Razor Valentine

"Oh you've GOT to be-"

"Vickalor, enough." The man who shared Vickalor Vincent's eyes glared at him.

Vincent, as her preferred to be called, glared right back. It was an old argument to Peter Hojo, who was playing with a top he'd constructed out of paper. An older argument for Professor Gast, who had brought a book along solely for this purpose.

The two new interns, Lucrecia Cresent and Shaula Rui, however were shocked and blinked from one Valentine to the other.

"You all DO realize what you're talking about, right? Just shooting random things up with planetary crude oil." Vincent adjusted glasses about his blue eyes and looked up at his father. "We're already using the Maku Construct to a limited potential and I think that adding anything in the remote form of an untested accelerant is ridiculous and possibly dangerous. What about the mental ramifications? None of the creatures around the dig site are safe to be near any longer.

"You cannot formulate that the Jenova Construct is what made them that way, Vickalor."

"You cannot formulate that it is not what made them that way, Dr. Grimoire."

"The only way to be sure, regardless, is to find out. Where's your scientific spirit, Vincent?" Gast asked. "This is like finding gold, you yourself said crude oil."

They began a rather animated talk about cellular processes and Vincent engaged it, despite his reluctance, he was outvoted.

-+-

"I thought you were brilliant, back there." It was Lucrecia.

Vincent looked up from under his hair for a moment before he mixed small amounts of chemical together.

She knew he was not ignoring her and waited till he had finished and set the stock of vials together to vibrate on the heater plate.

"About Jenova?"

"Yes┘ the whole thing though┘ isn't it exciting?" Oh she was young. It was no wonder she was enamored with people like them. He could watch her vibrate like a willing sponge. She may not have been capable of loving people. But knowledge made her swoon.

"No." Vincent answered, his blue eyes focused back on the vials from behind his glasses. "It's insanity."

"That's part of the fun. Imagine┘ Peter and I were talking about bringing a child, of course with a willing mother┘" She was babbling. It would have been endearing, had Vincent cared for women.

He slid out of his lab coat then, and tied a belted loop about his arm. She didn't even realize that he was shooting whatever he'd mixed into his arm until the reaction hit. Vincent shuddered violently and his hand slammed down on the arm of his chair, snapping it off.

"What was that?!"

Vincent snickered and removed his glasses. The room was in focus before him. "Have you heard of limit breaks?"

-+-

"What do you mean I'm cut off?" Vincent responded angrily. His vision was swimming red now.

There was fear in his father's voice when he stepped back. "Your progress, while impressive, has not been mass produced in enough time."

"Enough TIME?" Vincent snapped. "TIME, What in the world are you yammering about? I've attained three separate transformations. Three separate personalities, mind you, and you're wanting me to just mass produce this? It doesn't work that way."

"The SOLDIERS are already being mass produced."

"And they set fire to three small villages. Good thing we hired clean up people. This is war, protection and nature itself. Not the goddamn space race."

And now a laugh. "We gave up the space race years ago, Vincent. Now if you're ready to take over the experiments on the TURK unit, you may."

"I'm not going to go injecting innocent people."

"STOP BEING AN IDEALISTIC IDIOT, BOY!" Grimoire thundered. "YOU are BRILLIANT Vickalor. WHY DO YOU KEEP HOPING TO DO THIS PAINLESSLY?"

"That is NOT what I hope, FATHER." Vincent snapped. "You cannot lead sheep to slaughter. They have to be made aware. Furthermore, there is no long standing research and there likely will not be. People-"

"Turks." Grimoire corrected.

"People still." Vincent responded. "No, you know what, I'm done. Have your goddamn fucking insane Jenova project. You're ALL crazy with whatever's driven the animals at the dig site crazy. And only Ifalana believes me!"

"She's her own form of insane, son. You report to Michelle Tally tomorrow morning. Consider this a demotion."

"WHAT?"

"Demotion. Let's see how human you feel humanity is in a few years. We may reconsider."

Vincent's hand slammed down on the desk, cracking it through the middle. "If you live that long."

"Walls have ears, son."

"I'm not your son any longer. Grimoire. My father wouldn't rush into anything so foolishly. The corruption here is more than just money. I can handle the strong taking over the weak. You're just tricked into thinking you're the strong one."

"Get out before I have you arrested."

Vincent snarled, but turned to go.

-+-

"Who tha fuck is this?" Cornelius cracked his knuckles and then made a show of popping his neck. "Get lost, nerd?"

"I'm here for reassignment." Vincent responded from where he sat on the Turk's couch.

This earned a row of laughter that Vincent ignored. He kept his glasses in his pocket though he didn't need them. Instead he began reading his book.

"You probably shouldn't ignore┘ hello, I'm talking to you!" Stella had extremely long, dirty blonde hair. She waved her hand at Vincent and then made a growling sound. "Fine, getcher ass kicked. I hope Cassio comes in too."

The largest of the Turks, Cornelius then kicked Vincent's feet off the table.

Vincent ignored him.

In a flash of movement, the big Turk had Vincent by the collar and jerked him up to face him. "Look here, you arrogant little shit. I'm about ta break yer leg."

The door opened then and before anyone standing at it could speak, Cornelius was up in the air. The slam from where his back hit the corner of the table, the couch and the floor was like a gun going off. Vincent crouched over him, a hand on his neck. His eyes swam red and a smile spread along his face.

"VALENTINE!" Michelle Tally yelled and rushed across the room. The other Turks hopped backwards and she pulled up at his shoulders. "Let him go!"

Vincent staggered back, a growl rose in his throat. He glared at her and then at the young man she'd walked in with before clearing his throat. "Apologies."

She took a deep breath and flicked at her blonde ponytail. "Cornelius, get to sick bay, you're on paperwork till next week."

Without argument, the large Turk turned to go.

"Alright. I don't care what started it, but I hope none of the rest of you get any big ideas about roughing Valentine up just because he's got a few degrees on you." She sat herself on the couch and picked up the remote. "Dragoon, Valentine. Valentine, Dragoon. Don't kill each other."

"Alright, ahh┘ Valentine. Let's go to the range."

Once again docile, Vincent nodded and followed.