Alex was casually chatting with Aerith about all sorts of little things, simply passing the time. Sitting next to them, Claudia did not take part in the conversation at all—she merely continued carefully observing the atypically small number of visitors who were having breakfast at such an early hour.
And only Dean continued carefreely drinking hot coffee, never ceasing to lament and complain about its disgusting taste. And despite that, he still finished the entire mug right down to the bottom, after which he loudly swore never in his life to drink anything of the sort again.
Turning his head toward Dean, Alex simply could not help reminding him that normal coffee could have been comfortably brewed back at Aerith's house instead of drinking this dubious surrogate in a random establishment. In response to these absolutely logical words Dean exaggeratedly rolled his eyes and began colorfully recounting how even in the most rundown roadside diners of their home world the coffee had been a hundred times better. Slightly chuckling, Alex did not even try to deny it—for during the time of working with Dean and Sam he had already managed to personally try all sorts of coffee at similar road stops and gas stations.
Having sat like that a little longer, Alex heard that their large order was finally completely ready. Turning his head toward the bar counter, he noticed an impressive stack of packed containers. Slightly stretching and rising from the chair, Alex approached the counter, took all the containers with the hot food, and did not forget to leave generous tips as a sign of gratitude.
But before he could take even a step toward the exit, Aerith instantly jumped up to him and carefully took exactly half of the boxes in order to lighten his load. Slightly smiling at her impulse, Alex turned to Claudia and Dean and briefly waved his head toward the door, making it clear that it was time to return to the Fifth Sector. The moment they only stepped out into the fresh air, Dean on the go grabbed one of the containers with food and impatiently tore off the lid.
"Smells pretty decent… Only I just can't figure out: what kind of meat is this even?" Dean began speaking in puzzlement, sniffing his morning order and intently examining the contents.
"Dean, there's no meat in there at all. It's a traditional thick bean stew," Aerith said with a quiet laugh, walking past him and cunningly narrowing her eyes.
"Then why the hell did we even take this?! What kind of stew is this—and without meat? I'm used to eating normal meat, not this grass!" Dean indignantly protested with strict exaggeration, poking a finger at the appetizing beans.
"Because there simply wasn't anything else meaty at this time. I can without problems give you my scrambled eggs with tomato and a fresh toast if you dislike your food that much," Alex said in a tired tone, continuing to calmly walk forward, and cast a glance at Dean over his shoulder.
"Nah, no need. I'll just crumble my dried meat into this vegan sludge. Maybe then it'll turn into something that normal people can eat, and not cloven-hoofed herbivores," Dean waved it off, shaking his head, and tightly closed the container with his breakfast.
"Your call. Only don't complain later that your food became unbearably salty," Alex summarized in a lazy tone, measuredly walking toward the house.
In response Dean merely carefreely shrugged his shoulders and quickly caught up with Alex and both girls who had gone a little ahead. Dean himself understood perfectly: despite the fact that he did not feel strong hunger right now, he would still never refuse tasty food or a rare opportunity to try something special.
In his head a backup plan had already formed: if the bean stew turned out completely inedible, he would simply give it to his beloved little belly-guy Steve—he would definitely not refuse a hot treat. Turning his head toward Steve, who was lounging on his shoulder, Dean with a sly smirk brought the open container to the snout of his "Pokémon" and offered him a taste.
Steve slowly lowered his gaze onto the steaming stew, carefully studied it, after which he shifted a reproachful gaze onto Dean himself. Slowly blinking, Steve slightly patted the side of the container with his tiny paw and carefully pushed it farther away from himself. Dean slightly pursed his lips, noticing how the little Tonberry was clearly rejecting such cooking that did not in the least resemble the dried meat that his taste receptors had come to love so much.
Noticing how Steve with truly royal dignity rejected the stew, Alex and Aerith could not restrain themselves and sincerely burst into laughter. Even the usually stern Claudia slightly smiled, observing this curious refusal. Listening to their laughter, Dean himself cheerfully burst into laughter as well, beginning to complain aloud about Steve, who in recent times had become so spoiled that he dared to turn his nose up at normal food.
Listening to this entire emotional tirade, Steve silently raised a paw and softly patted Dean on the head, trying to comfort his master, even though he himself did not fully understand why the latter was making so much noise. From this touching gesture Dean even stumbled mid-word and covered his mouth, laughing even more strongly.
Continuing to cheerfully banter, Alex, Dean, Aerith, and Claudia very quickly reached the Fifth Sector again. Once more walking along the main street, they noticed that the morning crowd of onlookers had already dispersed about their business. On the large street screen now only a fresh wanted notice was being broadcast with an urgent warning for the citizens: to immediately report any suspicious persons to the guards.
Casting only a short, fleeting glance at the screen, Alex walked further, absolutely not worrying about this. After all, Shinra's hounds did not have a single photo or portrait of anyone from their group. Walking the already familiar route to Aerith's house, they quickly returned to the courtyard. And already on the very approach to the doors they noticed that absolutely all the remaining members of their group had finally woken up and gathered together in the living room.
"And here we were already sitting and wondering where you all had disappeared to so early! And it turns out you went shopping," Biggs was the first to speak, the moment he noticed the mountain of containers with food in the hands of Alex and Aerith.
"This is all so that you don't eat the hospitable mistress of the house out of house and home. Especially Wedge, who seems to have a real black hole instead of a stomach," Alex responded with a chuckle, unloading the stack of containers right onto the table.
"Hey! I don't eat that much!" Wedge sincerely protested, immediately comically covering his plump belly with his hands.
"For starters stop frantically hiding your belly so that at least someone here believes your words. Even Marlene right now won't believe a single word of yours!" Dean needled him with laughter, pulling a free chair toward himself.
"Yeah, I won't believe it one bit! But it's terribly fun to slap it with a little palm!" Marlene picked up in a ringing, cheerful tone, raising her gaze to Wedge with a smile.
"Pff… Don't say that, Marlene! Wedge actually isn't… He's just…" Tifa began speaking, snorting with laughter, straining with all her might to choose correct and soft words.
"What 'just'?! Why did you suddenly fall silent, Tifa? And here I thought we were real friends!" Wedge exclaimed resignedly, from the feigned offense almost letting a tear fall.
"Fat. And now stop blubbering here and quickly sit down to eat! We have a ton of things ahead of us today," Barret cut off with a light snort, carefully helping Marlene open her container with the hot breakfast.
From such straightforward words of Barret Wedge merely groaned offendedly and heavily sat back down on his chair. However, the moment a hot container with food appeared right under his nose, all his feigned offense instantly evaporated, giving way to uncontrollable hunger. Not intending to wait for anyone, Wedge immediately with enthusiasm set about the meal, not forgetting on the go to colorfully comment on the excellent taste of the dish.
Once again observing how quickly Wedge's mood changes the moment food appears within his reach, Alex quietly chuckled, along the way arranging the containers in front of all those present at the table, not leaving out Elmyra either. Setting the very last portion in front of Yuffie, Alex with a sense of fulfilled duty finally managed to sit down on a chair himself in order to properly have breakfast.
Unhurriedly dealing with his portion and at the same time trying to fend off the clinging little paws of Yuffie, who was brazenly aiming to snatch the crispy fried toast right from his plate, Alex half-listened to the lively discussion of Biggs, Jessie, and Barret concerning their plans for today's day. Once again successfully defending his toast from Yuffie's deft fingers, Alex wearily sighed and with a smile himself transferred it onto her plate.
Victoriously smiling, Yuffie happily shook her head and with childish tenderness slightly bumped Alex with her forehead against his shoulder. Tenderly patting Yuffie on the head, Alex finished with the scrambled eggs and tomatoes and thought that now he could with a clear conscience drink a cup of normal coffee. Walking into the kitchen in order to brew a fresh drink, Alex slightly swayed his head from side to side, quietly humming an uncomplicated melody under his breath.
While he was fussing with the dishes, the number of those wishing to drink a cup of hot coffee sharply and suddenly increased. Wearily waving a hand in order to temporarily disperse the "customers" crowding at the entrance, Alex continued to hypnotize the kettle boiling on the stove.
"Hey, handsome…" Jessie began speaking intrigueingly, approaching closer and gracefully leaning her elbows on the countertop.
"What is it? Changed your mind about drinking coffee and now you urgently want tea?" Alex asked with a light smile, turning his head toward Jessie.
"No, that's not it… Can you lend us a little gil for new equipment? Simply a large part of our things got badly damaged in the collapse…" Jessie said in a slightly embarrassed tone and playfully poked Alex in the shoulder with a little fist.
"No problem at all, take exactly as much as you need. You know perfectly well where the bag lies. You can even sell all the extra Materia to the traders if you want," Alex answered with a warm smile and amusingly poked a finger right at Jessie's little nose.
"Just like that?!" Jessie asked again in surprise, looking up at Alex.
"Well yes, absolutely just like that. And what did you even expect?" Alex asked, laughing, carefully pouring the freshly brewed coffee into glasses.
"Well, for example… I thought you'd want a passionate kiss in return, and then we'd merge in a single surge of passion…" Jessie began drawing out mysteriously, embarrassed pressing her palms to her burning cheeks and trying to look as innocent as possible.
"Yes-yes, of course! And then we'd cheerfully ride off into the sunset and live long and happily… You know, your romantic story could already have gone somewhere further than this eternal riding off into the sunset. Judging by your constant stories, you and I have ridden off into the sunset already about twenty times in a row! In your dreams we have some special hobby—to race into the sunset right after passionate kisses?" Alex began speaking with laughter, turning to Jessie and extending toward her the first ready mug with aromatic coffee.
"Oh, come on, don't start, you idiot! By the way, I find it insanely romantic," Jessie laughed cheerfully, coquettishly slapping Alex on the chest and taking her drink.
Chuckling a little more in Jessie's warm company, Alex extended to her a neatly folded sheet of paper with the list of things that they needed to buy additionally. Taking the note in her hands, Jessie thoughtfully tilted her head to the side. Running a fleeting glance over the neat lines, she with amazement realized that Alex had in advance recorded absolutely everything that she herself had planned to acquire.
Narrowing her eyes, Jessie brightly, warmly smiled and looked at Alex. And without even giving him time to react, she impulsively embraced him around the neck, beginning with feeling to shower his face with little kisses. Feeling how his cheeks were covered with her kisses, Alex merely slightly smiled and completely unhurriedly took yet another sip of coffee.
Noticing this unshakable imperturbability, Jessie displeasedly puffed out her little lips and tangibly bit Alex right on the cheek, expressing her feigned annoyance. Leaving a distinct red mark on his skin, Jessie satisfiedly smiled and on parting tenderly kissed him in the same place.
Releasing his neck from the embrace, Jessie picked up her mug of coffee and coquettishly floated away from the kitchen, gracefully waving the sheet of paper. Observing the departing Jessie, Alex scratched the mark of the bite on his cheek with a finger and immediately shifted his gaze to two curious faces—Yuffie and Aerith were cunningly peeping at them from behind the doorway.
Slightly smiling, Alex proposed to these two to take their drinks instead of arranging spy surveillance here. Continuing to smile cunningly, Aerith instantly jumped up to Alex and, without giving him time to come to his senses, grabbed his arm and with a victorious air bit him.
"That's your well-deserved punishment, you idiot!" Aerith began speaking in a cheerful tone, slightly flashing her even teeth.
"He-he, you're to blame for everything yourself… Oy, ewwww, how bitter!" Yuffie laughed cheerfully but immediately grimaced and shuddered, feeling the tart bitterness of the coffee on her tongue.
"I really hope you won't start biting me also for the fact that the coffee suddenly turned out too bitter?" Alex asked with sincere interest, taking a sweet candy out of his pocket and deftly sending it right into Yuffie's mouth.
"Mmm… Now definitely not! And in general, don't forget: I am the greatest and coolest kunoichi Yuffie Kisaragi! I never attack my enemy when he expects it," Yuffie began speaking in a pompous, proud tone, putting on airs and raising an index finger above her head.
"So you'll do it exactly at the moment when I turn away?" Alex clarified with a light smile, carefully stroking Aerith on the head.
"You won't even know about it… I'll be like a creeping shadow! I'll be like a light breeze barely tickling your hair. I'll be like night fog that completely unnoticed creeps up from behind," Yuffie began speaking in a mysterious, enigmatic whisper, smoothly approaching closer to Alex and looking him right in the eyes from below.
"Then the main thing is don't forget to warn me in advance when exactly you decide to attack," Alex summarized in a cheerful tone and tenderly patted Yuffie on the head.
"Okay, deal!" Yuffie cried out joyfully, quickly and energetically nodding.
"Pff… Ha-ha!" Aerith could not hold back and loudly laughed, almost spitting out the tea that she had just sipped from her mug.
Realizing that she had been so easily caught, Yuffie offendedly puffed out her lips and began cheerfully kicking Alex on the leg, straining with all her might to demonstrate how "angry" she was right now. However, quickly getting tired of this useless undertaking, Yuffie offendedly snorted and proudly walked away, demonstratively and loudly stamping her feet on the floor.
Cheerfully chuckling at this cute spectacle, Alex continued carefully stroking Aerith on the hair while she with tenderness leaned on him. Removing his hand from her head, Alex proposed to Aerith to finally return to the living room to the others. Slightly wrinkling her little nose, Aerith rose onto her tiptoes and tremblingly, tenderly kissed him on the lips before picking up her tea and exiting the kitchen.
Returning to the living room after her, Alex found a lively conversation about who exactly would go buy new equipment and who would right now go to the Seventh Sector. Leaning a shoulder against the wall, Alex took a calm sip of coffee, preferring for now not to interfere in the general argument.
In the end the team very quickly came to a single decision: Jessie, Biggs, and Wedge would go to the Wall Market in order to order the necessary equipment and at the same time try carefully to find out what was currently happening with the main cell of "AVALANCHE." None of the three was at all against such an assignment, and they immediately began gathering for the road. Setting the empty mug on the table, Alex approached the heavy bag with gil and began transferring neat packs of bills right into Biggs's backpack.
"Ugh, with such an impressive pile of gil I feel like a real rich man from the upper Plate!" Biggs began speaking with a smirk, taking the heavy backpack from Alex's hands.
"There's only a hundred thousand gil there. So you're still very far from a real rich man. When you start completely carefreely carrying around tens of millions of gil with you—then you and I will talk," Alex answered, laughing, and carelessly pointed with his chin at the bags standing nearby.
"Fair enough… Well okay, we're off. We'll meet later at the wall, near the playground," Biggs said with a smile, throwing the backpack onto his back.
"Please be extremely careful. And try not to attract the attention of Shinra's hounds unnecessarily," Tifa advised, casting a worried glance over the departing friends.
"Don't you worry so much, Tifa! I'll personally look after these two blockheads," Jessie reassured her with a bright smile, supportively patting Biggs and Wedge on the shoulders.
"Oh, by the way! Here, take this with you. This will definitely come in handy if you have to escape a chase," Yuffie intervened with a cunning smile, deftly placing a small homemade bomb right into Jessie's palms.
"Whoa… And what kind of thingamajig is this?" Wedge asked with curiosity, intending to examine the little bomb in Jessie's hands better.
"This is a super-cool Shinobi smoke bomb! If the enemies inhale its smoke, they'll immediately start convulsively coughing, their noses will itch wildly, and their eyes will terribly water. Simply an ideal means to quickly make any opponent get distracted!" Yuffie explained in a cheerful, proud tone, from which Wedge immediately fearfully jerked his hand back.
"So this is ordinary tear gas," Dean summarized in an absolutely calm tone, slowly turning his head toward Yuffie.
"Not at all! I said: this is a super-cool Shinobi smoke bomb!" Yuffie immediately indignantly protested, emotionally poking a finger in the direction of Winchester.
"Well that's exactly what I'm saying—the most ordinary tear gas," Dean repeated with an impregnably imperturbable air, straining with all his might not to burst into laughter at that moment.
Offendedly puffing up, Yuffie sharply turned away from Dean, beginning to demonstratively and pompously ignore him. Tenderly patting Yuffie on the head in order to at least a little comfort her, Alex turned to Jessie, Biggs, and Wedge and once more insistently reminded them of the necessity to observe maximum caution when they would start questioning the townspeople about "AVALANCHE."
With a smile nodding in response, Jessie began energetically pushing Biggs and Wedge out onto the street in order to set off for the Wall Market as quickly as possible. The moment the trio disappeared behind the door, Alex proposed that the others gradually gather as well in order to return to the Seventh Sector and on the spot check that very underground tunnel that Dean had stumbled upon.
Hearing this proposal, everyone nodded in agreement and without extra words set about packing. Before Barret could open his mouth in order to ask the question that was worrying him, Elmyra with a soft smile anticipated him, promising to personally look after Marlene so that the commander would not have to worry unnecessarily. Hearing these warming words, Barret immediately closed his mouth and with silent sincere gratitude bowed his head.
Having spent about half an hour on packing and adjusting the equipment, the squad cheerfully exited Aerith's house. Passing by his motorcycle standing in the courtyard, Alex opened the weapons compartment and pulled out from there his favorite Chainsword. Conveniently hiding the Chainsword under the flaps of his coat, Alex hurried to catch up with the others. Walking the already familiar route of recent days, they quickly reached the massive wall separating the Seventh and Sixth Sectors.
Stopping near the spreading tree that was still holding the skewed gates with its powerful roots, Alex pursed his lips, raised his gaze a little higher, and slightly smiled. Lighting a thin cigar, Alex turned toward the old playground and began observing how the friends one after another squeezed inside, making their way into the Seventh Sector.
Approaching closer, Alex patiently waited until all the others descended downward, and only then slipped into the passage after them. Having passed through the semi-dark sewer tunnel and again come out onto the deserted territory of the destroyed sector, the entire group purposefully walked toward the half-ruined dormitory building. But before they could approach closely, from that side of the ruins a strange loud voice of who-the-hell-knows-who carried.
Approaching a couple more steps, they saw a painfully familiar guy with a bright reddish short haircut, dressed in a leather jacket unbuttoned all the way. This was Johnny—a guy famous throughout the entire sector for the fact that he absolutely could not keep his tongue behind his teeth and who had safely fled from here right after a short but convincing admonition from Alex. And now, seeing Johnny again, fussily digging in the debris, Alex puzzledly raised an eyebrow, sincerely not understanding what the hell this klutz was even doing here.
"Johnny?.. What are you doing here?" Tifa was the first to call out to him, immediately recognizing the familiar guy frantically digging in the ruins.
"Oh, Tifa, baby! What brings you here?!" Johnny cried out with incredible joy in his voice the moment he only noticed Tifa on the horizon.
"We're the ones who should ask you: what the hell are you even prowling around here for?!" Barret began speaking with open irritation, looking Johnny up and down with a stern gaze.
"Well… Like… this… I'm just trying to find my old things! Yeah, exactly! I was looking for my things!" Johnny began babbling and instinctively took a step back.
"Wasn't your house located in a completely different direction?" Tifa asked with sincere suspicion, intently looking at Johnny.
"Well… this… Like…" Johnny completely panicked, hesitated, and began frantically trying to pick at least some somewhat plausible explanation.
"Aha, everything's clear! Since he's panicking like that—means he's a real thief!" Yuffie loudly cried out, accusingly poking a finger right in Johnny's face.
"I'm not a thief!.. Everything's completely not like that!" Johnny squealed in fear and immediately sharply spun on his heels, intending to make a run for it.
Desperately shouting justifications on the go that he was no thief, Johnny tore off from the spot and ran with all his might toward the destroyed dormitory. However, before he could cover even a couple of meters, he awkwardly tripped over a piece of concrete lying right on the ground and with a crash fell flat on the ground.
Seeing this next ridiculous attempt to escape, Alex wearily rubbed his forehead with his fingers, sincerely wondering to himself how this incredible idiot had managed to live in the world so long at all. Looking at such a pathetic spectacle, Claudia merely with a sigh closed her eyes—just so as not to see this next circus.
Standing nearby, Dean sincerely did not know whether he should now heartily burst into laughter or still feel sorry for such an unlucky fellow who was catastrophically unlucky in life. Aerith and Yuffie quietly laughed, observing Johnny who had buried his face in the ground in an extremely comical pose. Tifa, for her part, merely wearily sighed, not at all surprised by what had happened.
Approaching closer, Barret slightly snorted and with a deft motion of one hand grabbed Johnny by the scruff of the neck, without particular effort lifting him above the ground. Hanging in the air, Johnny rubbed his bruised nose and with horror began realizing that this time he had been caught for good.
Squeezing out the most nervous smile he was capable of, the guy began hurriedly justifying himself as if he had ended up in this place completely by accident. Listening to these ridiculous fairy tales, Barret heavily sighed and properly shook the poor runaway, forcing him to fall silent.
"Let's try one more time: what the hell are you prowling around here for?!" Barret began speaking sternly, holding Johnny by the collar strictly at the level of his eyes.
"I'm telling you, I ended up here by accident! I was just looking for my old things… And I wasn't looking for any secret passage at all!" Johnny began babbling and immediately frantically covered his mouth with both hands, realizing that he had blurted out too much.
"Aha! I told you he was some kind of suspicious!" Yuffie cried out with an enthusiastic smile, victoriously pointing a finger at Johnny.
"I'm not suspicious! I'm just carrying out someone else's assignment!" Johnny again began lamenting, helplessly waving his arms in the air.
"Whose assignment exactly?" Claudia asked, casting an icy, empty gaze over the panicker.
"I… I don't know! Some shady type in a dandy tuxedo came up to me today and said that here in the ruins a insanely expensive thing is hidden…" Johnny blurted out in one breath, perfectly understanding what silence was fraught with for him.
"Was that a bastard from Shinra?!" Barret barked, frowning, and again slightly shook Johnny.
"I don't know! He only said that he'd pay me a ton of money if I find this thing," Johnny answered with an embarrassed air, awkwardly scratching his cheek.
"Johnny, you're as always… Wait. What's that sound?" Tifa wearily sighed, shaking her head, but immediately cut herself short, catching a strange rustle that had rung out right nearby.
The moment Tifa's alarming words rang out, everyone instantly turned their heads toward her and noticed how she was warily looking around. And in the next moment yet another strange, unpleasant sound rang out, resembling the crack of bursting stone. Hearing this rumble, Alex slowly lowered his head downward and heavily, irritably exhaled. Following his gaze, the others with horror saw how right under their feet a colossal web of deep cracks was rapidly spreading.
And before anyone could panic or take even a step, Alex sharply raised a hand, making it clear that everyone needed to freeze and not twitch. Giving a sign with a finger to smoothly retreat from the epicenter of the spreading cracks, Alex took a careful step back—he clearly was not burning with the desire to once again with a crash fall into some abandoned underground complex.
Carefully backing away, Alex with gestures showed the group that everyone should move extremely carefully. Exactly repeating every movement of Alex, the others began slowly retreating, trying not to collapse the fragile support under themselves. Everyone without extra reminders understood perfectly: flying down together with the debris was not the most pleasant prospect.
The hardest in this situation was for Barret, who had to hold the trembling Johnny in the air, who had clung to him with the death grip of a real octopus. Carefully observing Aerith and Tifa who were closest, Alex tried to stay as close to them as possible—in case everything still went not according to plan and the ground went out from under their feet.
"Achoo!" Johnny sneezed loudly, throughout the entire sector, so strongly that even Barret's massive body tangibly jerked.
Right after Johnny's sneeze absolute, ringing silence hung. Everyone froze in their places as if rooted to the spot, slowly turning toward him extremely irritated gazes promising retribution. The most furious of all was Barret, who at that second sincerely wanted to throw this idiot as far away from himself as possible. Johnny, who had instantly become the target of all these fierce gazes, frantically covered his mouth with both hands so as not to sneeze again, God forbid.
And when everyone already thought that the dangerous moment had passed, one of the half-ruined stone columns nearby suddenly tilted. Hearing the scrape of the tilting support, each to himself sincerely prayed that it would stop and not fall. When the column for a second froze, everyone exhaled with relief—especially Yuffie and Aerith, who joyfully smiled at the outcome.
However, as usually happens in any situations in which Dean and Alex find themselves, their specific luck gave exactly the opposite effect. Right from above onto the top of the column a tiny pebble fell—and the column with a deafening crash collapsed to the ground.
From the powerful impact of the collapsed column the cracks under their feet instantly spread with redoubled force, and the layer of earth under the squad finally lost stability. When the crack under their feet turned into a continuous rumble, Alex merely wearily sighed, thinking that the Fate of this world simply had a disgusting sense of humor.
"Well… Fuck," Alex uttered in an extremely tired tone, throwing his head back to the sky a second before the fall.
Right after Alex's doomed words the earth under their feet finally collapsed, and the entire company with a deafening crash rushed downward. Falling into the dark abyss of the underground complex, Alex acted lightning-fast: in mid-air he intercepted the falling Claudia next to him and with a precise yank threw her toward Aerith and Tifa. Instantly orienting herself in the air from such an impulse, Claudia deftly caught Aerith around the waist, but simply did not manage to grab Tifa by the hand anymore.
Flying onto the technical balcony, Claudia softly rolled with Aerith in her arms, cushioning the impact speed. Dean reacted no less technically: with one hand he grabbed the screaming Yuffie by the collar. Without stopping, Dean quickly kicked Barret in the back with his foot, sending him together with the frantically yelling Johnny toward the technical balcony on the opposite side of the chasm.
Seeing that absolutely everyone had been saved except for the falling Tifa, Alex pushed off with all his might from a falling stone fragment nearby and performed a long jump in her direction. Intercepting Tifa right in the air, Alex turned his back and with a tangible thud slammed into the monolithic wall. Resuming the fall, he with one motion pulled the Chainsword out from under his coat and with a crack drove its toothed blade right into the stone masonry, cushioning and slowing the fall speed.
Hanging on the hilt of the sword over the dark abyss together with Tifa, Alex raised his gaze upward and met the eyes of the incredibly worried Claudia and Aerith. Looking downward, Tifa merely exhaled with relief, sincerely rejoicing that they had not smashed to death. Raising her head upward, she quickly waved a hand to Claudia and Aerith, making it clear that everything was in complete order with them.
Casting a fleeting glance over the spacious underground premises, Alex made sure that no one had crashed to the very bottom, and slightly patted Tifa on the side, proposing that she hold onto him as tightly as possible. Hearing his words, Tifa immediately wrapped her arms and legs around him, pressing with her entire body.
Narrowing his eyes in the semi-darkness, Alex discerned a small technical platform with old double doors and began measuredly swinging, tightly holding onto the hilt of the Chainsword. Having properly swung, Alex with a sharp powerful yank jumped forward. Carefully landing on the iron flooring of the platform, Alex patted Tifa on the back, making it clear that now they were in a safe place. Raising her head, Tifa looked around and began slowly sliding down from Alex onto the floor.
"And where exactly have we ended up?" Tifa asked, looking around in an attempt to find at least some familiar landmark.
"No idea. But it's obvious that we've ended up lower than all the others," Alex answered, calmly pointing a finger at the upper tiers illuminated from above.
"Well, at least we're all still alive. And even Johnny…" Tifa said with a light warming smile, sincerely trying to think positively in such a crazy situation.
"Yeah, you definitely don't lack optimism… Fine, let's see where exactly these old doors lead, and at the same time look for a way from here to the others. If you, of course, don't know how to run on bare vertical walls," Alex said with a smile, approaching the heavy metal doors.
"Actually, of the two of us it's you who knows how to walk on walls," Tifa reminded with a light chuckle, following him.
"One doesn't interfere with the other—we still should check what's hidden here," Alex answered with a light smirk, forcing his fingers into the narrow gap between the doors and without particular effort beginning to push the heavy metal apart.
"Do you think we'll be able to find that very thing that Johnny let slip about?" Tifa asked with lively curiosity, deftly squeezing into the formed opening.
"Anything's possible," Alex answered, briefly shrugging his shoulders, and squeezed into the gap after her.
To be continued...
(I was just sitting here today trying to remember what the hell happened in that underground lab. All I could recall was that Wedge was there and got rescued from the monsters. Eventually, my nerves got the better of me, so I fired up the PS to launch the game and see if I could jog my memory—and it actually helped a bit. Anyway, I'm going to try to breeze through that lab section and move on. But right now, I need to eat; I've spent the whole day running on coffee and two cookies. It's just awful. Peace, love, and someone standing right behind you—don't turn around.)
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