Chapter 852 - 851: Peculiar Battle vs. a Crazy Robot and Shinra HQ Jailbreak."

Some time before the helipad on the seventieth floor was treacherously detonated and Alex together with Claudia tore off and fell downward, the entire remaining part of the group rather quickly reached the panoramic elevator in order at maximum speed to descend into the main lobby. Having crammed into the spacious glass elevator, Dean was still continuing tensely to think about that very robot which Alex had mentioned in farewell.

Least of all in the world did he at this moment want to get involved again in a prolonged fight with an iron pile of junk and waste the already critically limited time. And while they were smoothly descending on the glass elevator lower and lower, Dean even for one short moment naively thought that there would actually be no robot here and that Alex had simply been mistaken.

However Dean, as usually happens with him, completely forgot what kind of "outstanding" luck he actually had and how "catastrophically" he was fortunate in such critical situations. And exactly at the moment when their elevator was passing the sixty-fifth floor, Nanaki suddenly stared at the second glass elevator that was smoothly descending from above strictly parallel to them.

Approaching a little closer to the edge of the transparent cabin, Red slightly narrowed his eyes, trying with all his strength to make out exactly what was inside the neighbouring elevator. And the moment he clearly discerned the massive Shinra combat turret standing there, he instantly understood that the entire group had found itself in a quite nasty and dangerous situation.

"Hey! Everyone quickly turn around!" Red loudly growled, attracting everyone's attention to himself.

"What happened, Red? What did you see there?" Tifa asked with sincere interest, puzzledly lowering her gaze to Nanaki.

"We have extremely uninvited guests," Red said in a gloomy tone, expressively waving his muzzle toward the neighbouring elevator descending right above them.

"Oh fuck no… Simply fucking disaster! Everyone hit the floor right now!" Dean irritably cursed, immediately with a sharp motion pressing Aerith and Yuffie to the floor, who were standing closest to him.

The moment Dean forcibly pulled Aerith and Yuffie downward and ducked himself, a multitude of turrets on the rotating manipulators of the combat robot began madly spinning up. And barely had Aerith, Tifa and Barrett managed tightly to press themselves to the floor when the robot opened massive hurricane fire from all its barrels.

Acutely feeling how right above his head a dense fiery stream of bullets was rushing, Dean feverishly began figuring out how they were to wriggle out of this deadly trap before both elevators finally drew level, or — what was even worse — before their cabin under this hail of lead turned into crumbs and fell apart into pieces. Pressing to the floor, Dean unexpectedly remembered a vivid fragment from a film he had watched at leisure, and in his head instantly matured a mad plan.

Sharply flipping onto his back, Dean pulled out his pistol and aimed the barrel exactly at the ceiling of the cabin. Loudly shouting for everyone to hold onto something as tightly as possible, Dean began methodically shooting upward, aiming right at the supporting steel cable. After the third precise shot the elevator tangibly jerked and at that same second tore downward when the severed cable with a whistle snapped.

Perfectly understanding that the rapidly falling elevator needed urgently to be braked before anyone turned into a bloody pancake smeared across the concrete, Dean deftly jumped forward and with full force drove the Blade of Cain right into the wall. Pressing with all his strength on the hilt of the Blade of Cain, Dean tried to brake the elevator racing downward before the cabin finally flew apart from the impact.

Soon rang out a deafening screech and crash — the elevator cabin with a crack tightly jammed on the fifty-ninth floor. Still holding the hilt of the Blade of Cain so that the damaged elevator would not plunge further into the abyss of the shaft, Dean with his free hand forcefully flung open the smashed panels, calling on everyone immediately to get outside.

Hearing Dean's command, no one waited until the neighbouring elevator with the robot descended to them or their own cabin finally tore downward. Rising to his feet, Barrett with powerful hands seized the second panel and with a crack flung it open, helping Aerith, Tifa and Yuffie more quickly to jump out onto the solid floor of the floor. The last to jump deftly out of the cabin was Red, leaving Barrett and Dean still holding the jammed panels.

"Barrett, man, now it's your turn! Jump out quickly!" Dean shouted, expressively waving his chin at Barrett and calling on him to hurry.

"If I leave now, the panels will immediately snap shut back. Let's get out simultaneously," Barrett said in an extremely serious tone, turning to Dean and with his entire demeanour making it clear that he would not leave him here alone.

"Damn it, I'm literally holding this goddamn elevator up alone! So first you, and I'll go right after you!" Dean shouted with habitual exaggeration, pointing at the Blade of Cain which had pierced the cabin through and tightly driven into the sturdy wall of the building.

"Get out both simultaneously, we'll hold the doors!" Tifa quickly intervened, instantly seizing the elevator panels together with Yuffie and Aerith and giving Dean and Barrett the possibility to jump out.

"Just hurry… These heavy doors are really hard to hold!" Aerith spoke with noticeable tension in her voice, with all her strength pulling the closing metal structures.

"Excellent, then let's go on the count of three! Are you ready, Barrett?" Dean answered, nodding his head, and turned to Barrett, expecting from him full readiness.

"Ready! Let's go on your signal, man!" Barrett pronounced, nodding in response, and leaned his body forward, preparing at any moment to make the jump from the emergency elevator.

Meeting gazes and quickly coordinating their further actions, Dean and Barrett simultaneously leaned their bodies forward, preparing with a single yank to jump out of the emergency elevator. And exactly at the moment when they were already preparing for the jump, from above came a painfully familiar metallic sound of madly spinning-up turrets.

Casting an alarmed glance toward the shaft, they saw how the elevator cabin in which the enormous combat robot was located was rapidly approaching them. Understanding that there was not a second left for reflection, Dean and Barrett simultaneously jumped out of the cabin. The moment they landed on the floor, Aerith, Yuffie and Tifa immediately released the panels, and the elevator cabin with a deafening crash tore into the bottomless shaft.

Having found themselves outside immediate danger, Dean first of all carefully checked his little man Steve, who the whole time had been comfortably hanging under his T-shirt. Having made sure that the little Tonberry was in complete order and had not accidentally been forgotten in the falling elevator, Dean lightly patted his cute little face and emitted a long, heavy sigh of relief.

But no one was allowed to relax — the ominous hum of the spinning-up turrets was rapidly approaching. Sharply turning their heads, they saw that the robot on the neighbouring elevator had already practically fully descended to the fifty-ninth floor. Barely had the cabin with the machine stopped when the turrets on its manipulators spun up with new force, preparing to open hurricane fire on the group.

And before the robot managed to release the first burst, Dean with full force pushed Barrett behind a massive concrete column, with a light kick sent Red in the same direction, after which he instantly hid himself after them. Tifa at the very last moment lightning-fast drew Aerith and Yuffie after herself, taking cover behind another column on the opposite side of the hall. And at that same second the robot began blasting from all its turrets, literally smashing the surroundings into splinters.

After a short but incredibly intense burst of fire rang out a characteristic metallic click clearly indicating that the guns had gone into reload. Realising that this was their only real chance for a counterattack, Barrett instantly transformed his cyber-arm into a heavy machine gun and resolutely leaned out from behind cover. Aiming the machine gun at the robot, Barrett opened fire in shotgun mode, using powerful explosive shells. But all the explosive shot with a dull ring struck against the dense energy shield of the robot, not even scratching its armour.

"You're fucking got to be kidding me!" Barrett irritably blurted out, staring in shock at the invulnerable machine and slowly lowering the smoking machine gun.

"Stop staring at this metal junk! Run right now!" Dean thunderously commanded, immediately tearing from his place and racing with all his strength toward the spacious observation hall.

"Why is this cursed thing so persistent?! Even the wild Harpies didn't behave so stubbornly when I accidentally stole a couple of eggs from their nest!" Yuffie shouted offendedly, on the run deftly jumping over a wide obstacle in the form of massive leather sofas.

"You can't just 'accidentally' steal eggs from guarded Harpy nests, Yuffie," Red spoke with absolute calm in his voice, synchronously vaulting over the sofas after Yuffie.

"You can! By the way, I was wildly hungry when I was travelling to Midgar on a secret mission!" Yuffie desperately howled, jumping over yet another obstacle and desperately trying to break away from the pursuing robot before it opened fire again.

"Harpies actually live high on steep slopes… How could one even accidentally get lost and climb up there?" Aerith asked in surprise on the move, trying not to lag behind Tifa running ahead.

"Girls, less empty words and more moving your legs! The moment this iron thing finishes reloading, it will immediately tear after us! Our main goal is the service elevator!" Dean shouted rather loudly while running ahead, expressively pointing with his hand at the escalator leading to the observation atrium of the fifty-eighth floor where the elevator leading downward was located.

Running exactly in the direction Dean was pointing, the entire group quickly reached the wide railings, and they were already fully ready to descend downward when right behind their backs rang out a booming, characteristic sound resembling the rapid accumulation of energy. Sharply turning back, Dean with horror saw that one of the central turrets of the robot had begun brightly glowing, accumulating a charge for a most powerful shot.

Not losing a second on reflection, Dean at the top of his voice shouted, calling on absolutely everyone immediately to jump downward right through the railings. Barely had Dean's desperate cry sounded when everyone reflexively turned around and with their own eyes saw that the robot was aiming at them something incredibly deadly.

Tifa instantly seized Aerith by the waist and without hesitation jumped over the railings downward onto the platform of the fifty-eighth floor. After her absolutely all the remaining members of the squad quickly vaulted over the railing, not at all intending on their own hide to check exactly with what this iron thing intended to blast them.

And barely had they flown over the railings when right above their heads with a whistle flashed a blindingly thick laser beam which in a single instant cut through the sturdy support columns and part of the flooring of the fifty-ninth floor. Seeing how the destructive laser had literally sawed the floor in two, everyone immediately nimbly sprang up from the cold floor and at the limit of their strength ran toward the service elevator in order to hide as quickly as possible.

But they did not even manage to run to the middle of the spacious hall when behind rang out a deafening crash — the robot at full speed smashed the railing and with a crack tumbled downward, along the way smashing the escalators into splinters. Beginning to feel wild irritation from the fact that the pursuing machine would not get lost, Dean finally began losing the remnants of patience and was ready right now personally to turn this cumbersome hulk into a pile of useless scrap metal.

With a sharp motion pulling the Blade of Cain from behind his back, Dean was already intending to rush into battle against the enemy when he suddenly heard a strange crackling sound as if somewhere on the floor a powerful short circuit had occurred.

After this crack across the entire steel body of the robot began convulsively sparking bright electric arcs, and the machine itself began behaving extremely inadequately: its heavy composite parts and manipulators with a screech began chaotically rotating in different directions.

Observing how the robot before their eyes was literally turning into a mad, deadly carousel, none of those present could understand what was even happening now and for what reason this had occurred. Dean completely lost his bearings — for he had been tuning himself to quickly deal with the robot in close combat and get out of this cursed place, but he had definitely not expected that the machine would suddenly go mad and begin spinning like a top.

"What… What is even happening with this robot?" Aerith asked in a completely stunned tone, absolutely not understanding the bizarre spectacle she was observing with her own eyes.

"Hell if I know! Maybe damned Skynet for once decided to go mad and start destroying robots instead of humans?" Dean pronounced with cheerful laughter, sending the Blade of Cain back into the sheath on his belt portupee.

"What if it simply finally broke after such a hard fall?" Yuffie thoughtfully pronounced, cutely pressing a finger to her lips and slightly tilting her head to the side.

"Heh! And I somehow knew that this goddamn Shinra is completely incapable of making anything normal. Vaunted combat robot, and in reality — an ordinary defective piece of garbage," Barrett spoke, demonstratively folding his arms across his broad chest, and contemptuously spat on the floor, once again sincerely expressing his deep disgust toward the corporation.

"Guys, we still better leave as soon as possible before this robot finally goes completely berserk and begins smashing everything around itself," Tifa quickly spoke, calling on everyone not to waste time, hurry to the elevator and get farther away from the broken mechanism.

When Tifa's sensible proposal to move further sounded, Red first tore from his place, rapidly running in the direction of the elevator. Dean, Barrett, Aerith and Yuffie also hurried after him, absolutely not wishing to wait for the moment when the enraged robot would finally stop going mad and begin a new attack.

But the moment they took only a few steps, the chaotically rotating robot emitted some strange, strained sound and suddenly froze dead in place. Having already first of all thought that the machine had miraculously recovered, the group witnessed an even stranger and more frightening event. Emitting the same horrific screech, the robot began madly "gunning" in place, with its massive tracks smashing the heavy marble tiles on the floor into splinters.

At this moment Dean finally lost his temper — overflowing with righteous anger, he on autopilot engaged the hidden power of Darkness, and his right arm instantly covered itself with dense black armour. At that second Dean absolutely did not care if his crushing blow accidentally cut the entire Shinra building into two neat halves; all he craved was finally once and for all to quiet this cursed mechanical psychopath.

And the moment Dean drew back his frost-covered arm for a powerful swing, the robot suddenly suspiciously tore from its place and at monstrous speed raced in a direction, smashing and sweeping any obstacles in its path, including load-bearing walls.

Raising an index finger upward, Dean was already preparing to curse selectively when rang out yet another deafening crash — the robot rammed yet another partition, after which a crushing explosion thundered. Leaning his body forward in order up close to examine the enormous hole in the wall left by the mad machine and now opening a view onto the night streets of Midgar, Dean completely froze in place, desperately feeling how his brains were melting from the surrealism of what was happening.

Sharply turning to the others, Dean began convulsively gesticulating with a finger in the air, desperately trying to catch at least one single censored word in order to describe all this absurdity, but from his mouth not a single sound flew out.

And not only Dean unsuccessfully tried to find at least some logical explanation for what was happening — even Barrett, who usually never in his life was shy of the most cutting and poisonous expressions toward Shinra, this time lost the gift of speech. Red silently raised a front paw, preparing to deliver some profound phrase, but immediately lowered it and cut himself short, understanding that in the given situation even he simply had no words.

Aerith, Tifa and Yuffie silently exchanged glances among themselves, wordlessly reading absolute amazement in each other's eyes. And while they as a whole crowd stood in stupefaction, trying to realise the next fit of mechanical madness, across the destroyed atrium of the fifty-eighth floor rang out the melodic quiet ring of the arrived service elevator. Only this long-awaited sound brought everyone out of the deep stupor, and the group hurried to climb into the spacious cabin in order as quickly as possible to leave this floor.

"This evening is becoming more and more fucking crazier and stranger with every cursed second…" Barrett spoke, heavily squeezing the bridge of his nose with his fingers, and heavily leaned his back against the metal wall of the elevator.

"Yeah, agree, not every day you see how a goddamn cool combat robot first turns into a deadly carousel and then suddenly decides to commit a suicidal salute," Dean pronounced cheerfully laughing and rubbed his tired forehead, fully realising the entire surrealism of this mad night.

"Come on, you needn't particularly thank… It was I who took this rampaging robot under full control and specially called the elevator for you," unexpectedly rang out Angel's calm voice from the speakers under the ceiling of the elevator.

"Who the fuck are you still? Decided to arrange a branch of 'Final Destination' for us and kill us by cutting the elevator cables?!" Dean shouted loudly, starting up, angrily pointing a finger at the crackling speaker under the ceiling.

"If I really wanted to finish you off, I would have done it long ago. My name is Angel…" Angel answered with a long, tired sigh, clearly not managing to finish her entire thought to the end.

"And then I myself, fuck your mother, am the Knight of Hell!" Dean sarcastically blurted out, demonstratively rolling his eyes and taking this for someone's stupid joke.

"Oh, just cut it out already with your dumb jokes, Choom. We all perfectly know your true nature and past," rang out in response with light, pealing laughter the familiar voice of Valerie, who perfectly knew all of Dean's secrets.

The moment these words sounded, Dean slightly coughed and froze: it instantly dawned on him that this mysterious stranger from the speaker was perfectly informed about his secret past which in this world absolutely no one was supposed to know. Comparing the facts, he quickly figured that the speaking girl was most likely that very younger sister of Alex about whom the latter had casually mentioned earlier.

The remaining members of the group, on the contrary, with lively interest stared at the crackling speaker under the ceiling of the elevator, listening to the sounds of girlish laughter and desperately trying to figure out who she was. For precisely this girl had just directly admitted that it was she who had taken under control the enraged robot and forced it to self-destruct, freeing them from the deadly threat.

Coughing and bringing his breathing back to normal, Dean attracted the general attention of the group and briefly waved his hand, showing the others that there was no need to worry — these were their reliable allies who had come to help. Hearing Dean's gesture, Tifa for a second deeply thought and again raised her gaze to the ceiling of the cabin.

She knew only one person in the entire vicinity who regularly used this specific little word for addressing people. In her memory instantly floated Alex's recent words about the fact that he had requested outside help for the evacuation of Jessie, Biggs and Wedge together with the rescued children.

Reflecting in this direction, Tifa laid a warm palm on the shoulder of Aerith standing nearby and quietly whispered her guess to her. Turning her head to Tifa, Aerith understandingly nodded, showing that she was thinking absolutely exactly the same. After which Aerith slightly leaned toward her friend, in a whisper reminding that just in case it was still worth directly clarifying whether they had correctly interpreted this clue.

"Choom?.. Wait, are you by chance not that very younger sister of Alex about whom he told us?" Tifa asked with a light shade of doubt in her voice, again raising her eyes right at the speaker under the ceiling.

"The very one. My name is Valerie, but for our own you can simply call me V. Ah yes, by the way: the kids and your friends we have already safely pulled out. Well, if of course not counting that small nuance that this chubby one very much wanted to return back into the hell in order to play superhero," Valerie answered with a light, charming laugh, while in the background distinctly was heard the offended and protesting voice of Wedge.

"Ha, well of course… Only our Wedge is capable of such recklessness. He always first does some stupidity and only then begins to think," Tifa pronounced with a sceptical sigh, completely not surprised by such predictable behaviour of Wedge.

"That's exactly why I quickly put him in his place and gave him a cuff so that even the thought wouldn't arise in him to pull such crap," Jessie unexpectedly intercepted the initiative, whose voice also came from the speaker, after which followed Valerie's irritated snort complaining that it had become too crowded in the van's cabin.

"Jessie! Thank God… So everything is completely fine with all of you? And the children are also safe?" Barrett spoke with loud, joyful laughter, with relief striking himself with a massive fist on the chest.

"All the children are in absolute safety. The main cell of Avalanche, of course, initially planned to take the Shinra headquarters by direct assault… But, let's say, they were met here not too politely, quickly turned around and forced to engage in the safe delivery of the children to the Fifth Sector," Biggs spoke with a light chuckle, quietly and embarrassedly coughing in order to conceal from them some too harsh details.

"Oh, glory to all the gods… The main thing is that the children didn't suffer," Aerith exhaled with deep relief, pressing her hands to her chest.

"That's it, enough chatting, everyone get the hell out of there right now! You're blocking our view here, and the space in the van isn't rubber!! And you inside there be extremely careful: at the main entrance right now some wild hubbub is going on. Some local bearded idiot is yelling at the top of his lungs all over the street. So I strongly advise looking for another path for escape. Wish you luck," Valerie irritably blurted out, after which the connection broke under the sounds of some scuffling, dull blows and dissatisfied groans of Biggs and Wedge.

When Valerie's last words sounded, it immediately became clear to absolutely all those present even without any detailed explanations what kind of yelling bearded idiot was raising a wild hubbub at the main entrance. For this hot-tempered man could only be General Heidegger, who simply physically was incapable of sitting still while in the Shinra headquarters such a large-scale uproar was occurring.

Exchanging glances among themselves, Dean first spoke and sensibly proposed: as soon as the elevator arrived, first thoroughly check the situation around, and then, if the path turned out blocked, use for escape some powerful transport exhibited as beautiful exhibits in the main lobby.

After all they were far from in that situation to get involved in a full-scale battle with an entire Shinra army right on the threshold. No one objected against this logical plan of Dean's, including Barrett, who always put the life and safety of his friends in the very first place.

Having coordinated the order of further actions, Dean tensely looked at the digital display where the floor numbers were rapidly changing, and saw that they had finally reached the fifth floor. Taking the pistol from the holster, Dean tightly leaned his back against the metal wall of the cabin in such a way that he would immediately open a good view of the elevator hall as soon as the doors slid apart. Barrett resolutely stood next to Dean and with a short wave of the hand made it clear to the girls that they should press against the opposite wall.

When the elevator with a ring arrived at the needed floor and its panels smoothly flung open, Dean first carefully looked out into the elevator hall, feverishly searching for an ambush. But the first thing that immediately struck his eye was the hall turned into ruins, and right in the very centre of the hall — the mutilated corpse of Azul with a completely crushed head and an already deeply soaked into the floor dried pool of blood. Understanding that the only danger in this place could be perhaps a suddenly revived headless corpse, Dean relaxedly turned to the others and commanded that it was possible calmly to exit.

"Just be careful, guys. Alex left a small memorable present here, so watch you don't stumble," Dean said with a crooked smirk, putting the pistol back into the holster and expressively pointing a finger at the lifeless body of Azul.

"What present still?.. Oh damn, so that's the present you meant…" Barrett puzzledly asked back, first exiting the cabin and immediately with his own eyes seeing the horrific destruction and the single mutilated corpse in the elevator hall.

"Probably we all really better not even ask exactly what happened here…" Tifa spoke, exiting the elevator with a strained smile, averting her eyes and sincerely trying not to look in the direction of Azul's headless body.

"Wow… He has no head at all! And so much blood around… What a horror," Yuffie spoke with surprise, wrinkling her little nose from disgust, but from pure curiosity still leaning a little closer in order to examine the sprawled corpse.

"You know, Yuffie, in your place I would categorically not touch that," Red timely spoke, restrainedly pushing Yuffie forward with a paw and not allowing her to carry out what she had planned.

"Red is right. Let's better go further as soon as possible," Aerith anxiously pronounced, quickly running past the horrific sight in order as quickly as possible to finish with this elevator hall.

Having unanimously decided no longer to think about exactly what bloody bath Alex had arranged in the elevator hall, the entire group hurried toward the exit in order as quickly as possible to reach the spacious main lobby. Having run to the metal railings, they first of all attentively looked around in order to make sure of the absence of an ambush.

Noticing that downstairs no one was waiting for them yet, Dean first rapidly rushed toward the stairs, already in advance having eyed on the exhibition stand a suitable car which he intended to steal for an effective escape. The remaining members of the group immediately followed after Dean, trying not for a second to lag behind him.

Descending the wide steps into the lobby, Tifa simply could not help expressing her deep concern that Alex and Claudia were still located somewhere above, and with them anything at all could have happened. Sharply turning his head back, Dean with a habitual light smile issued the already worn-out little phrase about the fact that in their life there had been far worse earlier.

Again hearing this consolation which had sounded throughout the entire last week, Tifa could only heavily sigh and raise a tired gaze to the ceiling, continuing slightly to worry. Noticing the anxiety on her friend's face, Aerith softly took her by the hand, making it clear that everything would necessarily be all right and there was no need to torment herself with extra fears.

Tifa was already about to answer, but Aerith immediately softly forestalled her, quietly adding that she herself was also terribly worried, but still believed — with Alex and Claudia in the end everything would definitely be fine. Softly smiling in response, Tifa tightly squeezed Aerith's hand, and they together hurried to catch up with the others.

But the moment they only took a couple of steps across the marble floor toward the cherished stand with the car, across the entire enormous lobby rolled the echo of a multitude of rapid, heavy footsteps. Sharply turning back, they saw how from all sides toward them at full speed was rushing an enormous quantity of grunts, instantly surrounding them with a dense, unbroken ring.

And barely had the soldiers closed ranks when rang out a painfully familiar, thoroughly false and arrogant laugh of Heidegger. The general unhurriedly stepped forward, spreading into a self-satisfied smirk, with his entire demeanour showing as if his genius trap had worked absolutely flawlessly.

"Well look at that… Who is this that has turned up here? Miserable rats that had sneaked into the holy of holies of Shinra have after all fallen right into the mousetrap! It was only a question of time when you all would find yourselves in my calloused hands," Heidegger pronounced with repulsive arrogance in his voice, demonstratively and menacingly clenching a fist in front of himself.

"Listen here, you bearded pimp, take your pet girls and get the fuck out of here. And I advise doing it quicker before I finally get completely fed up with all this and decide to turn you all into a goddamn human centipede," Dean declared in a threatening tone, stepping a little forward, lazily rubbing his neck with one hand and with the other confidently pulling the Blade of Cain from behind his back.

"Ha-ha-ha! Quite an amusing and bold threat… For a gathering of worthless, miserable losers! I advise you not to resist and immediately surrender so as not once more to dirty the clean floor of the Shinra headquarters with your filthy blood," Heidegger loudly laughed, with undisguised contempt sweeping the entire group squeezed in the ring with his gaze.

"And why don't you go fuck yourself, old bastard? Right now I'll splash everything here with your own blood!" Barrett fiercely snapped, sharply jerking his cyber-arm and instantly transforming it into a deadly machine gun.

"Charming. But before death for last words I in your place would choose something far more eloquent… Take the Ancient alive and unharmed, and put all the others to use," Heidegger gritted with an anticipatory smirk, fastidiously averting his gaze to the side and giving the order to the soldier standing nearby.

The moment Heidegger gave his cruel order, all the grunts immediately stood in full combat readiness, preparing simultaneously to open fire to kill. Perfectly understanding that a large-scale fight could already in no way be avoided, Dean, Red and Barrett resolutely took a step forward, ready to take the main blow upon themselves. Tifa softly hid Aerith behind her back, intending to protect her at any cost.

Yuffie immediately jumped closer, with a death grip squeezing in her hand her enormous four-pointed shuriken and preparing for the bloody chopping that was supposed to begin at any second. And when the tension in the main lobby was ready to flare up with a crushing explosion, from above unexpectedly rang out a series of loud, deafening explosions from which the entire multi-storey building of the Shinra headquarters tangibly trembled.

When the explosions sounded, absolutely all those present instinctively raised their heads upward. At that same second right at the main entrance with catastrophic crash collapsed an enormous smoking fragment of the helipad, completely smashing the heavy suspended construction.

Quickly coming to themselves after the unexpected crash, Heidegger at the top of his voice furiously shouted, repeatedly giving the order to open hurricane fire. But barely had the Grunts managed to aim their weapons for shooting when across the lobby rolled the ringing sound of breaking façade glass, and right into the very centre of the surrounding someone heavily and confidently landed, raising around himself a dense cloud of construction dust and crumbs.

Seeing this dense dust curtain, Dean immediately understood that this was finally Alex and Claudia who had arrived in time. He instantly turned, strongly clapped Barrett on the shoulder and called on the others not to waste a second and more quickly run to the eyed transport.

Despite the clouds of dust, Red managed distinctly to scent the already familiar specific smell and confidently confirmed Dean's guess. Hearing this, Tifa, Aerith and Yuffie immediately hurried toward the exhibition car to which Dean had earlier pointed. Being in the epicentre of the dust cloud, Alex and Claudia did not waste precious moments on conversations and immediately lightning-fast attacked the nearest grunts.

All that remained for the stunned Heidegger to do was helplessly listen to how from the dense grey haze came dull blows, desperate cries and chaotic single shots which quickly and tightly fell silent. Having dealt with the overwhelming majority of the elite soldiers, Alex with a wide wave of the hand dispersed the remains of the dust cloud and mockingly smiled at the Heidegger frozen in shock.

"You… Cursed bastard!" Heidegger fiercely snarled the moment he made out Alex swaggeringly standing in the middle of a pile of grunts moaning from pain and scattered across the floor.

"Well hello, old mongrel. Be so kind, step aside from the road. If of course you don't want your head right now crushed by heavy wheels," Alex pronounced with a wide, predatory smile, slightly shaking his hand and carelessly shaking off the fresh blood from the curved blade of the karambit.

"Take them! Destroy on the spot!" Heidegger shouted in a piercing hysteria, convulsively pointing a finger at Alex and Claudia.

"Old idiot, you were just told to get out of the way," Claudia said with cold mockery and a smirk, expressively looking right behind Heidegger's back.

Completely ignoring the direct warning of Alex and Claudia, Heidegger furiously roared, giving a repeated order to the few remaining living grunts. But barely had his strained voice properly sounded when behind the general's back rang out a deafening, screeching screech of burning rubber. Sharply turning toward the sound, Heidegger immediately convulsively squinted when right into his face struck a blinding, eye-cutting light of a powerful spotlight.

Convulsively covering his face with his hand, he managed only to hear the ringing crash of the breaking panoramic glass of the exhibition stand. Not properly understanding what was happening, Heidegger felt how he was literally knocked off his feet by one of the frightened grunts when right above his head in the air with a whistle flew a massive black motorcycle "Fenrir."

The black motorcycle with a screech braked right in front of Alex and Claudia, who without unnecessary words immediately synchronously climbed onto it. Clamping the accelerator to the maximum, Alex forced the rear wheel to rotate in place in a circle, instantly creating around them a dense, impenetrable cloud of smoke from the burning tires. And at that same second from this smoke curtain with a deafening roar of the engine jumped out a powerful silver pickup at the wheel of which sat Dean.

Effectively sliding sideways across the smooth marble floor of the lobby, Dean pressed the gas pedal into the very floor and at frenzied speed raced upward along the steps of the escalator back onto the third floor. Noticing that the others had successfully broken out and driven ahead, Claudia lightly patted Alex on the shoulder, making it clear that the squad had already escaped.

Understandingly nodding his head, Alex released the brake and sharply turned the motorcycle. Having made a wide arc circle in order to gain maximum acceleration, Alex purposefully drove right up against the heavily rising from the ground Heidegger.

Understanding Alex's plan without a single word, Claudia bared her teeth, tightly clenched a fist and with a swing delivered a crushing blow right into Heidegger's face the moment they raced past. From such a sudden and wild-in-its-force blow Heidegger tumbled backward, stretching out on the floor with a deeply broken and bloodied nose.

"Here's our farewell gift, old mongrel!" Alex loudly and at the top of his voice laughed, at full speed flying upward along the steps on the motorcycle right onto the third floor.

To be continued...

(Phew—so, the escape is done, along with that punch to Heidegger's face—the one I'd been wanting to land from the very beginning. Screw that old bastard. Alright, what's next on the agenda? Some messy business involving the plans Alex intends to carry out, followed by a quick escape, and, of course, a battle. I'll try to pack the escape and part of Alex's schemes into one chapter, leaving the battle for the next. And for heaven's sake, it's high time Alex had a proper adventure—none of that other crap, just a classic, full-blown fantasy quest across the lands of Gaia. Searching for a long-awaited resort—maybe even an amusement park! Oh, yeah. Now, time for me to go grab a bite to eat. Peace, love, and vroom-vroom—screw you, you old bastard.)

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