Getting into the holy of holies — Hojo's main laboratory — presented not the slightest problem after a series of short and extremely strained negotiations with the mad scientist. However, the one who felt the most sincere disgust at the situation that had developed was Barrett, who had drawn the dubious honour of personally looking after Hojo.
The latter, despite his status as a prisoner and the constant threat of retribution, remained provocatively calm and continued to drop bilious sarcastic remarks from on high. With difficulty suppressing the wild desire to snap Hojo's neck right on the spot, Barrett with full force shoved him in the back with his fist, forcing him to walk faster.
Feeling the tangible blow to his shoulder blades, Hojo did not even blink an eye, but a venomous, mischievous smile spread across his lips — as if this entire dangerous situation intrigued him insanely.
Not even attempting to hide his triumphant smirk, Hojo swaggeringly shoved his hands deep into the pockets of his snow-white laboratory coat and unhurriedly strode forward, with his entire demeanour demonstrating as if he were leading the arriving group on an entertaining personal tour.
Noticing this satisfied mug of the bastard Hojo, Alex with deep irritation spat onto the cold metal floor of the corridor. He understood this man far too well: the mad professor perceived the entire surrounding world exclusively as his personal testing ground for research, and all living beings — as nothing more than convenient material for refined experiments. And the current critical situation for Hojo was absolutely no different from his habitual laboratory routines.
Without even attempting to read the thoughts of this psychopath, Alex clearly realised: Hojo, on the contrary, was sincerely glad that the rarest and most valuable material for research had personally come into his hands. With all his strength suppressing within himself the flared-up desire to finish off Hojo right here and now so as not to provoke once again the appearance of the Gray Whisperers, who would immediately fly in to protect the life of this madman for the sake of preserving the canon, Alex worriedly looked at Aerith. She was still in deep shock under the heavy impression of the professor's venomous words.
"Everything will be perfectly fine. He actually doesn't give a damn about the children — he's already gotten exactly what he so passionately wanted," Alex whispered, trustingly leaning right up to Aerith's ear and gently reminding her of what Hojo had actually been after.
"You know him too poorly… He will without hesitation go to absolutely anything if he sincerely considers it even a little bit interesting," Aerith answered in a barely audible quiet voice, tightly clenching her hands behind her back in order to somehow hide her nervous tremor.
"And that is exactly why he is extremely predictable in his madness! You seem to have completely forgotten what I'm capable of with the help of this little thing," Alex said with a warm, confident smile, playfully waving the smartphone right in front of Aerith's face and hinting at what he had done in the past with this device.
Staring at the bright screen of the phone right in front of her face, Aerith instantly widened her eyes in surprise the moment she merely recalled what insanities Alex was capable of with this little thing in his hands. For she had seen with her own eyes how with the help of only a smartphone he had playfully taken full control of the entire telecommunications network of Midgar — exclusively for the sake of staging a grandiose performance for the entire city before finally destroying the Mako reactor in Sector One.
When full realisation finally reached her, it became clear: even if Hojo decided to play dirty and refused to release the kidnapped children, Alex would without difficulty do it himself, bypassing any of Shinra's protocols. Realising that the situation in which they had found themselves was far from as hopeless and terrible as she had managed to wind herself up into, Aerith emitted a short, sincere sigh of deep relief.
Hearing this calm-filled exhale, Alex again trustingly leaned to her ear and quietly whispered that he had already asked members of his family for help — and they were right now in the building, operatively preparing the evacuation of the children, and at the same time would lead Jessie, Biggs and Wedge out before the situation finally escalated.
When these unexpected words sounded, Aerith turned to Alex with sincere amazement — and at that same second felt something incredibly soft gently touch her lips. Receiving such an unexpected kiss, Aerith for a moment completely froze, and then gently and sweetly smiled. For how could she have forgotten at all that from the very first day Alex had done absolutely everything possible to shield her from any danger, and the present case was no exception.
"Well then, let's go see what other nonsense this mad bastard will pull. Killing him, to our enormous regret, is still impossible for now — but breaking absolutely all his favourite toys with great pleasure is something no one will stop us from doing," Alex said with a satisfied smile, casting a short glance at the departing group that had already reached the very end of the corridor.
"You know… You just sounded exactly like a real main villain from old fairy tales," Aerith said with cheerful relief in her voice, playfully poking a finger right into Alex's chest.
"Oh, don't you even dare compare me to those pitiful fairy-tale scum! I'm hundreds of times worse and far more dangerous," Alex answered, continuing to smile mischievously just the same, and gently pulled Aerith after himself after the others.
Aerith quietly and sincerely laughed in response to Alex's mischievous words, allowing him to carelessly lead her by the hand. For this short moment she again completely forgot about past fears, acutely feeling that she would never again remain alone — for next to her were loyal friends and the one who without hesitation would protect her from any trouble.
Squeezing Alex's warm palm even tighter, Aerith completely relaxed and soulfully prepared to meet absolutely all the trials that awaited them ahead. After all, the approaching end of this difficult day would mark only the finale of the first act of the predetermined cruel fate — and the long-awaited opportunity to forge a completely new, free future.
Quickly catching up with the others and deftly slipping through the already closing heavy doors, Alex and Aerith joined the main group. Climbing the steps after them, Alex crossed gazes with Claudia, who with a light, almost imperceptible nod of her head wordlessly asked him how Aerith was feeling. Alex slowly and calmingly blinked, making it clear that he had completely dealt with her anxiety, and now it only remained to operatively deal with Hojo himself.
Having received clear confirmation, Claudia turned away and only slightly narrowed her eyes, looking with icy contempt at the back of the mad scientist walking ahead. Reaching the massive automatic doors at the very end of the stair landing, Hojo unhurriedly stopped — and immediately received a tangible, heavy shove in the back from Barrett, accompanied by a non-verbal threat in the form of the ominous crunch of the mechanisms of his cybernetic arm.
"Open the doors, you bastard! Or I'll right now smash these panels with your own insolent mug," Barrett spoke with a growling irritation in his voice, with great difficulty restraining the irresistible desire to smash Hojo's face with full force against the metal doorframe.
"What an incredibly primitive and predictable threat… Ha-ha! Though what else could one even expect from such uncouth and wild riffraff from the lower Slums," Hojo dismissed with an arrogant smirk, feeling absolutely no fear before Barrett's aggressive outbursts.
"This 'uncouth riffraff' can right now twist you into such a neat ram's horn that even the filth that once gave birth to you won't be able to recognise you! And now move it and unlock the doors before my last patience finally runs out," Barrett growled, seizing Hojo by the face in a death grip, and slightly squeezed the steel fingers of his prosthetic cyber-arm.
Looking at Barrett boiling with all-consuming rage right through the crushingly squeezing steel fingers around his face, Hojo only arrogantly and dryly snorted, once again with his venomous tone reminding how high the stakes were right now in this dangerous game.
Before the fingers of Barrett's prosthetic cyber-arm closed even tighter, Hojo with a quiet, mocking chuckle added that the poorest little orphans from the dump might elementary not live even until this morning if something happened to his head right now.
At these cynical words the rage in Barrett's eyes flared up with new, unrestrained force — he was already fully ready to crush Hojo's skull with full force and put an end to this mad bastard once and for all. However Barrett was stopped in time by Tifa, who in a quiet whisper reminded for the sake of what exactly they had been breaking through here at all.
Looking over his shoulder at the group standing behind, Barrett first looked at Tifa, and then shifted his heavy gaze to Alex. Despite their official acquaintance lasting only one short week, Barrett had managed to be filled with absolute trust toward Alex and sincerely took his opinion into account.
Meeting Barrett's gaze, Alex only slowly and expressively shook his head from side to side, clearly making it clear that the moment for retribution had not yet come. Dean just as gloomily nodded, fully agreeing that killing Hojo right now was too early. After all, they had come to this citadel exclusively in order to rescue the kidnapped children, and they would without problems manage to finish off the mad bastard at absolutely any convenient moment.
Irritably snorting, Barrett disgustedly unclenched the steel fingers and with force shoved Hojo backward, causing him to lightly hit the back of his head against the massive metal panels. Preserving on his face his former venomous smirk, Hojo unhurriedly moved his stiff neck and carefully touched the bruised nape with his fingers in order to make sure everything was perfectly fine with him.
To tell the truth, he could not care less about his own safety if his greatest scientific experiment was at stake — for right now the most unique and valuable test subjects of his entire career had personally come into his hands. And that was exactly why he was not yet ready to part with life when the doors to something absolutely new and unknown had practically swung wide open before him.
"Stop fiddling with your greasy nape! Unlock the doors this instant," Barrett growled, absolutely not hiding his deep disgust, and with a dull clang struck the locked metal surface with the back of his cyber-arm.
"Are you burning so strongly with the desire to see with your own eyes exactly what is inside my personal laboratory? Well then, so be it, I will gladly satisfy the curiosity of each of you. I sincerely hope you will truly like my signature hospitality," Hojo spoke with a wide, repulsive smirk, unhurriedly taking an electronic keycard from the inner pocket of his coat.
"Stop wagging your tongue already and open these damn doors. You sincerely don't want to start limping on one leg starting from today, do you?" Dean interrupted him in an extremely irritated tone, crossing his arms on his chest in such a way that Hojo clearly saw the heavy pistol clenched in his palm.
Sliding a greedy gaze over Dean, Hojo spread into an even wider and more repulsive smirk — for how could he have forgotten at all about yet another incredibly valuable and unique test sample that had personally come right into his hands! Absolutely not wishing to hide his feverish scientific delight, Hojo venomously laughed, turning to the massive doors, and with a quiet click applied the electronic keycard to the light scanner.
Looking at the sarcastically laughing Hojo, the first thing Dean seriously thought was that this mad bastard was right now staring at him absolutely the same way those very hungry hellish creatures that had thirsted to tear and devour his flesh, which he had destroyed without count in the past, had looked.
Irritably snorting, Dean turned to Alex and exaggeratedly rolled his eyes to the ceiling, literally asking him with an expressive gaze: did they really still need to allow this mad psychopath to freely stroll in front of them instead of simply putting a bullet in his temple and taking the keycard?
Casting a short heavy glance at Dean that literally repeated their recent conversation: "I've already explained everything to you in detail about the canon," Alex together with Aerith unhurriedly followed after Yuffie, Claudia and Tifa.
Irritably huffing, Dean for a moment felt exactly the same as in those distant and shitty days when he had insanely wanted to finish off Crowley, but around him some unforeseen shit was always happening that prevented him from putting a bullet into that scoundrel once and for all.
Passing last through the automatically opened doors, Dean surveyed the spacious technological premises in which they had all found themselves with an attentive gaze. All around rose dozens of massive sealed containers filled to the brim with liquid, highly concentrated Mako.
Passing through this deaf technological section, Alex first of all thought that this place served as a special warehouse for the intermediate distillation of Mako — for right before his eyes one of the transparent containers was slowly filling with pure concentrated energy that streamed and shimmered so thickly as if it were saturated toxic-green syrup.
From the mere sight of these glowing flasks with Mako Claudia slightly jerked her head, feeling a sharp, unpleasant and burning stab right in the area of the nape when before her eyes again chaotically flared up torn, painful scraps of forgotten past.
"Hey… How are you feeling?" Tifa asked worriedly, having timely noticed that Claudia had again convulsively seized her head with her hand and painfully frowned from the sharp flash of pain.
"Normal… Everything's fine, don't worry," Claudia answered in a calm tone, habitually and distantly waving away the shown concern in order to show with her entire demeanour that absolutely nothing terrible was happening to her.
Tifa already opened her mouth, preparing to continue this difficult conversation, but Claudia stubbornly strode forward after Barrett who was walking ahead. Silently observing her departing friend, Tifa quietly and heavily sighed — she with all her heart sincerely worried for her. And the recent frightening words that absolutely all SOLDIER sooner or later begin to suffer from irreversible brain degradation continued obsessively to surface in her head every time she looked at Claudia.
Tifa was terrified that something irreparable might happen to Claudia at any moment, or that at the most responsible and dangerous moment she would again have a severe attack because of which she would expose her life to mortal danger. The most terrible thing was that Tifa did not even closely imagine how exactly one could help Claudia and whether this horrific destructive process was subject to any treatment at all.
And knowing far too well Claudia's secretive, closed character, Tifa was sacredly certain: she would again begin to blame exclusively herself for everything — exactly the same way as it had already happened in their distant childhood when the two of them had gotten into terrible trouble on Mount Nibel.
Then little Claudia had gone with her on the dangerous climb exclusively for support and was not guilty of anything. But by the moment when Tifa herself had finally come to after a two-week coma, Claudia had already managed to pile the entire weight of guilt for the tragedy that had occurred onto her childish shoulders. Walking a little behind Claudia, Tifa could not force herself to concentrate on that main goal for the sake of which they had all been breaking through into this hell at all.
And before yet another sticky anxious thought managed to completely absorb her mind, Tifa suddenly felt a warm male palm softly lay on her shoulder. Turning her head, she met gazes with Alex, who slightly tilted his head to the side, wordlessly asking whether everything was fine with her. Hearing his silent question, Tifa only softly shook her head and quietly answered that she had simply thought a little about the dark events of the past.
"You'll think about your past later — when we completely finish with all this shit. We're already practically at the place. So be maximally ready in case this bastard Hojo unexpectedly pulls some next unpleasant surprise out of his ass," Alex said with a warm smile and playfully pinched the very tip of Tifa's nose with his fingers in order to finally distract her from heavy thoughts.
"I know… And again huge thanks to you," Tifa answered, slightly wrinkling her little nose from this funny gesture, and sincerely, with deep gratitude smiled at Alex.
"Come on now, it's far from the first time I've had to work as a personal comfort pillow for you! Though this time let's strictly do without tight hugs," Alex said with a light chuckle, finally releasing her nose when he noticed that the former combat concentration had completely returned to Tifa's eyes.
Softly pushing Tifa in the back, Alex asked her to constantly look after Barrett — until his roof completely blew off from the continuous presence of the venomous Hojo. Hearing Alex's logical request, Tifa understandingly nodded and with a quick step caught up with Barrett, beginning to move right behind him shoulder to shoulder with Claudia.
For her it was absolutely no secret how instantly and terribly Barrett flared up when it concerned a threat to the life and safety of innocent children — and especially if the Shinra corporation was directly involved in this dirty story.
Surveying the entire walking group with an attentive gaze, Alex shifted his gaze to Yuffie, who remained completely true to her unquenchable nature and right at this moment was managing to convulsively pour liquid concentrated Mako into a randomly found empty can.
Seizing Yuffie by the scruff exactly like a naughty cat, Alex easily scooped her up and transferred her onto his back — before she managed to commit some catastrophic stupidity. Pouting from deep resentment at the fact that she had again been unceremoniously prevented from acquiring valuable resources, Yuffie only quietly and discontentedly snorted.
Shaking his head from the clear realisation that he still had to continuously babysit everyone and watch every step of the squad so that no one accidentally got distracted in such a critical situation, Alex exchanged glances with Dean. He shortly waved his index finger, giving a clear tactical signal: prepare for instantaneous reaction. Seeing this familiar gesture, Dean slightly narrowed his eyes and immediately understood everything without unnecessary words — this mad bastard Hojo would definitely pull yet another disgusting and dangerous trick the moment they found themselves inside his laboratory.
Reaching the heavy armoured doors that led straight to the lower level of the laboratory, Barrett again with full force shoved Hojo in the shoulder blades, roughly ordering him to immediately unlock the passage. Continuing to mockingly smirk, Hojo unhurriedly applied the electronic keycard to the light scanner, and the massive panels with a loud hiss of pneumatics slowly slid apart.
"Well, here we finally are at the very finale of our entertaining little tour! Everything for the sake of which you so desperately broke through here is located right here," Hojo drawled with a triumphant smirk, gesturing at the opening view onto the lower level of his laboratory.
"Shut your mouth and quickly step forward, you bastard!" Barrett fiercely barked, forcefully pushing Hojo into the opened passage.
Having shoved Hojo forward, Barrett went after him, absolutely not hiding his deep disgust toward such a place. For today he had already managed with his personal presence to visit the secret underground laboratory under Sector Seven and see with his own eyes what truly monstrous experiments the Shinra corporation regularly conducted. Before passing through the open doors last, Alex softly laid a palm on Aerith's shoulder and again quietly reminded her that she under no circumstances should panic or play along with Hojo — for absolutely everything was under their full control.
The moment Alex uttered these encouraging words, the feeling of sticky panic ready to flare up inside Aerith instantly quieted. Taking a deep breath, Aerith understandingly nodded her head, took her magic staff from the inner pocket and with a clear click instantly unfolded it into combat position.
Exiting as a whole group onto a small metal balcony from which a panoramic view opened onto the enormous lower tier of the laboratory, they saw dozens of human-height flasks closed with massive metal shutters. Below, meanwhile, dozens of scientists in snow-white coats were bustling — they were clustering around a special super-strong glass container inside which were the frightened children.
Among this small group of kidnapped children was their caretaker Folia, who with all her strength was trying to hug and calm the crying little ones. Catching sight of the armed group on the balcony, the lab assistants fearfully exchanged glances, darting their gazes at each other and then at Hojo himself.
The latter continued to smile repulsively as if absolutely everything that was happening was going strictly according to his own scenario. Noticing that everything was perfectly fine with the children and they were intact, Aerith and Tifa synchronously exhaled with enormous relief. Dean, meanwhile, did not waste time on sentimentalities and silently fired a shot from his pistol right into the ceiling, loudly ordering the entire personnel to immediately get the hell out.
From the sharp sound of the shot the children shuddered even more strongly, and the entire group of frightened scientists in panic scattered toward the only exit. Observing the fleeing bastards in white coats, Alex quietly and barely audibly whistled. No one from the group heard his whistle — except the very panically fleeing group of lab assistants. The moment the scientists disappeared behind the massive doors of the corridor, a quiet, monotonous sound resembling the eerie singing of an ancient flute obsessively sounded in their ears.
At that same instant absolutely all of them were seized by a rapid attack of primordial madness. The scientists began to shriek hysterically as if something unimaginable going beyond the framework of the human mind had appeared before them — they went into wild cries, with full force smashed their heads against the metal walls and with animal rage threw themselves at each other.
Observing this bloody bacchanalia behind the doors with the help of his magical vision, Alex only quietly and indifferently snorted, after which he began unhurriedly descending after the others down the metal steps. By this moment Barrett had already led Hojo right up to the main control terminal, and his prosthetic cyber-arm with a scrape transformed into a massive machine gun.
"Come on, open this damn cage! Don't make me repeat the same thing twice," Barrett fiercely barked, forcefully poking the barrel of his machine gun right into the back of Hojo's head.
"Open the cage?.. Ha-ha-ha! No problem. I'll open it for you right now," Hojo spoke in a cheerful, anticipatory tone, unhurriedly pulling his hands out of the pockets of his laboratory coat.
Absolutely not hurrying anywhere, Hojo with a lazy, measured gesture pulled his hands out of the pockets of his snow-white coat and unhurriedly placed his fingers on the keyboard of the control terminal while Barrett continued fiercely poking him with the barrel of the machine gun right in the shoulder blades.
Perfectly realising what an incredibly slippery and vile bastard Hojo could be, Claudia stood right up against Barrett, holding with a death grip one hand on the hilt of her massive Buster Sword. She was fully ready at any second to cleave Hojo exactly in two if he attempted to pull even the slightest trick.
Aerith and Tifa at this moment ran up to the enormous glass container inside which were the kidnapped orphans from the dump and their caretaker Folia. With her habitual, warm and bright smile on her face Aerith began affectionately calming the frightened little ones, assuring them that very soon they would definitely be released and all of them would safely return home.
Catching sight of Aerith, the children began quickly coming to their senses and wiping away tears — for she had always been for them that very kind protectress who invariably came to help in a difficult moment. While Aerith distracted the children from their anxieties, Tifa and Yuffie carefully examined the locks, frantically searching for an alternative way to manually open the sealed glass doors — in case Hojo decided not to keep his word and did something terrible.
Alex stood not far from them side by side with Dean, whose heavy gaze was still fixed on the closed doors behind which the panically fleeing scientists had just disappeared. Having clearly seen with the help of his senses exactly what had happened in the deaf corridor, Dean slowly turned to Alex and bestowed upon his friend an absolutely empty gaze expressing no emotions.
Alex in response only carelessly shrugged his shoulders and with a light motion of his chin pointed toward the massive closed reservoir into which concentrated Mako was continuously pouring in a thick stream from a dozen connected containers.
Alex did not even bother to engage his magical vision in order to examine the contents of the reservoir — he already perfectly knew what exactly the repulsive biological filth had been created within the walls of this cursed laboratory. Shifting his gaze to the indicated containers tightly closed with massive metal shutters, Dean slightly raised an eyebrow, displaying sincere interest in what exactly was hidden inside them. But before he managed to satisfy his curiosity, from the side of the central console rang out yet another furious and irritated shout from Barrett.
"Stop dawdling here! Open this damn cage this instant! Or I'll right now with full force smash your skull against this terminal!" Barrett fiercely barked, again forcefully shoving Hojo in the back and calling on him to move it.
"Well of course, I'll gladly open the cage… Only you never specified exactly which cage I should open," Hojo responded in a sarcastic, drawling tone, unhurriedly turning to Barrett and holding one hand on the keyboard of the terminal while swaggeringly shoving the other deep into the pocket of his laboratory coat.
The moment these mocking words of Hojo sounded, Barrett's rage again flared up with unrestrained force, and he instantly seized the scientist by the scruff in a death grip. Despite the growing strangulation, Hojo continued to smile self-satisfiedly as if he had already won the final victory in this deadly game and once again completely outplayed all the uncouth blockheads surrounding him.
And while absolutely all the attention of the squad was fixed on his smirking face, Hojo absolutely calmly and silently pulled his second hand out of the deep pocket of his laboratory coat, unnoticed holding between his fingers a small sealed capsule.
While the enraged Barrett in a fit of rage was furiously shaking the professor by the collar, he and Claudia clearly heard the dull sound of some small object falling onto the metal floor. Lowering their puzzled gazes downward, they saw a tiny black flask touch right next to Barrett's massive boots. Shifting their stunned gazes back to Hojo, they instantly noticed that he had already managed to deftly pull a dense compact respirator onto his face, shining from there with an ominous, triumphant gaze.
Barrett had not even managed to open his mouth when the black capsule at his very feet emitted a sharp hissing sound and instantly began spewing dense clouds of thick gray gas that poured upward at a terrible speed. The moment Barrett took only one superficial breath of this suspension, his head immediately began to spin, and everything before his eyes sharply swam. Instantly orienting herself in the critical situation and noticing Barrett's heavy condition, Claudia sharply seized him by the scruff and with full force dragged him backward, covering her own nose and mouth with her free hand.
Hearing the strange bustle and coughing behind themselves, Aerith, Tifa and Yuffie sharply turned around — and saw the spreading cloud of suffocating gray gas, as well as Barrett losing his balance who was desperately shaking his head, barely staying on his feet exclusively thanks to Claudia's firm support.
Dean instantly raised his pistol, aiming at Hojo and preparing to put a bullet into his forehead. But Alex with a quick motion laid a hand on the weapon barrel and slightly pressed downward, not allowing the shot. Freeing himself from Barrett's weakened grip, Hojo carelessly straightened to his full height, swaggeringly adjusting the collar of his soiled coat, and raised his index finger right above the key button of the terminal.
"I promise… All of you will like to the point of insanity what is about to happen right now. And all that pitiful meat that remains of you in the end I will with enormous pleasure put to use in my further experiments," Hojo spoke with extreme cynicism, with a repulsive smirk pressing the button for remote opening of the cage on the terminal panel.
"Stop, you bastard! Just let me get to you, you scum!" Barrett with difficulty shouted, still heavily struggling with the oncoming dizziness from the effect of the unknown nerve-paralysing gas.
"First enjoy the performance on that luxurious stage that I so kindly prepared for you… Though it's unlikely you'll have strength left for applause after that," Hojo added in a sarcastic, mocking tone and, sharply turning around, dashed at full speed toward the technical elevator.
Running into the elevator cabin, Hojo with a swing threw several more gas-filled capsules right onto the threshold so that no one would even have the thought of rushing after him in pursuit. Tifa and Claudia were about to rush after the departing professor but instantly jumped backward, tightly covering their noses and mouths with their hands so as not to inhale the suffocating suspension.
Smoothly pressing the button on the control panel in order to rise to the upper tier, Hojo absolutely calmly removed the respirator from his face, carefully took a compact remote control from the inner pocket of his coat and without hesitation clicked the single button.
In the next instant on the entire lower level of the laboratory blinding red emergency lighting lamps flared up and the alarm siren deafeningly rang out. A dry mechanical voice from the speakers monotonously announced the launch of the full isolation protocol of this section, and absolutely all entrances and exits began slowly closing with dense metal shutters.
Casting a quick glance at the enormous central container into which toxic-green concentrated Mako was pouring at an even greater, frenzied speed, Alex loudly called out to Dean and with a gesture pointed at the massive doors through which they had originally broken into this premises.
Instantly understanding exactly what Alex wanted from him, Dean rapidly dashed up the steps and with full physical strength in a death grip braced against the descending steel shutters, not allowing them to finally block the passage. Alex at this moment had already run right up to the sealed glass container that Yuffie was still desperately trying to open, picking at the complex electronic lock.
Pushing Yuffie and Aerith backward and with a warning gesture calling on them to retreat to a safe distance, Alex stood right in front of the thick armoured glass on the other side of which the frightened children and their caretaker Folia were huddled. Completely understanding exactly what Alex intended to do, Aerith carefully pulled the discontented Yuffie a little further away, with growing anxiety observing the critical situation.
"All right, kids, listen to my command! All together and quickly press against the back wall, now we'll pull you out of here," Alex said with an encouraging smirk, without particular effort forcing his fingers into the narrow gap between the panels of the container.
"Don't be afraid! We'll definitely free you right now," Aerith picked up, with all her strength supporting Alex's idea and with her warm words calming the frightened little ones.
Clearly heeding the insistent words of Alex and Aerith, Folia instantly dragged the children into the farthest corner and covered them with herself in case of an unforeseen explosion. Having made sure that the little ones had moved to a safe distance, Alex with one sharp motion yanked his hands in different directions, literally crumpling the thick metal frame of the container into an accordion and along the way smashing the armoured glass into fine crumbs. Having opened the container, Alex did not waste a single second and loudly called on the children to run as quickly as possible to the exit that Dean was holding with all his strength.
Hearing this call, Aerith immediately ran closer and began carefully leading the frightened orphans out of the opened trap in order to escort them to the saving passage. Yuffie jumped up after her and also actively joined the evacuation. Coming to by this moment after the remains of the acrid gas had completely aired out of his lungs, Barrett shook his heavy head, scooped the running little ones into his arms and at sprinter speed dashed up the steps, helping them get outside as quickly as possible. Pushing the children into the passage, Alex on the move shouted to Folia that outside a second group was already waiting for them who would guaranteed lead everyone to a safe place outside Shinra.
While this frantic evacuation was going on, absolutely all the sealed containers with concentrated Mako sharply emptied, pouring their last toxic-green remains into that very enormous central reservoir where the horrific creature created by the hands of the mad Hojo was languishing.
The moment the last child safely slipped past Dean who was still holding the descending steel shutters, a loud hissing sound of disconnecting communication pipes swept through the entire laboratory. Synchronously shifting their gazes to the gigantic central reservoir, each of those present clearly understood: nothing harmless could simply be inside this flask.
"What kind of creature is inside?" Tifa asked with anxiety, casting a tense glance at the enormous container by the farthest wall of the laboratory.
"Inside sits exactly the thing because of which all of us will now have to linger here a little. Though I hope no one was intending to leave right now anyway?" Dean spoke with an anticipatory smirk on his face, finally unclenching his fingers and releasing the heavy metal shutters that with a crash collapsed downward, tightly blocking the only path of retreat.
"Leave? Ha! I'll be damned if I go anywhere from here until we smash everything here to hell! Whatever ugly creature is hiding there, right now I just damnably won't mind an excellent live punching bag," Barrett spoke with a grim grin, cracking his powerful neck, and with a confident step began descending down the metal steps.
"Well then, let's see exactly what kind of monster this sick bastard Hojo has decided to set on us this time," Claudia said with a snort and with a light graceful jump vaulted over the balcony railings, landing right on the metal floor of the lower tier.
"Curious… Will this thing be similar to that toothy filth we already saw today in the underground laboratory?" Yuffie asked with genuine combat interest, deftly jumping onto the metal railings and narrowing her eyes as she stared at the murky reservoir.
"Doesn't matter who it looks like. Right now is the most ideal time to earn the deserved team points and effectively thrash this monster. Whoever in the end earns the fewest points tonight will voluntarily treat our entire company to drinks," Alex tossed with a wide smirk, playfully spinning his karambit on his finger.
"Oh, come on… Usually you're the one who always treats everyone," Aerith drawled in an extremely cute, sly tone, playfully pressing her forehead against Alex's shoulder.
To be continued...
(Wow, I somehow didn't even notice the word count had already crossed the 4-million mark. I'd love to say you won't find a title with that many words on Webnovel, but they do exist. I think. Whatever. As for the plot, I had to rethink a few details yet again to make everything line up perfectly with my original plan. I even considered staging two separate child rescues, but that would've been some cliché-ridden crap. So, I decided to save everyone in one go. Next on the list: a quick kill for the test-tube monstrosity and the appearance of the rat-dog. Plus some revelation-filled drama. Probably. Now, time to eat. Peace, love, and I'M BATMAN.)
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