The battle with the Gray Whispers ended just as suddenly as it had begun. After Alex fired from the magical musket and arranged a total extermination for the creatures, the situation on the square sharply changed. The Gray Whispers began chaotically scattering in different directions: some instantly sank deep underground, others passed straight through the walls of houses, and still others dissolved into the air altogether, like a heat mirage.
However, right before disappearing, several Whispers decided to deliberately attack Jessie and Aerith, who were still near the doors of the Seventh Heaven bar. Seeing the Whispers rushing straight at them at full speed, Aerith again swung her magic staff and, completely ignoring the accumulated wild fatigue, put up a dense protective barrier around herself and Jessie. The Gray Whispers crashed into the shimmering dome with a dull clap and immediately began furiously squeezing through it.
Seeing these terrible beings so close, Jessie instantly aimed the barrel of her submachine gun straight at the Whispers. But instead of pulling the trigger in time, she froze in place, staring in a stupor into the impenetrable darkness hidden under the deep hoods of the creatures.
An indistinct deafening hum immediately rang out in her head — as if dozens of people were continuously whispering something in one voice right inside her skull. From these otherworldly sounds Jessie experienced the strongest dizziness and rising nausea. Frantically grabbing her temples with her free hand, she barely stayed on her feet, trying with all her might to aim at the Whisper again.
Aerith also looked straight at the Whispers hanging in front of the barrier, clearly making out everything they were whispering to her. And unlike Jessie, who could not make out a single word, she heard extremely clearly how these Whispers persistently and furiously hypnotized her, demanding that she surrender and submit to the predestined fate.
But instead of fear Aerith only smiled brightly and daringly, looking straight into the dark hoods and letting the creatures understand: from now on she herself decides her Fate. After all, now beside her there was someone who would help her turn this freedom into reality. Seeing that she continued to openly resist their will, the Whispers furiously trembled, preparing to smash through the pink barrier with all their might.
"Your buddies have already left, and you idiots decided to stay for the afterparty?" Alex's irritated voice rang out behind the Gray Whispers.
The moment Alex's ironic words sounded, the Gray Whispers sharply jerked and rushed to scatter in different directions. But before one of the ghosts managed to escape, Alex grabbed the Whisper right by the head in mid-air and with a swing slammed it into the wooden floor. Stepping with his boot on the edge of the creature's robe, he seized the being's head with both hands in a firm grip and yanked upward with all his might. The Whisper began furiously thrashing while it was literally being torn apart.
Smiling widely, Alex sharply jerked his hands upward, with a dull crunch tearing the head off the Whisper. The second fleeing ghost at full speed ran into Dean, who met the uninvited guest with the most cheerful smile on his face. Grabbing the Whisper by the head, Dean began with already habitual motion plunging the Blade of Cain into the creature's torso, delivering one crushing blow after another. The last Whisper, instead of fleeing, darted straight inside the Seventh Heaven bar with the intention of destabilizing the arc reactor.
But the moment the Whisper found itself in the premises, it immediately ran into Tonberry Steve, who with a lazy expression on his face was sitting on the table surrounded by laid-out Queen's Blood cards, gripping an oil lamp and a small butcher's knife in his little paws. Raising the oil lamp, Tonberry Steve directed its dim light straight at the Whisper. In that same moment a dense purple fog formed around the intruder, completely depriving the Whisper of the ability to move.
Without blinking, staring at it with his bulging yellow eyes, Steve slowly approached the very edge of the table and silently jumped down. Slowly approaching the frozen creature, Steve did not take his intent gaze off the Whisper. After all, Steve had been born from the very wrath of Gaia with one single simple purpose — to mercilessly kill everyone who harms the planet. And this Whisper automatically fell under that category the moment it intended to harm the last Cetra and shift the course of fate toward a bad ending.
Unhurriedly approaching the Whisper, Steve only slightly raised his small kitchen knife and delivered exactly one slow blow. In that same instant the trembling Whisper finally froze and a second later burst with a quiet clap, like a soap bubble. Having dealt with the enemy, Tonberry Steve slowly trudged back to the table.
Finding himself at the wooden leg, he tilted his head upward and immediately realized with annoyance that without outside help he would never climb up by himself. Sighing dejectedly, Steve sat right down on the floor and took a dry piece of jerky from the deep pocket of his robe.
At the same time outside, absolutely everyone was able to breathe a sigh of relief when the Gray Whispers finally disappeared for good. No one except Alex, Aerith, and Dean had any idea what these beings were or why they had appeared at all. And absolutely everyone was tormented by one and the same question: where had these unknown creatures come from?
Alex at that moment was carefully helping Aerith stay on her feet, seeing perfectly well how strongly she was exhausted after using the large-scale spell. Holding tightly onto Alex, she forced out a tired smile, with difficulty keeping her eyelids open. Noticing her extreme degree of fatigue, Alex raised his hand and smoothly touched her forehead with two fingers, and all the weakness instantly evaporated without a trace.
Feeling a powerful surge of strength, Aerith funny pouted her lips and coquettishly looked at Alex, letting him understand that she very much wanted to remain weak and defenseless in his arms a little longer. Smiling at Aerith's whims, he turned to Jessie, who was still leaning on Tifa, experiencing strong dizziness and nausea after direct contact with the Whisper.
Extending his hand, Alex just as easily touched her forehead with his fingers, and she instantly came to her senses, feeling pleasant relaxation. Jessie looked at Alex and sweetly narrowed her eyes, sincerely thanking him for the help. Smiling at her in response, Alex suggested that everyone go inside the bar so as not to remain on the open street at such an unpleasant moment.
Entering Seventh Heaven, Dean first of all saw his Tonberry Steve dejectedly sitting on the floor. Shrugging at the fact that his Pokémon had managed to fall off the table, Dean carefully lifted Steve into his arms and returned him to the tabletop.
"What were those creatures?.. And where on earth did they come from?" Biggs inquired wearily, heavily sitting down on a chair to catch his breath.
"Fuck knows what that even was… I don't even know what those creatures looked like. Although why be surprised? You never know what other filth can crawl out of the local dump!" Barret growled irritably, slamming his fist onto the bar counter with all his might.
"Maybe it's somehow connected with the reactor? Well, what if… I mean, what if this new reactor attracts these beings?" Wedge asked cautiously, looking at Alex, who was just helping Aerith settle into a chair.
"I don't think so. My reactor works on a completely different principle. Most likely these beings are attracted by something entirely different," Alex answered thoughtfully, lightly stroking his chin.
"Damn, I knew it, this is all the dirty tricks of goddamn Shinra! It's one hundred percent them! Most likely these bastards are to blame for the appearance of the Gray creatures!" Barret flared up, nearly beginning to smash the furniture around himself.
"This isn't Shinra… These beings are completely different. A very strange sensation came from them. I would say they act like parasites," Claudia said, frowning, leaning against the wall and folding her arms across her chest.
"Then maybe these beings parasitise on Mako?.. I simply have no other explanation," Tifa noted, trying to find at least some logical explanation for what was happening.
"Possibly. And it's quite probable that the creation of my reactor simply disturbed their feeding ground," Alex answered, nodding his head and continuing with an absolutely imperturbable face to pretend that he had no idea who the Gray Whispers really were.
After Alex's argument everyone nodded thoughtfully, reasoning that there was a healthy dose of logic in his words. In the end, the Gray Whispers had crawled out practically right after the arc reactor started. Watching the puzzled faces of his friends, Alex did not even think of laying out the truth about the Whispers in the current situation. He understood perfectly well: this information would bring absolutely nothing good, and would only provoke extra hassle and panic.
Waving away these thoughts, he turned his head to Aerith, who was sitting on a chair right beside him and trustingly leaning her shoulder on his arm. Feeling his gaze on herself, Aerith raised her head and sweetly smiled, letting him understand that she fully supported his decision for now not to stir anything up and to keep silent about the Whispers. Alex only affectionately smirked and tenderly stroked her on the head, after which he transferred his gaze to the others.
Distracted for only a moment, he missed the moment when Barret again started up his favorite organ-grinder. The latter was already once more spinning a tirade about how Shinra was to blame for everything without exception, and now they had even more reasons to grind the corporation into powder. Wearily pinching the bridge of his nose with his fingers, Alex with enormous difficulty restrained the desire to sigh heavily at this fiery speech.
Barret sincerely and holy believed: the moment the Mako reactors collapsed, the Gray Whispers would immediately evaporate by themselves. Tired of listening to this loud pretentious oratorical diarrhea, Alex sharply raised his hand, cutting the orator off mid-sentence.
"I don't want to interrupt your fiery speech, Barret, but I have an excellent counter-proposal!" Alex said quite loudly, calmly interrupting Barret and taking all the attention onto himself.
"What else, kid? If it's something really useful, then don't keep it to yourself, spit it out right now!" Barret barked, sharply turning to Alex and heavily crossing his arms on his chest.
"You were planning to blow up the Mako reactor in the Fifth Sector tonight anyway, right? How about splitting into two groups and immediately smashing two reactors to pieces instead of one?" Alex proposed with a wide smile, lazily raising two fingers and casting a cheerful glance over everyone present.
"Hmm… Two reactors in one go? And it sounds damnably tempting. And which second reactor are you proposing to send sky-high?" Biggs snorted, slightly rocking on his chair and quickly thinking over the proposed setup.
"The one right above our heads," Alex answered with an even wider smirk, pointing his index finger exactly at the ceiling.
"Destroy the reactor in the Seventh Sector?! Have you completely lost it?.. Although… And that could work damnably well!" Jessie put in in a sharp tone, at first considering Alex's idea pure madness, but immediately on the fly picking up this crazy plan.
Seeing that even Jessie, who a moment ago had considered the idea mad, was sincerely thinking about it, Biggs and Barret stared at Alex, who was not thinking of wiping the insolent smirk off his face. Lighting a thin cigar and releasing gray smoke through his nose, Alex began laying out the plan for blowing up the Mako reactor in the Seventh Sector shelf by shelf.
Alex first of all reminded them that Jessie was still going up to the upper plate today to her parents under the pretext of handing over tickets to the Costa del Sol resort. Everyone present nodded synchronously, because they had chewed over this topic a couple of hours ago, trying to figure out how to get her father out from under Shinra's sights. Without slowing the pace, Alex proposed that the first group consist of Jessie, Aerith, and Yuffie, who would go to the Raspberry family house under the pretext of a visit as friends.
And following them, for cover and for creating noise, Dean, Tonberry Steve, and Wedge would tag along. Hearing his name, Wedge immediately proudly slapped himself on the chest with his palm, promising to give it his all. Dean silently raised an index finger upward, transparently hinting to Alex that for such work the latter owed him the habitual fee — a bottle of elite whiskey.
Alex without extra words showed a thumbs-up in response. Bringing the thin cigar to his lips, Alex once more repeated the essence of the plan while Aerith, Jessie, and Yuffie covertly made their way to the Mako flow redirection valve. And Dean, Wedge, and Steve would arrange hellish racket and mayhem in the reactor itself, distracting the entire security.
"Fine, let's say. The plan isn't half-bad. Jessie's parents' house is just a couple of blocks from the reactor… This shit could really work," Biggs said thoughtfully, slightly rocking on his chair and weighing all the pros and cons.
"It won't just work — it will work! If, of course, Wedge doesn't catch another bullet with his backside again," Jessie put in with cheerful laughter, amicably slapping Wedge on his plump belly.
"That was pure coincidence! This time I'll give it a hundred percent and make such a wild noise that all the Shinra grunts will come running only to us!" Wedge said with a wide smile, victoriously raising two thumbs.
"So for the Fifth Sector Reactor it's me, Tifa, the SOLDIER kid, and the SOLDIER girl… Hmm. The setup is shaping up not bad," Barret muttered, heavily crossing his arms on his chest and rhythmically tapping his index finger on his pumped-up biceps.
"I need a raise. I don't sign up for such risks for free," Claudia reminded in a calm tone, habitually leaning her elbow on the bar counter.
"Payment at the standard rate: a hundred thousand gil plus rare Materia as a bonus," Alex noted with a wink and carefully extinguished the cigar on the ashtray.
"Deal. When do we move out?" Claudia agreed with a short nod, transferring an attentive gaze from Alex to Tifa.
"I'll go ahead right now and clear the path for you in advance. I'll need a couple of hours to thoroughly check the route. Earlier those paths were used by black-market smugglers — better to play it safe one more time," Biggs summed up, rising from his place and heading toward the exit from Seventh Heaven.
Hearing Biggs's words, Alex took pocket watches from the inner pocket of his coat and saw that the hands were already approaching seven in the morning. Looking at the dial, Alex realized that he had slightly mixed up the deadlines of the coming catastrophe that was about to break out. Details instantly surfaced in his head: Shinra would arrange a setup in the Fifth Sector Mako reactor, pin the entire blame for the explosion on Avalanche, and finally cement their status as dangerous terrorists. And that, in turn, would untie the corporation's hands for the most monstrous step — dropping an entire upper plate right onto the Seventh Sector slums with the subsequent accusation of those same rebels.
Stroking his chin, Alex heavily sank onto a chair. He remembered perfectly well that the leak of information regarding the reactor explosion in the Fifth Sector had been organized by Don Corneo. Only Corneo was already dead, and corpses, as is known, do not leak data after visiting the crematorium. However, Alex did not for a second believe that the Gray Whispers would not find a way to bend the timeline under the canon they needed, even if one of the key gears of their plan had been savagely broken and thrown onto the scrap heap.
Wearily sighing, Alex unexpectedly felt someone shamelessly rummaging through his pockets. Lowering his gaze, he stared at Yuffie, who with the most serious and concentrated face was searching his coat. Alex loudly and expressively cleared his throat, attracting attention to himself.
Caught red-handed, Yuffie was not embarrassed in the least — she smiled dazzlingly, deftly extracted an entire pack of strawberry candies from his pocket, and instantly vanished. Pinching the bridge of his nose with his fingers, he with difficulty restrained laughter and only shook his head at such insolence.
"I hope this time you won't fall on my flowerbed again?" Aerith inquired with a cunning smile, poking a finger into Alex's cheek to finally distract him from his thoughts.
"Where did such a question suddenly come from?" Alex responded with a smirk, perfectly guessing exactly what Aerith was driving at.
"Who knows, silly… But if you have bad luck with a soft landing again, try at least not to crush my flowers. Or else I'll personally beat you up!" Aerith answered in a cheerful tone and jokingly threatened Alex with her little fist.
Hearing Aerith's words, Alex instantly understood exactly what she was hinting at. He knew perfectly well: because of the events that were supposed to unfold tonight, Claudia was destined to smash through the roof and fall right into the abandoned church in the Fifth Sector. Precisely this fall was supposed to bring Claudia together with Aerith, and then lead them to Don Corneo in order to extract from him information about Shinra's intention to drop the upper plate onto the Seventh Sector slums.
Tenderly stroking Aerith on the head, Alex slightly stretched his legs, intending to relax and calmly catch his breath for a couple of hours before the upcoming sortie. But even at that moment Alex was not left in peace by the thought that Shinra somehow could have sniffed out about the preparing terrorist act.
Once again heavily sighing, Alex decided for now not to clutter his head with extra guesses. Quickly growing bored from the forced idleness, Alex together with Aerith began watching how Dean again sat down to play Queen's Blood together with Steve. And Alex could not help noticing how deftly and shamelessly Dean was hiding the needed cards right up his sleeve.
Shaking his head at such open cheating, Alex rose from the chair and headed to brew himself a mug of strong coffee. Walking around the bar counter, Alex slightly pushed Tifa aside, who was just fussing at the stove preparing breakfast for Marlene, and with a light motion nudged her with his hips. Feeling the push, Tifa threw a cheerful glance at Alex and with a smirk pushed him back. Chuckling at this silent exchange, Alex brewed himself coffee and with enjoyment took the first sip.
"Fortunately I thought to buy normal coffee… Drinking this instant crap from packets is a rather dubious pleasure," Alex said with a sigh, taking another sip and leisurely leaning his back against the bar counter.
"Usually in the Slums there's no choice… Sometimes even such packet coffee is hard to find in the daytime with a torch, you know," Tifa responded with a sweet smile, turning to Alex.
"You could simply say thank you to me. For example: 'Ah, how pleasant it is finally to drink normal coffee, thank you so much, Alex!'" Alex teased with a chuckle, continuing to slowly sip his drink.
"You just said all that perfectly yourself for me! So I think I definitely shouldn't duplicate it," Tifa countered in a cheerful tone, jokingly waving a wooden spatula right in front of Alex's face.
"You're mean. And just a couple of hours ago you yourself were clinging to me and hugging so tightly… Ah, you and Claudia are both so cold and mean," Alex said in a feigned offended tone, putting on a tragic expression and letting out a theatrical tear.
"Ha-ha-ha! Well, maybe… And if you're so desperate for more hugs, just ask when I'm not busy! And now don't interfere with me cooking breakfast for Marlene — she's about to wake up any minute. So go on, shoo-shoo away from here!" Tifa said with a laugh and began jokingly driving Alex away from the stove.
Hearing Tifa's words, Alex slightly stepped aside so as not to interfere with her fussing at the stove, and continued calmly sipping his coffee. Seeing this, Tifa softly smiled and returned to cooking, along the way casually chatting with Alex about various trifles to somehow while away the time. Continuing the conversation, Alex and Tifa simultaneously turned their heads at Yuffie's sharp, full-of-despair cry.
Turning to the tables, they saw how Yuffie was frantically clutching her head and nearly crying, sitting opposite Dean. Not quite understanding what tragedy had just occurred, Alex slightly leaned to the side and instantly understood everything: Yuffie had managed to lose to Dean in Queen's Blood absolutely all the strawberry candies she had stolen from him.
Dean with a satisfied smirk gathered the entire sweet haul and without extra words handed it over to Tonberry Steve. From such bottomless grief Yuffie buried her head in Aerith's chest, loudly complaining about the injustice of this world. Seeing this scene, Alex only snorted and shook his head — he decided not to pour salt on Yuffie's unhealed wound and did not voice that Dean had been practicing cheating since teenage years, ruthlessly fleecing trusting idiots of money.
Trying somehow to console Yuffie, Aerith threw a heavy dry glance at Dean and without warning kicked him under the table with all her might. In response to this outburst Dean only carelessly shrugged — he did not even wince, as if he had felt nothing.
"Instead of making a fuss you could simply offer a rematch. Maybe next time you'll have more luck?" Dean cast a line with a sarcastic smirk, unhurriedly gathering his deck.
"You played unfairly!.. You cheated, you bastard!" Yuffie cried out, sniffling and shamelessly wiping her nose on Aerith's dress.
"Cheated? What kind of word is that even? Cheating is only considered cheating when you're caught by the hand. And without proof all your claims are just empty sound," Dean stated with a daring smirk, virtuously shuffling the cards in his hands.
"That's just so unfaaair!" Yuffie wailed with even greater offense and again buried her head in Aerith's chest.
"Well, next time you'll simply think three times before sitting down to play cards with Dean. Consider it a priceless lesson of adult life," Alex summed up with a cheerful chuckle, taking a slow sip of hot coffee.
From Alex's careless words Yuffie burst into tears even more strongly, beginning to complain even louder about world injustice and accusing Dean of insolent cheating. Continuing to consolingly stroke the crying Yuffie on the back, Aerith turned her head to Alex and gave him a heavy, reproachful look, extremely clearly letting him understand that this harsh comment could have been held back.
Unable to resist Aerith's pressure for long, Alex took another sip of coffee and carelessly reminded Yuffie that she would very soon be going to the Upper Plate — and there were plenty of excellent confectioneries and bakeries there where she could buy herself absolutely everything her heart desired. Hearing these words, Yuffie immediately raised her huge tear-stained eyes to him, loudly sniffed, and hopefully asked whether he was lying.
Alex completely imperturbably nodded, reminding her that he still owed her a whole cake, and as a bonus and moral compensation she could pick whatever she wanted on top — he would pay for everything. After such ironclad confirmation Yuffie instantly broke into a happy smile, hastily wiping her wet face with her sleeve.
All her recent grief about the lost sweets immediately evaporated without a trace, replaced by a wild desire to stuff her stomach with free cake. Looking at this sharp change of mood on Yuffie's face, Alex took another sip of coffee and mentally noted that he would definitely need to entrust Aerith and Jessie not to take their eyes off this walking lump of hyperactivity during the mission.
Finishing his coffee, Alex grabbed a clean rag from the bar counter and approached Aerith, intending to help her wipe the snot and tears left by Yuffie on the fabric. But the moment he only leaned toward the stain, he immediately received an accurate slap on the hand and met Aerith's mocking, cheerful look. Demonstratively rolling his eyes, Alex silently handed her the rag and sat down nearby, waiting while Aerith herself put her dress in order.
The several hours that Biggs had spoken of and that he needed to check the old smugglers' paths flew by completely unnoticed. By this moment Claudia, Barret, Jessie, and Wedge had just returned to the Seventh Heaven bar — they had stepped out on their own business to gather all the necessary gear for the upcoming large-scale sortie. When the entire squad was assembled again, Tifa briefly stepped away and took Marlene to Marle so that the elderly woman would look after the little one during the operation.
Returning, Tifa quietly informed Barret that his daughter was now in complete safety. Knowing that nothing threatened Marlene, Barret immediately started up his habitual pretentious speech about how their attack today was making Midgar better, even if the whole world continued to consider them ordinary terrorists. Lazily yawning right in the middle of this tirade, Alex without extra words went out onto the street.
Dean and Claudia rolled out after him, who also did not burn with the desire to listen to another fiery political briefing. Standing a little in the fresh air waiting for the others, they immediately dispersed into small groups so as not to attract extra attention and not look suspicious on the approach to the railway station. Reaching the platform, Alex stood close to Dean, lazily leaning his shoulder against a support beam.
Aerith, Yuffie, and Jessie kept a little to the side, from the outside looking like an ordinary company of girlfriends who had decided to arrange themselves a light walk to the upper Plate. Tifa and Claudia stood a little separately, quietly conversing about personal matters. Barret with Wedge took a position at the very beginning of the platform, putting on maximally uninterested expressions as if they were simply waiting for someone. After half an hour of boring waiting, the first train composition finally rolled up to the platform with a metallic clang, heading straight to the Seventh Sector of the Plate.
"This is ours. Well, I'm off," Dean said shortly, picking up his travel bag and heading toward the opened doors of the car.
"Good luck… And look, keep an eye on the others there," Alex said in farewell, exhaling a stream of gray cigarette smoke and following the departing Dean with his gaze.
"To hell with luck… You know yourself I don't screw up in such messes!" Dean responded with a chuckle and victoriously waved his hand in the air without even turning around.
"And remember, number two!" Alex shouted at the top of his voice right before Dean stepped inside the car.
Hearing Alex's loud shout, Dean stuck his hand out of the car door and immediately showed a thumbs-up, letting him understand that he remembered perfectly well exactly which power mode to set on the vacuum bomb. Nodding understandingly, Alex again lazily leaned his shoulder against the metal beam and transferred his gaze to Aerith, Jessie, and Yuffie. Entering inside, Aerith sweetly winked at Alex and sent an air kiss in his direction on a juicy trajectory before Jessie nimbly dragged her into the depths of the car.
For the last time Jessie herself peeked out of the doorway, narrowed her eyes at Alex with a cunning smirk, and also sent him an air kiss right before the heavy train doors slammed shut with a clang. As soon as the composition started moving and began to pick up speed, Barret approached Alex and just as heavily leaned against the neighboring metal beam.
Turning his head to him, Alex took a silver cigarette case from the inner pocket and silently offered Barret a smoke. Looking at the neat thin cigars, Barret snorted and pulled one out, sincerely interested in the taste of such smoking. Drawing in thick smoke, Barret felt a deep tobacco taste with a pleasant sweetish aftertaste.
"So this is the shit the rich from the upper Plate smoke… And how much does this crap cost?" Barret asked with a light smirk, clenching the cigar in his teeth.
"Five hundred gil a pack. Not that expensive if there are extra gil floating around in the pockets," Alex answered in a calm tone, with a habitual motion putting the cigarette case back.
"Damn it! You even pay for shit that slowly kills you?! Shinra already poisons people with its cursed factories, and on top of that sells these deadly sticks to profit from every breath!" Barret growled with instantly flared irritation, immediately taking the cigar out of his mouth.
"Yeah. Smoking is harmful. Drinking is harmful. Breathing the local air is harmful. And living in general is a fatal thing… So just smoke quietly and enjoy normal tobacco," Alex said in a monotonous voice, lazily cutting off Barret's next social tirade.
Hearing Alex's words, Barret slightly snorted at his ironic joke and returned the thin cigar to his mouth, clenching it so tightly in his teeth that he nearly bit it in half. Standing in silence next to Barret, Alex transferred his gaze to Tifa and Claudia. He again noted that Tifa after a short conversation with Claudia looked far more relaxed and calm. Meeting her gaze, Alex cheerfully smiled and funny wagged his head from side to side, sincerely trying to cheer her up.
Seeing this childish gesture, Tifa quietly laughed and nodded her head. Hearing her quiet laughter, Claudia immediately followed where exactly Tifa was looking and stared straight at Alex. Noticing her intent gaze, Alex without a second's thought daringly stuck his tongue out at her, from which Claudia only heavily sighed and demonstratively rolled her eyes.
Chuckling to himself, Alex heard the growing hum and metallic clatter of the wheels of the approaching composition. Understanding that this was their train, Alex approached the very edge of the platform and froze in expectation. The moment the doors opened, Alex was the first to step into the last car, sprawled on a free seat, and nonchalantly stretched his legs forward. Following him inside climbed Tifa, Claudia, and Barret, dispersing throughout the entire salon.
When the composition smoothly started moving, Alex thought that this was an excellent opportunity to relax a little. The moment he closed his eyes, he felt that Tifa had sat down right nearby. Opening his eyes and turning his head, Alex met her calm gaze. Tifa only barely noticeably shook her head, letting him understand that she had simply decided to sit closer. Smiling, Alex extracted an earphone and silently held it out to her.
Without refusing, Tifa accepted it and carefully inserted it into her ear. While the train raced at speed toward the Fifth Sector of the Plate, from the speakers rang out another stamped informational message about the dangerous terrorist organization Avalanche. Only shaking his head at this Shinra propaganda, Alex was already about to close his eyes again when raised tones reached his hearing — Barret had again locked horns with someone. Heavily sighing, Alex leaned his body forward and saw how Barret was thoroughly coming down on some pale man in a strict office suit.
"I'll go stop this thug before he breaks the poor guy's nose," Alex said, rising from the seat to restore order.
"Be so kind. Or Barret is quite capable of doing something stupid," Tifa responded in a tired tone, lightly pushing Alex in the back with her palm.
Heading toward Barret, Alex thought only about how to finish this senseless farce as quickly as possible and return to Tifa in order to calmly continue listening to music. Approaching the heated Barret and the pale office worker, Alex on the go grasped the essence of the conflict and only heavily sighed. He had absolutely nothing against the fact that an ordinary resident of Midgar holy believed in all that nonsense that Shinra daily fed them.
In the end, the ordinary person sees exactly what they want to show him. Even if before that with his concerts he had shown the complete opposite and made it clear that their group were not terrorists. Already raising his hand to stop the boiling Barret, Alex unexpectedly caught a strange gleam in the reflection of the car window.
Frowning, he literally felt on his skin someone's foreign, intent gaze. Alex sharply turned his head toward the neighboring car and locked eyes with the conductor standing there. Noticing that he had been spotted, the conductor immediately turned away and quickly disappeared into the depths of the composition.
Frowning from such clumsy and obvious surveillance, Alex unexpectedly heard a barely noticeable, rhythmic ticking. Lowering his gaze downward, thanks to his perception he made out through the metal floor beneath them a bomb attached to the undercarriage of the car.
"Everyone out of the car! Move the fuck out, now!" Alex barked at the top of his voice, instantly realizing that the situation had turned far shittier than he had calculated.
"What the hell does that mean?! Why should we leave the car?!" one of the passengers immediately protested, hearing this sharp order.
"I said get the fuck out of the car, you bastard, before I personally throw you out the window, you piece of fucking shit!" Alex growled, completely drowning out the man's yell, and with all his might drove his fist into the metal handrail, instantly bending the thick pipe in half.
Seeing what Alex had turned the thick metal pipe into in a second, the passengers immediately tore from their seats, not wishing in the least to repeat the fate of the handrail. Tifa, Claudia, and Barret instantly frowned at such a harsh stunt and were already about to demand explanations from him. But in that same moment panic cries of people rang out from the front part of the car — the doors had jammed shut.
The moment these words sounded, Claudia finally became convinced: Alex had spotted something shitty. Meeting her gaze, Alex silently mouthed with his lips alone: "Bom-b." Tifa and Barret also managed to read this gesture and instantly understood everything. Realizing that they were going to be fried right together with the entire composition, Barret immediately stepped forward, ruthlessly pushing the crowd aside, and with all his might drove his cybernetic arm into the metal leaves.
After a couple of powerful blows Barret smashed the door to hell and began forcefully pushing the frightened people into the neighboring car. The moment he was about to step after them, the alarm siren howled in the train, and through the broken windows combat robot-drones burst inside. Barret and Tifa immediately set upon the tin cans, not allowing them to open a barrage of fire.
"Claudia, smash the coupling! We're jumping!" Alex barked, on the fly drawing the Jackal pistol from the holster and instantly sending several droids to the scrapyard with precise shots.
Hearing Alex's order, Claudia shot forward like lightning and with one clean swing of the huge sword cut through the coupling mechanism. Detaching from the racing composition, the severed car began sharply losing speed. And in that very second Alex felt with his gut: it was about to go boom.
Not wasting precious moments, Alex kicked out the side door of the car and with all his strength grabbed Barret by the scruff. Before the latter managed to open his mouth and yell that he was capable of jumping out himself, his bulk was already unceremoniously shoved outside. In that same moment Alex grabbed Tifa and Claudia by the waists, and he immediately jumped out of the car together with them.
In that same second the detonated bomb smashed the car into fine crumbs. A powerful shockwave caught up with them in the air and flung them even farther by inertia. Feeling this wild push, Alex at the very last moment managed to turn his body, hard crashing with his back into the concrete wall of the tunnel and taking the entire main impact on himself.
To be continued...
(Yeah, I know it's another Cliff. But I had to do it. I won't tell you the reason why. But the thing is, I was just hungry, and the chapter turned out longer than I planned. And anyway, don't complain; where did you see an author who would write you 5,000 words every day? Yeah, that's what I was saying. So, plot-wise, the Whisperers got really upset and took a dump on Alex. Alex is angry and all that. As for the rest, those are spoilers. Now it's time to eat. Peace, love, and you just had to follow the damn train, CJ!)
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