreated so as not to accidentally fall under the chaotic blows of the raging giant.
And when the burned fragment of flesh finally evaporated, the Alpha-Mutant finally stopped squealing and waving its paws. When the monster lowered its arm, Alex immediately noticed: the received wound had still not regenerated. Quickly understanding the specifics of the local regeneration, Alex exchanged glances with Tifa and Claudia and expressively waved a finger toward the Alpha-Mutant, giving the signal that it was high time to go over to a full-scale attack.
Claudia merely briefly nodded and immediately tore off from her place. Moving in rapid, broken yanks, Claudia on the go powerfully spun the Buster Sword above her head, and the heavy blade of the sword quickly covered itself with dense roaring flame.
Quickly noticing the approaching Claudia, the Alpha-Mutant jerked up its enormous paw, intending to crush the brazen target with a single blow. But before the colossal hand crashed down onto her head, Claudia slightly tilted her torso forward and made a sharp yank. Jumping out to meet it, she deftly slid along the floor right at the feet of the Alpha-Mutant and delivered a crushing circular blow with the flaming Buster Sword.
As soon as the red-hot blade touched the torso of the monster, it again emitted a frantic howl and sharply swung its second paw, intending to backhandedly smear Claudia against the concrete. Seeing the rapidly approaching gigantic palm, Claudia narrowed her eyes and directed the tip of the Buster Sword right into the center of the attacking hand.
Already preparing to pierce the palm of the Alpha-Mutant, she managed to notice how around the monster's arm with a deafening metallic clang the Chainsword of Alex, switched into segmented whip mode, wrapped itself. Feeling how the spinning steel teeth were digging dead into its flesh, the Alpha-Mutant still strained with all its might to press the palm downward, striving to destroy Claudia, whom it considered the most dangerous threat.
"Don't yawn, chick! The arm of this crap definitely won't cut itself off!" Alex cried out with a smirk, holding the hilt of the taut Chainsword with one hand and not allowing the paw of the Alpha-Mutant to move even a centimeter.
"I know without you!" Claudia briefly snorted, springily jumping back and on the fly spinning the flaming Buster Sword for delivering the next crushing blow.
Slightly smirking, Alex sharply jerked the hilt of the Chainsword, and following his yank the fixed arm of the Alpha-Mutant with a deafening rumble slammed against the ground. Seeing the ideal chance, Claudia rapidly rushed forward, in mere moments closing the distance to the giant. Pushing off from the downed paw, Claudia soared into the air and sharply crashed downward, driving the Buster Sword right into the flesh of the Alpha-Mutant.
However, instead of cutting off the massive hand of the creature with one clean blow, Claudia felt how the red-hot blade with a dull crack drove into the thick bone and stuck dead. Jerking the hilt toward herself, Claudia narrowed her eyes, clearly understanding that the blade was not yielding.
While Claudia was straining with all her might to pull the Buster Sword out of the durable bone, the Alpha-Mutant with a whistle swung its second free arm, intending to scoop her into its fist. But when the gigantic paw had already practically covered Claudia, Barret's loud curse rang out, and he immediately released a dense stream of roaring flame from his machine gun.
Feeling the searing heat, the Alpha-Mutant emitted a frantic squeal. And the moment the creature in pain opened its mouth, Aerith with a precise, filigree throw directed a fireball right into its gaping maw. Catching the fiery projectile right in its gut, the Alpha-Mutant for a moment froze in place, opening its mouth in a deep soundless cry. And this brief delay was quite enough for Tifa to manage to arrive in time to help Claudia.
Having properly accelerated, Tifa jumped high into the air and spun in a rapid rotation. Seeing Tifa right above herself, Claudia instantly understood her plan and with all her might pressed with both hands on the hilt of the stuck Buster Sword.
Ceasing the rotation, Tifa on the spot landed right on the protruding spine of the Buster Sword and delivered a crushing punch with her fist right against the metal edge. From this furious blow a deafening ring of metal against metal resounded in all directions, and at the same moment the Buster Sword with a juicy crunch finally severed the gigantic hand of the Alpha-Mutant.
Having cut off the limb of the creature, Claudia did not waste a single second—scooping Tifa up by the waist, she springily jumped back. And the moment they broke the distance, the second arm of the Alpha-Mutant with a deafening crash crashed down right onto that place. Forcefully slamming its palm into the concrete, the Alpha-Mutant furiously roared and immediately rushed in pursuit of Claudia and Tifa, intending to tear them to pieces.
Observing how the enraged monster was pursuing the girls, Alex looked at Barret and expressively waved his chin toward the severed hand. Understanding everything without extra words, Barret tore off from his place and raced toward the limb lying on the floor, intending to incinerate it to the base.
Ceasing to watch Barret, Alex turned to the Alpha-Mutant and opened rapid aimed fire from the "Jackal," aiming strictly at the joints of the legs. Narrowing his eyes, Alex made the final shot—and the large-caliber bullet pierced through both kneecaps of the creature. Losing its support, the giant with a crash collapsed onto its knees right in the middle of the hangar.
And barely had the Alpha-Mutant flown downward when Aerith without delay threw yet another brightly flaring fireball exactly at its head. Quickly coming to from the flash, the Alpha-Mutant went into a deafening squeal, and the gigantic appendages on its back began uncontrollably writhing, delivering chaotic, whip-like strikes with electric arcs at everything they could only reach.
"Hey, bastard! Say 'goodbye' to your girlfriend!" Barret cried out with a wide, predatory smile, victoriously placing his heavy boot on the severed gigantic hand and aiming the red-hot muzzle of the machine gun straight downward.
Having finished speaking, Barret without delay released a streaming strip of flame right onto the severed gigantic hand. As soon as the fire touched the flesh, the Alpha-Mutant emitted a frantic howl of pain, and one of its long dorsal appendages with a whistle rushed straight toward Barret. Seeing the approaching electrified lash, Barret in shock widened his eyes, perfectly understanding what would become of him if this crap touched his body.
And before he managed to somehow react and try to dodge, Barret felt how he was rigidly grabbed by the collar and forcefully pulled backward. Not allowing Barret to get roasted by the powerful electric discharge, Alex on the fly intercepted the electrified appendage and deftly wrapped it around his arm. Narrowing his eyes, Alex with force jerked the appendage toward himself and immediately stepped on it with his heavy boot. From this sharp yank the Alpha-Mutant almost crashed onto the floor, practically completely losing its balance.
Angrily growling, the Alpha-Mutant stared at Alex and at once threw all the remaining appendages on its back in his direction. Only slightly smirking, Alex deftly intercepted absolutely all the electrified lashes, instantly wrapping them around both arms. Sharply pulling them toward himself, Alex forced the Alpha-Mutant to finally crash onto the concrete.
Not giving the creature time to come to its senses, Alex jerked the appendages toward himself with such incredible force that the carcass of the Alpha-Mutant literally flew into the air. Spinning in place, Alex threw the taut lashes over his shoulder and dragged them forward. From such a powerful and sharp impulse the flying Alpha-Mutant flew over Alex and with all its might slammed its snout into the metal wall of the hangar, leaving a distinct, deep dent on it.
Not intending to stop at what had been achieved, Alex again pulled the appendages toward himself, again forcing the Alpha-Mutant to find itself in the air. Yet another crushing yank—and the giant with a hollow crack slammed its snout right into the concrete floor. Widely smiling, Alex began swinging the carcass of the Alpha-Mutant like a light rag doll, methodically driving its snout into all the railings and load-bearing walls that came in its path.
Observing this crazy spectacle, Aerith, Tifa, Claudia, and Barret simply froze in slight amazement. Once again feeling how under their feet a tangible vibration passed from the way the Alpha-Mutant crushingly crashed its snout into the metal flooring, they merely exchanged glances. Once again slamming the Alpha-Mutant into the wall, Alex powerfully jerked the appendages toward himself, and at the same moment a distinct crunch of tearing flesh rang out in the air.
And the moment Alex added a little more force, the appendages finally tore off from the torso. Blinking in surprise, Alex lowered his gaze to the slimy, still-sparking appendages in his hands, and then looked at the Alpha-Mutant, from whose back cloudy blood was now gushing in a fountain right at the places of the tears.
"Well this is completely uninteresting. I had only just gotten into the taste," Alex said in an irritated tone, squeamishly waving his arms in order to shake off the torn-off slimy lashes.
"You know, we somehow immediately noticed how much fun you were having swinging this crap, kid! Such a spectacle you definitely don't see every day," Barret said with a smirk, patting Alex on the shoulder and with a crunch crushing with his heavy boot the appendage lying on the floor.
"But it was still incredibly cool! Especially when you with a swing slammed this thing against the floor!" Aerith said with a cheerful smile, springily jumping up to Alex and joyfully embracing him by the arm.
"I'm sincerely glad that you liked such a spectacle," Alex answered with a smile, playfully poking a finger at Aerith's little nose.
"I won't argue, the spectacle was truly captivating. But is this thing even dead? It's simply not moving anymore," Tifa said with a smile, not taking her attentive gaze off the mutilated, motionless body of the Alpha-Mutant.
"I doubt it. After such blows absolutely all its bones should be broken. And since its carcass still has not disappeared, it is most likely right now regenerating the received damage," Claudia said, pointing with her chin at the frozen Alpha-Mutant.
"Then let's without extra words finally finish off this carrion before it again opens its maw at us," Barret said, cracking his neck, aiming the humming muzzle of his machine gun right at the downed Alpha-Mutant.
Having not a single reason to leave the Alpha-Mutant alive, all those present briefly nodded, giving Barret full carte blanche for the liquidation of the creature so that they could then calmly set off in search of the exit. Seeing that the delivery of the final blow had been entrusted precisely to him, Barret widely and predatorily smiled.
He heartily ran a finger over the sensor panel of his cyber-arm, sliding the power setting slider of the flame to the very maximum. Barret himself did not properly know how destructive the flame would turn out when working at the limit, but since such a fortunate opportunity to check this in practice had presented itself, he was fully ready to use it.
Continuing to smirk self-satisfiedly, Barret aimed the red-hot muzzle at the Alpha-Mutant, which was still trying to slowly regenerate, and decided to begin with a short volley. At the same moment from the muzzle of the machine gun with a whistle a dense stream of blinding white flame burst out. The impulse of the recoil turned out so colossal that Barret almost collapsed onto his back, and his arm with the weapon was jerked to the side.
Timely reacting, Alex instantly braced his palm against Barret's back, not allowing him to fall, and with his second hand intercepted him by the elbow, directing the stream of white fire toward the concrete wall. The flame projectile passed right over the lying Alpha-Mutant, crashing into the load-bearing structures.
Ceasing to release the fire, Barret briefly snorted and gratefully looked at Alex, and then stared at the damaged wall. The heat of the flame was so extreme that the monolithic concrete instantly melted and was now flowing as a red-hot liquid mass right onto the carcass of the Alpha-Mutant. Seeing the extreme potential of his flamethrower, Barret simply could not help whistling with delight.
Joyfully patting the body of the machine gun with his free hand, Barret again aimed the muzzle at the mutant, but this time stood as stably as possible in order to hold the recoil. He was already intending to finally burn the creature to ashes when a deafening crash rolled throughout the entire testing ground, carrying from somewhere above. Hearing this rumble and crack, all the members of the group simultaneously raised their heads to the ceiling, not quite understanding what was happening.
"Just don't tell me that in this damned place there's yet another similar thing!" Aerith said with annoyance, puffing out her lips, slightly tugging Alex by the sleeve.
"No, this is definitely not yet another monster…" Alex began speaking, looking at the crumbling ceiling with a crooked smirk on his face.
"Then who? A local protective robot-guard?" Tifa asked, frowning, for any case stepping back so that concrete debris would not fall on her head.
"No. This is Dean and Yuffie," Alex answered in a dry tone, slightly pursing his lips.
The moment these words rang out, absolutely everyone raised their heads upward. It immediately became clear to everyone that Dean had decided to repeat Alex's recent feat and simply go straight through. Noticing that the massive concrete ceiling was quickly covering itself with a network of deep cracks, Alex scooped Aerith and Tifa up by the waists and springily jumped far back so that a hail of stones would not accidentally collapse onto them.
Claudia also did not wait for the last moment when heavy debris would begin falling on her, and deftly retreated after them. Barret, for his part, reacted only when a small pebble fell onto the top of his head, which rather eloquently hinted that the ceiling was about to finally collapse. Not losing another second, Barret raced with all his might as far as possible from the epicenter of the collapse.
In the next moment from above yet another crushing blow rang out, followed by a deafening crash. From this impulse the concrete ceiling covered itself with cracks even more strongly—they lightning-fast spread in all directions. Not taking his attentive gaze off the sagging overlap, Alex with a calm motion lit a thin cigar and slightly moved a finger.
At the same moment yet another crack rang out, and enormous concrete blocks with a crash collapsed downward, burying the Alpha-Mutant dead under themselves and raising a dense cloud of dust. A moment later from the dust veil a light cough carried, immediately followed by Dean's juicy curse. Carelessly waving a hand, Dean came out of the cloud of dust with a wide, satisfied smirk on his face.
"Hey, kids! How's it going?" Dean said with a smirk, unhurriedly shaking a dense layer of dust from his jacket.
"Excellent entrance onto the stage! And where's our hyperactive shinobi?" Alex asked, laughing, not seeing Yuffie anywhere nearby.
"I'm here! Catch me!" Yuffie's cheerful, merry cry rang out right from the hole in the ceiling.
Hearing the cry from above, Alex raised his head. The first thing he saw was Yuffie's bare little belly, falling right onto him with loud, cheerful laughter. Timely reacting, Alex spread his arms to the sides, intending to catch the excessively restless kunoichi. Still bursting with laughter, Yuffie deftly spun right in the air, performing an elegant somersault, and at the same moment softly landed right onto Alex's shoulders, tightly wrapping her thighs around his head.
Freezing in place with arms still spread, Alex stared at her cream shorts right in front of his face. Squeezing Alex's head with her thighs, Yuffie far from immediately realized in how ambiguous and strange a pose they had found themselves. She cheerfully and victoriously raised her fingers in a "peace" sign toward Claudia, Tifa, Aerith, and Barret, who were looking at her with stunned and rather specific gazes. Yuffie was already intending to blurt out yet another pompous phrase when she felt how she was tangibly slapped on the thigh.
Lowering her gaze downward, she stared at Alex, and on her cheeks a dense, bright blush instantly appeared. Finally realizing exactly where Alex's face was located, Yuffie frantically cried out and like a bullet jumped off his shoulders. Barely landing on the floor, Yuffie instantly hid behind Aerith, carefully peeking out from behind her arm and boring Alex with an embarrassed gaze—as if he were entirely to blame for the awkward situation that had arisen.
Merely shaking his head from how easily all the blame had been shifted onto his shoulders, Alex turned to Dean, intending to bring him up to speed. Quickly explaining to Dean and Yuffie what had just happened here, Alex pointed a finger at the Alpha-Mutant buried under the debris, whose carcass still stubbornly did not wish to disappear.
And while Alex was laying everything out on the shelves, behind them unexpectedly rang out a strange, muffled moan. Everyone simultaneously turned their heads back. Before their eyes appeared a picture: the deafened Johnny with a most stupid smirk on his face was lying on the concrete, passionately embracing himself by the shoulders, and throughout the entire hangar was emitting smacking sounds of kisses.
Looking at this surrealism, Alex did the first thing that came into his head—imperturbably took out his phone and took a couple of juicy shots. Yuffie, for her part, grimaced from deep disgust, publicly calling Johnny a finished pervert because of the fact that the guy was walking around with a bare torso and in torn pants from under which bright pink underpants with hearts were shining in all their glory.
Even Tifa, Claudia, and Aerith with light dislike looked at Johnny and immediately turned away so as not to see such a thing any longer. From such a spectacle Dean merely heavily, wearily sighed and preferred to pretend that he had absolutely seen nothing.
"Well, since this crap still hasn't disintegrated, maybe it's still not completely dead?" Dean asked, pointing with his chin at the pile of debris over the Alpha-Mutant.
"And you're sharp. Simply it has an extremely slow, unhurried regeneration, almost like a jellyfish," Alex answered, calmly putting the phone into his pocket after a series of ridiculous shots of Johnny.
"Then maybe we quickly finish off this thing and get out of here already? Because this place is already specifically pissing me off," Dean said, thrusting his hands deep into his pockets, shifting a direct gaze to Alex.
"Fine. I'll arrange everything right now," Alex responded in an absolutely carefree tone and with a slow, unhurried step headed straight toward the rubble with the Alpha-Mutant.
Putting his hands into the pockets of his coat, Alex unhurriedly approached the Alpha-Mutant buried under the debris. Deftly climbing onto the pile of concrete, Alex slightly rocked the thin cigar between his teeth, thoughtfully looking under his feet. He was absolutely not against it if Barret had independently finished off this creature. But since the ideal moment had been missed, and the entire team had already earned enough combat points in this place, Alex considered that this was an excellent opportunity to personally check exactly how the Alpha-Mutant had grown to such colossal dimensions.
Alex's eyes flared with a soft glow when he activated magical vision. And the moment he intently peered into the carcass of the Alpha-Mutant, his eyebrow raised in surprise. Experiencing sincere amazement from what he saw inside the mutant, Alex squatted on his haunches and with a light motion tossed aside the interfering enormous concrete fragment.
Standing right on the chest of the Alpha-Mutant, Alex took the Chainsword out from under his coat and without delay drove the blade into the flesh of the creature. As soon as the roaring blade dug into the chest of the giant, thick blood sprayed onto Alex's face, which he immediately carelessly wiped with the back of his hand.
Squeezing the hilt of the Chainsword, Alex with force pulled it toward himself, with a crack opening the chest of the Alpha-Mutant. Having finished gutting the carcass, Alex again squatted on his haunches, grabbed the edges of the ribs with his fingers, and sharply jerked them in different directions. The chest of the Alpha-Mutant flung open with a disgusting crunch, and yet another portion of blood sprayed onto Alex's face.
And the moment he examined the exposed insides, a satisfied, victorious smile appeared on his lips. Inside the Alpha-Mutant there truly was that which had helped it grow to such gigantic scales. Seeing how Alex was carefreely fussing in the insides of the downed monster, everyone stared at him with frozen sincere bewilderment on their faces.
"What the hell are you even looking for there, kid?! Just don't tell me that you're going to eat this crap!" Barret cried at the top of his lungs, slightly shuddering from the sight of how Alex with bare hands was tearing out the bloodied insides.
"I'll say right away: no! I, of course, always loved trying something new, but this ugly crap I definitely won't be tasting! Not a single piece of such grub will ever end up in my mouth again!" Dean emotionally began speaking, strongly shuddering, instantly recalling one extremely unpleasant episode from his past.
"I'm not going to eat this creature. I was looking for this… Ta-da! Here it is—the true reason why this thing grew to such dimensions!" Alex answered with a wide smile, carefully extracting from the chest of the Alpha-Mutant a bright-red Materia stained with cloudy blood.
"Yet another Ancient Spirit?" Tifa said in a surprised tone, quickly understanding exactly what Alex had extracted from the chest of the giant.
"Not simply an Ancient Spirit, this is…" Alex began speaking with a wide smirk, carefully wiping the thick blood from the surface of the red sphere.
"Leviathan! The Great Sea Beast, personifying the invisible fury of the ocean!" Aerith cried out with delight, quickly running up to Alex, literally snatching the red Materia from his hands and beginning to examine it with interest.
"In a word—yet another deadly creature capable, if it wishes, of leveling all of Midgar with the ground," Barret gloomily summarized, having heard in Aerith's description exactly what interested him the most.
"Oh, don't start! Next to me these spirits will cause absolutely no harm. And one shouldn't forget that awakening such creatures is far from so simple," Alex said with a smirk, in time taking the red Materia away from Yuffie's clinging hands, who was already fully trying to unnoticed tuck it into her deep pocket.
"Give it back! This is now mine! You already have three pieces, give me at least one! Pretty please!" Yuffie cried out, hanging dead on Alex's arm and straining with all her might to snatch the red sphere from him.
"But after all Shinra managed it in its time," Claudia noted, intently looking Alex right in the eyes.
"They didn't manage. Bahamut woke up on his own. These are completely different things. He was simply in a furious rage from the fact that they tried to use him as banal weapons," Alex answered, calmly holding the thrashing Yuffie by the waist like an inconvenient sack of potatoes while she vainly tried to break free from his grip.
Looking Alex right in the eyes, Claudia slowly nodded, fully accepting such an explanation. Barret and Tifa were also quite satisfied with Alex's short answer, and now the entire group was finally ready to leave this gloomy place. Allowing Yuffie to climb onto his back and hang tightly like a funny koala, Alex perfectly understood that it was time for them to get out onto the surface.
Hearing Alex's proposal to move toward the exit, everyone nodded in agreement. After all, they had originally come here only in order to check exactly what Shinra was engaged in in this secret laboratory. During the raid they had managed to see more than enough and even nipped large-scale future problems in the bud.
Unhurriedly moving toward the exit, Barret unexpectedly recalled that they had completely forgotten about the idiot Johnny and immediately turned back. Approaching the unconscious guy who still had not come to after the deafening squeal of the Alpha-Mutant, Barret stood silently for several seconds over Johnny, sincerely pondering: whether it was worth properly kicking this chatterbox so that he would wake up, or better to drag him on himself, thereby guaranteeing a calm path back.
Weighing all the "pros" and "cons," Barret unhurriedly grabbed Johnny like yet another sack of potatoes and carelessly threw him onto his shoulder. He had not the slightest desire to listen to Johnny's endless, panicked chatter if there existed an excellent opportunity to return to the surface in absolute silence. Quickly catching up with the rest of the squad, Barret slightly slowed his pace.
Alex already knew exactly where the hidden staircase leading upward was located and absolutely calmly led everyone after himself—under the quiet, offended grumbling of Yuffie, who continued to call him a stuffed greedy guts, growling right into his ear.
To be continued...
(So, I ran a fever today and felt really weird; I just sat there for half an hour staring at the screen, not even realizing what I was doing. But then the meds kicked in, and I managed to sit down, handle some paperwork, and eventually write a chapter. All in all, it was a total shit day. Just love it. Anyway, we're moving the plot forward, and the agenda for the next chapter includes a return to the Fifth Sector of the Slums and the reason why the whole group has to head to Sector 0. I had dozens of ideas in my head, but I settled on one that actually sounds like a solid reason—not something as stretched-thin as a stripper's thong. Heh. Time to grab a bite. Peace, love, and don't be like Johnny.)
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