Having jumped out of the car under which a bomb had been planted in time, Alex managed at the very last moment to shield Tifa and Claudia from the erupting hell. Flying farther and farther from the epicenter by the inertia of the shockwave, Alex twisted in the air and slammed with his back into the concrete wall of the tunnel, fully cushioning the impact for the two girls. He crashed into the wall with such wild force that a web of deep cracks instantly spread across the concrete.
Alex felt his eyelid nervously twitching from the growing, wild irritation. Looking at the car engulfed in flames and smashed to metal scrap, Alex experienced such furious rage that he had to apply all his strength so as not to snap and smash everything around. In that very second when he first spotted the bomb under the undercarriage, he already clearly understood: someone had leaked information about the upcoming attack.
And this "someone" was clearly not Don Corneo, who had burned in the crematorium, and definitely not Leslie with the Big Three of the Wall Market. Taking a deep breath, Alex lowered his gaze to Tifa and Claudia. Both girls quickly came to their senses after the explosion and rose. Claudia helped Tifa to her feet, after which both froze, looking at the burning-out car.
Looking at this nightmare, Tifa felt a sticky, cold horror inside from the thought that they had nearly turned into a pile of ash if Alex had not spotted the planted explosive in time. Irritably snorting at the sight, Claudia turned to Alex and extended a hand to him, helping him rise to his feet. Standing up, Alex casually beat out the flames from the edge of his black coat, which had managed to get slightly scorched during the explosion.
"Tifa, where did you get the information about the smuggling tunnels?" Alex asked in a dry tone, fishing a thin cigar from his pocket and clicking a lighter.
"Biggs said he traded this map for water purification filters from one trader… From Garrett… And why are you asking?" Tifa answered, brushing dust off her clothes and turning her head to Alex.
"This Garrett is fucked when we get back. I'll personally strangle him," Alex stated with hard irritation and with all his might kicked the concrete wall, leaving a clear imprint of his boot on it, after which he stepped forward along the tunnel.
"Can you properly explain what Garrett has to do with this?! What did he do wrong?!" Tifa asked again, catching up with Alex and trying to grasp the logic in his sharp reaction.
"You were sold out completely… You can never trust traders from the Black Market. If there's profit on the horizon, they'll gladly sell anyone out completely. You yourself should have known this perfectly well, Tifa," Claudia explained in a calm tone, matching their pace and walking on Alex's right.
Hearing Claudia's explanation, Tifa instantly realized the entire picture: Garrett had indeed sold them all out completely to Shinra, selling them the information. And now it dawned on her how suspicious this deal had looked — leaking a valuable smuggling route for just ten miserable water purification filters.
Boiling with anger because of such clumsy betrayal, Tifa was fully in agreement with Alex's intention to personally strangle Garrett upon return — if, of course, this scoundrel had not already fled the Seventh Sector, tucking his tail and grabbing a fat payoff from Shinra. Walking along the empty railway tunnel, Alex quickly came to his senses and regained his composure.
He was far from unaccustomed to finding himself at the epicenter of a detonation — after all, a couple of times he himself had managed to accidentally blow himself up when once again clashing in brutal scraps with the avatars of Nyan-Nyan. Waving away these memories, Alex felt how Claudia sharply pressed her palm to his chest, forcing him to freeze.
Claudia was squinting into the darkness of the tunnel, already holding with one hand the massive hilt of the Buster Sword. Looking in the same direction, Alex saw how a dozen flying combat robot-drones of Shinra were rushing straight at them at full speed.
"Here come the guests. Looks like they won't let us just stroll through the tunnel today," Claudia said, with a heavy metallic hum drawing the Buster Sword from behind her back.
"Could these Shinra idiots have waited at least a couple of minutes… Ah, fine, let's quickly recycle this scrap into metal and go look for our thug. Are you ready, Tifa?" Alex said in a tired tone, with a snap of his fingers sending the smoldering cigar aside.
"Ready as ever!" Tifa responded in a calm tone, briefly nodding, clenching her fists in leather gloves and instantly taking a combat stance.
The moment the flying robot-drones approached attack range, Claudia made a sharp dash forward, instantly closing the distance. The moment she found herself up close, the drones synchronously opened a barrage of fire from their machine guns. Covering herself from the lead hail with the wide blade of the Buster Sword, Claudia jumped, easily vaulting over the line of machines.
Finding herself behind the opponents' backs, she deftly shifted the huge sword to one hand and with a powerful circular swing sliced several drones in half at once. The surviving tin cans immediately switched to Claudia, who had ended up closest of all. But before they managed to deliver another volley, Tifa jumped up on them from behind. Soaring into the air, Tifa hard-landed right on the body of one of the robots and immediately punched through its metal armor with a bare fist, permanently putting the machine out of commission.
Not letting the downed drone collapse, she pushed off from it, performed another somersault in the air and landed precisely on the next target. While both girls virtuously and quickly dismantled the robots into spare parts, Alex walked toward them with a lazy gait, not taking his hands out of the pockets of his black coat. Several drones immediately spotted the new target and redirected their machine guns at Alex, opening fire to kill.
Seeing that lead was flying at him, Alex did not even slow his step — his body simply began jerking from side to side, leaving the bullets plowing the concrete behind him. Lazily yawning right under the fire, Alex took several heavy metal coins from his pocket and clenched them between his fingers. The moment he directed his palm at the nearest drone, bluish electric arcs cracked and flared around his hand.
Slightly smirking, Alex launched the first coin with such monstrous speed that it left a bright trail of superheated plasma in the air after itself. The coin pierced the robot-drone through, leaving a smoking melted hole right in the center of its body. Continuing to smile, Alex aimed his hand at the remaining drones and with clicks sent another series of coins from his improvised railgun.
Having dealt with the last tin can, Claudia out of the corner of her eye managed to notice exactly how Alex had smashed his opponents. Slightly narrowing her eyes, she mentally decided that he was using Lightning Materia in such an elaborate way. The method seemed damnably effective to her, and she noted that it was worth trying this trick at leisure, because such a technique would clearly come in handy in battle.
"Looks like that's all… Only where's our loud thug?" Alex said thoughtfully, approaching Tifa and Claudia and deftly rolling a gold Chocobo coin between his fingers.
"Most likely he immediately rushed to the needed technical passage and is already waiting for us there," Tifa said, pointing a finger toward the deep tunnel.
"No, he's very close… Just listen," Claudia intervened, sharply raising her palm and letting them know that her keen hearing had caught some noise.
The moment Claudia finished speaking, Barret's fierce battle cry, accompanied by a long machine-gun burst, echoed through the hollow tunnel. Understanding that their thug had locked horns with someone not far away at all, Tifa and Claudia instantly tore from the spot and ran toward the noise. Watching how the girls quickly raced ahead, Alex unhurriedly leaned toward the broken robot-drone and without extra effort tore the machine gun from its body.
Humming a simple melody under his breath, Alex pulled the remaining ammunition from the machine. Hiding almost all the cartridges in his pockets and leaving only one in his hand, Alex looked straight into a hidden lens nearby and daringly raised his middle finger. Wanting to anger the observing Heidegger even more, he with a snap of his finger flung the bullet at the camera, smashing the optics into fine crumbs.
Having dealt with the surveillance, Alex instantly vanished from his place and in that same second appeared right behind the backs of the running Tifa and Claudia, who did not even notice that he had been lagging. Continuing to race toward where Barret's shout was coming from, they suddenly heard the heavy rumble of a rapidly approaching train. Spotting the blinding light of the searchlight in the darkness of the tunnel, Alex on the fly caught Tifa by the waist and in a powerful jump vaulted to the other side of the railway tracks.
Claudia deftly jumped after him over the high concrete fence a second before the composition whistled past. Setting Tifa down on the concrete, Alex quickly looked around and immediately assessed their location. Patting her on the shoulder, he let her know that they needed to sharply pick up the pace. Briefly nodding, Tifa rushed forward toward the furious cries that could be heard.
Continuing the run through the narrow tunnels and dodging passing compositions, Alex unexpectedly noted: Barret's yells were not approaching, but quite the opposite — rapidly moving away. Realizing this setup, Alex without extra talk scooped Tifa and Claudia into his arms, intending to run a little faster before Barret found himself even more problems.
"I'm perfectly capable of running myself!" Claudia protested, actively trying to free herself from Alex's grip.
"You can, but not nearly as fast as I can run… And now shut up, or you'll bite your tongue on the turns," Alex smirked, exhaling a thick cloud of white vapor through his teeth.
"Then hurry up! Barret seems to have really gotten into serious trouble," Tifa said insistently, more tightly wrapping her legs around Alex's body so as not to fly off at the wild speed.
Making sure that Claudia and Tifa were holding on tightly enough, Alex exhaled another thick cloud of white vapor. In that same second fierce flame roared and flared around his body. Slightly leaning his torso forward, Alex with a roar tore from the spot, racing at top speed toward the distinctly audible cry of Barret. From such a wild and sharp surge Claudia and Tifa pressed even harder into Alex. Feeling the insane speed at which they were racing, Claudia turned her head back and saw that he was leaving deep, flame-engulfed tracks on the concrete behind him.
Tifa, on the contrary, was covering her face with her hands from the onrushing hurricane stream of air, trying through the noise to listen to Barret's yells and assess the remaining distance. At the same time she could not help admitting: this crazy run in Alex's arms painfully resembled a wild ride on the Speed Square attraction in the famous Gold Saucer amusement park.
For a brief moment a bright thought flashed in Tifa's head: how much she would like to go at least for a short while to this wonderful place with all her friends, just to rest and laugh, instead of risking her life practically every day. Shaking her head to knock out the extra sentimentality, Tifa instantly collected herself — she could dream about a vacation in her free time.
Continuing to race with the girls in his arms, Alex heard that Barret's yells were becoming closer and closer, and the dense crackle of machine-gun bursts more distinct. A couple of moments later the outlines of an adjoining tunnel connecting the railway tracks appeared before him. Understanding that they had arrived at the needed place, Alex began sharply braking, with a screech and sparks sliding along the metal rails and leaving a long fiery trail behind him.
The moment he listened for an instant to the surrounding sounds, from the opposite side rolled Barret's choice furious swearing, who was not restraining himself in expressions at all, describing in all colors everything he thought about Shinra's iron. And right after this cry followed another volley. Turning her head, Tifa saw Barret, who was single-handedly holding the defense against the advancing combat robot-drones. Jumping down from Alex's arms, Tifa ran up to the metal partition.
"Barret! Are you okay?!" Tifa shouted, gripping the railing with her hands and looking at Barret with alarm.
"Tifa! Where the hell have you been?! Your help would be very welcome right now!" Barret roared in response and continued shooting at the drones, for a second turning his head toward Tifa.
"So use the EMP built into your arm already, you muscular idiot!" Alex barked, standing side by side with Tifa and giving Barret an absolutely empty, tired look.
"EMP?! Where the fuck can there even be such crap in my new beautiful arm?!" Barret roared irritably, forced to take cover from a dense machine-gun burst behind a massive stone column.
"Oh, Father… Stop sending me complete idiots as friends already," Alex muttered with a groan, covering his face with his palm.
"Damn you, just tell me how to turn this crap on, kid! Or drag your ass over here and do it yourself, or explain! You'll complain about life later!" Barret roared, aiming his cyber-arm toward Alex.
"Fuck… Look: in machine-gun mode on your arm there's a touch panel! See it?!" Alex shouted, on the fly scooping Tifa by the waist and pulling her into cover from the covering fire.
"Yes! I see it! What's next?!" Barret shouted, quickly finding the needed interface with his fingers, since he had already been clicking it to change ammunition type.
"Select Lightning Materia mode, and then switch the toggle to EMP position!" Alex gave the instruction at the top of his voice and with a snap of his finger sent another cartridge exactly into a flying drone.
Hearing Alex's instructions, Barret immediately stared at the touch panel on his cyber-arm and began frantically running his finger over the panel, trying to find the needed section. While Barret was figuring out how to switch the firing mode to pulsed EMP emission, Alex continued covering Tifa on the other side of the adjoining tunnel, along the way flinging bullets exactly into the flying robot-drones, of which there were becoming more with every second.
Understanding how strongly that idiot Heidegger watching them through the screens was currently raging, Alex could not hold back a short chuckle, sending another cartridge exactly into the body of the next drone. Hiding under Alex's side, Tifa heard this sudden laughter and could not restrain herself from asking what had amused him so much right in the middle of the battle. Hearing the answer, Tifa only heavily sighed and lightly punched Alex in the stomach with her fist, calling on him not to get distracted from the matter.
Claudia at that moment was stubbornly blocking the endless hail of bullets with her Buster Sword, thinking only about how to more quickly break through to the other side of the tunnel. Narrowing her eyes, she spotted a technical bridge running right above the high crossbeam dividing both tunnels. Waiting a second until the robots' burst jammed on reload, Claudia sharply turned and rushed to the technical ladder.
In a couple of jumps flying up to the very top, she raced at full speed along the bridge, with wide swings of the Buster Sword knocking down the oncoming drones. Finding herself above the other side of the tunnel, Claudia vaulted over the railing and hard-landed right next to Barret.
"How much longer?!" Claudia asked, taking cover behind the stone column side by side with Barret.
"Almost! This little idiot forgot to warn that this crap also has to fucking charge!" Barret spat irritably, demonstrating to her the flashing touch panel on the cyber-arm.
"I hear everything, you muscular gorilla! Maybe I also needed to build a soft ice-cream dispensing mode into your damn arm so you could treat Marlene?!" Alex shouted from the other side, flinging a bullet right toward Barret.
"If you can — do it, little idiot! And if not — shut up and keep shooting down these tin cans!" Barret snapped, sticking his arm out of cover and showing Alex the middle finger.
"Guys, stop arguing! You'll still have time to tear each other's throats out after we deal with the robots!" Tifa shouted, instantly clamping Alex's mouth with her palms so that he would not start pouring choice three-story swearing at Barret.
While Alex and Barret continued to banter with gusto, Claudia cold-bloodedly waited for the moment of the next reload of the robot-drones. She knew perfectly well what an EMP pulse was, and was aware: one powerful discharge would be enough to instantly turn this entire flying armada into a pile of useless scrap. Casting a glance at the touch panel on Barret's cyber-arm, Claudia spotted that the scale was already filled to seventy percent.
Understanding that they needed to buy only half a minute, Claudia caught the distinct dry click of the reload and instantly jumped out from behind the stone column. Making a rapid dash, she pushed off from the concrete partition and soared high into the air. Drawing level with the flying machines, Claudia spun in the air and with one wide swing of the Buster Sword instantly cut down several opponents at once.
Falling onto the concrete floor, she deftly rolled and instantly hid behind the nearest cover exactly at the moment when the drones finished reloading. Claudia found herself exactly opposite Alex and Tifa, who were on the other side of the partition. Meeting Alex's gaze, Claudia with several short gestures asked him to cover her while she changed position. Raising a thumb, Alex immediately flung a bullet. The thrown bullet instantly pierced several robot-drones through, forcing the entire remaining swarm to switch attention to Alex.
Understanding that the tin cans had been distracted, Claudia instantly jumped out from behind the concrete fence and with one clean swing cut down another group of machines. Barret at that time continued to sit it out behind the stone column, nervously hypnotizing the touch panel and watching how the last percentages of EMP were being pushed on the display. The moment the coveted figure "100%" flashed on the screen, Barret dissolved into a bass furious laugh and flew out from behind cover, aiming his massive machine gun right into the center of the robot-drone swarm.
"Hey, Shinra scrap metal, say 'CHEE-EE-ESE', you bastards!" Barret roared with a wild smirk while a humming electromagnetic sphere formed with a crack at the end of his barrel.
Dissolving into laughter, Barret released the humming electromagnetic sphere right into the center of the swarm of flying robot-drones. The electromagnetic clot instantly reached the target and detonated, sending a powerful electric discharge in all directions. In that same moment all the technical lighting in the tunnel flickered and lit up again, and the blinded robot-drones showered onto the floor in a cloud, heavily sparking and smoking.
Seeing how just one shot had instantly multiplied dozens of Shinra combat machines by zero, Barret laughed even louder and from wild delight kissed his brand-new cyber-arm, which he had against his own will received only yesterday morning. The fact that with this arm he could calmly hug his little Marlene was in itself a huge plus. But the fact that it had also turned out to be such a deadly weapon became a damnably pleasant bonus for him.
While Barret was thoroughly rejoicing at the upgrade, Alex and Tifa peeked out from behind cover, assessing the mountain of destroyed tin cans. Stroking his chin, Alex could not hold back and mentally patted himself on the shoulder for such a successful engineering masterpiece. Joyfully nodding to himself, Alex immediately grabbed the massive metal partition and tore it out of its mountings with meat, opening a passage to the other side of the adjoining tunnel.
Throwing the fence aside, Alex helped Tifa climb over the remaining railing, after which he easily jumped after her. Meeting Claudia's gaze, Alex insolently smirked. Perfectly understanding what this satisfied look meant, Claudia habitually rolled her eyes and without malice called Alex an idiot. Chuckling at her reaction, Alex winked at Claudia and transferred his gaze to the beaming Barret.
"Kid, your toy is simply something! Now I'm even interested in what else this arm can do!" Barret said with a grin, returning his cyber-arm to its habitual state.
"Well, then read the instruction at leisure. I specially built it into the firmware for such idiots," Alex waved off in a lazy tone, lighting a thin cigar and exhaling a stream of gray smoke right toward Barret.
"Go to hell, kid," Barret answered with a smirk, demonstratively raising the middle finger in front of Alex's face.
"Just don't start everything over again… We still don't know whether new drones will show up here or not," Tifa intervened with a heavy sigh, standing exactly between Alex and Barret.
"What difference does it make?! Let these Shinra bastards send even a whole factory of their robots! I'll turn them into a pile of scrap in an instant with my baby!" Barret laughed boastfully, once again kissing his cyber-arm.
Watching how Barret thoroughly boasted about his brand-new cyber-arm, Alex could not help recalling Maine — he had been just as unrestrainedly proud of his Chrome, especially when he had obtained a fresh Sandevistan. Continuing to smile warmly at his memories, Alex still decided to slightly spoil Barret's mood and with an imperturbable look reminded him that he was actually supposed to take immunosuppressants. Barret's victorious laughter instantly died out.
Staring at Alex, Barret immediately began proving that he no longer needed any pills, because he felt simply excellent. But Alex stood his ground, reminding that the course of blockers needed to be strictly taken for a minimum of two days. Tifa also nodded understandingly and turned to Barret, confirming in a strict tone that he was obliged to take the medicine. Confronted with such double pressure, Barret with open irritation on his face pulled a pack from his pocket. Extracting one tablet, Barret demonstratively tossed it into his mouth and with a crunch chewed it right before everyone's eyes.
Shaking his head at this childish stunt, Alex began looking around, trying to orient himself. His gaze immediately latched onto Claudia, standing by the wall near the technical map of the tunnels. Approaching closer, Alex leaned toward the scheme and began running his finger along the lines, trying to build their current route. While Alex and Claudia were sorting out the tangle of paths, Tifa and Barret approached them.
"We're right here now… When we jumped out of the car, we were thrown approximately between the Fourth Sector and the Main Support. And now we're standing on the adjoining branch, and from here we can cut straight to the Fifth Sector," Tifa said, running her finger over the dusty map and showing the needed passage.
"Exactly! And that means it's time to proceed to Plan E!" Barret announced with a satisfied smirk, resoundingly clapping his palm on the technical map.
"Plan E?" Claudia asked again, turning her head to Barret.
"Plan A we had for the case if everything goes like clockwork. Arrive at the station, reach the plant, go down, shut off the Mako flow and climb into the reactor itself. And the final touch — compress the reactor into a neat metal sphere!" Barret delivered with a clenched fist and an extended thumb.
"And what's with Plan E then? Because in your hideout I saw only Plan A laid out," Alex asked, exhaling cigar smoke, and waved the thin cigar right in front of Barret's nose.
"Everything else is backup options for the case if the main plan starts cracking at the seams. After you, Dean and Aerith smashed the Mako Reactor in the First Sector into dust, Biggs understood that we vitally need a clear algorithm for the case of complete failure," Tifa gently explained, putting her hands behind her back and looking up at Alex from below.
"Right on! Backup options for any shitty setup. In order of priority: B, C, D and so on," Barret added with a proud smirk, demonstratively bending his fingers.
"And which of them is the very last?" Claudia inquired, folding her arms across her chest.
"The last one is exactly E…" Tifa dropped with a sigh, slightly shaking her head.
"Well, just fucking great… Fine, if everything finally goes to shit, I'll invent something on the fly," Alex muttered, rubbing the back of his head, and again exhaled a thick cloud of gray smoke.
"Ha-ha-ha! Don't let us down, kid! And now forward to our goal, Biggs should already have marked a safe route for us!" Barret laughed with a smirk, jumping right onto the rails and waving his hand into the depths of the tunnel.
Continuing to laugh in a bass, Barret with wide strides rushed into the depths of the dark tunnel. Watching his departing figure, Claudia heavily sighed and jumped onto the rails, following the thug. Tifa lightly patted Alex on the shoulder and immediately hastily moved after the others. Exhaling a stream of gray cigarette smoke through his nose, Alex before leaving turned his head to the lens of a hidden camera and once again demonstratively raised his middle finger to Heidegger, who apparently liked to behave like a peeping pervert.
At that very same moment in the observation headquarters of the security service a ringing, deathly silence reigned. The grunts in turn fearfully transferred their gazes either to the main screen, where the image of Alex covered with interference and his explicit gesture was displayed, or to Heidegger himself. The director of the security service was squeezing the wooden armrest of his chair with such wild force that it had already gone into deep cracks and was ready to crumble into dust.
Not a single one of the grunts uttered a word, mortally afraid of provoking another flash of rage from their boss. Ready to explode any second from the overwhelming anger, Heidegger suddenly heard the loud trill of his PHS. Slightly catching his breath and pulling himself together, Heidegger lowered his gaze to the screen and saw that President Shinra himself was calling him. With an authoritative wave of his hand driving the grunts out of the office, Heidegger accepted the call.
Without wasting time, he briefly reported the situation, assuring the leadership that the operation was developing strictly according to the planned scenario, even if with minor discrepancies on the ground. Finishing the conversation on the PHS, Heidegger leaned his torso forward, meticulously peering into the figure of Alex covered with digital static, hiding in the depths of the tunnel. The director knew perfectly well who exactly was hiding behind this barrier of interference — the guy who literally last night had arranged a whole pogrom at the plant in the Seventh Sector, and on top of that had again taken control of all ordinary and even closed telecommunication systems of Shinra in order to stage his concert.
Knowing what impressive resources his opponent possessed, Heidegger only coldly snorted, recalling the recent assurances of the specialists from Shinra's Technical Department, who had sworn on their lives that they were about to intercept the hacker signal. Dissolving into a malicious chuckle, Heidegger nonchalantly leaned back in the leather chair and narrowed his eyes at the burning monitors.
"Well, play a little more, you scum… Think you're the only one who knows how to intercept signals and control networks? Heh. Don't even hope. Shinra has always stood and will stand above everyone," Heidegger said in an even, icy tone, not taking his heavy gaze off the flickering screen.
Walking along the gloomy tunnel after Barret and Tifa, Alex with a smirk scratched his ear, perfectly understanding who exactly was right now cursing him with foam at the mouth at the monitors. This caused him only sincere amusement — after all, in his time even the almighty Arasaka had never managed to track his trail after he together with Kiwi had brazenly entered through the main entrance into their main headquarters in Night City.
Hearing another quiet chuckle from Alex, Claudia turned her head in his direction and inquired what had amused him again. In response Alex with a smile noted: while they were thoroughly having fun here, the others were most likely simply sitting in Jessie's parents' house and calmly waiting for evening to set in order to move out to the Mako Reactor in the Seventh Sector. Thinking over his words, Claudia silently nodded — there was nothing to argue about here. Slightly stretching, Alex suggested to Claudia that they catch up with Barret and Tifa, who had already managed to go a little ahead.
Having spent another half hour wandering through the tangled underground interchanges, Tifa suddenly latched her gaze onto a conventional sign that Biggs was supposed to have left to mark the needed route. Hiding behind a partition, Tifa pointed a finger at the bright graffiti of a dog in a military helmet that was displayed on the wall behind the mesh fence on the other side of the tunnel. Seeing the needed mark, Barret without extra thought kicked open the heavy metal door with his foot and was the first to step toward the signpost.
"We're almost at the goal. An old depot is located nearby here. What we're looking for is right inside," Barret rumbled, picking up the pace in order to vault over the rails before another composition flew out of the darkness.
"And this is that very secret passage that Garrett reported about?" Alex clarified in a lazy tone, carelessly leaning his back against the stone partition.
"Don't you dare even mention the name of this bastard in my presence! As soon as we finish everything here, I'll plant my boot so deep in this traitor's ass that the laces will stick out right from his nose!" Barret roared in a rage and with all his might slammed his fist into the concrete wall, leaving a deep dent on it.
"Get in line. First I'll personally demonstrate to him under what interesting angles human limbs can bend. And only then do with him whatever your heart desires," Alex said with a wide smile, taking a strawberry candy from his pocket and unwrapping the wrapper.
"We could also simply throw him onto the Junkyard to the local hungry monsters and see whether he manages to crawl out of there at all," Claudia added in a completely calm, even tone, leaning her back against the concrete and crossing her arms on her chest.
"Guys, maybe we should just forget about this guy? He might already have managed to flee to another Sector," Tifa tried to intervene, who clearly took no pleasure in listening to the details of the upcoming reprisal against the Black Market trader.
"That doesn't matter. In such matters it's better to play it safe in order to cut any problems off at the root," Claudia cut off coldly, transferring a dry gaze to Tifa.
Hearing Claudia's dry words, Tifa only heavily sighed and did not continue the argument. Deep down she understood perfectly well what catastrophic consequences Garrett's action could have led to. And she had not the slightest desire to justify this miserable trader from the Black Market who without a twinge of conscience had sold them out completely to Shinra — and she certainly did not intend to restrain the others from a cruel reprisal against the traitor.
Continuing to stand near the technical stop, Alex took elegant pocket watches from the inner pocket of his coat and clicked the lid, checking the time. Noticing that they were still strictly adhering to the planned schedule, Alex proposed making a short break for a couple of minutes in order to catch their breath before the dash forward — in case some other unpleasant surprise awaited them further along the path.
Claudia, Tifa and Barret did not refuse Alex's proposal to take a pause: none of them knew for certain whether Shinra would decide to make another interception attempt or lie low for a while. Putting the pocket watches back into the inner pocket, Alex carelessly leaned his back against the concrete partition, silently waiting while the others rested a little and recovered their strength.
To be continued...
(Hmm, maybe I thought I could fit the entire passage to the Mako Reactor into one chapter, but it turns out I only managed to fit part of the journey. Well, that doesn't matter, it's all about the plot. Boom-boom-boom. So, what's next, hmmm. Well, arriving at the Reactor, and a possible concert, I suppose. I'm not sure about that yet, since it might drag on for another chapter before we get to the real Shinra shit. Okay, time to eat. Peace, love, and trains are cool.)
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